Page 26 of Family Bonds: Coy & Angel

Helena Bond came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her towel. “You are,” his mother said. “And alone. Why isn’t Angel with you? Don’t tell me she canceled.”

“She’ll be here soon,” he said. “I told her one.” He looked at his watch. “It’s only twelve thirty.”

His mother frowned. “And why didn’t you offer to pick her up?”

“Because it’s not a date,” he said. He was telling himself these things more and more in his head and couldn’t understand why.

No, he knew why.

He was feeling emotions for Angel that he knew weren’t right and had to cut the shit.

His mother rolled her eyes. “No one would think that.”

“What are you making? It smells good in here.”

“I just pulled the apple pie out of the oven.”

He ran his hand over his stomach. “Thank you,” he said, moving over to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I know you love me the most of the boys. I won’t tell Bode and Drew.”

His father walked out of his office and was laughing. “No comment,” Scott Bond said.

“If you got here earlier,” his mother said. “You could have helped me with the pie. I know how much you enjoy baking.”

He didn’t say that often. Coy did like it and his brothers busted his ass over it.

“But you’ll let me take some pie home anyway, right?”

“You know it,” his mother said. “How are things going with Angel? We haven’t had a chance to talk and now could be a good time before she gets here.”

“They are great,” he said. “I have more time than I know what to do with.”

“I doubt that,” his father said. “I still see you at the office later after it’s closed.”

“I’m finishing up my notes,” he said. “Angel too. I’m showing her things and teaching her about others. She’s doing great. I know the education she got which made her an easy hire.”

“Is that the only reason you hired her?” his father asked.

“No,” he said. “I don’t feel as if it’s a pity hire either, so don’t think that. I’m shocked she wanted to come to the island, but Spencer brought it up. I think it’s benefiting both of us. I’m not sure why everyone is so concerned or worried about her.”

His mother looked at his father. “Explain that.”

“You know about her heart condition and her surgery,” he said.

“We do,” his mother said. “But that was years ago. I thought she was perfectly fine.”

“She seems it to me. But everyone babies her. I don’t think her mother does as much, not from what I could see when they were at my house a few weeks ago.”

“I think a mother tends to ease things when she needs to,” his mother said.

His father snorted. “No. A father does with boys.”

“And a mother might with girls,” he said. “I understand what Mom is saying. I understand what Spencer is saying too, but Ioften wonder if the information he fed me for years was one-sided.”

“Of course it was,” his mother said. “Angel is his baby sister. Even if she hadn’t been born premature and had so many health issues early on and then again later as a child and teen, he’d still be protective of her. Just as I would have expected you and your brothers to be if your sister had survived.”

His mother rarely brought up the baby she’d lost prematurely.

“We would have been,” he said. “Which is why I understand too. My point is, she’s fine. It’s hard to draw that line between my new employee and my best friend’s sister.”

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