Page 5 of Winter Glam in Amsterdam

“Not that.” Adam rolls his eyes at us and shakes his head with an amused grin playing at his lips. “I had a bunch of shit to clear up, but I’m happy to tell you that I’ve left my work phone in my apartment, and for the next week, I’ll only be available for absolute emergencies. Real emergencies, like the company burning down.” Now his grin turns slightly more evil. “No distractions. We’re going to have plenty of time to spend with each other.”

“Why does that sound like a threat?” I narrow my eyes at him and start putting my stuff into the little bins for the security check.

“Not like it’s ever been a hardship to spend time with you,” I add, lying straight through my teeth. I like spending time with Adam alone, he’s a quiet fella, very focused on himself and his work. But add Jackson, our second-oldest brother to the mix? It’s made me contemplate running fast and far on more than one occasion.

“You and Jackson combined, though,” Reed continues, waving his head from side to side, and I bite back a chuckle as he voices my exact thoughts. “That’s another story.”

“It’s actually a story I wanted to talk to the two of you about,” Adam acknowledges with a nod as he walks through the metal detector without making it go off.

“Damn it, I wanted to slip him a penny,” Reed curses under his breath as he wrestles his belt from his pants and puts it into one of the trays.

I gently slap the back of his head. “Behave. It’s important to him. Don’t make him angry.”

“All right, all right,” my youngest brother assures me, then walks right through the gate himself, causing it to turn red and beep in that scary tone that goes right to your brain and hammers at it, making me flinch.

“Oh, shit,” he mutters, pulling his keys out of his pocket and throwing them at me. “I forgot.”

I shake my head at him, the irony not lost on me, biting my tongue to not rib him along the lines of ‘You don’t even need someone to slip you a penny.’ Instead, I throw his keys into a bin together with my electronics and walk through the gate myself. Thankfully, it remains silent, leaving me feeling like a proud preschooler getting his first A on a homework assignment.

Before I know it, we’ve been ushered to a car that’s bringing us to the jet in a hidden corner of the airport, where Adam’s pilot is already waiting. They greet each other like with broad smiles and a handshake like they’re the oldest of friends, while Reed and I merely lift our hands in a friendly greeting as we walk past the two chit-chatting to throw ourselves on our unofficially assigned seats.

“So, what’s this about?” Reed asks Adam once we’re in the air.

I’m just glad he didn’t throw up this time. Reed is prone to doing so during take-offs and landings, but he’s only looking a bit pale this time and slowly nursing his glass of water.

From what I gather, Jackson, my second oldest brother, is already in Amsterdam—figures with him living in London that we would meet up there. I’m just curious if he’s bringing his new girlfriend. We haven’t met her yet, hell, he hasn’t even introduced her to us yet officially. Adam’s run into her, but he’s keeping his mouth shut about her.

Well. Good on him for getting a girlfriend. I much prefer the company of women to be short-lived.

“This is about the fact that it’s been forever since we did something as a family,” Adam explains, getting up to retrieve a bottle of sparkling water from the little fridge we have at the back of the plane, right next to the bedroom.

“I beg to differ, we do plenty of gaming evenings as a family.” I can’t help but tease him. He shoots me a glare, fully wellknowing I’m poking a sensitive spot since he’s missed quite a few of those to live his newfound freedom or spend time with his girlfriend.

“The last one must have been the charity match,” Reed points out, ignoring the tension. Adam’s grimace when he mentions the match definitely helps to lighten the mood.

“Yeah,” Adam agrees with a deep sigh, “well, I couldn’t exactly come up with something like that from thin air just to spend some time with you.”

“I mean you could have,” Reed grumbles, but one narrow-eyed stare from Adam and he quickly shuts up.

“But why now?” I lift an eyebrow at him. It just doesn’t make any sense. Why did he spring this on us out of the blue?

“It’s just…” He sighs as he sits down again—a sigh so deep he might just have exhaled his soul. “I’ve had a talk with Jackson.”

Reed and I freeze, our wide eyes meeting as we stare at each other mouth agape. When did this happen?

“And you’re both still alive?” Reed asks, astonished, and I can’t help but nod along just as confused. “For real?”

“Yes,” Adam chuckles. “For real. And I promise you, he’s still alive.”

“I’m more amazed that you are,” I mumble and this time it’s Reed’s turn to nod along.

“Listen, don’t be too hard on Jackson,” Adam says with a sigh and twists his bottle open. “He obviously had some issues with me. And I had some with him. We’ve had a talk, and I hope things are looking up. That’s all I’ll say about our talk without him here.”

“Are they, though? Looking up?”

“Between him and me?” His gaze grows distant, until he suddenly shakes his head like he’s shaking off a dream. “I’d say so. But in other directions,” he crosses his arms in front of his chest, “I’m not so sure. I actually have a bone to pick with you.”

“With us?”

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