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  Three men stood in the kitchen, including an older, short, one-eyed, red-haired guy she suspected owned the Scottish brogue. Dewi was there, too.

  Nami tried to fight back the jealous urge to scratch her eyes out.

  The woman stepped forward. “Sorry for how crazy this has been. Hopefully tonight will allow you a chance to breathe and relax and get to know Beck and the rest of us better.

  “Who are you people?”

  “I’m Dewi. Dewi Bleacke.” She pointed to a slender guy who probably looked a lot skinnier than he normally did because he was standing in comparison to the other three, beefy guys. “That’s Ken Ethelbert, my fiancé. Martin Brunhaus, a friend and co-worker. And, finally, Badger Williams.” That was the older, one-eyed, red-haired guy.

  “Nice to meet ye, lass,” he said. “If me hands weren’t full, I’d come shake wit’ ye. I’ll catch up later.” Yep, the Scottish dude.

  “Dinner’s ready to go,” Dewi said. “You and Beck come on in to the dining room. The guys will bring the food in.

  Nami suspected Dewi was the designated spokesperson of their little group. It also felt weird to have others serving her. In her family, she’d run the men out of the kitchen when it came time to get things ready. Usually, they just got in her way.

  It also felt weird in a good way when Beck pulled out a chair for her and held it.

  She wouldn’t deny that made her feel more than a little special and earned him a few points, in her mind.

  Dewi sat across the table from her and Beck. “I hope the food meets your approval. Thank goodness Ken and Badger knew what all of that was.” She smiled. “I’m not much of a cook.”

  Nami glanced at Beck and felt a little disconcerted to find he was smiling down at her as if he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. Or didn’t want to look away, maybe out of fear she’d run away.

  And that was a thought still faintly pulsing in her mind, although growing weaker by the minute.

  “What do you do for a living if you’re his boss?” Nami asked Dewi.

  “We run a large family business. Lots of investments all over the country. My older brothers run the headquarters out in Idaho. We take care of the interests in the southeast US.”

  “Investments?”

  “Not just monetary. We’re very diversified. My brother, Peyton, took over years ago after our parents’…deaths.”

  Nami got the distinct impression that was a topic Dewi didn’t want to talk about. “So when is your wedding?” Nami asked her.

  Now Dewi blushed. “Haven’t set the date yet. Still working on it.”

  Beck laughed. “Dewi’s brothers want to throw her a huge wedding in Idaho, complete with a fancy, formal wedding gown.”

  “Why is that a problem.”

  “Our Dewi doesn’t do fancy and formal.”

  Nami tried not to bristle at how he’d said “our Dewi,” but the next comment flew from her mouth before she could control it. “So what’s the story between you two? You exes?”

  Dewi didn’t flinch. “Yes, we are. On good terms. While you don’t know me or have any reason to believe me, I’m devoted to my fiancé. Beck and I have a past, but now we are nothing more than friends.”

  Nami’s bullshit meter didn’t quite go off, but she suspected there was more to the story. “Why did you break up?”

  “We were more good friends with bennies,” Beck answered. “I love Dewi, but neither of us were…in love. She met Ken, and that’s when she fell in love with him.”

  “You don’t see exes who get along this well unless there are kids involved. Wait, do you have kids?”

  “No kids,” Beck said.

  Dewi shook her head. “I want some. Eventually. I’m only twenty-five. I still have plenty of time.”

  Nami’s thoughts immediately went to her mom, of watching her die, watching the cancer eat her from the inside out. “That might not necessarily be true,” she quietly said. “My mom thought she’d have plenty of time, too.”

  “I’m sorry,” Dewi said.

  Nami forced a smile. “It’s okay. It was seventeen years ago. I had to raise my baby brother, Da’von. Literally. He was tiny when she died. Breast cancer. And I have two younger sisters, too.”

  “How old is your brother?” Beck asked. “And your sisters?”

  “Da’von is nineteen, mouthy thing he is. Lu’ana’s twenty-eight. She and her husband, Reggie, have a gorgeous little girl, who’s two. Bebe. Short for Beatrice. Named after our momma. Malyah’s twenty-four. She still lives at home with me and Da’von, but she’s out of college and has a good job. I’m proud of all of them.”

  “What about your father?” Dewi asked.

  Nami hoped she didn’t visibly react to that, even though it was a question she’d gotten used to answering throughout the years. “He wasn’t in the picture after my little brother was born. I gained custody of my siblings and raised them. I don’t like to talk about him, sorry.”

  Now she hoped they’d drop that topic. Because she didn’t want to spend her evening talking about that asshole Jarome Drexler.

  As far as she was concerned, the man was dead to her.

  And if he ever tried to come around their family again, she might be tempted to make him really dead.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Beck felt old pain washing off Nami. He wanted to claim her right there and fix that for her. Well, not fix the pain of her mother’s death, but fix anything else for her within his power to take care of.

  Maybe even take her father totally out of the picture for her, extract a little karmic payback on her behalf.

  “I lost my parents when I was six months old,” Dewi quietly said. “My brothers got Badger to raise me.” She smiled. “He was the only one who could keep me from running wild. He’s sort of an uncle by marriage. We have a very close…extended family.”

  “Okay, I’m gonna just ask this right now. Are you all in the mob or something? Because if you are, I won’t say anything, but I’d rather end our evening now.”

  Beck and Dewi both laughed. “Nooo,” Dewi said. “Nothing like that. My family invested in a lot of property in Florida decades ago. Took advantage of the land booms and busts. We handle things like that here, the local investments. Our family’s fortune came partly from mining out in Idaho, early in the last century.”

  That allowed Nami to relax. A little. It was an answer that made sense and didn’t trip any bullshit alarms in her. “So why are you out here and not there? Why you?”

  “Well, the weather’s better here in the winter, for starters. And my brothers both have families, kids in school. I was the obvious choice to move out here.” She leaned in a little. “And the dating pool out there, where I’m from, is a little…limited, if you know what I mean.”

  Nami’s nerves unwound just a little bit more. Those were definitely plausible answers.

  She knew if she lived somewhere like Idaho, she would probably want to bug-out in the winter to warmer climes, too. And Dewi was a young woman. Couldn’t blame her for wanting to find happiness. It looked like it had worked for her.

  The food was brought in, interrupting conversation momentarily while the dishes were passed around and everyone started talking.

  Nami loaded up her plate, then reached for a bottle of vinegar on the table.

  “We have hot sauce, too, if you want it,” Beck said.

  “Naw, I’m good. It’ll hate me later on tonight if I use it. So tell me, do you have a closet Cracker living here, or did you Google what to have on the table as condiments for greens and black-eyed peas?”

  Ken held up a hand. “Partly me. My mom cooked like this a lot. She was third-generation Floridian.”

  Nami wanted to try, wanted to make a real attempt to get to know them. It touched her that they’d taken her seriously and obviously made a concerted effort on her behalf. “Aw, so you have a ringer.” Nami’s tension slowly ebbed from her, allowing her to relax a little more.

  “You could say that.�
� Ken smiled. “But Badger deserves the credit. He’s the real chef in the family. All I did was run a Google search for the recipes and act as his assistant.”

  The greens were perfectly seasoned, as were the beans. The cornbread was moist and yummy, the perfect balance of sweet and savory. And the chunks of ham in both the greens and the beans could have been cut with a spoon, they were so tender. Although she noticed Ken dug his out and surreptitiously dropped them into Dewi’s bowl.

  “Remind me to copy you a few of my favorite recipes,” Nami told Badger. “I don’t like to hand them out unless I think someone can do them justice.”

  Badger smiled. She tried not to look at the gnarled scar that ran from his forehead to chin and had taken out his left eye. His remaining eye was a crystalline blue, a different, paler shade than Beck’s eyes.

  “I would appreciate it,” he said. “And I’d consider it an honor.”

  Somehow, she got the impression that was a rather special and rare thing for Badger to say.

  Almost as if Beck were puffing up a little with pride that Badger had said it.

  I really am losing my mind.

  * * * *

  They wouldn’t let Nami help with the dishes. Martin, Dewi, Ken, and Badger shooed Nami and Beck out of the dining room. Beck led her onto a screened lanai where a large lap pool and a hot tub were located.

  He pulled out a chair for her at the table out there, helping her sit before taking his own seat.

  Well, he’s a gentleman.

  “Thank you for coming tonight,” Beck said. “I know that took a lot for you, to trust me like that. I truly appreciate it.”

  She leaned back in her chair, studying him in the dim, bluish glow cast from the underwater pool lights. “What do you want from me?” she quietly asked, both dreading and longing for his answer.

  “You. A chance to get to know you. A chance for you to get to know me. I’m single, and I’m attracted to you. I’m willing to take as long as I need to earn your trust.”

  “You can’t be riding my bus every day,” she said. “It’s distracting. And if someone pulls the video feed from the camera, it could get me in trouble.”

  He seemed to take a moment to consider that. “I understand. But will you go out with me again? Let me pick you up and take you, my treat, to a restaurant? Just the two of us?”

  “Why did you kiss me that first day on the bus?”

  He studied his hands for a moment before his gaze settled on hers again. “Because when I met you, I knew you were the one for me, the one I wanted. I know that sounds insane in a world where there are creepers and jerks around every corner. I’m not a stalker. If you tell me at any time to get out of your life and stay away, I’ll say good-bye and walk away. But unless or until you do, I’m going to do everything in my power to earn your trust and show you how I feel about you.”

  “But why me?”

  He shrugged. “Are you attracted to me?”

  Nami bought herself a couple of seconds before taking a deep breath and letting it out again.

  She nodded.

  He smiled, leaning forward and clasping his hands on the table. “So that’s good, right? I’m single, you’re single. No pressure. You want total honesty? While I’d love nothing more than to take you to bed right this second, if earning your trust means I need to spend the next however many weeks or months rubbing one out to relieve the pressure, I’ll do that. I’ll never force you into anything. All I’m asking for is a chance.”

  Fear made her pulse race, pounding in her ears. “You want me to trust you?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “And you’ll do anything I ask to earn that trust?”

  He nodded again.

  She leaned forward, mirroring his pose, her hands also clasped on the table and just inches from his. “For starters, no more riding my bus and following me around. Okay?”

  He nodded.

  “Number two, you can call my cell phone, and you can text me. But remember, I do have a job where I can’t text and call you back right away if I’m driving. So no crazy-assed blowing up my phone with calls and texts all day and night. You want me to trust you? Well, you have to trust me, too.”

  “Deal.”

  “I’m not done yet.” His lips quirked in a smile that almost made her lose her train of thought, but not quite. “My brother, Da’von, he’s at that age where I don’t want things to screw up his future. You don’t press me to introduce you to my family, you don’t show up at my house unexpectedly, none of that. You let me control how I introduce you to them. And that’s another point—I am a package deal. I have two sisters and a brother whom I literally raised when our mother died. And I have a two-year-old niece who is my world. I have two jobs, including the dressmaker shop, and I do have friends. You don’t set limits on how or who I see or talk to. I’m not a child. You try to control me or my life, you will find yourself out of it. Understand?”

  He nodded. “Completely. And totally agree.”

  She stared at his hands, then bridged the remaining gap between them and laced her fingers through his. “And I need you to tell me the secrets you’re not telling me right now.”

  His thumb stroked hers. “There are some things I can’t, unless you and I were…you know, officially together for the long term. Confidentiality agreements.”

  “You aren’t just an investment manager.”

  He took a deep breath and slowly let it out again, much as she had earlier. “Dewi’s parents didn’t die. They were murdered. And she was only six months old. Her mother was raped, and Dewi was viciously attacked. Everyone thought she might not make it.”

  “Oh, lord. That poor girl.” She felt a little of her jealousy toward the other woman temper and fade.

  “Her brothers were both older, grown. Badger helped raise her, not because her brothers both had families, and then the family business suddenly thrust upon them, but because no one knew who killed Dewi’s parents. They were afraid they might come back and try to kill her.”

  * * * *

  Beck didn’t want to lie to Nami, so he skirted the edge of the truth as much as he could without drifting into revealing too much. “As you can see from Badger’s scar, he’s not a man used to losing a battle.”

  “How did that happen?”

  “I don’t know all the details, but from what I’ve heard, if you think he looks bad, you should have seen the other man.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yes. Badger was related to Dewi’s father. They have a very large extended family, and Badger was the best one to take over and raise her. When she became a teenager, her brothers moved her out here to Florida to go to high school. In Idaho, she was limited to private schools. Living here, no one knew who or where she was, except them. They wanted her to have a shot at a normal life.”

  “As normal as any teenager?”

  He smiled. “Exactly.” He stroked her fingers, glad that she’d made that small gesture, of holding hands with him. He’d savor every second of contact he had with her. “I moved out here to help. Like I said, I’ve known Dewi her whole life. I won’t lie and say I don’t love her, because I do. But I love her as a friend. Family. We’re both realists. She ran the risk of me meeting and falling in love with someone else before she did. But we were a safe choice for each other. Especially once she had to work full-time taking care of the family business here, and didn’t have time for a social life. Does that make sense?”

  He still felt the strong, prickly edges of Nami’s jealousy about Dewi. He could even see flashes of it in her mind, of her disbelief that Beck would be interested in her, despite the differences in their body types and that Nami thought Beck was younger than her.

  What Beck wished he could show her was what surged through his heart, through his soul, the intangible mate connection that trumped all else. In his eyes, Nami was perfection, no matter how she saw herself. From her closely cropped hair, to her swells and curves, everything.

  She was his, m
eant for him. And her outer package meant nothing, because what had him hard and horny was her soul, what lay within her.

  She might see herself as an overweight woman approaching middle-age, but when he looked at her he saw a beautiful goddess.

  “Where are you expecting this to go?” she quietly asked.

  “I’m not in this for a quick lay or a fun weekend. I’m in this for as long as you will let me be in your life. I’m looking for forever.” He was prepared for her to react to that, to maybe pull away, or at least pull her hands free. Her body tensed, but she didn’t break contact with him.

  “Forever’s a long, long time. And you don’t even know me yet.”

  “That’s why I want to get to know you. To learn everything about you. Let you get to know me.”

  Beck felt doubt, reserve, and hope roiling around inside Nami’s soul.

  He also felt the massive boulder of fear, not just over all of this, but, he suspected, her worry that he would pass judgment on her over something.

  Maybe about her father. That had seemed a rather sore topic for her. While he was curious, he wouldn’t press her about it. Not now. Maybe later, if she felt she could open up to him…

  When. Not if.

  He knew he needed to think positively.

  “Tell me about your other job,” he said. “You mentioned something about a dressmaker?”

  Beck watched her eyes light up, her speech grow animated as she talked about her friend Lara’s shop, how she worked part-time for her as a seamstress, the fun she had crafting custom dresses and gowns for special occasions.

  He felt it ironic that she took great pleasure in making other women feel beautiful, and yet she didn’t feel that way about herself.

  “Did you go to college?” he asked.

  Her expression clouded. “I dropped out before I got my degree. Architecture.”

  Beck mentally kicked himself for bringing her back around to that darker topic. “Tell me about your family. Your brother and sisters.”

  And as Nami pulled herself back out of her mental funk again, Beck watched her transform once more, this time with pride over how they had bright futures, even her sometimes problematic brother.