The Moth and the Flame (When Rivals Play #2) - B.B. Reid Page 0,118
didn’t bother to acknowledge our presence while Jamie kept going and disappeared from the kitchen.
“Thanks.” I reached for the coffee pot while she hopped up and grabbed two mugs from one of the cabinets. She handed me one and set the other on the counter.
“Where’s Lou?”
“Still sleeping,” I told her as I poured. That wasn’t entirely true, and I had no idea how I was going to fix it. Just as I finished filling my mug a thought came to me, and I poured coffee into the second mug. Grabbing both, I turned and found Ever struggling to stand. For some reason, he drank more than any of us last night. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Eventually,” Four answered with a roll of her eyes. “He’s just trying to make me feel bad for not putting out last night.” Taking his hand, she led him to the door. I was still watching them when Ever secretly grinned at me over his shoulder.
Shaking my head and wondering if I was actually starting to like the little shit, I started back for the guesthouse. In the family room, something small and black rushed between my legs making me stumble. The coffee that spilled burned my hand, so I quickly set the mugs down on the mantel and wiped my hands on my jeans. There was movement in the corner of my eye, and when I looked over, I saw a small black, blue-eyed lab staring back at me with his tongue hanging from his mouth.
“That’s not funny.”
He got excited and started running in circles as if to prove me wrong. I kneeled, and he ran up to me at full speed. The silver tag hanging from his blue collar caught my attention, so I lifted it.
“Jay D,” I read aloud. He barked as if to confirm, and I had to admit he was pretty adorable. That was when a light bulb went off, and I smiled at my new friend. “How would you like to help me cheer someone up?”
Before he could agree—or not because he was a damn dog, and I was being silly—I heard Four calling his name, and then she appeared a moment later.
“There you are!” she said to Jay D, who immediately charged her. Her attention shifted to me when he started sniffing the floor around her. “He’s not bothering you, is he? Ever must have kicked him out of his room when I wasn’t looking,” she grumbled.
I laughed at that as I wondered how the two of them could be opposite yet alike in so many ways. “Nah, he’s cool,” I assured her.
She nodded and knelt to scratch behind Jay D’s ears. I was reaching for the coffee mugs on the mantel when one of the photos caught my eye. Forgetting the coffee, I snatched the frame, nearly toppling the others, to study the picture of the trio closer. The rest of the room faded away as blood rushed to my head, making my ears ring. Were my eyes deceiving me? Had I gone insane? Or was I truly staring at a younger version of my father? He had a light in his eyes that I’d never before seen in him.
Four looked up, noticing my silence. I knew I should play off my interest as pure curiosity, but it was too late. She was already standing by my side, wearing a frown. “Are you okay?”
“I—” The rest of my words got stuck in my throat. Whatever they were.
Four gently took the frame from my hands and pointed to the man on the far right. “That’s Douglas, Jamie’s father.” I nodded once, seeing the resemblance easily. She then pointed to the man in the middle with light brown hair and stern blue eyes. “That’s Thomas.” She hesitated this time when she said, “Ever’s father.” My gaze was already fixated on the man to his right with dark hair, eyes that Lou would claim were only sometimes blue, and a cleft chin that, when last I saw him, he was hiding under a short beard. “And this,” Four said as her finger slid over to my father, “is Sean, Thomas’s best friend.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, and my next breath shuddered out of me.
Sean.
I’d only ever known him as Crow.
THE MANOR, AS FOUR CALLED it, was in an uproar. Today was Thanksgiving, and the many hired hands rushed back and forth in preparation for the guests arriving. Mr. Hunt, the head chef, and his team of cooks