“Most definitely. You look just like your daddy.”
Kate smiled proudly up at Audrey and then turned to look at me. I opened my arms wide so she bounded forward and leapt into my hold. Audrey quickly wiped at her eyes and smiled adoringly at the both of us.
“Oh, I just love this!” she cried. Then she turned her attention to Raegan. “You must be Raegan that I’ve been hearing oh-so-much about.” I was going to kill her.
“Really?” Raegan smiled shyly.
“Oh yes! He gushes about you. I’ve been so excited to meet you,” she said, walking forward to pull Raegan in for a hug.
Raegan hesitated at first, but then I watched as she finally let the hug happen. She’d better get used to this touchy-feely bunch. “I guess I could say the same about you,” Rae replied.
“Okay!” I decided to interrupt this uncomfortable conversation. “We’ve all met now. Let’s just get the keys so we can head back to my place.”
“He’s embarrassed now,” Audrey laughed, giving Rae a wink. I groaned and attempted to pull Rae toward the car. “Oh no you don’t,” Audrey continued. “You’ve been gone for weeks, I finally get to meet your daughter and you think you’re just going to run off again?”
“I’m hardly running anywhere. I live five minutes away, doll,” I chuckled.
She gave me the look, the one that told me I wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. I sighed in defeat and pulled Raegan into my chest, because if I was going to endure an Audrey interrogation, I should at least be allowed to hold Rae in the process.
- FIFTEEN -
RAEGAN -
So Audrey was beautiful. Not like your everyday beautiful—if there was such a thing—but like she should be on the cover of some high-fashion magazine beautiful. Her legs were about as long as my entire body, so I instantly felt squatty standing next to her. I shouldn’t have worn flats today. And didn’t she just have a baby? Where was the post- pregnancy belly I thought we were all blessed with?
I still didn’t understand how she and Lane hadn’t ended up together. I had a hard time believing that they lived together for years and yet nothing had happened. How is that possible? They were both gorgeous. Gorgeous people migrated to other gorgeous people.
But speaking of gorgeous… Audrey’s husband, Jace, was out of this world. He was tall—like crazy tall. He had at least three inches on Lane, but he wasn’t built the same. I don’t think anyone was built like Lane.
I was beginning to feel inferior in comparison to all of these tall, attractive people around me. I hated that feeling and I used to roll my eyes at girls like that. I needed to straighten my spine and get over it.
Jace moved around the front of the car and grabbed Audrey around the middle. I didn’t know if it was intentional, but he moved her away from Lane by a good two feet. Audrey melted into his touch, and the smile she gave him over her shoulder should have removed all doubts about her and Lane from my head. Jace whispered into her ear and she nodded in return, smirking at him.
Just then, a large truck came flying down the dirt road and we all turned to see it approaching the house. I felt Lane pull me in tighter.
“You know I’m not upset with you, right?” I felt his words whispered against my ear.
“I didn’t do anything so you better not be mad at me,” I replied.
I smiled when I felt him chuckle behind me. “I just want to get us back to the house soon,” he continued to whisper.
“Me too.”
“You nervous about meeting my friends?” he asked.
“No,” I replied quickly. Then I backtracked. “Yes.”
The truck that pulled up near Jace’s SUV was drenched in mud. Not just little splashes here and there, but full-on covered in filth. I couldn’t say what color it actually was if I tried. The windshield was only clean where the wipers had smeared the mud away.
Then Jace got out of the truck. Huh? But it wasn’t Jace, because he was standing behind us, still holding onto Audrey.
“Whoa…” I whispered. Jace had an identical twin. I knew Jace and Jaxon were brothers, but I hadn’t heard anything about twins.
“Crazy, huh?” Audrey said from beside me.
“Whoa, what?” Lane growled into my ear. I shivered against him and moved further into his chest. Kate squirmed down from his arms and reclaimed Braden’s hand.
“Umm….” I didn’t know what to say. I still thought Lane was the most beautiful person I had ever seen, but… seeing two of these guys side-by-side would take me a minute to grasp. They were dreamy.
“Rae…” Lane continued and now he fully held onto me from behind.
He and I had done fairly well at keeping our displays of affection away from the kids. We hadn’t kissed or made any advances in front of them. They didn’t seem to catch on to his current possessive actions, so I let him continue to hold me.
“Give her a break, Lane. Seeing Jax and Jace for the first time is a lot to take in… for any girl.”
He grasped me a little bit tighter and I went willingly. We all watched as Jaxon, who was covered in as much mud as his truck, ran around the front and opened the passenger-side door. He reached inside and scooped out a girl with long, blonde hair. This must have been Emerson. She kicked and giggled as he carried her away from the truck. His smile was blinding as he looked at her squirming in his arms. They each laughed loudly at one another, probably because they were both caked in dried mud.
Surprise, surprise, she was a knockout too… even dirty. “What the hell is in the water here?” I whispered, mostly to myself.
“Why do you say that, babe?” Lane asked.
“It’s nothing.” Or it wasn’t really anything to get worked up over, at least. Maybe in the past four years while I’d been locked away, people just got better-looking for some reason. Although, come to think of it, I didn’t remember seeing this many beautiful people in New York.
“Jaxon!” Em gasped. “Put me down!” She managed to escape his arms and I was happy to see that even though she was gorgeous, she wasn’t another long-legged supermodel. She was my height and seemed to have all the same proportions as me.
“You two are ridiculous,” Jace laughed beside us.
“It’s her fault!” Jaxon laughed.
“Oh, like you’re really going to complain.” Em looked at him mischievously and he grabbed her again, pulling her into his body.
“What the hell happened?” Jace asked.
“Dude,” I heard Lane growl as he elbowed Jace.
“Sorry, little ears,” Jace responded softly.
That caught Jaxon and Em’s attention, and they both looked down at the two kids standing next to us.
“Oh my God!” Emerson cried. “You two are the most adorable little things I have ever seen!”
“Wow, she’s like your clone, man,” Jaxon added.
“You know, you guys are all pretty overwhelming,” Lane said to the crowd around us. He reached down and easily scooped up both Braden and Kate in a protective gesture. They held onto his shoulders to balance themselves. It was quick, but Braden looked down at me with an arresting smile. Lane had just made him feel special in front of everyone. I rubbed his back, excited for him.
“I’m sorry,” Emerson cooed up at them.
“No, no. I don’t like that tone, beautiful,” Jaxon said to Em. “I just got you over your last bout of baby-fever.”
“So, watching Quinn and Cole’s baby actually worked?” Jace laughed.
“That baby doesn’t sleep. She’s one years old, shouldn’t she be sleeping by now?” Emerson grumbled.