ones, so for the memories alone, this place will always be magic to me.
I smile at the hostess as she apologizes for the wait and leads me to our regular table in the back, where the large bay windows offer a spectacular view of the lake. It’s pretty in the day, but in the evening when it’s lit up by the fairy lights that cover the trees circling the water, it’s stunning.
“You look like shit,” Tate says as he stands to greet me when the hostess disappears.
At 6’4” and enough muscle to make grown men weep with jealousy, Tate draws the attention of every eye in the restaurant. As with all us siblings, his hair is jet black and his eyes are a rich deep brown, but where my eyes tend to sparkle with mischievousness, Tate’s scream back off or I will fuck you up.
“How you ever get laid with those social skills is beyond me,” I mutter when I reach him, walking straight into his open arms.
“I missed you, Raindrop,” he tells me, pulling back to study my face. “Okay, spill and don’t fucking tell me you’re okay when you’re clearly anything but.”
I collapse into the chair beside him and groan. “Owen asked me to keep this to myself while he digs, but I’m going to end up committing homicide if this guy doesn’t leave me alone,” I admit as he takes the seat beside mine.
“What guy? Your stalker? Did he send you something else? Dammit, Reign, why didn’t you call me?” He reels off question after question without giving me time to answer a single one.
“Slow your roll there, bro. No, I have not had any more gifts. Everything on that front has been quiet. As for who he is? Well, I have my suspicions, but Owen told me to keep my mouth shut.”
“Why the fuck would he do that? If he knows who this is, I’ll throat punch the little asshat for not saying anything. Why would he—”
I pick up a roll from the center of the table and shove it in his mouth, effectively shutting him up.
“Stop, just stop. You’re giving me a headache. Garrett James asked me out, but he does not like to be told no. Now he isn’t giving up and it crossed my mind that he and my stalker might be the same. Especially when he made an off-hand comment which was a direct quote from the letter I received last month.”
“Garrett? As in Captain Garrett James? Fuck, Reign, are you sure?” Tate asks, stunned.
“Am I sure he’s into me? Yes, unfortunately. Am I sure he’s my stalker? No, but that’s what my gut is telling me,” I admit, flagging down the waitress closest to our table.
“I’ll have a Coke, please,” I tell her as my brother orders water. We wait for her to leave before continuing.
“Owen is doing some digging, you say?” he asks, not taking his eyes from mine.
“That’s what he said, but I’ve barely spoken to him since he crashed at my place. Can we just order steak and talk about something else for a bit? I swear I’ll fill you in on all the details later, but I haven’t seen you in ages and I don’t want this shit to ruin our evening,” I beg.
He looks like he wants to argue, but he must see how close I am to the end of my rope because he relents eventually and changes the subject. “So you have a new job? What happened to the other garage you were working at, and how come I never hear about this shit until weeks later?” he grumbles, biting into a roll.
“It just didn’t work out,” I fib. There was a reason my dad and I didn’t tell him. Handsy guy would be hands-free guy by the time Tate finished with him. Nobody touches his baby sister.
“I love where I am though. The guys are great and Derek is a hoot, never treating me as less than the others because I have boobs,” I admit.
“Lalalaaa, don’t wanna hear about that.” Tate glares at me.
I laugh. “What, my boobs? Damn, what did they do to offend you?”
“You having boobs to begin with offends me. Why couldn’t you just stop growing before you hit puberty? I swear the amount of punches I’ve thrown since they grew in is staggering. Some guys are such perverts,” he complains as a woman in a skintight red wrap dress walks past our table. Tate’s eyes track her ass until