Dance Around - Susi Hawke Page 0,4

know Morty is going to want our help with COME or hire us to kill some douchebag before we know it. Instead of feeling sorry for me or questioning my sanity or whatever else you guys are thinking, knock it off and think about your own mates. I'm taking a power nap. Wake me when we get to the plane."

1

Gil

Present Day…

After I led the brood through their morning drills, I passed the next activity—fighting in fur form—off to my brother Edgar and wandered inside.

I stopped in the kitchen for a handful of gingersnaps and a cup of tea before finding my way to the solarium.

My mother had been gone for more years than I cared to count, but it always felt like she was here. I felt her everywhere, but especially in this, her most personal of spaces.

Keeping her beloved plants alive took all of us, but we'd managed it. Imagining her puttering around deep in the foliage where I couldn’t see her was too easy.

Even now, I halfway expected to be scolded when I sat down at her favorite spot. The white wicker chair with its yellow gingham cushions would always be hers, though I'd unofficially claimed it years ago.

After setting my cup and saucer on the small table beside me, I propped my feet up on the low table always holding the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens. The lone difference between her tenure in this spot and mine was the subscriber name on the magazine label.

I never read the boring thing, although I knew for a fact many of my brothers did. I'd never commented on it; there was no need. Why should I have been the only one who found comfort in Mama's special space? At least they cared for the plants. I was gifted at many things, but horticulture wasn’t one of them. The greenery would’ve been yellow and withered within a week if it depended on me.

Working my jaw from side to side, I allowed myself one small sigh of frustration before biting off half a gingersnap. Three weeks had gone by, and I was still fighting to forget our scene in Spain. I'd always known things risked coming to a head on a job one day, but I’d nevertheless been caught off guard when it finally did.

I chomped the dry cookie and tried to focus on its tart deliciousness. Even if it didn't work, the sugar would give me a nice energy boost before I went and spent the afternoon punching things in the gym. If every bag held an imaginary photo of Dan Moreno’s face, no one else needed to know.

Why was my true mate such a dickhead? Ha. A question for the ages. I never understood why so many people wanted to meet their true mate when it was nothing but a curse for me.

My phone rang, the vibration startling me so badly I bit my tongue. Dammit. That hurt. I dug the blasted thing out of my pocket and harrumphed at Nash Moreno's name on the screen. There really was no escaping his family, was there?

Letting the call ring a few times, I straightened my posture and threw my hair over my shoulder for confidence. Not until I finally felt like my best self did I accept the call with a lively stream of chatter.

"Hello, Nash. Good to know you're still alive over on your secluded estate. How's my godson? Isaac sends me pictures all the time. Theo is getting cuter by the day, as impossible as it sounds when he is already completely adorable. How big is he now? It's hard to tell in the pics."

Nash's warm chuckle washed over me like sunshine, soothing some of the hurt areas remaining from my altercation with his brother. "How about you come over and see for yourself?" I started to refuse, but Nash kept talking rather than allowing me a word in edgewise. "I hate to put you out, but Isaac needs you."

I snorted at his underhanded trick. "Seriously? Are we using my affection for Isaac to get me over there? I don't know what your brother's told you, but I guarantee he's less interested than I am in any well-meant but ill-advised matchmaking attempts."

"Please. Do you honestly think Dan has said anything? Look up the word ‘taciturn,’ and you'll find his picture beside the definition." Nash paused for an awkward laugh before sighing heavily in my ear. "Look, I don't know what's going on with you and Dan, and