by Jill Monroe
Figured. The quarterback and popular. The exact opposite of her crowd in high school. Or college. She wasn’t even in the cool clique in med school.
Yeah, the man was so not her type.
Keep reminding yourself of that. Maybe it will stick.
“But you’re the only girl who’s actually caught him,” Amelia said.
Stella brushed her sweaty palms down her thighs. “Maybe that’s because I let him catch me.”
Daphne snickered. “I love that you made him chase you. Oh, you’re going to fit in perfectly.”
Fit in? “Oh, but—”
Amelia nodded. “Yeah, it’s nice to see someone not falling at his feet just to please him. I mean, we’ve tried to take him down a peg or two.”
“Or four.”
All the sisters laughed.
“C’mon, girls, the rest of this food isn’t going to set itself on the table,” Karen told them, and Owen’s sisters reluctantly returned to the kitchen.
Tormentors. That’s what Owen had called them. But hearing it from their end, they’d been doing him a favor. Somewhere in the middle was the truth.
Daphne crossed over to the refrigerator and grabbed a jar of pickles and a squeeze bottle of mayonnaise.
“When he was seven, we convinced him that we’d had another brother, but that our parents were so disappointed in him, they ditched him at a store,” Amelia said as she opened a cabinet and pulled down a few serving platters.
Stella’s hand flew to her mouth as she followed Daphne to the fridge. “Oh, no.”
“After that, he never left our mom’s side if we were in a store. It was hilarious.”
“But that...that’s so mean,” Stella said. Why was she feeling sorry for the seven-year-old Owen? The man had come out just fine.
“You never did stuff like that with your brothers and sisters?”
She shook her head. “I’m an only child.”
All three sisters looked at her with varying degrees of pity. “Imagine not having a brother,” Bethany said.
“Or you guys. Ever,” Daphne added.
“Maybe I got off easy,” Stella said. “After all, no one made me paranoid my parents were going to leave me in a store.” Or shared the Perkinses kids’ kind of affection with her. A current of understanding flowed between them. Inside jokes and camaraderie.
Bethany tapped her nose. “True. Ladies, I think the doc has a point.”
“And if by point you mean we need to help make up for all that she’s lost, I’m in,” Amelia said with a sly grin.
“Me, too,” echoed Daphne. “No offense.”
“I’m beginning to understand why Owen’s never brought anyone home,” Stella grumbled. But his sisters only laughed.
Bethany handed her a stack of bowls. “Just put those on the table.”
Stella grabbed the opportunity to escape from the sisters. She took the bowls and crossed to the large dining room table. Her gaze strayed to the gorgeous man who’d brought her here. Owen was hunkered down and talking quietly with his grandma, drawing a smile and a chuckle from the older woman. He added a log to the fire.
“He’s always been a firebug,” Amelia said.
Nope, no getaway reprieve—his sisters followed her to the table.
“Guess that’s why he became a fireman,” Stella said, hoping her addition to the conversation would draw attention away from the fact that she’d been checking out their brother’s body again.
“But who would have guessed the parachute?” Daphne said with a shrug.
“What?” Stella asked.
“Owen’s a smokejumper in Colorado. He didn’t tell you that?” Bethany probed, her brows together.
Maybe. Last night.
Karen held her hands over her heart. “The first time I ever saw him at his job, I almost climbed into the plane to drag him out of it. He flies up over a fire in the mountains, then parachutes down.”
Stella couldn’t fight the shudder that ran down her body.
“You’re not a risk-taker?” Amelia asked.
“I’ve seen plenty of the downside of risk in my job.” But honestly, Stella wouldn’t even ride a roller coaster. Not that she’d admit that to anyone in Owen’s family—that would be a weakness they’d for sure exploit.
“Now, don’t take this the wrong way, I mean no offense, Stella, but why are you with my brother?” Daphne asked.
Amelia swatted at her sister’s arm. “Daphne.”
“What? Obviously he’s kept her in the dark about the more dangerous aspects of his job. And let’s face it. Since Lily, Owen has gone out of his way to seek any thrill.”
Lily?
Daphne returned her attention to Stella. “Do you enjoy all that extreme stuff, too? The white-water rafting or the BASE jumping or the rock climbing?”
“Uh...no,” Stella finally said, crossing her arms across her chest. Great. One of his sisters was sure to spot that tell.
Daphne’s gaze narrowed. Stella felt as if she was undergoing an intense visual examination. Then Daphne smiled. “Good. It’s time he stopped that crazy-ass stuff.”
“Language, Daph,” Karen chided.
“What crazy-ass stuff?” Owen asked as he joined them, plopping a slice of cheese into his mouth.
“Language, Owen,” Karen said on a heavy sigh.
“Oh, the hang gliding and the cave diving and that wild job of yours.”
“Never cave dived, but thanks for the idea.”
Karen clapped her hands. “Okay, kids, grab a plate and make a sandwich. We’ll eat around the fire so Gram doesn’t have to get up.”
“I can walk to my own table,” Gram called from her seat beside the fire.
Karen’s breath came out in a tired hiss. “I knew I should have whispered that. Table it is.”
Roger handed Charlotte her cane. The two made slow but steady progress to the ornately carved buffet dining table, now spread with all the fixings for lunch. Stella’s stomach grumbled loud enough for Amelia to hear.
“You can get ahead of me in line,” she teased.
“Oh, yes. You’re our guest, Stella. You come up right behind Gram,” Karen directed with a wave of her hands.
“Thanks,” she said, aiming for the front of the line, feeling only a tiny bit awkward. But then, when was the last time she’d eaten? Her stomach growled again.
“Where do you think you’re going?” called Daphne.
Stella whirled around to see Owen on her heels. “Stella’s with me. It’s only right that I’m with her.”
Daphne’s lips twisted. “Yeah, sure. Does she need your help to make a sandwich, too? I don’t think so. Back of the line, buddy.”
Roger shook his head. “No, Owen should be with his guest.”
“I’m going to start bringing a guest from now on.”
Daphne crossed her arms against her chest. “I’m instituting a one-time guest policy. Next family dinner, you’re both at the back.”
Owen laughed and Stella shook her head.
“What?” he asked.
“I can’t tell what’s fighting and what’s just teasing. No offense.” Had she just said that?
“It’s both.”
Maybe this meal was a mistake. Owen’s sisters were too sharp, and they might already suspect something wasn’t gelling between her and their brother. She’d have to be on her guard.
She was supposed to be acting as a buffer between him and his family. Not causing them to ask more questions. Plus their family dynamic was just confusing. Warm and teasing and loud and heated all at the same time.
“Thanks,” he whispered into her ear so only she could hear. His warm breath tickled the sensitive skin behind her ear.
“For what?”
“For being here. I’m sure this is awkward as hell for you. Especially after this morning. You may have noticed I haven’t been home for a while. You being here has made things, uh...easier.”
And right then, a hidden and protected part inside her broke o
pen and gushed all kinds of warm feely things.
Gross.
And damn.
Stella didn’t want this. She’d staunchly suppressed all her warm feels for as long as she could remember, and here they were flowing freely without warning in some kind of corny cliché. No. And hell no. “I don’t think...”
Then he flashed her such a delicious and tempting smile she forgot what she was going to say. Was it no? Stella leaned toward him and—
“Stop the love talk, you two, and fill your plates. Some of us are hungry.”
Over the next hour, Stella received a joyful glimpse of what it might have been like to grow up with such a large family. Overwhelming, yes, but nice, too, with their shared stories and memories and always knowing another sib was there to have your back.
At least it seemed nice until they started in on some of those stories as they were clearing off the table. “Remember that time we convinced Owen his toys were trying to kill him?”
Owen’s mother put her hand on her hip. “Is that why I found a garbage bag of your toys stuffed in the garage? I never got a straight answer from any of you.”
“Now I don’t feel so guilty about putting the hair remover in your shampoo,” he said, fighting a smile and failing.
Amelia’s mouth dropped and her eyes squinted. “That was you?”
Owen shrugged. “It didn’t take off all your hair.”
“I had to go to the sophomore dance with fuzzy patches.”
On second thought, maybe being an only child was the way to go.
Later, in the kitchen, Stella spotted a picture of a little boy who could only be Owen. Same half smile and hazel eyes. Yeah, the sixth-grade girls hadn’t had a chance against his boyish charm. Even as a grown woman, Stella had trouble keeping his alluring appeal in perspective.
Noting Stella’s attention on the family pictures, Bethany said, “Everywhere you look you’re bombarded by all your previous fashion and hair mistakes.”
While she’d first felt on guard around them, after this meal, Stella got the sense Owen’s sisters would welcome her into their tight-knit clan with a smile and a glass of sweet tea. That was...if what she had with their brother was real. She’d had no intention of making it anything other than it was right now, of course. Despite her quick reactions to his kiss, and smile, and—oh, hell, everything about the man made her mouth dry. To distract herself, Stella made a show of squinting at the picture of Owen as a young boy.
“What’s he wearing?” Stella asked.
“Ahh, that’s an invisibility cloak,” Bethany said with a chuckle.
“A what?”
“We found this old cape up in the attic. Probably some costume of Gram’s she’d forgotten. You get to have the coolest dress-up parties when your grandma was a dancer. Anyway, we told him when he wore it he became invisible.”
“And he believed it?”
Even though she was a Perkins and must share their unique flair for inflicting sibling suffering, a guilty look crossed Bethany’s face. “We could be pretty convincing.” Then the guilt faded and his oldest sister closed her eyes for a moment as if she were trying to contain a laugh. “The places he’d try to go.” She opened her eyes. “When I think about it, we were awfully mean to him. Not that he didn’t give it back to us when he was older.”
“Who’s with him?” Stella asked, pointing to a younger girl dressed in a lopsided princess crown and a boxing glove.
“That was our sister Lily.”
Was.
The smile faded from Bethany’s face and her voice quieted. “Lily was the youngest. We all adored her, but she and Owen were closest.”
“How did she—”
“Cancer.” Bethany breathed in deep. “So it was slow. Lots of long stays in the hospital.” She tapped a picture with her fingernail of Owen at around twenty. “He shaved his head because Lily had lost all her hair from the chemo. He’d do anything for her. He changed after she died,” Bethany said, her voice filled with sadness.
He’d become a hero, a firefighter and a lifesaver. But also a risk-taker. He’d moved away from those closest to him but still clearly missed them.
“It’s nice to see my brother happy. With you.”
Stella’s throat tightened. Guilt. Not an emotion she usually tolerated. Now it twisted inside her stomach. She’d never imagined when she accepted the lunch invitation in the shed that his family would think she and Owen had some kind of long-term relationship. Maybe she could slink out of here. She didn’t need answers about last night. Or any more lip-locks with this woman’s handsome brother.
Bethany squeezed her hands. “Thank you for bringing him back to us.”
With a heavy sigh, Stella straightened her shoulders. In a few short hours she’d be out of his, and their, lives, but Owen had a lifetime sentence with these people. She couldn’t leave them assuming she’d been responsible for healing his pain.
Stella shook her head. “He brought himself. It’s not my doing. Your brother got here all on his own. He was ready.”
Bethany ceded a tight smile and nodded. “I missed him. We all have. You’re supposed to lean on your family in times of trouble, but he pushed us away. I understand why. We all reminded him of what he lost when Lily died.”
Stella wanted to look anywhere but at Owen’s sister. Emotion radiated from Bethany in waves. Sadness. Love. Loss and regret. This, this was why Stella was so much better suited for emergency medicine. Patients came in and out. Tragedy and joy and relief came in quick, short bursts. Not long surges of draining emotion. Moments like this threatened her detachment. Emotions didn’t belong in medicine. They clouded judgment and adversely affected patient care.
She met Bethany’s gaze, feeling inept and terrified she was about to bungle this hardcore. Stella frantically searched for the right words to say, one nugget of wisdom that would give comfort and ease this woman’s pain. But nothing came. Would her bedside manner ever improve?
Owen’s sister wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “Wow, I had no idea that was going to come out today.” Bethany gripped Stella’s shoulder and gave her a light squeeze. “Thanks. I really needed that. I’d better go put on a pot of coffee.”
“You’re welcome,” she muttered to Bethany’s retreating back, a little stunned.
Stella pushed a few stray strands of her hair out of her eyes and searched the room, searching for an escape route. And then her gaze smacked into Owen’s, and the breath left her body in a whoosh. Owen. That’s what, or in this case, who, she’d been searching for a moment ago. And she hadn’t even realized it. Her heartbeat kicked up a notch.
An hour ago she’d wanted nothing more than to get out of the handcuffs and never see this guy again. And now...what did she want?
In a few long strides he was at her side. “You okay?” he asked close to her ear, the rich timbre of his voice sending erotic quivers down her neck to pool in the small of her back.
She nodded. How many ranges of emotion was a person supposed to have slam into her in the course of thirty seconds? She’d gone from guilt to worry to uncertainty and then taken a one-eighty to relief and desire.
“Things looked intense with you and my sister.”
She nodded. “They’ve really missed you. How long since you’ve been home?”
“Three years,” he admitted, his voice tight.
Her fingers curled around his forearm and his muscles bunched beneath her fingertips. “Owen, they think that I’m responsible for this miraculous change in you, and I’m the reason you came back for your grandmother’s party. I made sure Bethany understood it was all you.”
He shifted his weight from his left leg to his right and then back again. “Yeah, uh...thanks.”
Stella glanced over at the rest of Owen’s family. They’d migrated to the overstuffed furniture in front of the roaring fireplace, chatting happily and stealing peeks in Stella and Owen’s direction every now and then.
“I had no idea they’d be shippi
ng us so hard.”
Owen rubbed the back of his neck. “No, that caught me off guard, too. Sometime in the past three years, my parents have moved into major grandparent mode. Too bad none of us are even close to a real relationship.”
“Maybe if they hadn’t caught you kissing me they wouldn’t have gotten the wrong idea.”
The green in his hazel eyes turned deep and seductive. “I remember it as you kissing me last. Looking at my mouth. Like you are now.”
The corners of her lips tugged until she knew she had to be grinning like an idiot. “No, you definitely kissed me last.”
He grinned back at her and tingles shot up and down her spine. “What are you going to do when I never show up here again?” she forced herself to ask. Because she definitely needed cold, hard reality to battle the tingles and sexy smiles and hazel eyes that made a woman want to spend all day rolling between the sheets.
“I’ll tell them you broke up with me. Don’t worry, they’ll have no problem buying that excuse.”
And before they could share a moment or his lips could distract her, he changed the subject. Thankfully. “So they’re going to want to do coffee, sit and talk more.”
“But before they offer, I should make a break for it,” she suggested.
His lips pressed together and his gaze fell away. “Something like that.”
Owen wheeled around and away from her, but she reached for him. He flinched beneath her fingertips. She asked, “That’s the plan, right?”
Her breath caught in her chest. Did she want another plan? More time with this man?
He flashed her an easy smile and gave her a wink. “Of course.”
With slow footsteps, Stella followed Owen to the seating area where the rest of his family sat quietly (for them) and talked. Twice she almost stopped him, a sinking sensation delving deeper through her with each step she took. Something had just happened a moment ago between them. Something she was too slow or too closed off to pick up on until the moment had passed.
She glanced toward Owen, who smiled and chuckled at something his dad said. With a delightful dimple in his cheek and crinkles at his eyes from humor, Owen was completely tension-free.
Nope, she’d imagined the moment. Too much studying and not enough sex. Her body had ended that state last night, but her mind hadn’t caught up to reality, which was why she projected half a dozen emotions and responses on the sexy-as-hell firefighter across from her. Stella wandered over to the fireplace to warm her now very chilled hands. Karen patted the empty spot beside her, and Stella sat down awkwardly, her shoulders stiff.