Page 55 of Bossy Ex's Brother

Felix was the only one who was sitting apart from them, although he, too, seemed embroiled in the spectacle. He was the one to glance at me first when I walked in. I sent him a look of confusion, and he shrugged.

“He told us to shut up so we wouldn’t wake you,” he said, effectively announcing my presence in the room.

Luca then looked up at me, and his gaze hooked mine. There was a single electric moment we shared that sizzled in the air where there were a million feelings I couldn’t translate.

But then the moment was broken when Emmett yelled, “Take that, sucker! I won.”

TWENTY-TWO

LUCA

Jane’s youngest brother was a sore loser and an even worse winner.

But as he whooped around the room, crowing his victory to anyone who would listen, my attention was not on him. It was on his older sister, who was standing at the threshold looking so lost and confused that it made my heart ache.

I could tell by the dark rings around her eyes that she hadn’t slept as much as I wanted her to. I’d tried to keep the little hooligans as quiet as I could, but it was harder than it looked.

I tried scaring them into it at first.

The minute I heard the door unlocking, I sat on the sofa facing the door and put on my best mobster face.

The door was pushed open by who I assumed was the youngest brother, who had dirty blonde hair but an almost cherubic face. He wore glasses and would have been adorable if he didn’t have an expression of annoyance etched onto his face. He wasn’t looking at me yet.

“I told you not to drink that,” he was saying to someone as he entered. “And I also told you that you can’t be friends with Bobby Langley. He’s a total nerd, and you’ll be an outcast before you even reach middle school. Is that what you want?”

He was holding the hand of his little sister, who was the recipient of his diatribe. I instantly knew it was his little sister. She looked like Jane. The little girl was frowning up at her brother, her cheeks puffing out as she said, “But I like Bobby.”

Her brother sighed and rolled his eyes in a move far beyond his young age as if he was simply exasperated with his sister. “You can like as many people as you want, Angel. But it doesn’t mean you have to hang out with them or be seen with them. Do you even know who Bobby L’s mother is? Do you?”

Angela opened her mouth to say something else, but then she froze when she caught sight of me sitting in the living room.

So did her brother, for that matter.

I immediately dropped the mean mug, not wanting to terrify the two little children. Especially not the adorable girl with cheeks like a chipmunk.

They both gaped before the brother blurted out, “Who are you?”

“Luca,” I replied simply. “You must be Emmett.” He was exactly as his sister had described him, standing there like a thirty-year-old man trapped in a twelve-year-old’s body. My gaze slid back to the little girl who was staring up at me with beautiful blue eyes that were so much like her sister’s. She also had trademark doll features and a button nose, the only difference I could see being the deep dimples dug into her chipmunk cheeks. As her lips fell open and she gaped at me, I noticed one of her front teeth was also chipped.

“And this pretty little girl must be Angel,” I said, winking at her.

She blushed and scuffed her feet, a shy smile appearing on her lips.

“Um,” Emmet said, looking less than charmed. “No offense, but what are you doing in our living room?”

“I’m a friend of your sister’s,” I said. “She’s not feeling too well, so I’m taking care of her. There’s some food in the kitchen if you want something, but you gotta be quiet, alright? I don’t want to wake her up.”

Emmett’s eyes widened, and fear was palpable in them. “What’s wrong with Jane?”

I glanced back at the kid. I didn’t mean to scare him, but I also didn’t want to get into it, and I felt like Jane should be the one to tell her siblings about her condition if she chose to. “She’s fine. She just ate something bad at work, so she has an upset stomach. The doctor asked her to rest for a few hours. Don’t disturb her.”

“Sure,” Emmett said a little awkwardly, and then his stomach grumbled. “You said there was food, right? Because Jane usually has us order pizza when she can’t cook.”

He looked away slyly when he said it, and I knew he’d just told me a giant one. Jane was probably as anal with their diets as she was with most other things concerning her precious siblings.

Still, I shrugged,a little pizza here and there never killed anyone.“If you don’t want any of what’s in the kitchen, then you can get a pizza on me.”

“Okay, great,” he said, heading to the kitchen while looking distinctly more excited. Angel followed him reluctantly, her eyes still on me.

---