Page 18 of Imperfections Seduced
“Yes.” She touches my pendant and looks at it in the light before she lets it go.
“Well, whoever it was must have really cared about you; you don’t buy a piece of jewelry like that for just anyone. They say aquamarine brings peace and calm to its owner, relieving stress and enhancing intuition. Crystal healers use them to harmonize diseased areas of the body.Sailors used to consider them a lucky stone; they carried them to keep them safe at sea.”
I don’t know if I should tell them. If I don’t tell them, I’ll make it seem like a big deal, and I know they’re going to find out. It’s not a secret, but before I can answer, in a clear I-don’t-care-who-knows voice, Nick says,
“I bought it.”
I turn and look at him. He’s looking at me like I’m the only one in the room, and I like it when he looks at me like that. All eyes look at him, and I hope they don’t notice the way he’s looking at me. Chris looks at Nick and then at me.
“When did you have time between your school load, partying, and all the girls you were juggling?” he asks Nick.
“I made time. Like Vanessa said, you don’t buy a gift like that for just anyone.”
Jay looks at me and then at Nick. He looks serious now, big brother serious.
“Oh yeah?”
Nick looks directly at Jay. “Oh yeah. She’s your little sister but we sort of grew up together, and she was like my little sister once too.”
It’s getting a little intense. This is the last thing I need, my family questioning me about my relationship with Nick when there is nothing going on and he’s engaged to Kate.
“Chris, Jay, and Nick. I felt like I had three overprotective brothers instead of two,” I say, trying to inject humor in my voice when Ava finally finds her voice to help me out.
“I couldn’t even set us up on a double date whenever I came to New York. We could scarcely get a kiss from our dates after they were interrogated and intimidated by these two giants.” Ava gives Chris a wink and one of her hundred-watt smiles no man could resist, except Chris is looking at her like a child he’s trying to be patient with.
“You two should thank us; some of the guys you were setting my sister up with were kind of shady. They weren’t known for their high moral standards,” Chris says.
“They weren’t that bad. They didn’t do anything to us we didn’t want them to do,” Ava says.
Vanessa and Kate are looking at us with amused expressions.
Kate says, “Really!”
“Do tell!” Vanessa says at the same time as Kate.
Now the guys are staring at us like we’re guilty of something. I have to laugh and shake my head a little when I lean in over the table. This is like old times: my brothers trying to protect my innocence. If they only knew how I lost my innocence to one of their friends. “There is nothing to tell. Relax, guys,and soon to be brother-in-law.” Ooh, that earned me a stern look from the man sitting next to me and his fiancée. “Those guys were perfect gentlemen.”
“That’s ’cause I told them ‘don’t make us have to break your legs for trying anything with my sister,’” Chris says.
“I can’t believe you did that.”
“Damn right we did. You’re welcome,” Nick says taking a drink from his glass.
“I wasn’t thanking you, Nick. That’s the reason I could hardly get a date in high school, let alone a second one from those guys.”
Vanessa points to each of the guys at the table. “This is why I’m glad I didn’t have brothers in high school. I was a little firecracker way back in the day, before I met Jay.”
Putting her hand on Nick’s arm, Kate smiles at me. “They were never this overprotective with me. But I wasn’t the baby of the family like Cat is. We have to protect her from wolves in sheep’s clothing, right, babe?”
Nick doesn’t take his eyes off me when he says, “Yeah.”I notice they’ve hardly talked to each other or touched since we’ve been here. That’s Ava’s cue to stir the pot with Kate, accent and all.
“Well, honey, thank God you don’t have to do that anymore. She’s a full-grown woman, with a body and a face that’ll make a man desperate to touch.”
“I know she’s an adult now, but she will always be our little sister, and naturally we will always want to protect her to keep her from getting hurt by the wrong kind of men,” Kate says.
“What kind of men or man would that be, Kate?”
She couldn’t help herself, could she? She held out as long as she could without starting trouble. I hold my hand up to stop an argument. “She’s talking in general, there is no man or men I need protecting from. I’ve only been back for one day.”
