Page 36 of Shiny Things

“Yes, I was.”

Through all the madness and chaos, my father sat back and laughed. It was a deep, full belly sort of laugh that was rarely heard in this house.

“Looks like you’ve met your match, Kimberly. He’s a good man, and he’s good for you. Don’t go easy on her, son. She’ll win at all costs and rarely plays fair. She likes to get her way. Stubborn to her very core.”

“Oh trust me, I already knew that much.”

We finished up the pizza that had arrived early in the first game, and then I started to clean up.

“Go on. Your brother and I will take care of this,” Dad said, shooing me from the kitchen.

“Andrew’s going to clean? Now this I need to stick around for and see.”

“I clean,” my brother protested.

“Elias, it was a pleasure to meet you. I do hope we’ll see more of you around here.”

I groaned. “Don’t encourage him.”

Andrew pulled me to the side while Dad asked Elias a few more questions about his new role on the Congress Council. I still couldn’t believe it and had the urge to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

“He said he wants you for a mate. Why haven’t you sealed that?” Andrew asked me.

I rolled my eyes. “He’s a Davenport.”

“I know. And he wants you, Kim. Do you have any idea how much that would elevate you in status around here? You’d never have to work in that diner again.”

I glared at him and crossed my arms over my chest.

“What’s wrong with working in the diner? I happen to love it there.”

“I’m just saying. You’d be respectable and shit.”

“He’s just a person like any other,” I argued.

“Then why haven’t you mated him already?”

I sighed. “You know why.”

“I really don’t.”

“I can handle the whispers and stares of being with him, but he has no clue what he’d be getting himself into if anyone finds out about us.”

“Is that really it? Because I think a guy like that can handle anything thrown his way.”

I looked over at Elias. He didn’t look so dark and dangerous while laughing with my father. Not that he ever did to me. That was a persona he reserved for others. But I knew him. He was a good man, and any woman would be lucky to have him.

In my mind, I was worried that if he ever met my family that he would look down on them. It was stupid, and that hadn’thappened at all. Quite the opposite did. He fit right in like he’d always been a part of us, like he belonged here with me.

I sighed. What the hell was I going to do now?

“Hey babe, are you ready to head home?”

Dad’s head whipped around to him with a scowl on his face.

“Her home. I’m just going to take her home and then I’m going home.”

“Damn right you are,” Andrew said. Playing the overprotective big brother role while he’d basically called me an idiot for not mating Elias was pretty hypocritical, if I say so myself.

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