Page 28 of Immortal by Morning (Argeneau #37)
“I do cook for my siblings. However, the chef business was a long time ago,” he muttered, and then cleared his throat and said, “If you are not feeling like a grilled cheese, I can slice up tomatoes and onions, shred some lettuce and pull out all the fixings for Dagwood sandwiches.” He paused briefly and then added, “My youngest brother, Cole, calls them that. They are sandwiches that have tons of meat and cheese and everything from pickles, tomatoes, and lettuce to Italian, ranch, or Greek dressing on them. It is a wonder that he can get his mouth around those sandwiches, but he seems to enjoy them.”
“I wouldn’t want to put you to all that effort,” Abril protested. “Just something quick and easy would be good. Heck, I can
make my own—” She had started to rise as she said this last part, but stopped both talking and getting up when a heavy hand
landed on her shoulder.
“Sausages,” Lucian announced as he forced her to sit down again. Moving around her to Crispin’s side, he added, “Less bother.”
He pulled a package of sausages out of the refrigerator, and then addressed the room at large. “I presume Dani picked up buns
for the sausages?”
“I believe so,” Roberts said moving to the cupboard where bread was kept and opening it to examine the contents. After a moment,
he said, “Yes,” and took out a package of buns.
Lucian nodded and turned to spear Abril with a look. “Where is the barbecue?”
Abril hesitated, a little annoyed at how high-handed he was being in deciding what everyone would eat. Nobody else seemed
to mind, she acknowledged, or perhaps they were used to his entitled attitude. Her gaze moved to the sliding glass doors and
the view beyond.
There used to be a large stone patio directly outside the sliding doors with the garden running along it.
At least it had been like that when Gina had bought the place last year.
Apparently, when the Bransons had bought the place there had been no patio.
Just a large garden along the house with a stone pathway leading to the sliding glass doors.
Of course, now both garden and patio were gone, and a tent blocked her view.
She was surprised to see that it was filled with people, all working diligently on extracting the bones from the dirt.
Her surprise wasn’t because of what they were doing, but because she hadn’t noticed that anyone was even out there before now.
Finally, she said, “It used to be on a stone patio just outside those doors, but the patio was removed to start digging out
the foundation for the addition.” She paused briefly to think, before admitting, “I’m not sure where they moved the barbecue
to. Maybe around back on the patio outside the pool room.”
“Find it, Bricker,” Lucian ordered.
The man with dark hair and green eyes immediately nodded and headed out of the kitchen.
It was the sound of the front door opening and closing that had her suddenly thinking of Lilith and glancing around the kitchen
for her.
“Where—” she began, only to pause when she heard the Lab’s nails scrabbling on the hardwood. A sound Abril recognized as Lilith
getting to her feet. It was followed by more clicking of her nails on the floor, and then Lilith came into view as she rushed
toward the door of the kitchen, obviously intending to try to follow Bricker outside.
“No, Lilith,” Abril said at once.
The Lab paused at once and then turned and came to sit at her side and nudge her hand, demanding attention.
Abril gave in to the request and petted her absently, as Lucian began to bark orders, and the men began scrambling to fulfil them.
Plates were pulled from the cupboard, silverware dragged from drawers, condiments were found and set on the island one af ter another.
Meanwhile, Lucian, who had started all of this activity, was himself opening and closing cupboard doors in a search for something.
“What are you looking for?” she said finally. “Perhaps I can tell you where it is.”
“Barbecue tongs,” Lucian announced, switching his attention to drawers now.
“The drawer under the built-in ovens,” Abril said helpfully.
Grunting what might’ve been a thank-you, Lucian tried that drawer next and found what he was looking for.
Feeling rather useless just sitting there, Abril stood cautiously. When she’d got up to leave the room to take Gina’s call,
her head had complained at the movement. Much to her relief, it didn’t react this time so she headed for the cupboard where
bread was kept, intending to see if there was another package of buns for the sausages. Eight wasn’t going to feed them all.
“No, no, no!” Crispin caught her arm before she’d taken more than two steps and drew her to a halt. Turning her around, he
urged her back into her chair, saying, “You are to take it easy for a while. Leave this to us.”
Feeling a little disgruntled, Abril scowled at him briefly, but then told herself that it was a somewhat bitchy reaction,
since he was only trying to take care of her. Resigned to sitting and doing nothing, she began to twiddle her thumbs in her
lap, and simply watched the activity around her.
Abril wasn’t used to sitting still. She was usually the one doing all the running and found she didn’t like being catered to.
That was probably not a nor mal response, she admitted to herself.
But then she had never thought of herself as normal anyway.
She’d always felt like the odd one out. Attending a public school where more than 90 percent of the students were “normal” and less than 10 percent came from the religious community on the outskirts of town where she had been raised hadn’t helped.
Being driven to run away two days before her sixteenth birthday to avoid being forced to marry an abusive man to please her family hadn’t helped.
And even now, as an adult, having no family and being completely alone in the world, set her apart from others as well.
In truth, Abril had no idea what it felt like to be normal, a member of the pack.
She had always hoped that when she grew up, she would make friends, marry, and finally have a family she belonged to. But
that didn’t seem to be working out the way she’d expected. Perhaps it was due to her rejection as a child and desire to avoid
inviting more of it, but whatever the case, she appeared to suck at dating. In university, she’d been too busy with her full
course load, studying, and two part-time jobs to have much time to date, let alone make friends. Not that that had ever bothered
her. It had quickly become obvious that most of the students at university seemed to want to just drink themselves to oblivion
almost every night, which had never really interested her.
Once she had graduated and was out in the working world, the friend situation had not improved.
Oh, she’d made acquaintance type friends at work in the various places she’d been employed before Gina, but no true friends.
Eventually she’d resigned herself to being alone, and simply focused on her career.
Not that she hadn’t dated. For her, dating apps had been a lifesaver.
She just wished they had an app for making friends.
Not that any of the men she met on the dating apps had turned out to be husband material.
Still, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen in the future.
For some reason thoughts of Crispin intruded just then. Not wanting to build her hopes up and place them squarely on the man,
she quickly pushed those thoughts away though.
Sighing, Abril raised her head and then stilled when she saw that Lucian stood frozen, his gaze fastened on her. He wasn’t
the only one, almost every man in the room but Crispin appeared to be staring at her.
Feeling like a rabbit that had suddenly become aware of a nearby predator, Abril eyed them all warily until Cassius said,
“You need to tell her, brother.”
“He is right, cousin,” Decker said solemnly. “I think she will take it better than you fear. She yearns for family. We can
be that for her.”
Abril blinked in confusion. How did he know she yearned for family? And what did he mean they could be that for her?
Maybe she’d misheard, Abril thought. That or her head wound had done some really serious damage and she was hallucinating
or something.
“Gentlemen, I suggest you be more careful of what you say in front of her until things are explained,” Lucian growled, and the words drew her attention to him again.
She eyed him briefly, and then turned to Crispin in question.
But when he avoided her gaze by turning away toward the refrigerator, she frowned and then slowly shifted her gaze back to Lucian.
She didn’t know why, but felt sure that if she wanted an answer to the questions now swimming around inside her head, he was the one most likely to give them to her.
Much to her disappointment, however, he slowly shook his head. “You will have to wait, little girl. I will give Crispin a
chance to explain. But if he does not, I will myself.”
There was no mistaking that those last words were a threat directed at Crispin. If she were to judge by the scowl on his face,
Abril would have to say he wasn’t happy to hear them either.
“I will speak to her after we eat.” Crispin’s voice was an irate growl.
Abril simply sat and stared at the men, watching them interact. A lot of what was going on was confusing to her. Lucian had
called her little girl when she was guessing that she was maybe as much as five years older than him. And what were they talking about? Crispin
had to explain things to her. What was there to explain or tell her? Add that to Decker saying she yearned for family and
that he thought she would take something better than Crispin thought... What the hell did that mean? And what did it have
to do with being family?
On top of that, who were these men, really, and why were they here? She had at first assumed they were all police officers,
brought out because of the break-in. But if they were, that would mean that Crispin had family on the police force? Surely,
he would’ve mentioned that to her when they were talking over the Pac-Man game if that were the case.
It was all very confusing to her, not to mention more than a little alarming.
Abril was actually toying with the idea of saying she was taking Lilith outside, and then once she got her outside, sneaking the dog around to the garage and her car.
The only problem then was where she should go?
She supposed she could drive to the police station and find out exactly who these men were.
If they were all officers and—Abril hadn’t even finished the thought when it suddenly slipped away from her, along with the anxiety that had briefly claimed her.
She was suddenly, inexplicably much more relaxed and now happy to simply sit there and wait for the men to feed her.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, the sudden calm did appear strange to Abril, but she didn’t seem to be able to hold on
to that thought either. In the end, she gave up, and waited for the sausages to be cooked so they could all sit down and eat.