Page 12 of Knotted Laces

But then Lex opened the door, his fingers wrapped around Frankie’s, both of them smiling and laughing, and…

Everything changed.

Ats closed down, and pulled back, her face a mask, her arms tense at her side. Her goodnight to us all had been terse before she was retreating, the soft curves that had made every nerve inmy body stand up in rigid attention gone as she hurried down my front walkway, got in her car, and left.

“Grr,” Joan rumbles in displeasure.

“You like it,” I counter and keep scratching.

A narrow-eyed glare but she deigns to allow me to continue touching her.

“See?” I press.

She makes a halfhearted attempt at swatting at me but settles in and closes her eyes again.

Chrissy giggles. “Who would have thought hot”—she gives me a teasing wink—”andpersistent hockey players could be felled by grumpy felines?”

“You?”

We both turn our heads at the sound of Rome’s teasing voice, watch as he prowls into the room, expertly navigating cat toys and water dishes and litter boxes until he reaches Chrissy’s side.

“That’s true,” she says lightly, lifting her head slightly, instinctively knowing what he’s going to do next—bend down and kiss her.

I feel that in my gut, feel it settle right alongside the jealousy that’s been eating at my soul.

My parents and their happy marriage mean there’s much to live up to. And my siblings have taken on the mantle. First, my sister, Soph, met Rob. And then my brothers fell one by one byone—Chance and Carter, Caleb and Connor, and Lex. EvenLex—self-proclaimed bachelor who had no interest in settling down—ever—had met his match.

And Rome with the fucking owner’s daughter.

And King with Jean-Michel’s all-but adopted one.

And me…

Who’s in love with a woman who’s in love with my brother, but who is also too good of a person to try to interfere in arelationship that makes him happy, so she moved across the country and?—

I bite back a sigh, know I need to get over this.

Athena is a woman who barely looks at me, who hardly acknowledges my presence, who?—

Hugged me for once.

Didn’t just accept the affection that my family and I doled out, but actuallyinitiatedthe move.

Unfathomable.

Maybe it’s the California air turning hard-assed Ats into a hippie extraordinaire, and now Free Love and Athena Phillips go hand in hand.

Right.

That’slikely.

I must have moved or breathed wrong or laughed silently at my dumbass internal dialogue because Joan rumbles her displeasure at me. “Chill, little battle cat,” I mutter, carefully scratching her beneath her fuzzy chin. “I’ll try to breathe less.”

Rome chuckles as he sprawls on the floor next to his woman, not flinching when the movement rouses some of the kittens and they start to claw their way up his body. I wince in solidarity, having spent most of the evening playing pin cushion to their tiny, needle-like claws, but Rome doesn’t seem to notice?—

Except when one crawls up the insides of his thigh.

“Easy, little fluffball” he tells the kitten, “I still need those parts.”

---