Page 10 of Be The One

“Exactly,” Kenan said from my side.

Of late, he’d been on my case for working too much. Maybe it was because I was so unsettled or perhaps it was because my panties were drenched with arousal from sitting beside him, but irritation flashed inside. My voice sounded snappy when I replied, “I don’t work too much.” Blake’s gaze met mine, his brow furrowing slightly in concern. I shifted in my seat, striving for a lighter tone. “I like to work, and I enjoy my job.”

“And we appreciate everything you do,” Rhys said smoothly. “I’m just saying it would be good for you to go.”

I managed to leave soon, making up a fabricated call. I practically ran from the coffee shop back to my office, almost slamming the door behind me and leaning against it.

“What am I going to do?” I whispered out loud.

ChapterEight

KENAN

“I love the idea of a group ferry trip!” McKenna enthused. She looked over at me expectantly.

I managed to nod along. “It’s a great idea. Except how do we pull that off?”

“I think we reserve a block of rooms on one of the ferries to Whittier and set up rental cars from there to Willow Brook. The whole family can go, along with some of the staff. People will love it.” My sister rested her hands on her hips as she eyed me expectantly.

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

Ididthink it was a great idea. Yet I sensed McKenna was picking up that I was off kilter. I’d felt unsettled and disconcerted ever since that kiss.Thatkiss. Now that Rhys had gone and suggested that Quinn come along on this trip, what was a great idea had me seriously on edge.

McKenna lifted her arms, quickly tightening her ponytail. Her dark blond hair swung as she moved. Her arms fell, and she waggled her brows at me, her gray eyes widening with curiosity. “What’s up with you lately?”

“Nothing,” I replied quickly.

Clearly too quickly because my sister’s eyes narrowed. “Oh,somethingis up.”

“Nothing is going on,” I ground out.

“Ever since you came back from Seattle, you’ve just been…” She drummed her fingertips on the counter. “Off.”

I briefly contemplated confiding in McKenna but dismissed it as fast as I considered it. McKenna had opinions abouteverything. I loved her, but she would beallover this situation with Quinn and me.

“I’ve just been tired,” I finally said. “And, you know, it’s that time of year.”

Her gaze sobered instantly. “I know.” She let out a little sigh.

I was referring to the anniversary of our eldest brother’s death. Jake died during his senior year in college from alcohol poisoning at a college holiday party.

We all missed him. I hadn’t brought that up just to derail McKenna from wondering about me. Because the daywascoming, and it always hovered over us as a family. There’d been the tragedy of his death and then the news over two years ago about our grandfather sexually abusing him, a detail our cousin Archer had carried alone for years.

We knew that others from the outside thought our family was lucky. I would never discount the privileges we had from wealth. Even if it was wealth earned through hard work and fairly new, so we weren’t assholes and entitled. Most of the town knew that after our father died and our grandparents stepped in to help raise us that our grandfather had been an abusive asshole, verbally and physically, to our oldest brothers. We hadn’t known the true depths of the secrets that Jake had carried.

Going through what we did had tightened the bonds between us seven surviving siblings. To this day, we joked about the size of our family. But with two sets of twins, it just worked out that way. Our parents wanted a big family. Here we all were, still close and banged up, but we were stronger for what we’d been through. Our brother Wyatt of the younger set of twins, Wyatt and Griffin, kept himself at a distance. I suspected Griffin knew why and maybe someday the rest of us would find out. With Jake gone, Rhys was the oldest, followed by Blake, then me and my twin, Adam, followed by Wyatt and Griffin, and then McKenna. She might’ve been the only sister and the youngest, but she was a force of nature. She was strong-willed, bordering on stubborn, opinionated, and super smart.

I loved her to pieces, but I wasn’t ready to have her voicing her opinion on Quinn. She’d fallen quiet. We were at the main offices in a break room.

McKenna lifted her eyes from the counter. “We’ll always have to remember that,” she said. “It makes me tired sometimes.”

“Same here.” I lifted my glass of water to take a swallow. “We loved him, and we always will.”

Blessedly, Blake came walking into the room, smiling over at us. “Hey there.” He plunked down in the chair beside where McKenna stood. “Why are you standing?” he asked.

“She likes to pace when she’s excited,” I quipped, using the interruption to lighten the moment.

McKenna narrowed her eyes but burst out laughing. “It’s true.”

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