Page 16 of Wild Fires

“She really does love this place as much as Gia does, huh?”

“What about Gia?” our sister asked before he could answer.

She pulled up a chair and joined us.

“I thought Kim said you were busier than usual.”

She shrugged. “There's got to be some benefits to being the boss.”

I looked around behind her. Wherever Gia was, her mate David wasn't far behind.

“What are you looking for?” she asked.

“David.”

She rolled her eyes. “We aren't always together.”

“Yes you are. Is he really not here?”

“Well, yeah, he's just manning the kitchen today. Darin needed the day off.”

I smirked, and she punched me.

“We do stuff apart too,” she insisted.

I shot her a knowing look.

We really weren't sure how the two of them met. She just came home one day bearing his mark with some ridiculous story no one believed. We all thought she was having a mental breakdown or something. It was hard not to fear the worst, like someone had taken advantage of her and tried to claim her. She kept insisting that wasn't the case, but it was all very strange.

Then suddenly David showed up. We assume he was looking for her, but we don’t really know for sure because he was in a bad car accident and suffered from amnesia.

As far as I knew, he'd never regained his memories. But they were clearly madly in love and almost as sickening to be around as Elias and Kim.

“Kim and I are going to have a girls’ night at Mom and Dad's tomorrow night. We do things without our guys.”

I laughed. “Sore spot? Because you are very defensive right now.”

“Why are you so annoying?”

“Isn't that what big brothers are for?”

“I'm not annoying?” Elias insisted.

I stared at him like he was crazy, but Gia actually backed him up.

“Well, not as annoying as Ryan is,” she muttered.

I loved all of my siblings, but I had never had the bond that Gia and Elias did with any of them. Being squashed in the middle of those two wasn't always easy, especially when it was just the three of us. Adding Dean to the mix always helped a little, but he was the youngest of us in our family and just starting to grow up enough for me to relate to him. He certainly wasn't the baby brother we all spoiled anymore.

I quietly ate my lunch while the two of them laughed and joked.

Some would call it middle child syndrome or something, but honestly, I didn't begrudge their relationship in any way. They were good to include both me and Dean most of the time.

It was nice to know that, no matter what, they would always have my back, but I wasn't the type that needed that day-to-day affirmation of affection from anyone, including my family.

And for some reason at that moment, Gracie Montgomery popped back into my mind.

The scowl on my face drew attention from my brother and sister both, but I certainly wasn't about to share my inappropriate thoughts about Gracie with them. I wasn't going to share them with anyone—especially not the dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty I'd just wiped my calendar to spend the week with.

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