Page 29 of To Hold and Protect

“Out of spite.Isn’t that what you just said?”

“Didn’t mean to let that slip out.”

“Well, you did, and now I have to know what you meant. Nosy person here.” That was her author brain at work, needing to know the story, and there was one.

He blew out a breath. “We lived with our aunt after our mother...” He frowned. “Growing up, we weren’t allowed in this room, couldn’t touch, much less read her books.”

“That’s horrible. As a children’s author, I’m appalled. Every child should be encouraged to read.” And after their mother...what? Had she died? No wonder he was moody if he’d lost both his mother and his wife.

“Not going to argue that.”

“So your brothers are reading their way through this amazing library to spite your aunt? I take that to mean she’s no longer in the picture?”

“Correct.”

“You don’t sound sad about that.”

“Correct.” He walked out.

Mmm. Touchy subject, apparently. She trailed behind him to another room, her mind churning with a thousand questions. Because any talk of his aunt turned him prickly, her questions wouldn’t be asked. She sure was curious, though.

“This is my future sisters-in-law’s favorite room.” He waved a hand for her to walk in ahead of him.

“Wow. I can see why. This is amazing.” She’d just walked into one of those ornate theaters of old, including red velvet drapes and chandeliers. The only modern things were the black leather recliners instead of theater seats. Maybe the ladies would invite her over one day to watch a movie with them.

When they walked back into the foyer, he pointed up. “Kade and Harper have the top floor, and Everly and I are down here.” He pointed to a hallway between the two stairs. “Tristan and Skylar have a loft downtown, but they also spend time here. They have the second floor.”

“It’s cool that you each have a floor.”

“Keeps us from getting on each other’s nerves.”

From the little she’d been around them—and from her spying on them out her bedroom window—the brothers seemed to get along great. Better than her and Cynthia.

“This is obviously the dining room,” he said, leading her through another door.

Her gaze was drawn to a beautiful painting of a sunset over the mountains, and she went over to it. At seeing the artist’s signature on the bottom, she gasped. “Are you kidding me? You have a Park C painting?” Her mom had one that she’d spent a fortune on, and Willow had told her mother, “You can leave everything else to Cynthia if you designate this as mine in your will.”

The painting she coveted was titledHummingbirds. The colors in it were brilliant shades of blues, greens, yellows, and purples, each hummingbird one of those colors. One tiny hummingbird was perched on a feeder, his little chest puffed out as if defending the sugar water from the invaders helicoptering around him. She’d give anything to know how the artist had made the colors iridescent, or how they looked so real, as if you could touch them and feel their soft feathers.

She loved hummingbirds, and thinking of her mother’s painting reminded her that she needed to hang some sugar water feeders on her porch so that when she sat in her new swing, she could watch them.

“Either you’re rich or you bought this before anyone knew who Park C was.” When Parker didn’t answer, she glanced back at him. He stood with his hands stuffed in his pockets again and had an odd look on his face.

He snorted, then walked out a door at the back of the dining room.

“Huh?” she muttered. She gave the Park C painting one last loving look, then followed him...into a kitchen that had her jaw dropping. “Okay, wow!”

She’d wanted this tour to get ideas for remodeling her house, but she’d need buckets full of money to make it look like this one. The first thing that caught her eye were the granite countertops. She’d never seen granite in those colors, a swirl of grays, blues, and purples. One entire wall was windows that framed the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance.

“You want something to drink?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

“That was thoughtful to give Everly a quill, even if it’s not magic.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, she was disappointed about that. I saw it in a bookstore in Charlotte yesterday and thought of her.”

“You were in Charlotte?”

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