Chapter 3
IT’S NICE TO MEET YOU
Margot
Nerves are usually something that motivate me.
I get nervous, I use that as fuel to step up and own whatever situation I need to own.
Today, as I’m standing over the kitchen sink, rinsing out the rags that I used to clean up the carnage of my homemade security though, they’re making my stomach hurt.
Rhys, Decker’s friend, grunts in my direction from the doorway. “I’ll be back. Don’t booby-trap this place again.”
“I—” I start, then hear the door click shut.
“Won’t,” I finish on a sigh.
I slipped into the kitchen to rinse the rags when I heard him go into the bathroom fifteen or twenty minutes ago, after I’d already showered for the day, since I didn’t get to finish cleaning up last night.
And in five minutes, I’m meeting a brother I never knew I had.
In person.
Face-to-face.
That’s when my plans get real.
And when I discover if I’m enough all on my own for three guys who share DNA with me to want to call me family, and if so, if they’re the kind of family who’ll help you get justice for another sister they also didn’t know they had.
Only one of those is truly terrifying, and it’s not the part about justice.
I’m wringing out the last of the rags that I need to replace—these are spotted with purple hair dye—when there’s a knock at the door, and then it swings open. “Hello? Margie?” a guy calls.
I suck in a fast breath through my nose, then wipe my hands on a towel and turn toward the doorway into the living/dining room. “In the kitchen.”
A tall man with well-trimmed brown hair, warm blue eyes, and a smile peers in at me. He’s in slacks and a polo, with a short beard. “Hi. I’m Lucky.”
My heart tumbles all over itself and my eyes get hot and my stomach twists and a little voice in the back of my head whispers please please please please please like me.
I’ve been communicating with Lucky over email for about three months now. He was working late yesterday, so he sent me the code to get into the cabin with instructions to text him if I had any issues.
So this is the first time we’ve met in person.
My half brother.
Someone I’m related to.
Someone I share genes with.
Someone who’ll help me answer the question of is everything wrong with me nature or nurture?
I take a big gulp and smile, because oh my god, I have a brother.
“Margie,” I say, walking toward him and extending a hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
He looks at my hand, then quirks a brow at me. “Not a hugger?”
“I—” Crap.
My eyes are already watering and my nose is already twitching with the urge to cry.
Hugs have been in short supply in my life, but I love when Daphne hugs me, so I nod. “I am.”
He grins, and then I’m being swallowed in a giant bear hug that has my eyes even wetter.
“This is so cool,” he says as he lets me go. “I’ve never had a sister. My cousin Sabrina’s close, but it’s not the same.”
I manage to get the emotions under control, and I’m almost steady as I reply, “I’ve never had a brother either. Or anything close.”
“Well, now you have three.” He winces. “Kind of.”
“Decker’s suspicious,” I say. Can’t help it. Tackling elephants is what I do.
He winces harder. “It’s not you. It’s him. He’s not a people person. He’s a people-he-knows person, but not a people person in general.”
“It’s okay. I know it takes more than blood to make family.”
“Yeah. Good thing too, because my dad—” He pauses and gives me one of those awkward looks that I’ve gotten very familiar with since I started making an effort to get to know as many people as I can in my department at work, not just my direct reports, but as many people as I can.
“My dad’s fucking awesome, and there’s no other way to put it.
He’s family, no matter what’s in our veins. We don’t want to hurt him.”
“I’m good at keeping secrets,” I tell him. “If your parents find out we share a little DNA, it won’t be through me. Promise.”
I’ll lie to him about other things, but not this.
Honestly?
I think his mother was smart to keep the truth from them, even if the lingering question is if she’s kept the truth from their dad too.
And much as I want the triplets’ help, I won’t lay who I really am, and also the favor I’d like to ask, at their feet unless it’s clear they’re open to it.
Not having their help will make finishing the job of destroying my father harder, but not impossible.
Nothing’s impossible.
But I’ve been looking for a smoking gun for four years, and they’re it.
If they ultimately don’t want to help—nope.
Can’t even think about facing another four years of pretending to be happy every time I see my parents, that I love working beneath my father, that I’m not ready to take his position by force and do to him what he did to Daphne.
Or as close as I can come to it.
Lucky blows out a breath. “I appreciate it. We all do. It’s just—”
“Family’s complicated, and I don’t want to make it worse.”
“Yeah. That. That’s how we feel too. Speaking of complicated…Rhys here?”
“No, he left a few minutes ago.”
“Everything okay there? I’m really sorry—”
“Oh, don’t be sorry. Honestly. I appreciate you letting me stay here. And if sharing a cabin for a few days is what it takes, that’s fine. Rhys was—ah, he was understandably grumpy. But I guess I don’t have to set up any more home security systems while he’s here, huh?”
Lucky grins again. “Unless you want to have some fun. Decker and Jack and me might have set up a few booby traps in our time.”
My eyes burn again.
Daphne’s always channeled her energy into things like saving the polar bears or stopping climate change, but if we’d grown up in a less high-pressure environment, she absolutely would’ve channeled her energy into something fun like this.
Lucky lifts his brows at me. “You okay?”
“Yes! Yes.” I rub at my eyes. “Dust. Bad thing to be reactive to for a housekeeper, but it’s fine.”
“It’s okay. Finding out you have family you never knew—especially when you’re all out of your own—that seems like wet-eye territory.”
I suck in a breath that’s all too real. “It—it is.”
“You hungry? My cousin’s coffee shop is legendary around here. And she’s not supposed to be working today. Which is good. Sabrina sees all, hears all, and knows all, if you know what I mean.”
My breathing evens out, and my gratitude for Lucky being so kind grows infinitely. Would he have been as kind if he’d been raised how I was? “Town gossip?” I ask.
“Kind of. She doesn’t share what she knows unless it’s harmless or unless she has to. And she’s awesome, but like…we want some time before we have her in the know about you. But if you like lemon scones and coffee, there’s nowhere better in the world.”
I like coffee, but today? On this stomach? It’s settling the longer we talk, but everyone’s always on their best behavior for a first meeting.
And the part of me that’s had my family ripped apart the past few years can’t help the desperate craving for Lucky and his brothers to like me.
To want to be my family too.
I do know DNA doesn’t make family. But god, I swear I see Daphne’s smile in his, and how can I not want to be family with that? “Any tea?” I ask.
He grins. “Oh, hell yeah. Tea too.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
He slings an arm around my shoulders. “Then let’s go get some breakfast, and then I’ll show you Snaggletooth Creek. Ever been to the mountains?”
I grab my phone on our way out the door, breathing in the cool morning air.
So far, this is easy.
Comfortable.
All credit to Lucky—he’s easy to warm up to. Friendly and kind.
“I have. I came once with my mom,” I tell him, which isn’t a lie.
Exactly.
I’ve been to many mountains, many times with my mother, even if my mother isn’t who Lucky thinks she is. So technically, I’ve been once.
And a few other times too.
“Girls’ trip?” he asks.
“Gotta do special things every now and again, don’t you?”
“Nah. Gotta do special things at every opportunity.”
Honestly, how could I not want to be related to a guy who looks at life that way?
He opens the passenger door of his blue sedan, and I climb in.
While he circles the car, I quickly text Cyril that I’m headed to town with Lucky, then tuck my phone away before Lucky opens his own door.
“So is Lucky your real name or a nickname?” I ask him as he starts the car.
“Real name.” He grins. “I was supposed to be a Michael, but I was youngest and smallest and clearly headed for the most time in the NICU when we were born, so when one of the nurses called me a lucky little fella, my parents shifted and decided I needed to be a Lucky.”
“It seems like it fits you.”
“So much better than Michael.” He shudders. “I must’ve known what they were planning, so I fought hardest to not be born until they’d reconsider.”
That makes me laugh.
He grins, steering his way down the driveway with ease. “Tell me about this home security system you set up. We’ve talked about putting cameras up since it’s vacant a lot, but homemade security systems are really more our style. We clearly share genes.”
And there go my eyes getting hot and stinging again. “I’m not usually quite that creative. The mountain air must’ve inspired me.”
“Mountain air’s the best.” He gestures ahead of us as we round a curve in the road and a range rises before us.
The peaks are likely at least five to ten miles away, maybe farther, but they’re majestic, already snow-capped despite fall not officially starting for a couple weeks still, with the sun shining down on them while a brilliant blue sky stands behind them.
“Beautiful,” I breathe.
“Nothing on earth like it.”
“It must be amazing to have this view every day of your life.” It’s funny—I’ve seen mountains all over the globe.
But every set of mountains is unique, and they’re all gorgeous in their own way, and they still take my breath away.
Daphne loves camping.
I love hiking, especially in places with towering natural scenery.
It makes me feel connected to the world in a sobering, grain-of-sand kind of way.