Page 18 of Breathless With Her

“I’m about to throw dirt at you, dear brother. But I don’t want to waste it.”

“You’re literally standing on a mound of it. I’m sure you can waste a little.”

“But this is my perfect dirt. My precious soil with its beautiful pH balance. I love you, my babies.”

She leaned down and patted the dirt pile. I met Zoey’s eyes, both of us pressing our lips together so we wouldn’t break out into laughter. Amelia was a character, all right. Oh, she probably didn’t always talk to her dirt like she was right now, but she liked to put on a show for me and the rest of the family. Mostly because she wanted to make sure everyone knew she was just fine.

After all, it was only the four of us now. Well, five if you included Dimitri’s woman, Thea. My brother’s wife was pretty damn amazing, far better than his first wife, and that meant we were a tight unit. We didn’t have anyone else. We hadn’t had anyone else even when people were raising us—or what passed for that in our world.

And so, Amelia needed to make sure that the world knew that she could survive on her own and prosper.

I knew that. All of us did.

I just wish there was a way to make sure Amelia knew thatweknew. Because no matter what we told her, she didn’t quite seem to believe us. But I guess that’s what being a little sister meant.

Always be on the lookout for the overprotective brother. And, hey, I happened to be a very good overprotective brother.

“So, what are you doing here, Zoey?” Amelia asked after we’d gone back to work. Zoey stood off to the side, not getting her hands dirty. That was actually a little unusual since she was typically one of the first people outside of Amelia to throw herself into a dirt pile and help out. But considering that she was wearing a cute little floral dress and apron, I had a feeling she had meetings and didn’t want to get dirty. After all, this was the second time I saw her today. Though I really did not want her to mention exactly where I had seen her before.

From the gleam in her eye, I had a feeling there would be no such luck.

Oh, good.

“Oh, I just wanted to come by and see you and gossip. But since the subject of my gossip is here…” she began.

“That means you’re not going to talk about it, right?” I put in quickly.

“Ooh, gossip about Devin?” Amelia asked. “One of my favorite kinds.”

“At least, it’s not about me,” Tobey said, grinning. “I mean, sorry, Devin. But it’s time.”

Amelia just laughed over at her best friend. I closed my eyes and groaned.

“Oh, fine.”

“Well, this is the second time I’ve seen Devin today,” Zoey began.

“Ooh, really? Where did you see him before?”

“At Erin’s. Picking up a cake.”

“For your friends Greg and Laney, right?” Amelia asked.

“Yep. Erin did a great job on the cake.”

“And from the way Devin was looking at her, that wasn’t the only thing he wanted her to frost.” The two girls laughed, and I met Tobey’s gaze.

“I don’t even know what that means. Shouldn’t I be the one frosting her?” I held up my hands. “No, I really do not want you to answer that question. Ever. Especially not in front of Amelia.”

“Thank you. Thank you for not asking about frosting in front of me. Ever. And now I can never have a cupcake again. What have you done?” my sister asked Zoey. “I love cupcakes, and you’ve ruined them for me.”

“Well, there are brownies and pies.”

“No, pies remind me of that movie,” Tobey put in, and I snorted.

“Yeah, I never did look at a warm apple pie the same way again,” I said with a grin as Tobey and I laughed, and the girls groaned.

“You’re a horrible person. Horrible.” Amelia put her dirty hands on her hips and glared. “Whatever shall I do without baked goods?”

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