Page 120 of Silent Partner (Pine Falls 3)

Brant caught me staring and whispered, “Will you be my hide-and-go-seek partner tonight?”

He hadn’t said it quietly enough, because Gemma and Whitney both said, “Aunt Kinsley is going to be my partner.”

Brant faux grimaced.

“I am the favorite,” I teased him before turning to the girls. “Can Uncle Brant come with us too?”

They both thought for a second and in unison said, “Yes.”

“I guess I have to share,” Brant grumbled.

“They have early bedtimes,” I reminded him.

That earned me a kiss.

With the girls anxious to play, we started to clear the table. The pile of dishes made it look as if we had fed an army. Thankfully, with so many people, it didn’t take long to clean up, and soon Brant and I found ourselves with the cutest girls around in his back seat, strapped into their booster chairs. Looking back at them, I kept thinking that I couldn’t wait until the day I had my own kiddos in that back seat.

Since we were celebrating at the Hollands’ place this year, we’d decided to change the boundaries to Carrington Cove. The girls picked our restaurant as the first place to hide, so Brant pulled into the employee lot and stayed as close to the building as he could, in the hopes we wouldn’t be found by Ariana and Jonah, who were the seekers this go-around.

Brant and I turned to face the girls, who were eyeing us curiously.

“Are you in love with each other?” Whitney asked point-blank.

“Uh-huh,” I answered first.

“Are you okay with that?” Brant asked them.

“I am!” Gemma shouted.

Whitney tapped her lips and thought. “Are you going to bake cookies together?”

I had to press my lips together before I spat out a laugh. But I was able to quickly get out, “I’ll let Uncle Brant answer that.”

“You have to bake cookies together so you’ll be soooo happy,” Gemma said before Brant could answer.

Brant gave me a devilish smile. “Would it make you so happy to bake cookies with me?”

My cheeks started to burn, thinking about baking cookies with him. “That depends—are you a good cookie baker?” I playfully asked. I seriously had no doubt he would be.

“The best,” he said too sexily for our audience, even though they didn’t get any of it, thank goodness.

“Yay!” Gemma roared.

“So, you’re going to bake cookies together?” Whitney was relentless as always. “I want you to be happy.”

Brant wrapped his arms around me. “I plan to bake lots of cookies with Aunt Kinsley very soon.”

“How soon?” Whitney wasn’t going to let it go.

“That’s up to your aunt.” Brant kissed my cheek.

I liked that. I liked that very much. My life was up to me.

Chapter Thirty-Four

The month of December was blowing by with gale-force winds. I wasn’t sure when any of us would be able to catch our breath. The President had indeed requested an inquiry into what had happened two decades ago. And the press was in a feeding frenzy. Literally. Daily, the restaurant was full of reporters and their crews, using their mealtime to try to score an interview with Brant, and sometimes me. They were barking up the wrong tree there. I had no idea what to say. But as long as they paid their tabs and kept it respectful, I could handle it.

Brant was keeping more to his home office and his parents’ place, working on John’s defense strategy. It was kind of putting a damper on the holiday season, but we all knew this was coming, so we tried to make the best of it. Ariana was good at helping with that, keeping our tree decorating tradition alive by making us all custom ornaments. Dani and Brock used our tree decorating night to announce that they were having a boy. We were all overjoyed. It was the best news of the season. Well, that and the fact that Edward had to resign from his official White House role. And . . . it would seem that Jill was once again single. Apparently, her senator fiancé wasn’t too keen on Jill now that her dad was in the hot seat. Like fire hot. Edward had enemies coming out of the woodwork, spilling the beans on him. John hadn’t been his only blackmail victim. Even Jill’s ex-fiancé, Ronald Dallinger, had some dirt on him. That’s right, good old Edward had been trying to get Ronald to strong-arm some of his colleagues on the committee he was chair of. He’d used Jill to sweeten the pot. That made me want to vomit. And I’d admit, it made me feel a tad bit sad for the psycho. No wonder Jill was so messed up.

Meanwhile, I was trying to run a business, get my Christmas shopping done, and kiss Brant whenever humanly possible. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it. That was a lie; it was the best job around. I only wished it could ease some of the pain the Hollands were in. As much as they had known it was coming, I didn’t think it was something they could have prepared themselves for. People were questioning Sheridan’s honor, speculating on if she had known about her husband’s dealings. And even the good things John had done were being scrutinized. Specifically, the military family members who had lost loved ones due to the bill John got passed weren’t being all that kind toward John in their interviews. Not to say we blamed them. Even though John had personally helped each family, some of them wondered if this was a sick game to him and questioned his motives. Others were waiting to pass judgment because they admired him and were thankful for all he had done for them over the years.

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