Page 81 of Reckless Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 8)

“Does it bother you?”

“Honestly?” I ask.

“Always, baby. That’s how this works, remember?” I bite back my knee-jerk response to comment on the fact that she’s covered up so much from me over the years, especially where my sister is concerned. But it’s too late for all that now. It’s in the past, and I understand that all she was trying to do was protect everyone.

“Jodie is… She’s her own person. She’s nothing like that poisonous snake, and I think I’m happy to forget that he ever had a hand in her making.”

“I thought the exact same thing when I met her yesterday morning. She’s her mother’s daughter.”

I nod as emotion begins to clog my throat.

“God, this is so messed up, Mum,” I whisper.

I know how I feel about Jodie. So does she, now I’ve blurted it out. But that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a huge ugly mess.

“Toby, have you taken a step back and really looked at our lives? They are one big mess,” she says lightly. “This is nothing new. And if I’ve learned anything over the years… you’ve got to follow your heart, baby. It’s the only thing that’s really important in all of this.”

“Yeah, I’m seeing that.”

“Nothing else matters. If you find happiness, no matter in what form, I say hold on tight and enjoy the ride.”

Silence falls between us for a beat before I push up on my elbows.

“Thanks, Mum.”

“I haven’t done anything,” she laughs.

“You’ve done more than you could possibly know.”

“What are you doing talking to me, anyway? You should be enjoying time with your girl.”

“Stella’s stolen her and taking her to a spa with the girls.”

“Oh, where was my invite?” she jokes.

“I’ll leave that for you to deal with,” I mutter.

We chat for a few more minutes before she lets me go and I finally head through to my shower to reluctantly wash Jodie’s scent off my skin.

Thankfully, the guys have stopped fighting when I get back to the living room and they’re all happily arguing over where Nico should be hiding if he stands any chance of beating Alex, who still has the controller.

Pulling the fridge open, I pluck out five fresh beers and take them over with a couple of bags of crisps.

My arse has almost hit the sofa cushion when my buzzer goes off.

“I messaged the devil,” Theo says. “Looks like he might be willing to play today.”

Shaking my head at him, I head over to let Daemon in. Since we all moved into this building, he’s been hanging out with us a little more. I’m not sure if that’s because he really wants to or just because we remember to invite him more, knowing he’s close. Either way, it’s nice to spend more time with him. We were all tight as kids, although he never really clicked with any of us. But I always felt bad when we all seemed to move in a different direction from him.

“Hey, man. How’s it going?” I ask when I pull the door open and find him leaning against the wall opposite, half asleep. “Shit, rough night?”

“Something like that,” he mutters, pushing forward. “Theo said—”

“Come in. You know you never need an actual invite to hang out, right? If you need—”

“I know,” he cuts me off, but I’m not convinced that’s because he really does know.

“So what’s going on then? Anything we need to know about?”