Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Important. Yes. My history was important. I’d spent years learning of its importance.
“Wasn’t your mom from Connecticut?” Zane asked. “You mentioned it once when we asked about your accent.”
I reached out to feel the elephant on the window latch. “Yes. Danbury. My grandfather was still alive when we were at Yale. I stayed with him one Christmas.”
“What was your mom like?”
It occurred to me I could finally speak more openly about my past with the Brotherhood, but old habits of holding personal details close to the vest were hard to break.
“She was amazing.”
“Tell me something specific. Do you have a memory of her doing something… oh, I don’t know… admirable?”
Why was he doing this? Weren’t there more interesting questions he could be asking me about everything? Hell, he hadn’t even asked me what was going on between me and Kenji.
“She loved birds,” I said, pulling an old memory out of the battered box in my mind. “Pet birds. We had a giant birdcage in the family room, and those fuckers never shut up. She would talk to them. Sing to them in hopes of getting them to sing back.”
“Birds. Well, that’s not my preference for pets, but if she wanted birds…”
“No, that’s just it. She never got them for herself. She never set out to have a bird as a pet. She heard about someone who needed to rehome a bird, and she couldn’t resist helping. ‘Temporarily.’” I let out a laugh, remembering her stammering explanation to my father and the way he smiled at her with exasperated affection. “Then someone else needed another bird rescue and so on and so forth until the cage took up half the room and our eardrums wanted to burst.”
I could hear the smile in Zane’s voice. “Does your father still keep them?”
The elephant’s chill had warmed under my touch. I traced a fingertip along the curve of its trunk before turning away. “No. They’ve all gone on to their sanctuary in the sky. And thank fuck because they really were a nuisance.”
“She sounds sweet,” he suggested.
“Yes. Unless it came to catching me with a hand in the biscuit tin after dinner. Or, god forbid, left the house without giving her a peck on the cheek. It didn’t matter if I was late and someone important was waiting.”
Zane let the air still between us for a beat. “She wanted to remind you what was important.”
“Family,” I murmured.
“Love,” he corrected gently. “Connection. Affection. People.”
I cleared my throat in hopes of dispelling the emotion there. “I hate you and all that you stand for, Zane Hendley.”
“I love you more than you can know. My lord.”
The call ended to the sound of his snickering.
I took a quick shower and threw on a bathrobe before settling into the window seat and sending Silas a text to let him know I’d called Zane and been forgiven, mostly because Zane was the forgiving type with a heart bigger than the night sky.
Silas’s reply was instant.
Silas
Good. Now call the others. Remember we’re only a plane ride away.
I wasn’t sure if that was a threat or a promise, but it made me grin anyway. I moved through contacting the remaining two members of the Brotherhood.
My call with Bash surprised me.
“I knew something didn’t add up,” he said. “There were a few times you said things that just… sounded wrong. When Dev tried to introduce us to polo, you were especially weird. But I remember you saying, ‘That’s a fine bit of tack,’ as if you knew what the fuck we were looking at.”
I winced. “I’m shit at riding horses, but I did try polo once when I was younger.” I didn’t explain this had happened at an event arranged by the Palace at Guards Polo Club for a group of young lads in the peerage. “It was fine until I bashed my own boot with the stick.”
We chuckled over shared memories of similar polo injuries Dev had experienced over the years.
“We miss you, Landry,” Bash said after a few minutes.
Before I could return the sentiment, he added, “But I want to hear about what’s going on between you and Kenji.”
I should have known Bash would be the one to ask the question no one else had dared to ask. He took his role as big brother of our group seriously.
I rolled my eyes and pressed the bridge of my nose between two fingers. “Join the queue, Sebastian.”
“Listen, it’s been obvious to the rest of us that there’s something going on between the two of you, but I also know Kenji thinks he can’t trust you. If you want him to give you a chance, you need to prove to him you’re dependable and true.”
I gritted my teeth. “I didn’t ask for advice about my so-called love life. In case you haven’t seen the entire fucking internet today, I have bigger shit going on right now than navigating Kenji’s impossible requirements for potential life partners. Like, for example, convincing the world we’re already married and that I’d be a good candidate for MP.”