“My pleasure. You have a beautiful home. I’ve been in it once before with your husband, but it sure does dress up well for the holidays.”
“That’s right. You work for my husband. At the sawmill.” Her lips thinned even more.
Leslie lifted her Band-Aid riddled hand. “Yep, and today he gave me lessons on loading trees.” She couldn’t find normal Band-Aids, so they all had SpongeBob SquarePants making silly faces all over them.
“Lovely,” Mom muttered.
“Nice,” Kieran murmured in that deep, sexy timbre of his. He even gave Leslie a nod of respect.
“Have you met all of Leslie’s sisters and their husbands yet?” Mom asked.
“I don’t want to subject him to too much…amazingness…at once,” Leslie said. Her manners were on point tonight.
“Oh, Braden,” Mom called sweetly. “Braden, bring your wife and meet your sister’s new friend.” Mom lowered her voice. “Braden is a lawyer.”
She thought Kieran would prickle up like a little badger but, nope, his eyes stayed a steady color somewhere between mud brown and gold. He gave Leslie a wink. Okay, he was prepared for this.
Braden made his way through the crowd, dragging her sister Kimberly with her perfect black beach-waved hair, long, slender legs, and flat stomach. A rarer beauty had never existed in Missoula, Montana, according to her father’s speech he gave on Kimberly’s wedding day. Gag.
“Hey, Sue,” Kimberly greeted her.
“Sue?” Kieran asked.
“Oh, it’s a nickname I gave Leslie when we were kids. It’s from this movie Curly Sue we used to watch.”
Kieran smiled. “Her curls were the first thing I noticed about her. They got me hooked.”
Kimberly and Mom looked as shocked as Leslie felt.
“What happened, who got hooked, what did I miss?” Leslie asked.
“First were your curls,” Kieran said, hypnotizing her with that eye contact. “And then your smile, laugh, vulnerability, uniqueness…” He dipped his eyes to her cleavage and back up to her face. “And the rest is just a big bonus.”
He liked her curls and her boobies. Oh, God, he likes my curls and my boobies! Don’t say it out loud.
Kimberly’s eyes narrowed. “I need a drink.” She did an about-face and walked off, stabbing the poor wooden floorboards with her stilettos.
“I’m Braden.” Her sister’s husband introduced himself and offered a hand to Kieran. Actually, all her sisters’ dudes were pretty cool and put up with a lot just to be in this family. Leslie didn’t hate them. They were just pigeon-holed into being perfect to please the family. Looks above everything. Imperfections were unacceptable, and bla, bla, bla.
“This is Braden the lawyer,” Mom corrected as they shook hands.
Braden rolled his eyes heavenward.
“Uuuh,” Kieran said, “I’m Kieran the lumberjack.”
“The shifter lumberjack,” Mom muttered uncharitably.
“Right on,” Braden said. “I think I’m gonna take this one to get a drink and get to know him a little better.” He clapped Kieran on the back, and they walked toward the full bar on the back wall of the huge living room.
Shit, now Leslie was alone.
“I don’t like him,” Mom enlightened her. Shocking.
“Mom, your eyes are awfully squinty right now, and remember what you told me about getting wrinkles when you judge people?”
“Babe?” Kieran called.
Babe? “Yes, Honeynuggets?” God, someone muzzle her.
Kieran threw his head back with a laugh and then shook his head. “Perfectly executed.” Everyone was watching.
Shoot me.
“You want a drink?” He shoved his hands in his pockets and twitched his head toward the bar. Okay, judge all they wanted, but he was the sexiest man in this room by far, and he was smiling at her. At. Her. This was awesome.
“I would love one.” She nodded demurely to Mom and the crowd that had gathered behind her. “Have an excellent evening, everyone.”
“We still have three hours of the party left,” her sister Beth pointed out. “We’ll see you again in, like, four minutes.”
“Right. Have a festive four minutes. I have to go spend quality time with the love of my life. Thank you and goodbye.” Well done, self. That wasn’t weird at all. You are improving.
She tried to float to Kieran like one of her graceful sisters in heels, but hers got stuck in a divot in the barnwood floors and her ankle went sideways and then she had to make sure her boobs were still in her dress when she righted herself.
“You are by far the most interesting girl in this room,” Kieran assured her. “It’s entertaining as hell to watch you stick out like a sore thumb.”
She bowed slightly. “I aim to please.”
“No, you don’t. It’s one of the things I like about you. Braden is getting us shots.”
“Wait, what? Braden never does shots.”
“False,” Braden said as they found him at the bar. “Braden doesn’t do obvious shots, but I’ve got to get through these shit-show parties somehow.” He handed Leslie a full shot glass. “Your mouth is hanging open.”
“But you’re good at these parties.”
“No one is good at these parties. Tell me if Kimberly heads this way. I can’t handle another disapproving lecture today.”
Huh.
Kieran and Braden took their shots and began chatting easily. How in the world had Kieran sniffed out an ally within five minutes of being in the room? She hadn’t managed that in three and a half decades. Her pretend-boyfriend was a magician.
As Dad clinked a knife against the side of his glass and announced dinner was served, Kieran slipped his hand around her waist and dragged her closer into his side. The man who didn’t like touching did that. He didn’t seem disgusted or annoyed by her at all right now. Just content and easily talking to her brother-in-law as he drew little circles on her hip with his thumb.
Oh, he was very good at this. Very very good at pretending.
She slipped her arm around his waist and rested her cheek against his shoulder, and for the first time in her adult life at one of these parties, she felt safe.
Something brushed the top of her hair, and she thought it was a light kiss from Kieran, but when she looked up, he was still in the middle of a conversation with Braden. She must’ve imagined it. She looked to Braden, and his blue eyes had gone all soft. He smiled and winked at her.
Okay. Everything was okay.
Kieran was easing tensions and making tonight kind of fun.
Chapter Seven
“Well,” Leslie said over the sound of caroling that wafted from the house. “You survived a Wilson Family holiday party.”
She looked so pretty out here, all cuddled up in her fitted peacoat, her hair and makeup all done, that easy smile on her face. She smiled a lot. He liked that about her.
“It was actually kind of nice,” he admitted.
She screwed up her face. “You absorbed fifty-two insults in there. I counted.”
He laughed and turned to lean against her little red Honda Accord with her. It was cold, and snow was beginning to fall, so he crossed his arms over his chest to preserve warmth. “The insults I expected. I’m comfortable with who I am and what I do for a living. That didn’t bother me really. I mean, the holiday decorations and eggnog and huge Christmas tree, and that thing where Santa came in at the end and read Twas the Night Before Christmas… It’s been a while since I celebrated the holiday big.”