“Awesome. Let’s go.” I pushed open my door and let him jump over to my seat to get out. I didn’t bother with a leash. There was no way for him to escape, and besides, I never had a problem with him listening—aside from this morning—but I chalked that up to him not seeing me for almost a month. And maybe the distracting presence of the sexy girl who’d walked him.
When we reached the front door, I keyed in my code again and pushed the door open after it beeped. Pongo followed at my side, his toenails clicking on the tile entryway.
“King?” I called into the cavernous house. “Where you guys at?”
“Kitchen!” My brother hollered back.
We walked through the living room and dining area to the open kitchen where King had Zoe strapped into a highchair.
Zoe grinned at Pongo and let out a slew of gibberish from her applesauce-covered face. And I melted.
“Wow, she’s gotten so big,” I whispered. It’d been a month since I’d seen my niece, but I swear she looked twice as big. Pictures just didn’t do her any justice.
“Hey.” King stepped away from the sink with a wet washcloth in his hands. His eyes were red rimmed, like he was tired. Or had been crying.
It was so hard to imagine my brother doing the latter. He had always been the strong one of our trio. I don’t remember him crying when our parents split up or when his wife left him. King was always the strong one. It hurt to see him like this.
Not that I could say much. We didn’t exactly talk about our feelings in our family.
“I didn’t expect to see you for a few more days.” King crossed the kitchen and enveloped me in a back-slapping hug. As he’d done a million times before. Like nothing was out of the ordinary. Like his wife of three years hadn’t died last night.
King slapped my back one more time, then stepped away to mop up Zoe’s face.
Zoe whined and squirmed away from the cloth.
“Filming wrapped early,” I replied. Technically, I’d pushed the director and production team to film the last two New Zealand shoots in LA with the rest of the remaining scenes, in light of the circumstances. It hadn’t hurt my case that it saved the studio money to wrap up the location shoots early. Although I might’ve burned a bridge or two with the director and one of the producers. They weren’t happy with my high-handedness to say the least. But it was for King so in my opinion it was worth it. I’d do anything for him.
“Huh.” King frowned as he tried and failed to wipe all the goop from his daughter’s face. “I don’t think that’s ever happened for me. Seems like it always runs long.”
I hummed noncommittally. I wasn’t gonna tell him about the shitstorm I’d caused by demanding to leave early. My brother needed me, and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna apologize for it.
Although now that I was here, I had no clue how to help.
“Have you heard from Nix?” I stepped out of the way as King pulled Zoe out of the highchair. Then had to step up again as she dove out of his arms toward me. I caught her with a laugh. I hadn’t spent much time around babies, but this one loved me. Technically, she loved everyone—she went to family and strangers with the same vigor—but I liked to believe I was special.
“He’s sleeping in the guesthouse.” King pulled the highchair tray out and carried it to the sink. “Said something about not being able to get into your place?”
I sighed as I knelt, so Zoe could pat Pongo. “I uh, had to change my access codes before I left for New Zealand last month.”
King tossed a sponge into the sink with a scowl. “What’d he do now?”
Zoe babbled and nailed Pongo on the nose with her tiny hand. Pongo whined and hid behind my back.
I stood, jostling her in my arms, and faced my brother. “He had some people over when I was out with Victoria.”
“Right.” King was able to read between the lines. Our brother Phoenix, or Nix as we usually called him, had been deep in the party scene for a while. “Is it time to do something about him?”
“Are you serious? Don’t you have enough on your plate as it is?”
“And you don’t? When does filming start back up on your project?”
Pongo shoved his nose at the back of my knees. I reached down and patted him distractedly. “I got a week. Do you know when the service will be?”
A muscle flexed in King’s jaw, and he looked away. “Nah, I got my lawyer working on it, but there’s so much bureaucratic red tape. It’ll be a few days at least until we can get…her back stateside. And then I don’t know what the hell to do.”
I could see the torment in my brother’s eyes. I knew more than most did about their marriage, but King hadn’t told me everything.
I didn’t bother asking if our parents had reached out. King had cut Mom out after she gave that tour of our childhood home toOff the Record,and last I’d heard, Dad was working in South America and dating soon-to-be-wife-number-four.