Page 108

“We get Jamie through this fucking engagement party first,” he said, the words coming out faster and faster. Hunter had obviously been thinking about this long and hard. “She has this dress fitting thing today.”

“She has to be fitted for a dress?” I asked with a frown.

“No, the bride is looking at dresses, and apparently it’s a big deal. All the women in the family get together and look at dresses as the bride works out which one she wants to buy. It’s this whole big thing. Jamie said her mum is demanding she take some time off from work to attend, and when she didn’t sort that with Brock out fast enough, her mother rang our big brother.”

I snorted, knowing exactly how that would’ve gone.

“He’s in the shit now, just so you know.” Hunter’s comment had me grinning. “Reading Majorie the riot act is gonna do that apparently, but…” He looked back down the hallway to where our girl still slept. “She’ll go. Jamie always does what’s expected of her, whether or not her family deserves that courtesy, so we have to get her through that, the party, everything, because when the dust settles and the need for ‘fake’ dates is over…”

Then we could start moving towards a real future.

I’d nodded, starting the breakfast that I now slid onto everyone’s plates.

“I can’t eat all that,” Jamie protested, but I’d just pushed some cutlery into her hands.

“Eat what you can, then we’ll get you home.”

“You don’t need to come up,” she told me when we rolled up out the front of her apartment complex. “I have to get ready fast, and if you guys come up?—”

“We’ll make sure you’re late.”

Hunter shot her a shit-eating grin, right before leaning over and doing something I wish I’d thought to do first. A kiss pressed to her lips before she could protest, I was moving in and claiming my own as soon as Hunter pulled away. That dazed expression, the one that came before she could collect herself and pack everything she was feeling behind her walls, was something I fucking loved so much. She looked younger somehow, completely unguarded, eyes wide and cheeks flushed before she stammered a goodbye, scrambling out of the van. We watched her go upstairs before Hunter turned to me.

“Foot to the floor,” he instructed me. “We need to visit Brock before work starts.”

The van took off with a squeal as we shot down the road to do just that.

Brock was obviously anticipating someone else when he came down the stairs, toting a coffee in a travel mug. His face fell as he took the two of us in, that all-too-familiar frown forming.

“What do you two want?” He turned to me. “And why did you tell me I needed to take Jamie to that dress fitting? She needs to keep the fuck away from her insane family.”

“No arguments here,” I told him, something that seemed to take him by surprise. “But you know she’s going to go anyway. Her mother will wear her down with a million calls today.” His frown deepened. “She’ll come over here and make a scene, drag Jamie out by her hair.”

“She can fucking try.” His growl, the way his free hand formed a fist, was the kind of energy we were looking for. “I’ll have the cops arrest her for trespassing.”

“But Jamie will still go.” Hunter and I stared him down, watching him struggle to accept the same thing we’d fought to get our heads around. My twin had made that clear when we discussed the conversation he’d had with our girl. “She’ll still go because they are her family, and when they make demands of her, she feels like she can’t say no…”

I was frowning then, looking down at the gravel driveway of the garage, not my brothers.

“And that’s why she’s so fucking skittish.”

“Love means obligation.” My eyes jerked up to meet Hunter’s, because somehow he already knew. “Love means being smothered alive.”

“Love means disrespecting someone’s healthy boundaries.” Brock shook his head. “The way her mother has pestered me and we only met the once.”

“This is why Jamie’s terrified of really connecting with any of us, because she’s expecting the same treatment.” My teeth locked together, because right then I swore I would never put Jamie in that position. “We can’t stop her from engaging with her family.”

“But we can protect her as best we can while she does.” All the heat seemed to go out of Brock in that moment, and his expression was a strange one. Feeling out of control never sat well with our brother, and he was struggling with that right now, though not for long. He straightened up and nodded. “So I’ll take Jamie to this wedding dress thing, be sitting at some cafe up the road, ready to get her out of there the second that hour is up. Then I’ll bring her back here, where she belongs.”

As if in response to that, we heard a car pull up out front of the garage, Jamie jumping out moments later.

“Some sort of McDonald family meeting happening?” she asked, then looked around. “Is Millie still to arrive?”

“Just letting Brock know that there’s a family dinner on tomorrow night.” There wasn’t, but if I volunteered to do the cooking, Mum would get on board real quick. “They’ll be expecting to see you.”

“Right.”

The way she flushed had me thinking that she was remembering all the ways things had changed since the last dinner.