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“These two are the sweetest.”

“Ollie, this is my older brother, Sam.”

Sam, not as trusting as the rest of his family, crossed his bulky arms over his chest and asked, “Who are you?”

I squeaked when he narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m Ollie Bright?” Despite trying to sound confident, the statement came out as a question.

Much to my relief, Connor stepped toward Sam and said, “It’s a long story, and I’m sure someone will fill you in, but he’s my friend, I met him on the plane back from New York, and he’s staying with us.”

Emilia chimed in. “He’s the only one who can tell the triplets apart.”

The man dropped his arms to his sides, stunned.

“And both Charlie and Lucy trust him,” Linus said.

I glanced down to see both the dogs settled on my lap, snoring away.

Sam growled, and when I caught his eye, he tilted his head over to the triplets.

“Lyric is in the middle, Linus is on your right, and Landon on your left.”

The skeptical look remained until he glanced at his youngest brothers and they all nodded.

“Holy fuck!” Sam mumbled.

“Language!” Shouted by most everyone in the room.

Sam shook his head. “How long have you been here?”

“One hour and twelve minutes,” Thomas answered as he strolled into the kitchen, standing close to Connor’s older brother.

Sam flushed and glanced back at me, but his eyes darted back to Thomas and I watched on in fascination as he sensed more than understood where Thomas was. I got a thrill watching the family dynamic play out, but this, Sam’s confused expressions as his body leaned closer to the bodyguard, was an interesting turn of events.

“Dinner’s ready,” Valentina shouted.

Connor held his hand out for me as the rest fled into the other room.

“What about the dogs?”

The man chuckled. “They’ll head to their beds in the living room or push their way underneath the table and lay at your feet.”

At that, I extended my arm and Connor helped me up; me being careful not to jostle the dogs too much.

“Thank you for… well, everything. I’m glad I met you.”

His answering smile warmed my chest in a way that nothing or no one else ever had.

“I’m glad to have met you too, Ollie.”

3

CONNOR

For hours after dinner, we sat together as a family and talked. Between Sam’s crazy schedule as an ER doctor, the long hours Emilia put in at her law practice, the demand for Omi to choreograph everything from stage plays to movie musicals, along with my shooting schedule, it was the first time in over a year that we caught up with all of us being in the same room. Because of this, we all stayed up, even the triplets. But they had the next day off for Memorial Day, so it was midnight before Mama shooed us all to bed when she noticed Ollie sagging in his chair.

After I helped mama clean and straighten up the kitchen, I offered Ollie his own cottage, the smaller one with two bedrooms behind the main house. I tried to sell it as added privacy to write, with the added benefit of a full kitchen for the duration of his stay, but I was off on my assumptions.

Instead of jumping on the offer, Ollie looked horrified.