Page 9 of Uproot

Her lips part and a small sound escapes them as she blinks at me. Her eyes dart from my face to my dress shirt and slacks, before landing on my tattooed hands.

Her eyebrows furrow as she slowly shakes her head,

"I..I'm sorry. AreyouCharlie's brother?"

5

Selah

Idon't know what I expected when I opened the door to meet Edison's uncle, but it certainly wasn't the man standing in front of me.

I thought that Beckett Kade might just be a slightly more presentable version of Charlie Kade. All I knew about him from Sheriff Rockwell is that he lives in Manhattan.

But besides the striking blue eyes, there's zero similarities between the two brothers appearance wise. Looking at Beckett makes me realize how mysterious genetics really can be.

He steps past the woman he is with, continuing to run his eyes over me. He stretches out one of his large hands towards me. I look down at it, my eyes tracing over the tattoos there, feeling temporarily mesmerized until he speaks.

"He's myhalf-brother. And you're Selah, right?" he asks, his gruff voice snapping my attention back to his eyes.

"Yup..yes! That's me. Hi," I stammer, chuckling nervously. His hand engulfs mine and he holds it for a moment, studying myface. His stare is a bit unnerving, but I find myself unable to move as I allow him to take inventory of my features.

His eyes remind me of Edison's, except where Edison's light blue reminds me of the sky, Beckett's are intimidating. Especially when he holds them on you like he is doing to me right now.

This man's presence is powerful, and I wish I could have made a better introduction than my rambling apology about why I didn't answer the door more quickly.

But it wouldn't be my life if I had met a gorgeous stranger and not been an awkward mess.

"I'm Beckett Kade, and this is my Assistant, Helen. Thank you for having us over, Selah," he says.

I realize that they are still standing on the porch, and my hand is still in his. I pull it back and he frowns at me, strangely looking displeased that I let go.

"It's no trouble at all," I respond, ignoring his frown and moving so that they can come inside. "Come in, please."

They both look around as they enter my house. I feel a bit self-conscious now that they are here and not the normal people I expected at all. I swear the watch Beckett has on costs more than everything I have in this house.

But if he is unimpressed with his surroundings he doesn't show it at all. Instead he looks down at my bare feet, then bends down to unlace his dress shoes, slipping them off of his feet one at a time.

His Assistant observes what he is doing and follows suit, taking off her heels too. He takes their shoes and puts them neatly with the ones I have on my shoe rack by the door.

"Thank you," I say quietly, smiling at his manners.

He nods, the corner of his mouth lifting, and I try not to stare at his full lips. I turn around and walk them into the living room, looking around for Edison.

I call out his name and he runs into the living room a few moments later, stopping short when he sees Beckett and Helen there. His neck tips backwards to look up at Beckett, swallowing hard as he takes in his tall stature.

Edison moves to stand closer to me, his small hand taking a hold of the side of my apron as he looks between Beckett and Helen.

Beckett sees his discomfort and stoops down so they are eye-to-eye. He looks down at Edison's shirt, then back into his eyes that I'm sure are familiar to him.

"You a big Ninja Turtles fan?" he asks, pointing to Edison's t-shirt.

Edison looks down, holding out the shirt with his hands. "Yeah," he responds timidly.

"Cool. I like Leonardo, how about you?" Beckett asks.

Edison's eyes widen, "He's myfavorite too," he says, pointing to the Ninja Turtle with a blue bandanna wrapped around his eyes, jumping high on his shirt. "He has the best moves!"

Beckett nods, "Of course he does. I bet you're a big fan of pizza too then, huh?" He says, rubbing his stubble covered jaw.

---