Page 353 of Lodestar

“Water will be fine, thank you.”

“It’s good to see you again, Star,” Camille greeted. “We didn’t get the chance to talk last week.”

That was being polite. ‘Hello’ and ‘goodbye’ weren’t my idea of sterling conversation.

Inessa straightened up from her seat and moved toward me. She placed her hands on my shoulders and air-kissed my cheeks. Because I wasn’t expecting it, I allowed her to follow through with it.

As for Aela, she just dipped her chin at me while she nursed baby Cameron.

“You know Savannah, Conor tells me,” Lena stated as she passed me a glass of water.

“Practically in the biblical sense.”

Savannah, who’d been on the brink of drinking some coffee, sprayed out what she’d swallowed.

Inessa, Camille, and Aela gaped at me while I just smiled as I sipped my own drink.

“Shut up,” Vana rasped.

“I saw plenty on those tour buses.” I whistled under my breath. “Wild times.”

“What kind of wild times?”

“Shut up,” Vana hissed at me this time when she saw I was going to answer Aidan’s question.

Her hand clapped over my mouth as I studied the brothers who either made a habit of joining their spouses in the kitchen or who were coming to watch me and Lena meet.

“It’s a rumor, but they saynoxxed upwas inspired by the parties on the tour buses during the late nineties,” Conor drawled.

“Is that an album?” Inessa asked him, and he immediately groaned.

“I need to do something about your music education, Inessa, but yes. It’s one of their most renowned albums.”

“Triple platinum before the year was out,” I agreed. “Only God knows what it is now, and itisa rumor, but it’s definitely true.”

Brennan cleared his throat. “I’m not as big a fan as Conor but I remember that one song, “Disgusted”? It was about someone doing coke…”

I cut Lena a look and hid a smirk. “They used to pour it down the groupies’ ass cracks and they’d either lick it up or sniff it up.”

Inessa eeeewed while everyone else chuckled. Apart from Lena who’d gone beet red.

“Where is everyone?”

“In here, Paddy,” Aidan called out.

Ah, the prodigal brother returned.

He was, I saw, a diluted Aidan Sr. and I didn’t mean that as an insult either.

Though plump around the middle, his suit worked wonders for hiding it. He was clean-shaven, a little sparse on top, but his eyes were kind and his smile was genuine as he bustled inside the massive kitchen.

“What’s everyone doing in here?” he questioned as Savannah hissed at me:

"I'll get you back for that."

I just drank my water.

“We’re watching the showdown?—”

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