Page 5 of A Crane Family New Year

His siblings were a lot like their father. O tended to follow his heart, which seemed to have been diagnosed with ADHD. Their dad announced a new love with every full moon. The women he’d had children with were as nontraditional as O about parenting, but it hadn’t stopped them from being a family. Each of them saw their mothers, some more often than others, and whenever O had been single, he’d invited all four women over for a Christmas celebration at his chalet in Switzerland.

Somehow, they’d made it work.

“Thank you for coming with me tonight.” At the mouth of Reese Crane’s gated driveway, Zander put down his window to show his credentials to the guard. As the glass slid back up, he faced Jaylyn, who was no longer acting or looking like a rebellious, petulant teenager. She arranged her long, sequined black skirt on her lap and then peered up at him through dark brown eyes.

“Even though your original plan didn’t work out for tonight, you’re going to have to keep your promise to Emily. You skipped a year already. I won’t let you do it again.”

“Jay—”

“Look, we both know she’s not actually checking in on you. This isn’t about her so much as it is about you taking a step toward what you want. You are a relationship guy. Going nearly two years without a relationship has been hard on you. We can all see it.”

“I wasn’t ready.” He mumbled the half-truth. He hadn’t been ready last year at this time, but as of a few months ago, that had changed. He missed his late wife and always would, but he liked spending time with a partner. He’d been confident that asking out the woman he’d met online would earn him a yes. He hadn’t been prepared for rejection—or no answer at all.

He’d blown it by mentioning the kiss. He hadn’t gone on a first date in over seven years—sue him for being rusty.

“I love you.” Jaylyn grabbed his free hand in both of hers.

“Love you too.” He sent her a half-smile. It had never mattered that his siblings were half-siblings. They might be scattered geographically, but they were always in each other’s hearts and on each other’s minds. They came together when it mattered. He’d had so much support from them since Emily had passed, it had been humbling. Right after she died, Brody moved from New York to London for six months to be nearer to Zander, and while on a deadline for his debut book. Dante and Jaylyn hadn’t been far behind him.

“Thank you.” He flipped his palm over and kissed the top of one of his sister’s hands.

In her sequined gown, coal-black eyeliner, her dark hair pulled up into an elegant twist, she was both beautiful and beguiling. She’d designed the chunky ring on her index finger: a gold and platinum skull wearing a crown, with diamonds for eyes. Add in the combat boots and the moon-and-stars tattoo tucked behind her left ear, and anyone could see that Jaylyn Crane was more gypsy than socialite. As young as she was, she was tough and strong-willed. Her brothers looked out for her, protected her, but also respected her. They never used her age against her. She was an old soul who knew what she knew, and that was more than most.

“I know your internet girlfriend didn’t work out?—”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” He heard the petulance in his own voice.

“All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t be too fast to dismiss magic if you see it tonight. New Year’s Eve is special.”

“So says your coven?” he teased.

She laughed, accustomed to the witchy references by now.

“I’m not dismissing anything. I’m on a mission. Duty-bound.”

Jaylyn clucked her tongue. “You and I both know why Emily told you to kiss someone else after she died, and it wasn’t so you’d be ‘duty-bound.’”

True. Emily had made him promise because she’d known him through and through. Zander was a loyal and loving husband. He was also a stoic, bordering on rigid man. He made decisions quickly and finished what he started. When Emily got sick, his world had been flipped onto its head. There’d been no plan for what they’d been facing, and so he’d made one.

He’d hated the prognosis almost as much as the open-ended timeline. The doctor gave her “four to six months.” She’d lived eight. Zander had drafted timelines for four months and for six months, but nothing had prepared him for the extra two months. He’d been eternally grateful for the gift of time, and yet each day had been like the swinging of a pendulum. At night he’d lain awake and wondered when it would lose momentum and stop swinging altogether.

“I heard that Reese and Merina stocked this party with lots of snobby rich folks.” Jaylyn’s lips twisted. “I hope it’s not dull.”

“Stocked? It’s a party, not a koi pond.”

“Well, there had better be a cute guy in there for me to flirt with, or else I’m leaving.” She climbed out of the car and slammed the passenger door shut.

On a sigh, he followed, bracing against the sharp wind lifting off the surface of frigid Lake Michigan. He palmed the valet his keys and jogged to catch up to his sister.

“Holy shit,” she said as he offered his arm. “This is the biggest fucking house I’ve ever seen.”

Zander allowed himself to smile rather than remind her of manners. His sister’s colorful language was nothing new, and he was her brother, not her father. Not that O would have scolded her either.

They walked around a fountain, empty, since water would turn to ice in this weather, and then paced up a stone walkway littered with salt to prevent freezing.

“It’s a beautiful house, though. I could see myself staying in this town for longer than a few weeks.” Jaylyn found beauty in a lot of places. She’d lived in Italy, Spain the year before that, and, after a brief stint in London, had squatted in Brody’s New York penthouse for a while. The evening she’d arrived in Chicago to visit Zander, she’d been talking about moving again.

Zander and wanderlust weren’t acquainted. He liked predictability. It was rare to count on…well, much of anything. He supposed that in and of itself was something to count on. Ironically.

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