Page 3 of Hung Up on the Hacker

“Come play with me!” Maddie demanded.

“Homework first,” her mother ordered. “You only have one more worksheet left.”

As her niece’s bottom lip began to roll out, Hadley rushed to intervene. “Finish your homework, and I’ll give you a marker tattoo before dinner. Does that work for you?”

“Yeah!” When she squirmed, Hadley let her down, and she went racing off to the kitchen.

Cayla shook her head, a fond smile curving her lips. “Oh, to have that level of energy.”

“No kidding.” After the seven-hour drive, Hadley was dragging. She’d slept like shit last night, not in Cash’s bed. It annoyed her she’d gotten so comfortable there. She’d more or less moved in over the past couple of months, and now the tidy little studio apartment above her shop just wasn’t the same.

“Want coffee?”

“That would be awesome.”

Hadley trailed her sister-in-law into the kitchen and slid onto one of the barstools at the counter. “So, how is everybody?”

Cayla began puttering around, putting on a pot. “Busy as all get out, but good. I’m up to my eyeballs planning a bunch of holiday weddings. The guys are doing really well. They’re looking at expanding into some mail-order business after the first of the year.”

Hadley listened as she talked and concluded that Holt didn’t know yet and had said nothing to his wife. As an event planner, Cayla was too much a romantic not to comment on it if he had. Instead, she prattled on about married and domestic things, clearly content. It was so… normal. Or at least what Hadley imagined was normal. Her brother deserved as much of that as he could get.

A few minutes later, Cayla settled on the next stool, sliding over a mug. “Now, tell me everything about what’s going on with you.”

Well, that was a tall order.

Hadley opened her mouth, intent on bringing Cayla into her confidence and asking for some assistance in managing her brother.

“Done!” Maddie threw up her hands, as if completing math worksheets was a competitive sport. “Marker tattoos!”

Chickening out, Hadley swallowed the words. “Go get your markers, then.”

Maddie scampered out of the room, the golden-furred BB on her heels.

“I should’ve asked first. Are you okay if I draw all over her?”

Cayla grinned. “As long as you’re not using permanent ink.”

“I can work with that. You’re such a good mom. Maddie’s lucky to have you.” Certainly, Hadley’s own mother hadn’t won any awards for her parenting skills. She’d been an unavoidable cautionary tale.

“She’s a great kid.”

Feeling far too exposed under Cayla’s empathetic gaze, Hadley cleared her throat and deflected. “So, are you and Holt planning on giving me a new niece or nephew anytime soon?”

Her sister-in-law’s cheeks heated, her eyes darting to the doorway her daughter had just exited. “We’re working on it.”

It was Hadley’s turn to grin. Holt was happy and settled here. Family life suited him down to the ground, which had been a surprise to them both. But having the choice, rather than being forced into it, as he had at far too young an age when he’d taken on the job of raising her, made all the difference. Hadley loved the little family he’d stumbled into. Loved that they were hers now, too, because he’d made that choice. Family was everything to them both. The one they’d been born into hadn’t been worth a damn, so they’d made their own little unit.

Cash had been a part of that unit for so long, her memories of him went back almost as far as those of her brother. He’d been another protector, another playmate, another friend. Of course, once she’d hit adolescence, she’d had the world’s biggest crush on him. That was part and parcel of growing up. But she’d never imagined doing anything about it. Not until he’d strode into her shop earlier this year and asked her to design a half-sleeve tattoo to cover that magnificent shoulder and biceps. She’d all but drowned in lust the moment she’d laid eyes on him again. And—wonder of wonders—she’d seen the same reflected in his dark brown eyes.

They were explosive together. She’d known they would be. But she’d thought the heat would burn itself out once their curiosity was satisfied, which was how she’d convinced him not to talk to Holt straight out of the gate. She hadn’t meant for this to happen. Things had gotten out of hand and turned serious a lot faster than—well, she hadn’t expected them to turn serious at all. Neither of them had been looking for serious, and they’d both been very careful not to talk about what came next.

Until yesterday, when suddenly Cash had hit his limit and declared them on a “pause” until her brother could be informed. As if their intimate relationship was any of his business.

Not that they’d clarified a damned thing about that relationship, beyond the fact that they didn’t intend to break things off. Never mind that she’d stormed out of Cash’s apartment in a snit. He knew she’d be back. So did she. Which meant she had to suck it up to do the hard thing. Damn it.

Maddie came running back in, a pack of markers in her hand.

Carrying her coffee to the table, Hadley sat and helped the child roll up her sleeve. “What would you like, kiddo?”

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