Page 76 of Crossing the Line
“He’s certainly one of the better ones,” Waverly agreed.
Madeline swooned against the counter. “What about Liam MacGill? He’s just too pretty to look at.”
Emmett looked on from the island with interest while Carol danced around the crowd in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on their meal.
Xavier did not like where this conversation was going. On set or not, Waverly kissing any other man did not sit well with him.
“Guys, I told you to make Waverly feel welcome, not interrogated.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep himself from putting them on Waverly’s shoulders like he wanted to do. “Why don’t you tell her a little bit about yourselves so she doesn’t think you’re completely insane?”
His mother shot him a knowing look with the arch of an eyebrow.
“Already done,” Madeline announced, giving the floor to Waverly with a dramatic wave of her upturned hand.
Waverly cleared her throat and began her recitation. “Chelsea is the middle child, and, as such, is often overlooked in favor of the prodigal son who can do no wrong.”
“Until he starts lying to his mother about weekend houseguests,” Carol reminded them. “Chels, you and Mad can battle it out for favorite tonight.”
Chelsea whooped in approval.
“Chelsea is twenty-five and works for a large information technology company as a network security administrator. She lives in Boulder and is dating—”
“You can skip that part,” Chelsea said, jumping in with a pointed look at Xavier.
“Who are you dating?” Xavier demanded.
“Madeline, or Mad, is twenty-one and finishing up a degree in environmental design at University of Colorado Boulder. She plays volleyball and plans to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Oregon to Washington after graduation.”
“You want to do what?” Xavier asked, incensed. His baby sister hiking alone through the wilderness was giving him heartburn.
“I need less testosterone in this room,” Carol said. “You two with the penises, get out.”
Emmett pulled two beers out of the fridge and jerked his head toward the deck. Xavier followed him.
“Dinner in ten,” Carol called after them.
Xavier accepted the beer his father handed over and they stood shoulder-to-shoulder facing the lake and trees. He marveled at his ability to relax here. Waverly was in the kitchen unsupervised—because his mother and sisters were no kind of supervision—and he was enjoying a cold beer with his father and not wearing a gun.
He wondered if it was his instincts that told him everyone was safe here or an ignorance based on the false sense of security home bred. Whatever it was, he knew with a mystic certainty that Ganim would never touch this place or anyone in it.
“So how much trouble is she in?” Emmett asked finally.
Xavier wondered when the excitement of celebrity would give way to making the connection to current events. “A good bit.”A good bit more than even he had realized.
“I Googled her,” his father said, looking out through the trees toward the lake. “A lot of results in the last twenty-four hours. A lot of results that mention you. Your mother is going to go ballistic when she sees the footage from last night.”
Xavier grimaced. “I’m surprised the girls haven’t shown it to her yet.”
“I don’t know if they’ve seen it. Chels picked Mad up on campus from a camping trip on her way in, and Chels was in the office until early morning today, thwarting some cyber-attack on their server.”
“I don’t know why she won’t come work for me,” Xavier sighed.
His father laughed. “Don’t you? Does Chels seem like the type to enjoy being the boss’s sister?”
“I’d treat her fairly,” Xavier protested.
“You’d protect her. It’s what you do. Why do you think they haven’t told you about any of their boyfriends in the last year?”
“I thought they weren’t dating!” Visions of boyfriends not vetted by him taunted Xavier.
