Page 84 of More than Need

“Don’t joke; I might. I think he’s close enough to being celebrity hot that it still counts.”

Gideon stuffed one hand in his pocket. “He looks even better naked.”

Lucia nudged him, laughing loudly and startling a woman and her dog, walking past. “You tease. And who’s the second guy?”

“He’s… complicated.” An understatement. At some point, the tension between Dawson and Riley—and not the good kind that led to Gideon being thoroughly fucked—would explode. They couldn’t ignore the Sadie-shaped problem forever; it wouldn’t go away, no matter how much they tried to ignore it.

“I gathered that with the whole three-of-you thing.”

“It has nothing to do with there being three of us. He and Riley have some history to work through.”

“That sounds heavy. Are they exes? Is that really something you want to be in the middle of?”

“No, nothing like that. We met Dawson at the same time. Like I said, complicated.”

Lucia hugged his arm, keeping him close as Hudson and Ned finally came out of the store—with Hudson carrying a bag that looked heavy; Gideon would have won that bet.

“I’m here if you need to talk,” Lucia said. “Or even if you want to share hot, sexy pictures of your boss…”

Gideon pinched her, and she laughed.

Riley entered his parents’house, confident that they’d be awake despite the early- morning hour.

The sight of them together in the kitchen while getting breakfast ready settled some of the turmoil in his chest. He’d grown up in this house, experienced everything here. Taken his first step. Broken his first bone. Fought with his siblings. Cried with them. The smell and sights here were everything to him. It would always be his home.

Theresa spotted him first, her face twisting into a bright smile. As a child, Riley used to play a game, a kind of spot the difference in reverse. He would put a picture of himself beside his parents at the same age and try to find ways he looked like them. He always found something because the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon was true of all things. Now he wondered if there’d been anything to find.

All because some random woman had walked into his office and turned everything upside down. And then her best friend had waltzed in right after her and turnedhimupside down.

“Riley, honey, we weren’t expecting you. Do you want an omelette? There’s plenty.”

“Mum.”

Her smile fell away, something in his voice giving him away. She wiped her hands on a nearby tea towel and circled the bench, tugging him into her arms. The height difference made it awkward, and Riley didn’t care. He never felt safer than he did in her arms.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Do I need to get out my stern face? Because I will. I even got it out yesterday, so it’s warmed up. One word: Lucas. Actually, two words. Lucas and Danny. No, wait, three words: Lucas, Danny, and Kellan. I tried to convince your brother to hire someone to finish his house, or heaven forbid, someone to help him at his shop. You know what he did? Hepatted me on the head and said not to worry so much. He’s lucky I didn’t smack him with the wooden spoon.”

Riley pulled her in closer, breathing in her familiar scent. “That was four words.” More than that, actually, but the initial sentence had been four. Semantics mattered; Sebastian would agree with him.

“The word ‘and’ doesn’t count.” She pulled back and cupped his face. “Are you hungry? Food won’t be long, your father’s frying it up now. Sit down. Some juice?”

Riley let himself be led to the table, easily sinking into the chair she pulled out for him. It felt like he’d gone back in time to weekend breakfasts. Minus the chaos of all the Sinclair brothers.

“Do you—” He cut off and splayed his hands over the table. He accepted the glass Theresa handed to him, curling a palm around it. “When you adopted me, was it… did you know them?”

“Your biological parents, you mean?” Theresa asked. “We didn’tknowthem in terms of having been acquainted before the adoption. Why do you ask?”

He understood her confusion. It’d been a long time since he’d had any questions. He’d put it all behind him as a teenager and hadn’t thought about it in over a decade. There’d been no point. It was a part of his life that had nothing to do with him and didn’t matter. He’d been days old when Theresa and Simon had taken him home. Knowing wouldn’t have changed anything about that—and he didn’t want it to—so he’d closed the door firmly behind himself. Dwelling on it meant that he cared, and he didn’t.

Except that now he had information he’d never wanted, and itdidchange things even if he wished it didn’t.

“And after that? Did you see them again?”Did you know I had a sister?Could he ask that? Did hewantto? What if they’d known and kept it from him?

“Not since the day I had you in my arms, and we took you home. Honey, what is this about? Do you want us to find themfor you? We still have their names; I’m sure it wouldn’t take much.”

Riley frowned at her. “You wouldn’t care if I did?”

“I would never deny you the opportunity to find out more about where you came from.”

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