Page 15

Chapter

Eight

Was he really going to do this?

Was he really going to kiss his best friend?

Was he really going to risk losing her by messing up their friendship with a kiss?

For some reason, none of that mattered as Jake leaned down. It was as though an invisible cord was pulling him toward Alannah, and he seemed powerless to do a single thing about it.

Like two magnets drawing closer, his lips hovered mere millimeters from hers, from what he somehow knew would be the sweetest kiss of his life, when his front door suddenly banged open.

As though they were teenagers caught making out by their parents, they sprung backward, and he saw Alannah’s cheeks turn bright pink.

“Umm, are we interrupting?” Jax asked, his gaze darting between them.

There was no way his family hadn't seen what was about to happen, and for some reason, that set him on edge. That little bit of peace he’d finally found when Alannah had agreed to go away on her boat for a while vanished as though it had never existed.

“No, not interrupting anything,” he answered, his tone firm, brokering no argument, but he couldn’t help noticing that Alannah flinched at it and took a small step away from him.

Clenching his hands into fists at his sides was the only way to stop himself from reaching out for her.

There was a time when he wouldn't hesitate to reach out and give his best friend whatever comfort she needed. They’d been friends for thirty years, there had been plenty of times he’d held her when she cried about some new way her family managed to show her just how little she meant to them.

But something had changed, shifted slightly, and he felt like he was standing in a huge hole filled with quicksand, one wrong move and he’d sink. The rules felt different now, almost kissing her wasn't best friend appropriate, and he wasn't sure how to proceed.

“It looked like you and Alannah were going to kiss,” Essie very unhelpfully pointed out.

“Shh, cuddle bug,” Gabriella shushed the child as everyone piled into his front hall.

Glad to have a reason to move instead of standing there and doing something stupid like taking back his answer and offering a more truthful one, instead, Jake led everyone through to the kitchen.

“But that’s what it did look like, Mommy,” Essie continued, the slightest hint of a whine to her tone. “You and Daddy kiss all the time.”

“Not all the time,” Cade protested, looking slightly embarrassed, although there was no reason for him to. Still, Jake got it. They were the two who had the most trouble showing their emotions, they were both stoic, gruff, grumpy, and filled with anger.

Except Cade had now found a balm to his anger since admitting to himself, Gabriella, and the rest of them that he had feelings for the former nanny.

A surge of jealousy hit him hard and fast, coming out of nowhere and catching him by surprise.

“Pretty much all the time,” Gabriella teased, not put off by Cade’s gruffness in the least, just like Alannah was never put off by his.

Cade rolled his eyes, although he leaned down to brush a kiss to Gabriella’s lips when she tilted her face up toward his.

“See, Daddy, alls the times,” Essie said excitedly, bouncing up and down in her boundless energy way.

“And Uncle Cooper and Willow kiss lots, and Uncle Cole and Susanna, and Uncle Connor and Becca. If you and Alannah are going to do lots of kissing, Uncle Jake, then that means you have to get married sos I can be the flower girl.”

“Married?” he repeated, his voice giving away his shock.

“Uh, I don’t think they’re going to get married, Essie,” Gabriella said, quickly ushering the girl up to the table and rifling through his pantry to find her something to eat, no doubt to keep her occupied.

“But they were going to kiss, I saws it,” Essie protested. “Only peoples going to gets married do kissing.”

“Uncle Jake and Alannah are just friends,” Cade told his daughter, although the look in his eyes said he didn't quite believe what he was saying.

“So friends can kiss too, like you and Mommy do?”

“No,” Cade quickly answered his daughter. “I don’t want you trying to kiss your friends like that. It’s only for grownups, and I don’t want you kissing anyone until you're married.”

“Yeah, that’ll work,” Gabriella said with a snort, then handed Essie a couple of Oreos.

“Then only peoples getting married do kiss,” Essie said, looking confused. “Then I can bes the flower girl at their wedding.”

“You know what, Essie girl, you absolutely can be the flower girl at my wedding when I get married, it just won't be Jake as the groom,” Alannah told the little girl, walking over to give her a hug.

That little spark of jealousy he’d felt when he watched how easily his brothers interacted with the women they loved turned into a full-on raging inferno at the thought of Alannah falling in love and marrying another man.

He’d seen her date before, and now that he thought about it, he’d always felt a little unsettled by the idea of her with another man. But he was her best friend, they weren't lovers and were never going to be.

Watching her fall in love and get married one day, find the love she’d longed for all her life was something he was going to have to accept.

“Yay!” Essie cheered. “That means I gets to be a flower girl in one,” she held up a finger as she pointed to Gabriella and her father.

“Two.” She held up another as she pointed to Cooper and Willow.

“Three. Four. Five.” She added another finger each time she pointed to a different couple, finishing on Alannah.

“Five. I gets to be a flower girl five times.”

“Very exciting, Essie,” Alannah said, her gaze darting over to him and then skittering away.

“Okay, enough talk about weddings,” Gabriella said, and he couldn’t be more grateful to her because he wasn't sure he could handle any more of this conversation without doing something stupid.

“Right,” Cole agreed. “Did you talk to Alannah about our plan?”

“Yes,” Jake answered, suddenly not sure he liked this topic any better than the last one. How was he going to survive out on a boat alone with Alannah and resist the pull that had been drawing them together in his front hall just moments ago? A pull he still felt lingering in the air.

“And?” Cooper prompted.

“And I said I can't go away with you all,” Alannah answered.

“Then are we …?” Connor asked, not needing to finish the sentence because they all knew how it ended. Even Alannah, since he’d been honest and told her that her safety was his number one concern and he’d do whatever it took to ensure it.

“No, you're not drugging me and restraining me and then kidnapping me,” Alannah told him.

“Connor.” Becca swatted at her boyfriend’s shoulder. “You were going to do that?”

“She’s part of this family, Becca. She has to be safe,” Connor replied.

“Well, it’s not necessary,” Alannah assured him. “I'm not stupid. I don’t want to die. But I can't leave my business right now and not know that I can come back and start it up again as soon as I'm cleared to use the building. So we came up with a compromise.”

“A compromise?” Cooper asked.

“Yes. I'm going to take my boat out,” Alannah explained. “That way, I'm out of the line of fire, but I can come back if I need to. I offered to hire bodyguards when I come back but Jake …” she trailed off and looked to him like she wasn't positive he wouldn't have changed his mind.

How could she not know that the vow he’d made to her almost thirty years ago was one he took seriously and intended to keep?

“I told Alannah I'd go with her rather than with you guys,” he finished her sentence for her.

When she gasped and looked over at him, seemingly surprised he’d admitted it and still wanted to go with her, he held her gaze. Allowing how serious he was about his vow to shine through so she would know this was what he wanted.

“I'd prefer if we were all together, but I understand,” Cade said.

“Course we understand,” Cole added.

“She needs to keep her business running and can't do that from anywhere like the rest of us,” Willow added.

“I can work on a story from anywhere, especially in the preliminary stages. And Susanna is joining Prey anyway, and Becca can still run her charity, and Gabriella hasn’t decided what her new job is going to be, so we can all take this time away. You can't and we get that.”

“Thank you for understanding,” Alannah told Willow, her gaze then including everyone. “I appreciate you all for treating me like family even though I'm not.”

“You are,” Susanna said before anyone else could get a word in. “Trust me.”

Susanna was quiet, shy, but she was the kind of person you did find yourself trusting when she spoke, and Alannah nodded, although there was a tiny flicker of doubt in her golden eyes.

“I'm hungry, Daddy,” Essie spoke up, finishing off her cookies.

“Right, dinner,” Cade said, heading for the grocery bags that had been stacked on the kitchen counter.

“Guys cooking tonight,” Jax announced.

From the look on his brother’s face, an expression that was echoed on the faces of all four of his stepbrothers, Jake knew he was about to be given the third degree.

The problem was, he didn't know what he was going to tell him. Alannah was his best friend, that couldn’t change.

He didn't know if he wanted it to change, or if she did, but he did know that if they tried to change their relationship and it didn't work out, he’d lose his favorite person in the world.

October 17 th

8:52 A.M.

Finally.

A sense of freedom, of peace, of security settled over her as they stepped onto her boat.

Alannah took the first deep breath she’d enjoyed in days. There was no smoke in the air, no fear that suddenly someone was going to jump out and start a fire. There would be no burning cars rushing toward them, no fireballs thrown at her as she walked in a grocery store.

It felt amazing.