“I need a sec,” Wyatt answered, adjusting his jeans. Mia laughed, blowing him a kiss before disappearing into the house.
A few minutes later, when Wyatt finally managed to cool down enough to follow Mia, he found her sitting at the breakfast bar with the papers he had left mid-work the previous day, her brow creased and a pink pen in her hand.
“I put them there for you to take and Mia just…” his dad sounded thoroughly entertained as he vaguely gestured in Mia’s direction before returning to the chopping board.
“You would have given them to me to go over, anyway,” Mia said, her frown deepening when reading one of his comments, then she muttered something in French and started scribbling furiously.
Wyatt opened his mouth to protest, before resigning himself to his fate with a sigh.
“Where’d Ky go?” he asked no one in particular.
“She’s up in her room,” Iris, his younger sister, answered, coming to stand next to their dad while mixing a bowl of batter. Her honey blonde hair was in a high ponytail, vibrant blue eyes fixed on Mia with a curiously amused gaze. “Can I also write up your comments?”
“Only if you let me write up yours.” Wyatt leaned on the bar with a grin, knowing full well that Iris would rather die than let him touch her research.
“As if.”
“Good morning.” Wyatt’s mom came down the stairs. Her eyes were still a bit droopy as if she had just woken up, which she probably had, placing a hand on Mia’s shoulder. “You must be Mia, I’m Trista.”
“Hi, I’m so glad to finally meet you,” Mia answered, then looked at the pen in her hand and at the surrounding people. “Oh, I’m being terribly impolite, aren’t I?”
“Please.” His mom laughed, taking the coffee his dad offered and tilting her head for a quick kiss. “I’ve been married to Brian Jenkins for three decades and raised his kids.”
Mia seemed slightly confused, her cheeks flaring pink and she capped the pen, placing it on top of the papers.
“She’s saying you fit right into the Jenkins household, Prickly Pear,” Wyatt said quietly into Mia’s ear, though judging by his parent’s and Iris’s smiles they heard him as well. He winked at his mom before kissing Mia’s temple. “I’m going to find Kylie, don’t let Riri touch my work.”
“Get your brother as well while you’re up there,” his mother called as he climbed two steps at a time.
“Wy.” Reed smiled broadly as he walked out of the bathroom, bright brown hair glistening and a freshly shaved face.
“Hey, look who finally got rid of his jungle beard.” Wyatt reached out to lightly smack Reed’s cheek, only to get his hand slapped away.
“Fuck off,” Reed said, still smiling. “I had to, do you remember Momma J’s reaction last time I showed up with five months’ worth of facial hair?”
“I’m kind of sorry you shaved the atrocity off now.” Wyatt cleared his throat before delivering his best impression of their grandmother. “What died on your face, Reed?”
Reed grinned and joined in. “Almost six months and you can’t give your old grandma the joy of seeing your handsome face.”
They both laughed and Wyatt patted Reed on the back. “Breakfast is ready, Mia is waiting to meet you.”
“Did you tell her how awesome I am?”
“You know I did,” Wyatt said over his shoulder as he made his way to Kylie’s room. He knocked and waited. After a few seconds without an answer, he knocked again. When Kylie still didn’t answer, Wyatt rolled his eyes and pushed the door open, finding Kylie hunched over a notebook on her bed, scribbling away, post-its in various colors scattered around her with short notes in her tidy handwriting. “New story idea?”
“Hmm, what?” Kylie looked up at him with a dazed gaze. “Oh, yeah.”
“Want to share?”
“It’s about a lord’s daughter who finds out she’s actually a pirate’s daughter and sneaks onto a merchant’s ship in hopes of finding her biological father, only to be revealed during a battle with said man who is trying to commandeer the ship she’s on, but since she’s smart and resourceful and way too driven to do what’s right, she basically saves the day. The captain sees her potential and makes her second in command, grooming her to take over once he retires.” Kylie’s eyes scan her notes, picking up an orange post-it and crinkling her nose at it. “I’m still working on the technicalities of that one.”
“Okay, so the conflict is that she’s a woman in command?” Wyatt asked, sitting at the edge of the bed.
“Sort of. The crew is on board, but the company that owns the ship finds it difficult to accept, so a young captain is appointed instead and they have to work side by side.”
“Let me guess.” Wyatt scanned the bed until his eyes landed on a cluster of purple post-its. “One of those says the new captain has a revered seaman father whose shadow he’s trying to step out of?” Kylie shrugged half-apologetically. “And your main characters start off hating each other until they don’t?”
“Something like that.” Kylie collected her notes and placed them on the nightstand. “Art imitates life. Not so much the other way around, in my case.”