Page 33 of Unravel You

“Yeah, sure. I have to face him sometime.”

“Is it something I can help with?”

“It’s nothing. But thank you for offering. And again, sorry to barge in on you like that.” Her face turned bright red as she opened the door and ushered me out.

I strolled down the corridor toward the grand staircase. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the house had two wings that split up at the landing. “I’m going to need a tour of this place. How do you know where anything is?” I turned to face Ana, but she was gone. When I spun around, I fell into a bear hug.

“Sister.” A guy who looked exactly like Wesley picked me up.

“You must be Zack.” I laughed when he set me down.

Chapter9

The Referee Calls Unfair

Derek

Only Zack could get away with hugging a woman he didn’t know. I’d spent six months drinking coffee next to Valentina without saying a word. I’d been afraid I’d scare her away. At the time, that was the worst-case scenario. Honestly, it still was.

I stupidly assumed everyone would love Valentina and that she would love everyone back. Admittedly, only one person didn’t have the reaction I had expected. Mom and I really needed to have a talk about us. About where we stood after all this time. It’d been years now. What could I do to make her understand that I had to go my own way?

“Are you okay?” I asked Valentina.

Her cheeks turned red, but she didn’t try to get away from Zack. Instead, she slapped his shoulder as if they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while. She’d met Wesley, so she probably felt as though she already knew Zack. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those two were fire and ice.

“I’m sorry.” Zack put up his hands in surrender. “You ran into me. I was so happy to finally meet you that I went for it.”

“It’s fine. I’m okay with hugs.” Valentina brushed his arm again.

“You know when he first told me about you, I thought he’d met a real-life unicorn. I mean, look at his addled face. He can’t stop grinning.” Zack hooked his hands around my waist and picked me up off the floor a few inches.

“Boys, not in the house,” Mom yelled from the bottom of the stairs. “Take it outside.”

“Oh my God.” Valentina giggled into her hand.

“You know, she’s right. Let’s take it outside, old man.” Zack gestured toward Mom’s voice.

Sparring sounded like a good idea right about now. I glanced at Valentina in her pink dress. She looked sweet and tempting all at once. If Ana hadn’t barged into our room earlier…

“You know what? You’re on, baby Zack.” Zack was three years younger than me, but with all the brothers we had in between, it felt like we should have a bigger age gap.

I took Valentina’s hand in mine. “I’d rather be having a different kind of physical exercise right now. But.”

“What are you guys doing?” She asked.

“Come watch me beat my little brother.” I pulled her with me toward the kitchen.

“Wait. You have a boxing ring here too?” Valentina shook her head.

“Why not?” Wesley grabbed a bottle of bourbon as he followed us down to the basement level where the gym and wine cellar were.

Mom stayed in the kitchen, working on dinner. After what happened earlier, I wasn’t about to send Valentina in for round two. She’d be safer staying with me. Though I still needed to come up with a plan to get Mom to change her mind about us.

“I get the winner.” Wesley raised his hand. He was out of his swim trunks, and in workout clothes.

“Do you want to be the referee?” He winked at Valentina. “These assholes cheat.”

“Sure. What do I do?”

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