Page 35 of Never Dance with the Devils (Never Say Never #6)
KAYLA
I knew I wasn’t going to get away with delaying the inevitable until this weekend.
The inevitable being the Harrington Inquisition, trademark pending.
My brothers have never pulled the ‘protect our sister’ shit on me, mostly because I’d destroy them for even attempting it, but I’m not at all surprised when my doorbell rings Thursday night, ending the reprieve I milked for each and every moment I could.
I’ve played out this conversation from every angle.
I’ve strategized how to deal with each of my brothers’ reactions, knowing they’ll be as varied as they are.
And I’ve analyzed every potential outcome, from acceptance to full-blown excommunication, which might be melodramatic, but I prefer to have every scenario accounted for.
Overly prepared is the smack-dab middle of my comfort zone.
And now, it’s showtime. Or time to pay the piper in my case, because one thing Kyle was correct about is that I have played mastermind for my brothers countless times before, and now they’re going to try to do the same thing to me .
Try being the operative word.
“Took you long enough. It’s been nearly thirty-six hours since Kyle sent that picture,” I tell them as I open the door, sounding bored by the sudden and unscheduled appearance of my entire sibling group.
They think it’s an ambush, but I’ve been waiting for them.
To the point that there’s a freshly-arranged charcuterie board on the coffee table and I just pulled the cork on a bottle of white wine.
“Oooh! Cheese!” Luna whispers, rushing past me to beeline for the snacks.
“Had to get our plan of attack hammered out,” Cole informs me, his voice flat and face stony.
He’s used to everyone being terrified of him and cowering away when he gives his trademark menacing, dead-eyed stare, but I’m not everyone and I don’t flinch in the slightest. I’ve always been able to feel his heart like it’s my own, so I never doubted that he was good, all the way down to his soul.
I mean, I won’t argue that he’s a little out there, but aren’t we all, given the upbringing we had?
Still, his stance is clear and he’s intentionally being intimidating with a goal of putting me off-kilter.
Too bad for him, my foundation is steady and I’m completely unbothered by his scare tactics. “Poor choice on your part because you gave me time to do the same,” I counter. “And we both know who’s the more formidable foe.” He frowns at the comparison between us.
Having set the tone with the first verbal jabs, I count the faces peering at me curiously as they file into my condo, finding my five brothers and almost all their partners. “Where’s Janey?” I ask Cole as he enters last.
“Home with Emmett, and hanging with Grace. Cameron didn’t want to bring her for this discussion,” he answers, sounding like he understands why Cameron would make that parental choice for his teenage daughter given their expected conversational topic.
Emmett may only be a year old, but Cole has basically crowned himself the King of Parenthood, as though he’s the ultimate knowledge-bearer of right and wrong.
To be honest, it’s usually endearing for the scariest of our brood to have such an unexpected protective, nurturing streak.
Right now, however, I shoot him another empty glare.
“You could’ve,” I say blandly as everyone claims various seats around the living room.
I choose a chair closest to the door, not as an escape route, but in preparation for kicking them out if needed.
“Because there’s not going to be a discussion.
None of you were invited into my dating life, much less my sex life. ”
“See? Completely delusional,” Kyle says, managing to both grin and simultaneously pop a grape into his mouth.
I send an extra glance at his boots, checking for dirt and thankfully seeing none.
This intrusion is bad enough without the addition of the random mud, sweat, and dust that typically surround him.
“She actually thinks we’re gonna leave this alone. ”
He snorts in amusement, nearly choking on his grape, which serves him right as far as I’m concerned. A bit of karmic justice in my book for throwing kerosene on this whole dumpster fire of a situation.
It's his fault this is blowing up. I could be happily on my way to the guys’ house for dinner, a hot tub soak, and mind-blowing orgasms for all if it weren’t for Kyle.
Instead, I’m sitting here with my brothers, most of whom look fresh from the office and constipated with words they want to shit all over me, and my sisters-in-law, who seem various levels of curious, concerned, and maybe…
congratulatory? And while I understand everyone’s interest, it’s none of their business.
Not now, maybe not ever, depending on how things go.
I mean, it’s seriously early for some big intervention moment. I’ve only been seeing Riggs and Maddox for a few weeks. It’s not exactly casual, but we’re not making vows either. So really, this is all premature and again, none of their business.
“This needs to be addressed, Kayla. Before news begins making the rounds,” Cameron proclaims. As the oldest, he likely assumes he’ll be taking the role of leader for this. But realistically, he’s not the sibling we all go to for advice and wisdom. That would be me.
“There is no news.”
Cameron lifts an eyebrow, scowling at me in an approximation of Dad’s look of disappointment, though I’d never call him out on that because while I can be a bitch, I’m not cruel.
Instead, I blink calmly, not responding.
Undeterred, he comes at me again. “Declaring it doesn’t make it so.
You know as well as I do that the optics of your dating anyone affects all of us and the company.
Add in that you’re dating someone who has paparazzi of their own? It’s a PR nightmare.”
“I think you mean someones ,” Chance corrects, his nose crinkled in distaste.
Samantha turns her whole body his way. “You need to fix your face. It’s saying things you don’t want to say.”
Rather than straightening at her rebuff, he frowns deeply. “Or it’s saying what we’re all thinking. Are you actually dating two men? ”
He doesn’t mean dating. No, he makes it sound like I set up shop on the nearest street corner, spread my legs, and hung an Open for Business sign from my big toe, letting every Tom, Dick, and Harry line up to use me like a glory hole.
“And if I am?” I spit back, challenging him with a bold, decisive glare.
He seems surprised by the heat in my response, like he thought this might be some sort of misunderstanding.
As though Kyle didn’t see what he said he did.
As though the picture wasn’t of my private moment with Riggs and Maddox, but of them…
I don’t know, just standing around me? “Would it be the worst thing if I found something like what each of you have?”
It's an intentional attack. I have stood by each of my brothers as they found the women at their sides, some with more ease than others, but all with their own fair amount of drama.
And none of them have been what would be ‘expected’ of a Harrington.
I have helped them, cheered them on, and yanked their heads out of their asses by force when needed.
A little return on that relationship investment only seems fair.
“Of course not,” Cameron says, his level head giving him the wherewithal to simmer things down.
“We want you to find happiness, even love, with… a special person .” He emphasizes the singularness of person as though I don’t understand what the issue is, even taking Riley’s hand to demonstrate that it’s not only possible, but desirable.
She stares at me like she wants to say something but ultimately stays quiet, letting the siblings handle this among ourselves.
Family dynamics as complex as ours aren’t in her comfort zone, but she’s never one to shy away from telling Cameron when he’s screwing up, so I don’t hold her silence against her. She’ll have my back in her own way.
“Can I ask a question?” Luna holds up her hand like she’s back in school. Her cheeks are squirrel-big with cheese, her eyes wide behind her glasses like she’s surprised to hear her own voice.
“Depends on what it is,” I say cautiously.
Luna is the first of my sisters-in-law, and while I respect the hell out of her, I don’t always understand her.
Her brain, while brilliant in its own way, is mostly filled with Disney songs and random splatters of color, not bullet-point lists and target dates like mine.
We couldn’t be more different as women, but where it matters most, we’re the same—our love for Carter.
Their relationship is what began the healing of our family, and I will be eternally grateful to her for that.
But I’m still wary of what she’s about to ask.
“How did you meet two professional hockey players? I mean, was it a work outing or a foundation thing? You don’t even like sports.
” She smiles warmly, not a hint of malice in her question, which is why I choose to answer it despite everyone else nearly leaning forward in anticipation of my response.
“Originally, at a bar.”
“What do you mean, originally?” Carter asks, his eyes narrowed.
It’s possible I shouldn’t have included that, but I did so purposefully and glance at Samantha meaningfully, getting another woman on my side.
She’s quick on the uptake, exclaiming, “This is the one-night stand you were considering an encore performance of?” Her grin is beaming, her pride in me palpable.
“I told you that Kayla Fucking Harrington could do whatever she wanted. And whoo, you took me at my word. High-five!”
She holds her hand up for an air high-five across the coffee table, and I give her a small smile of appreciation.