elbow to his gut and gaining a satisfying grunt from the knucklehead.
The loud shriek from my mother as she barreled down the hall toward the entryway made Kiera jump in surprise. “Let me look at you,” she said as she took Kiera’s hands in hers. “Oh, she is a beauty,” she offered just before pulling Kiera in for an exaggerated hug.
“She’s got you married with babies on the way in her mind right now,” Knox whispered as he stepped around me and walked toward the kitchen shaking his head.
“I’m so happy you’d could join us, honey,” she cooed, releasing Kiera from her embrace. “Ashton is so quiet about his life, so when Knox told me about you, I couldn’t wait to meet you.”
“It’s really nice to meet you too,” Kiera said as my mother scurried off with my girlfriend’s arm hooked in hers. Kiera looked back over her shoulder at me, and her worried expression from only moments ago had been replaced with one of joy.
It dawned on me that my mother hadn’t even acknowledged my presence, and on any other day that may have gotten a rise out of me, but not today. She’d given my girl a reason to smile, and that was a commodity that had been scarce lately.
I joined my family in the kitchen as they welcomed Kiera into their home. My father watched in admiration as my mother treated her as if she was part of our family. Knox only grew cockier as he walked past me every chance he got humming the wedding march. A few times I caught him holding his lower back with one hand while cradling his stomach, performing his best impression of a pregnant woman.
I ignored him, but instead of making him stop, his attempts to get a rise out of me only tripled when he moved in on Kiera and began showering her with even more attention than necessary. The fucker was laying it on thick, and I wasn’t the only one that noticed. My father stood back observing in silence, finding his son’s actions quite entertaining. My mother was so wrapped up in Kiera that she seemed completely oblivious to my brother’s antics.
They’d distracted me so much, I hadn’t noticed until now that my other brother, Beckett, was missing. “Where’s Beck?” I asked no one in particular.
My mother turned to face me with a look of confusion, as if she too had just realized he was nowhere to be found. She looked at my father as if hoping he knew the answer.
“He called about an hour ago and said he had something at work he needed to follow up on. Sounded important,” my father explained.
Beckett was a go-hard, give-it-your-all kind of guy, which suited his job as a private detective. It was also one of the biggest reasons he chose to remain a bachelor. His life just didn’t have room in it right now for a permanent female companion. But that didn’t stop my mother being pushy.
Beckett didn’t join us as the evening proceeded smoothly. I loved watching Kiera and my mother together. My mom was generally a happy person with an amazing personality, but Kiera’s presence seemed to bring out her happiness even further. And my sweet girl was more relaxed than I’d ever seen her. Her laughter wasn’t high and nervous, but the deep, truly amused kind that made her throw her head back and cover her stomach with her hand. At one point she laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes.
I wasn’t even jealous that Knox had been the one to make her laugh that hard. I was too mesmerized by her joy to care who brought it to the surface.
As the night went on, I fell just a little harder for the mysterious woman. I knew Kiera still held so much inside. I wanted more nights and days like this one, and more things that I’d never wanted before. And I wanted all those things with her.
As the night came to an end and Kiera and I stood at the door saying our good-byes, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out and saw a message from Beckett.
Beckett: We need to talk, bro. If your woman is who I think she is, you were right, she is hiding behind a false identity. Meet me at the office, I’ll be here.
KINSLEY
SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT.
When I told Ash I had an amazing night with his family, he just gave me a blank stare.