the kids?”
I really didn’t like his wife, but I adored my niece and nephew. Theo appeared to tense before he waved me off. “She wasn’t feeling good, so she and the kids stayed home. Anyway, I gotta run so I can help with them so she can rest.”
Though I smelled bullshit, I let it slide. After all, I didn’t want to bring the conversation back to me.
We all stood from the table, and I went with my brothers to the door to say goodbye.
“See ya later, squirt,” Caleb said, using my childhood nickname. He knew I hated it, and that’s exactly why he did it. With one last hug, he walked out to his car.
“You know we’re only looking out for you, right?” asked Theo with a furrowed brow. He’d paused in the doorway.
“Yes. I know.” I sighed, resigned to the fact that I’d likely be the baby sister for the rest of my life.
He enveloped me in a huge hug, then wandered outside. Diego and Jake both hugged me together. “We love you, little sis,” said Diego. “That’s the only reason we worry.”
A reluctant smile crept across my face.
“You planning on seeing this guy again? Cuz if you are, we’re going to need to meet him,” added Jake with an evil little grin. I snorted out a laugh.
“Unlikely,” I said as I shook my head with a rueful tip of my lips. The thought of my brothers meeting up with the biker I’d hooked up with last night was not a welcome one. Poor Alex might be tough and have a gang of badass-looking members, but my brothers were a little crazy.
“Damn, I was hoping to put the fear of God in him.” Diego cracked his knuckles, and I gave him a push out the open door as he chuckled. Diego was a six-foot-four beast of a guy. He’d inherited my father’s lighter hair, which was hilarious considering my mother gave him a Spanish name. Then again, her mother was a blonde, born and raised in Spain. The dark hair she’d passed on to me came from her father.
That left me and Jake standing alone in the foyer. Only five and a half minutes apart in age, we were extremely close. Hell, if he weren’t a guy, people might think we were identical. Same dark hair, same blue eyes, same nose, arch of our brows, everything. He’d stayed local and gone to UT, while I’d gone hours away.
“It’s good to have you home.” He got serious, and my heart gave a little lurch. Jake was rarely sentimental unless it was only the two of us.
“It’s actually good to be home. I’ve missed you all.”
“You could’ve come home over the summers, you know.” He crossed his arms in front of him and tried to look intimidating.
“Mmmmm,” I drew out. As the youngest and only girl, my parents helicoptered me into the ground. I’d stayed away for a reason. Not that I’d never come home to visit, but the occasions were rare.
“We should hang out next weekend. You could come over to my place and we could chill. Watch the game.” Jake was a big baseball fan. He’d actually had aspirations of playing professionally until he blew out his shoulder in college.
“Maybe,” I said with a teasing shrug.
“You’ll be there.” His smug expression had me rolling my eyes. There was no way I was admitting he was right. Even though I wasn’t big on sports, I’d jump on the opportunity to spend the day with him, and he knew it. I really had missed him, and I’d hated being away from him.
“Get out of here. Don’t you have something to do?” I laughed.
“Or someone,” he teased.
“Ew!” I wrinkled my nose. Then I pushed him playfully out the door and closed it. He shoved his face against the rippled glass pane and made a face. Unable to help myself, I laughed and shook my head at his antics.
In the sudden quiet, I wrapped my arms around my waist and got lost in my thoughts.
“Sydney?” I heard my uncle call from the dining room.
“Yeah?” I replied and moved toward where he was waiting. He glanced over his shoulder out to the patio, then back to me.
“I happen to know that they are looking for an assistant to the fundraising coordinator at work. You used to help your mother a lot with her charities, so I thought it might be right up your alley. I could put in a good word, and the job