It’s…astonishing, actually.Will, going to meet his family.Takingusto meet his family.I thought it might be a one-time thing, but here we are, slowing down and turning off the road.Evan’s SUV pulls in behind us.A big front gate swings open as Will drives closer.
“It doesn’t open automatically for everyone.”He pulls to a stop just inside the gate.“Daphne and Em, obviously, but Sin and I have sensors on our cars.”
“Is that guy hiding?”Ben asks from the back seat.
“If you can see him, he means for you to see him.”Will rolls down his window.“Mike.I have a second car with me.”
The man detaches from the shadows and jogs over to Will’s window.“How many guests?”
“One.My bodyguard, Evan Donovan.”
The guard—Mike, I guess—takes out his phone and taps something on it.“Got it.Go ahead.”
Behind us, the gate opens a second time.Will keeps going toward the house.It’s abeach house,like something out of a magazine.
“There’s, like, four guys out here.”Ben’s face is practically pressed to his window.“Wait.Five.”
“Six.”Mia taps at her window.“What are they doing?”
“Changing shifts.”Will glances over at me.“What?”
“Is it…” I lower my voice.“Are there so many agents because of what happened?”
He huffs a laugh.“No.It’s like this all the time.Morellis take securityveryseriously.”Will throws the SUV in park near the front porch, then reaches for my hand.He brushes his lips across my knuckles.“We’re extremely safe.Okay, guys, we’re here.”
Daphne and Emerson meet us at the door to his house, which reminds me of a giant, expensive art gallery, if that art gallery was also warm and comfortable and exciting.
“Hey, guys.”Sinclair pokes his head out of a doorway down the hall.“Don’t worry.I’m here.”
Mia waves to Sinclair, beams at Daphne, and turns immediately to Emerson, her expression turning so serious that my heart speeds up.“Did you read my book?”
Emerson takes his hand out from behind his back.He’s holding a very familiar battered paperback with colored tabs sticking out of the top.“This book?”
She taps her thumbs against her fingers.One, two, three, four, five.“That one.”
“I read it twice and took notes.”
Mia holds her breath, her eyes sparkling.I pat her gently on the back.“Do you want to read the second one after I answer your questions?
Emerson takes a step to the left, revealing a narrow table that holds a flower arrangement and a brand-new box set of books, still shrink-wrapped.
“Yes,” Mia whispers.And then, louder: “I’ll open them for you.How many notes did you make?I didn’t notice some things about it until I read all the books twice.”She pauses from digging her fingernails into the shrink wrap and blinks like she’s just now noticing the foyer.“Youreallylove paintings, don’t you?”
Daphne laughs out loud, and then the entryway is filled with people talking over one another.Will introduces Evan to Daphne.Emerson says something to Mia about the galleries, plural, he has in this house.I hear “…about a library?Do you have one of those?”Sinclair pops back out and calls to Ben about Minecraft.
“You’ll have dinner with us.”Daphne stands in front of Evan, feet planted, hair in a sleek, shining ponytail that looks like it cost a million dollars.Evan shakes his head.“Yes, you will.”
“No need.I’m not hungry.”He flashes her a polite smile.
“He’s lying.”I shouldn’t say it, really, but heis.“I saw how he looked at every single hot dog I brought him outside my apartment.”
Daphne spears Evan with a glare that makes her look six inches taller.“You are going to sit with us and eat and have a lovely time,Evan.I promise, the worst-case scenario is that you make some friends.Would that be so awful?”
Emerson reaches over Mia to touch Daphne’s shoulder.I don’t think she hears Evan’s quietyes.
But he doesn’t put up a fuss when Will shepherds all of us down the hall to the enormous, fancy kitchen at the back of the house.I don’t know how Emerson does it.Everything looks more expensive than I could afford in a million lifetimes, but I don’t feel shabby at all.
Maybe it’s Will.He doesn’t hover over me, but every time he comes close, his fingertips brush over the small of my back.It sends small shivers down my spine, followed by a rush of heat, every time.