Wrapped Up in You - Jill Shalvis Page 0,48
she had her answer.
He was no Boy Scout.
“Thanks for breakfast,” he said, and stuffed some cash into her tip jar before leaving.
When he was gone, she let out a long shaky breath and turned to eye the money. He’d left her twice as much as what she would’ve charged for the food he’d eaten.
Kel worked through lunch. There was a lot to do to get Caleb’s security systems in place and up and running, and eight days of the two weeks he had here were already gone.
Caleb had given him an office to use when he wasn’t onsite at any of the ten different projects he had going in the city. Kel was there now, neck deep in architecture and engineering plans, when a shadow fell across his desk.
Lifting his head, he found his sister.
Remy was bundled up and wearing one of those baby sling thingies, with Harper strapped onto the front of her, facing out. When she caught sight of Kel, she smiled a big gummy smile that allowed a long line of drool to escape as she began to bounce in excitement.
Heart. Melted.
“Hey, cutie,” he said, rising to his feet as she squirmed and wriggled. Coming around his desk, he bent to press a kiss to the top of her head.
“And what about me?” Remy asked, taking a seat with a sigh of relief.
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head as well, making her laugh.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, leaning back against his desk. She, Ethan, and Harper had come over to Caleb and Sadie’s every night he’d been there—except for last night when he hadn’t been home—so they’d had lots of time together. “Everything okay?”
She stroked a hand over Harper’s soft peach fuzz and smiled. “Everything’s great for me. I’m here about you.”
“Why?”
She sighed. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it. I know about Mom.”
Kel took a beat. “What?”
“I know that you ran into her at the diner where she’s working these days. She took the night shift there because it pays extra and they’re trying to save up to move a little closer to their only granddaughter.”
He blew out a breath. “I didn’t know that.”
“Of course you didn’t. Because you didn’t want to know. You know, she thinks you blame her for everything that’s ever gone wrong in our family.”
“What? Why would she even know to think that?”
“Because I was there when I told her.”
Kel scrubbed a hand over his face and then slid his hands into his pockets. It was that, or kill his sister.
“Look,” Remy said. “Mom wasn’t perfect.”
Kel rolled his eyes. He’d heard this speech before.
“But,” his sister went on. “She’s the only mom we’ve got. And she’s trying hard. She’s been trying hard for a decade now.”
“You always did want to see the best in people.”
“And why wouldn’t I? It’s not like I want to be old and grumpy like you.”
“Ha ha,” he said.
She flashed him a grin and unwound Harper from the sling before handing her up to Kel. “She thinks you hate her. Mom. Not Harper. Harper thinks everyone loves her.”
He took the baby. “You need to stop meddling.”
At his tone, Harper made a sound of distress, so he shifted her against him and stroked her back.
Harper immediately stopped fussing and gave out a little mew of happiness that did something funny to his heart. Then she yawned wide and set her head on his shoulder in a move so sweet that his chest actually went tight. Hugging her close, he kissed her head again. “Her scent. It’s . . .”
“Crackalicious, I know. I think they come that way on purpose so we’ll forget the hell they put us through and keep procreating.”
Harper nestled her face into the crook of his neck.
He could honestly say he’d never given thought to settling down and having a family of his own. It just wasn’t something he saw in his future.
But truthfully, he hadn’t given a lot of thought to his future at all and what it might hold.
And yet standing there cradling his soft, sweet, warm niece, something inside him actually ached. “Does it always feel like this?”
Remy laughed. She laughed so hard she snorted, which started her laughing again, until she had tears running down her cheeks. Finally, she sniffed, swiped her face, and got herself together. “I’m tempted to say yes and then ask you to babysit, but I have this thing against lying my ass off to