Page 83 of Not A Chance

This moment was about as surreal as they came.

Having not set foot once in the Yao-Miller house since that disaster of a Christmas morning six years ago, walking toward the front door of Theo’s family home felt like a pretty convincing out-of-body experience or hallucination.

Theo carried both our carry-on bags over the opposite shoulder to his hand that was currently holding mine as we walked from our rental car up their front walkway. Giz sniffed along the edge of the grass daintily, not pulling on her leash to actually step on the lawn, though. Maybe she’d forgotten the feel of grass under her paws due to living in the heart of Toronto, where concrete abounded.

Theo gave my hand a quick squeeze. “You good?” I pushed my sunglasses—god, it was good to see the sun again—up on top of my head so that he could see my eyes; our gazes locked on each other.

“Better than I thought I would be, that’s for sure. It helps to have Emery on our team. And definitely less nervous than the last Christmas I was here.” I winked, trying to let him know that therewere no hard feelings anymore. The past was the past. We had come so far in the last several months, and this was another step forward into the life we were living now.

He brought our hands up to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “I’m sorry again that I hurt you back then.”

Unable to wave away any guilt that he still might be harboring—what with him holding on to my one hand and Giz’s leash in the other—I settled for bumping my shoulder into his.

“Seriously, goalie. Even if it didn’t feel like it at the time, it was bad timing for both of us.” I gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s much better to be here with you now.”

Theo exhaled deeply, his shoulders relaxing. “Thank you, baby,” he replied, his tone sounding less tense.

We’d reached the front door. Theo put down our bags to pull his house keys from his jeans pocket when the door flew open before he could fish them out.

In front of us stood a man I was 90 percent sure was Theo’s brother Chase. There was always a chance it was Liam; a lone freckle under one helped me tell them apart. Either way, he was dressed as…

“Are you the flipping Elf on the Shelf?” Theo choked out, laughing. “Where in the hell did you get an adult-sized version ofthat?”

“Good to see you, bruh. I’d hug you, but you know, can’t get dog fur on the outfit, huh?” Chase brushed imaginary lint off both of his shoulders. “And Abbie hooked me up. Ever since she went to Anime Expo this year, she’s been going on and on about these custom costumes online.”

“Gizmo’s basically hairless, you dipshit.” Theo let go of my hand to drag his brother into a tight hug, wrapping his arms around Chase and squeezing hard if the wheezing sounds coming out of Chase were any indication. “Good to see you, man.” Theo’s voicewas rough with emotion.

“Hey, Chase,” I said and waved with my now free hand. I was secretly pleased that I could still tell them apart.

“Well, well, well. Tell me, Indie. What kind of dirt does Theo have on you that he’s conned you into pretending to be his girlfriend?” Chase moved forward out of the threshold, turning his body away from Theo as much as possible, and dropped his voice. “I told you if you needed help burying a body, Liam and I were there for you. No need to involve this guy.” He jerked his thumb at Theo.

From the ground, Gizmo let out her little pre-bark “rrrruff” sound. I bent down and scooped her up in my arms.

Chase, being Chase, bent down to make eye contact with my dog and held out his right hand as if Giz were a human to shake hands with. “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Gizmo Layne-Yao-Miller. Auntie Emery tells me I’m your new uncle.” He gave me and Theo a shit-disturber-type grin that let us know he was just warming up with his typical hijinks.

Gizmo batted his fingers away with her paw.

Theo didn’t miss a beat. Instead of giving Chase the reaction he was clearly after, Theo picked up his line of conversation as if he expected that everyone already knew that we were seeing each other rather than the surprise I was feeling.

Hell, with this family, maybe it was to be suspected. They were all too gorgeously innocent-looking that they could crack even the toughest person wide open. It made for a wonderful combination of being exasperated that you’d spilled your secrets while simultaneously being charmed enough to forget to be mad about it.

Big business should bottle this kind of charisma.

Even at twenty-seven, Chase’s innocence game was still as strong as when we were kids. It must have been genetic since they couldall bend others to their will. Theo not getting ruffled by his words seemed to put Chase out.

“Fineeeeee. Be that way.” Chase turned around quickly, righting the elf hat on his head that had shifted when he leaned toward Gizmo. He lifted his arm and waved us in.

“Come in. Come in. I don’t know why you insisted on standing on the porch for so long.” As if he wasn’t the one who’d accosted us before we could set foot inside the house.

“Liam!” Chase bellowed as he rounded the corner of the foyer that led deeper into the house.

“Ugh. What’s happening? I just woke up,” a muffled voice answered him from somewhere inside.

“It’s good to see some things don’t change,” Theo said quietly. He had a soft, fond smile on his face. It was though a layer of stress had just fallen off him. He shifted to give me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Are you ready for this?”

Was I ready to be back in the only place I’d ever felt truly at home? “Absolutely.” I stood on my tiptoes to brush my lips over his.

At the same time, I was afraid of letting myself be too happy, though. My past experiences had conditioned me to not expect anything from anyone. So entering one of my favorite places in the world, after six years away, had me feeling vulnerable in more ways than one.

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