Page 88 of Strangers in Love

“Well, all of my brothers and sisters, our parents, my niece, and my older brother’s girlfriend, so…” he paused, and I imagined him doing the mental math, “twenty.”

I let out a low whistle. “Do you rent out a hall or something?”

He laughed again, and I decided that it could quickly become one of my favorite sounds. I didn’t know his story or really much about him at all, but even my short time with him made me think that laughing wasn’t something he did very often, at least not since whatever had scarred him had happened. I also had the feeling that whatever had happened had been worse than just his own physical injuries.

“Nope. Just my parents’ house.”

“How does that work?” I asked.

“When Da and Mom got married, there were already ten of us kids. At the time, Mom and her kids were in San Jose, but she and Da wanted a fresh start in a new place of their own, so as soon as Da proposed, he got to work on having a house custom built for us in San Roman. Twelve bedrooms and four bathrooms, which ended up still not being enough after the others were born and the Gracens moved in.” He made an amused sound. “We added three more bedrooms and another bathroom less than a year later. The twins had to share.”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see it. “I can’t even imagine having that many people around all the time.”

“So you don’t have a big extended family?”

“No. Both my parents were only children, and they were older when I was born, so I don’t have any grandparents either.” It wasn’t until I said it that I realized how sad it sounded. “It’s always been just us four, but we have our own family traditions, like cooking together.”

“Cooking. Really?”

“I’m not sure if I should be offended at the insinuation that it’s a surprise I can cook,” I teased.

“Seems like there should be at least one thing you suck at,” he said. “Genius. Beautiful. Tough as hell. And now I find out you can cook too? Doesn’t seem fair.”

I liked teasing, flirting Eoin as much as I liked intense, brooding Eoin. Maybe now that we had everything about my kidnapping and the other hostages behind us, we could have a fresh start where we would both be able to show who we really were and not have any of it clouded by crazy external circumstances.

Fifty-Eight

Eoin

Alineand I had talked for nearly two hours on Thursday, then another hour yesterday, and it’d been surprisingly easy the whole time. Sure, there’d been a couple awkward silences at first, but after that, it’d been good. I honestly hadn’t been able to remember a time I’d talked so much, especially not to the same person. I was positive that I hadn’t talked to a woman I wasn’t related to for that long.

I also hadn’t been this nervous in a long time. Not like this. When I’d picked up a woman to fuck for the first time since the ambush, I hadn’t exactly been calm, but those nerves had been about my ability to perform. This was different. In some ways, it was almost like my first date ever.

Sure, I’d taken women out to eat, that sort of thing, but it’d always been leading up to getting them in bed. I mean, I’d gone from high school straight into the army. Being with a woman had always just been about sex. Yeah, I wanted Aline like that, but I wanted…more.

I’d never wanted more with anyone, and it was kinda freaking me out, but I was through being a coward. Justice wasn’t the only thing I owed to Leo and the others. Living a full life was another.

When I pulled up to the Merciers’ house, I was impressed. I’d known that Freedom and Aline’s family had money. Freedom hadn’t only been able to hire us, but Aline hadn’t thought twice about volunteering her parents to pay for the ransom for the other four people who’d been taken. It wasn’t the size of the house or the nice neighborhood that was surprising. More the style.

With how refined Aline and Freedom were and the fact that they did charity work, I’d thought they’d either have an elegant historical Victorian or some massive mansion that could house my family six times over. Instead, their home looked like a larger version of most any suburban house you could see on TV. Like one of those family dramas that took place in the Midwest where the star quarterback gets in trouble for cheating and his father has to have a heart-to-heart before letting him play in the big game.

I didn’t know if those sorts of shows were still on, but some of my siblings had loved them when we were growing up.

I parked next to a well-maintained sedan and made my way up the sidewalk, suddenly wishing I’d thought to bring flowers or something like that. I didn’t know if Aline liked flowers. In fact, I didn’t know much about what Aline liked outside of the bedroom. But that was the point of this, wasn’t it? To get to know her, to see if this connection was deeper than just two intense encounters after emotional situations.

I rang the doorbell and braced for meeting her parents or seeing Freedom for the first time since she’d warned me not to mess with Aline. When Aline opened the door, some of my tension left. It wouldn’t be quite as bad, seeing her family, if she was there from the start.

Except she didn’t invite me in, which threw me. I’d gotten the impression that Freedom wasn’t the only overprotective member of the family, but if her parents were okay with her going out with someone they’d never met, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought.

Not that I thought she should have to introduce me or anything. This was our first date. Technically. Maybe that was why she’d decided to come straight out. She didn’t want her parents knowing that we were more familiar with each other than we should have been, especially considering how we met and the little time we’d spent together.

Then she turned around and locked the door. “Freedom went back to Stanford, and my parents are out shopping.”

I wanted to ask if she’d agreed to go out with me because no one would be here to see us together, but I pushed the thought aside. I wasn’t going to let an assumption ruin the night before we’d even gotten started, and no matter how she answered the question, she’d probably be offended by me asking it. I would’ve been.

“Have you ever been to Firefly?” I asked as I opened the passenger door for her. “I haven’t been here long, so it’s all new to me.”

Her face lit up. “No, but I’ve always wanted to go.”

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