The wide circle drive sat empty and the only cars parked outside the main four-car garage were Sylvie and Ninette’s.
So much for Jace coming home early. That meant either Sylvie or Ninette had been the one to cover her up, and didn’t that make her feel like even more of an ass.
Well, enough was enough. Sure the Sons of Anarchy watching had been as comfortable as watching a love scene in front of your parents, but if they could show her kindness, the least she could do was crawl out of her cave and show some gratitude.
Smoothing her sleep-mangled hair into place as best she could with one hand, she motioned for Ruger to follow and meandered through the quiet house. It was always this way during the day, only hints of feminine voices or lilting laughter drifting up to the wing where Jace and Axel’s suites were located. The scents were different, though. Like the first night she’d met Sylvie and Ninette, the air hinted at something cooking on the stove. Something spicy and rich that made her stomach send out a rumbling reminder that she hadn’t had anything more than the bagels Jace had brought up this morning.
As soon as she reached the arched stone opening to the kitchen, Ruger galloped to Ninette and Sylvie paired up at the counter, leaned into Ninette’s thigh, and waggled his whole backside in happy greeting.
“Well, hello, handsome.” Ninette set the spoon she’d been using to stir beside the big pot on the stove and scratched the top of his head. “You need to go out?”
“I’ve got him.”
Viv’s presence was clearly unexpected, because both of them spun at once, jaws slack and eyebrows high.
“It’s good ta see ya up and around, lass.” Sylvie set her chef’s knife aside and snatched a towel off the counter. “Do ye need something?”
A swift kick in the booty most likely. Now that she was standing here, both women aiming patient gazes her direction, she felt twice the fool as before. She cleared her throat and dragged her courage up from the mental swamp she’d wallowed in. “I think what I need most is to lay off the pain pills and reconnect with the real world for a while.”
Ninette leaned one hip against the counter and smiled. “Well, if you want to reconnect, then you picked the right night to do it. The boys are all due here by six tonight for family night.”
Ruger padded to the sliding glass door that led out to the ranch’s vast acreage and let out a pathetic wine.
Vivienne hurried to let him out. “Family night?”
Turning back to the counter, Sylvie lined up a halved onion and attacked it like a veteran sous chef. “Ye know. Dinner. Fun. Relaxing. The usual things families do when they get together.”
No, she didn’t have a clue. About the only times her family ate together were holidays, and that was more of a well-orchestrated miracle where dinner was ready at the same time and everyone was under the same roof. “It sounds nice.”
Something in Ninette’s expression shifted, a spark of cognition that left Viv wanting to fidget. The look was gone just as fast, smoothed over with the same determination she’d glanced on Jace’s face countless times since she’d met him. Knowledge gained one second, and a plan lined out in the next. She motioned to the massive kitchen table nestled in front of the equally sizable picture window. “Why don’t you have a seat and keep us company while we cook.”
It was tempting. Seated at the table, she’d be able to keep some distance and not have to address the nagging thoughts that had plagued her for the last few days. “Actually, I’d like to help if I can. I’m not the fanciest cook in the world, but I can pull off the basics.”
“How are ye with sweets?” Sylvia said.
“I inhale them so fast my conscience can barely get a word in edgewise.”
Both women chuckled, but Sylvie set aside her work to gather up some ingredients in the pantry. “If ye can work from a recipe, I’m runnin’ behind on desserts. Since we’re leanin’ toward junk food for the main course, I thought we’d keep it simple and do sugar cookies to finish. No point in puttin’ anything fancy in our gullets after a schoolroom cafeteria entree.”
Viv meandered closer and peeked in the big pot. Nearly browned ground beef simmered in the bottom. To the right of the stove was a huge can of tomato sauce and three different types of seasonings. “Chili?”
“That’s part of it,” Ninette said. “It was Knox’s turn to pick dinner and he’s stuck on childhood favorites. So tonight it’s conies and Frito Chili Pie.”
“Really?” Her stomach rumbled its approval and her mouth watered. “I haven’t had Frito Chili Pie in...well, since middle school.”
“Exactly.” Sylvie bustled to the kitchen island, her arms loaded up with everything from sugar to a bottle of vanilla big enough to be stocked in a professional bakery. “At least we’re not eating fish sticks again. Sometimes I think the lad is just tryin’ to yank our chains and see how far he can push us.”
Ingredients unloaded, she plucked a thick three-ring binder from a shelf built into the end of the island and thumbed through the pages. Every entry was handwritten in neat cursive on pages that ranged from pristine white to aged yellow. “Here we go.” She spun the binder around and pointed to the recipe on the right. “That’s me ma’s recipe. Easy as pie and perfect every time.”
And that was it. No more than five minutes since she’d been in the room and they’d accepted her as easily as they had the first night they’d met. No questions or judgments as to why she’d kept her distance, only open acceptance. One small hurdle over and one much more sensitive one to go.
The next half hour moved at an easy pace, both Sylvie and Ninette peppering her with light questions about her business and the corporate jobs she’d had after junior college. Oddly, she hadn’t had to ask a thing. In addition to their own queries, they’d offered up a few funny stories about Jace and Axel growing up together, the funniest one surrounding a pinch on a convenience store gone bad.
“Swear to Christ, I dinnae know what the two o’ them were thinkin’,” Sylvie said, her eyes full of tears from laughter. “They truly thought they’d pulled off some dastardly heist, only to learn they’d be earnin’ service time at a homeless shelter for the grand sum of five dollars’ worth of bubble gum.”
Vivienne smiled, spooned out another dollop of dough, and dropped it on the greased cookie sheet. “How old were they?”
“Seven.” Ninette laid out the hot dog buns on her own cookie sheet in preparation for the warming drawer under the oven. “Sylvie and I were at a hair salon next door and the two of them refused to wait inside with us. At the time, Jace swore they had a plan to resell the gum at school and pay the store manager back with interest, but the truth of it was, they didn’t know a dollar from a fiver back then.”
Yeah, that sounded like Jace, especially the paying back part. On the surface he might look dangerous, but if there was one thing she’d learned about him in the last several weeks, he had the honor of an old-world knight.
Sylvie turned off the water, settled her washed chopping block in the drying rack, and wiped her hands on a faded green kitchen towel. “I need ta run up and change before the boys get here. Vivienne, do you need anything?”
Her nerves perked up and bristled on a fresh wave of adrenaline. The last time she’d been alone with Ninette she’d had a hard-core dose of reality dropped over her head. Still, better to tackle the challenge she’d set for herself one-on-one than with an audience. “No, I’m good. Thank you.”
With a sweet smile and a saucy wink, she hustled out of the kitchen, leaving Viv alone with Ninette and her swirling thoughts.
The timer for the top oven pinged and Viv grabbed the oven mitt off the counter beside it.
“Here, let me get the top one.” Ninette bustled up beside her and held out her hand for the glove. “Jace would rail me up one side and down the other if you got hurt on my watch.”
Vivienne handed the mitt over a
nd picked up the tray she’d just finished lining with fresh dough. As soon as Ninette had the baked cookies on the cooling rack, Viv slid the fresh tray in with her good arm. She set the timer for eight minutes, paused for a second to bolster her courage, and turned. “What you have here is really special.”
Ninette stopped wiping down the counter around the stove top and twisted enough to meet Viv’s gaze. “Come again?”
“Jace. Haven. Your family. All the brothers. It’s special.”
Her face softened. “It is special. Took us to hell and back a few times to get here, but I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.”
Vivienne hugged her arm tight to her side, her wound throbbing as fast and furious as her labored heart. “My life wasn’t anywhere near as rough as yours. I was never hungry. I never faced the realities Jace did, and my parents never sacrificed for me or Callie like you did for him, but seeing all of you together, I think I’d choose your world over mine.”
For several seconds, Ninette didn’t move. Just studied her with a scrutiny Viv felt clear to her toes. Her face softened and she tossed the sponge into the sink. “All kinds of rough in this world, sweetheart. Rough in the real world or rough in the heart, it’s all hard on the soul.” She padded closer and carefully wrapped Vivienne up in a hug. “When I said we didn’t judge, that included feelings, too. They are what they are. The trick is owning them so you can move on and find your happy.”
Viv’s breath hitched. She circled her good arm around Ninette’s waist, the movement as shaky and uncertain as the fragile hope fluttering beneath her skin. Countless times she’d craved such a connection from her own mother. A simple touch. A kind word. But it was Ninette who’d given it to her. A woman who’d faced real harshness in her life and still found it in her to share comfort and compassion.
The sliding glass door whooshed open and Ruger galloped into the room, his nails clicking against the tumbled marble floors.
Axel ambled in right behind him, his playful bellow resounding through the kitchen. “Someone start pouring the whisky. The menfolk have arrived.”
Ninette relinquished her hold on Vivienne and patted her good shoulder, but not before Jace spied them from the entrance. Without missing a beat, she slid in between Vivienne and the men and opened her arms, demanding her greeting without a word and buying Viv precious time to gather her wits.
Axel tugged Ninette in for a sound smack on the cheek, then laid a far more tender one to Vivienne’s temple. “I see someone’s found her feet again. Good to see you up and around, lass.”
Vivienne grinned and sidled back up to the island and the cookie mess she’d left behind. “Being lazy for a day or two was nice, but a girl can only take so much.”
Jace followed Axel’s pattern almost identically, wrapping his mom up in a bear hug and gifting her with a kiss on the cheek as well. “Everything okay in here?”
“Perfect.” Ninette cupped Jace’s cheek the same way she probably had when he was little then sashayed back to her cleanup job near the sink. “I was just thanking Vivienne for assuring me my new jeans, in fact, did not make my ass look fat. Which is a good thing considering what’s on tonight’s menu.”
Axel pulled a bottle of Scotch from the built-in bar and scoffed. “Like every one of us haven’t told you the same, but you never hug us for it.”
“That’s because when a man says it, he’s avoiding trouble. When a woman says it, it counts double.” She turned enough to catch Viv’s eye and gave a conspiratorial wink.
Jace slid in behind Viv, wrapped her up at the waist and nuzzled her neck, inhaling in that sexy way that always gave her goose bumps. “How you feelin’, sugar?”
Sweet champagne-bubble tingles danced low in her belly, their effervescence so powerful she could have floated to the ceiling had it not been for his anchoring presence. “I’m good,” she muttered, though how she managed even a modicum of volume was an utter miracle.
“Yeah?” He swept her hair away from her neck and nipped her earlobe. “You gonna turn around and give me a welcome home kiss, or do I have to take it?”
Her lips tingled and her cheeks fired hot, her senses all too aware of the other people in the room and their polite attempts to ignore the PDA via polite chit-chat. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Been thinking all day about the sweet woman I left curled up in my bed at 6:00 a.m. You ask me, I think it’s a damned fine idea.”
She gripped his wrists and squeezed, trying unsuccessfully to fight the shiver that shuttled down her spine. “But your mom,” she whispered.
Jace froze, only the tickle of his beard and his warm breath stirring against her. His voice resonated low and steely. “Turn around, Viv.”
Behind her, Ninette prattled on about some new escapade between her and Sylvie at the mall, but Vivienne would swear she felt Axel’s gaze aimed directly on her and Jace. In that second, she didn’t care. Couldn’t. For three days she’d stolen nothing more than soft kisses and gentle touches from Jace. She could have no more ignored his command in that moment than an addict in withdrawal could have walked away from a token fix.
She turned and lifted her gaze to his, the impact of his enigmatic dark eyes sending shockwaves straight to her core.
“You want to kiss me?”
She licked her suddenly parched lips. “Yes.”
“You’re mine. You’re in my home. Surrounded by family. Safe.” His thumbs shuttled along the sensitive space just above her hip bones, the contact as powerful as skin-to-skin even through the soft cotton of her pajama bottoms. “Take what you want.”
No judgment. No rules. Ninette had promised her as much, the same as Jace. Mustering her courage, she rolled up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.
He groaned and palmed the back of her head, the perfect mesh of their mouths void of the heated sensuality they’d shared before the shooting, but wrought with awe and emotion in its simplicity.
Too fast, he pulled away only enough to meet her eyes. Pride blazed bright in his gaze, radiating through her in a pleasant hum. “Wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Maybe not for him. She’d barely shared school progress or friendly gossip in front of her parents growing up, let alone kiss someone in their presence. As fast as her heart thrummed, she may as well have streaked through Times Square. “More than you know.”
He smirked and kissed her forehead. “It’ll get easier.”
He’d just turned and tucked her into the crook of his arm, his mouth opening to speak when Sylvie bustled into the room. “What did I miss?”
Axel grinned and saluted Jace with his Scotch. “Someone’s gettin’ a much finer welcome home than the rest of us, that’s what.”
“Jealous?” Not waiting for a response, Jace shuttled his attention to Ninette. “What’s for dinner?”
Ninette frowned and lifted the lid on the pot full of simmering chili. “It was Knox’s choice tonight.”
“Christ,” Axel grumbled. “Knox’s taste in food is as bad as his wardrobe.”
“Hey, I heard that.” Knox and Beckett strolled through the stone archway coming from the house’s main entrance, Knox in a similar getup to the first night she’d met him, only tonight’s graphic tee sporting the Avengers instead of some smart-ass comment. “And don’t knock the tees. Chicks love my wit.”
Beckett made his way from Sylvie to Ninette, kissing each of their cheeks the same way Jace and Axel had upon entering. “What I overhead heard last night, it wasn’t your wit she was begging for.”
Ninette scoffed and went back to stirring the chili, not the least bit put off by Beckett’s suggestive comment.
Beckett sauntered her direction. “Hey, Viv.”
She tried to take a step back, but with Jace snuggled up tight beside her, couldn’t gain any leverage.
Beckett swooped down and mirrored the kiss-to-cheek routine wit
h her. “You feeling better?”
She blinked. Then did it again, and again, waiting for reality to come back into focus. No matter how many times she repeated the process, the move still registered the same in her memory. “Um....yes. Thank you.”
He shot her one of those man, girls are weird grins, shook his head, and moseyed to the counter with the still cooling cookies. “Axel did you see these? Dinner’s not a total loss. Sylvie made cookies.”
Sylvie glanced up from the pulling the hot dog buns out of the warming drawer. “Not me, lad. Vivienne made those.”
Beckett’s expression blanked. His gaze shot to Viv, then up to Jace, and he shook his head. “She’s hot and she bakes. You’re fucking lucky.”
Snickering, Knox hefted a towering stack of plates from Sylvie and headed for the dining room. “Quit sucking up and help me set the table.”
In a blink, it was over, the ebb and flow of everyone moving around the kitchen, making drinks and carting things to the table, washing away her fears and breathing new hope into her soul. She peeked up at Jace behind her. “What just happened?”
He chuckled, pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Beck’s more of a doer than a talker. I’d say you just got his nonverbal version of welcome to the family.”
A tug issued behind her chest, a foreign but pleasant sensation that left her out of sorts and flailing for solid mental ground.
“Vivienne, get a move on,” Ninette urged from behind her. “You don’t get a chair and a plate loaded up before the boys do, you’ll end up with only a handful of Fritos and a spoonful of chili.”
“She’s got that right.” Jace guided her toward the dining room with a hand low on her back. “Rule one of big families. Every man for himself at chow time.”
Rough & Tumble (The Haven Brotherhood) Page 21