Page 69 of Restrained

“I can take anything thrown at me.” Hayden’s eyes lock on my little brother’s. “Especially for her.” He looks at Lincoln. “My mother was awful. You being with Penelope, I'm sure she’s told you stories. Since she was in foster care, I'm certain our mother was the same with her. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know her or her to know me.”

“So, you lied,” Asher states simply.

“I did.” Hayden’s eyes turn to me.

“I’m glad you did it that way.” Everyone at the table is quiet, but I don’t care if they hear this conversation or not. “If you’d have knocked on their door and told them you were her brother, that could have been it. She may have shut you out forever, and I wouldn’t have gotten to know you.”

Asher groans and I look to him. “Who the hell are you?”

“Can you please not teach Baz any more fun words?” Vivienne speaks up, her back straight, but she isn’t looking at Asher. I don’t think she really can yet.

Asher smiles down at Baz, softening only for him. “Sorry buddy. That’s a ‘no no’ word.” Baz just goes on about his dinner, ignoring the boring adults, but then Asher’s anger comes back to me. “You’re saying you are totally fine with him lying? Getting into your pants and then revealing this huge secret after the fact?”

“Asher,” My mom sounds exhausted.

But I’m going to handle him. “He didn’t lie. He hired us for a job. One we were capable of handling. He had every right to get to know her.”

“By lying,” Linc adds.

“Are you still lying?” Asher asks, taking a drink of a beer he doesn’t need.

“No,” Hayden answers quickly and firmly. “Everything is out in the open.”

“I believe you.” I smile at him.

I smile at my mother when I hear her voice. “So do I. Not everything is black and white in this world, boys.”

“Peas are green.” We all turn to Baz, who seems to have tuned in. He looks up at Asher. “I still don’t like peas, Uncle Asher.”

I see Hayden grin and feel him relax next to me as I smile at Baz. Asher laughs, mussing his hair. “I don’t either, buddy. Not at all.”

Vivienne is still extremely tense and takes a bite of peas. I think Lincoln is trying to help when he looks at Ash. “I think we’re supposed to encourage him to eat his peas.”

Oh great. Here we go. Why the hell can’t we just have a normal dinner without these two trying to tear each other apart?

Asher’s smileseemshappy, but you never know with him. It’s usually deadly. He tilts his head and looks at Linc, pretending to talk to Baz, when he’s really talking to Lincoln. “Uncle Linc loves to eatP. I bet he could all night.”

I cringe and glare at Ash as he uses Penelope’s nickname in a crude wordplay. Linc growls, “Damn straight. Every night.”

Of course, Baz doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, just scrunching his little nose, thinking Ash is talking about the vegetable he despises. “Yuck.”

“Yuck is right,” my mother says.

I look between my brothers. “Really? Our mother is here.” I nod to Hayden and Penelope’s brother.”

“Her maybe brother,” Asher is quick to add, tipping the beer in his direction.

Hayden doesn’t take the bait, and my mother clears her throat. “Okay. Subject change.” She turns to Asher. “How long are you staying?”

Baz’s little head turns to Asher. “Always.”

Shit. Bad subject, and my mother flinches, knowing her mistake.

Asher looks down at Baz, ruffling his hair. “You know I have to go back to Kansas soon.”

Baz shakes his head, and I feel horrible. “No. You stay with me. Don’t go.”

Vivienne and Asher’s eyes meet briefly as she places a hand on his little arm. “He’ll call you, sweetie.”

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