Taking On The Billionaire (Redhawk Reunion #1) - Robin Covington Page 0,42
it out.”
Adam ventured a suggestion, uneasily offering a tentative connection to this stranger. “Maybe we could go out together. I’m not much of a hiker but I think I can keep up.”
“You’re a runner, a triathlete. I’m sure you can keep up,” Roan said, his grin genuine and startlingly like his own. He turned toward Sarina, his twin, obviously trying to bring her into the conversation. They’d been separated from each other, a cut that had to run deep but you’d never know it from his brother’s demeanor. Adam envied his ease. Roan might be faking it but his charm was working on him. Not so much with their sister from the shuttered look on her face. “What about you, Sarina? Might be fun.”
“I don’t hike. We didn’t have time for that when I was growing up and even less when I was in the army,” she said. Her tone didn’t say the conversation was closed but nothing about it kept the ball rolling.
He mentally flipped through the report Tess had given him about his sister. She’d had it the worst of all of them: bad adoptive family, every reason to the get the hell out as soon as she could. And she’d been lucky to get out. Been lucky to last long enough to get out. Adam’s gut tightened again at the recollection of facts that he could not change and he turned back to the grill, flipping the steaks and controlling what he could.
Adam plated the New York strips and took them over to the table, placing one in front of each of his guests. He grabbed the salad out of the fridge and transferred it and the various dressings to the table as well. It wasn’t a four-course meal but it would give them all something to do with their hands and mouths.
They ate in silence for a few moments only occasionally making noises about how good it was. Sarina was markedly silent, pushing her food around her plate in an unconvincing show of eating. Adam had known this wasn’t going to be easy but this barely sheathed hostility was impossible to penetrate and frustrating as hell. He wasn’t the enemy but her cold shoulder made him feel like he was.
Even with Roan and Tess carrying the conversational load, they were done quickly and left staring at each other across the table as the evening slid into twilight. Tess reached out under the table, the weight of her hand on his leg, and the smile she offered centered him and his thoughts.
“Tess tells me that we have a mutual love of motorcycles. Harleys in particular.” Adam looked at his brother and sister, relieved to see Roan’s enthusiastic agreement and resigned to Sarina’s exasperated nod. She didn’t roll her eyes but it was pretty close.
He hadn’t come this far, hadn’t invested this much blood, sweat, money and tears into finding his brother and sister to watch his dreams die a quick and dirty death at this table. It was his responsibility to bring this family back together and he’d do everything in his power to make it happen.
“Our father, he loved riding a motorcycle.” Adam dug into his memories, hoping to find something they could build a future on. “We had this carport attached to the house and he would spend hours out there, restoring this old Harley he’d bartered off a guy passing through the Qualla Boundary. Dad was good with his hands, could fix almost anything, and I’d sit with him and hand off the tools he needed.”
Adam shook his head, surprised at his own memories. It had been years since he’d recalled that moment and he could smell the scent of grease and sunshine and the neighbors cooking sausages on a grill in their yard. How had he forgotten it?
Without thinking, he reached down and took Tess’s hand in his own, comforted by the way her warmth infused his entire body with peace and assurance that this was worth it. What was happening at this table was important. And he wasn’t just thinking about his brother and sister.
Tess was important and he knew the real reason he wanted her here. He wanted her to be a part of this future, his future.
“I remember when he finally finished the work on his bike and it needed a paint job in the worst way but it wouldn’t keep him from firing it up and taking it for a ride.” He smiled wider as the memory came more