Chapter 5
FIVE
Chloe received more hugs that morning than in her entire lifetime. It was magical, beyond words. Beyond even her imagining—and she’d done a lot of imagining on sleepless nights, staring at the ceiling, wondering what it would be like to have a family.
Wonderful, that’s what it was like.
It took her a second to sort the women out. The small, pretty red head with the slight southern accent was Ellen, Harry’s wife. And…and her sister-in-law. And Chloe had a niece.
Chloe had never, ever thought she’d have a sister-in-law or a niece. A blood relation. The thought made her shiver.
And then Nicole, Sam’s wife. Beautiful and warm and welcoming. And, since Harry said Sam was like a brother to him, well then, apparently Nicole was her sister-in-law, too.
Then there was Sam, very tall, as tall as her brother Harry, only not as good-looking.
He actually looked rough, exactly the kind of man she’d shy away from, instinctively.
Tall, strong, rough-looking men automatically equated danger.
This was a message that came to her from some place so deeply embedded in her heart and mind and sinews that she had never even questioned it, until now.
Notwithstanding his appearance, though, Sam seemed like a good guy.
Though he looked like he could pick you up and smash you against a wall without breaking a sweat, the truth was, he made a real point of being gentle with her.
He’d hugged her with almost exaggerated care, the way you’d hug a frail grandmother.
There wasn’t anything he could do about his rough voice, but he did seem to try to modulate it for her.
And he loved his wife, as much as Harry visibly loved his.
It was there every time he looked at Nicole. It didn’t seem like a sick love, either, the kind Chloe now recognized had existed between her adopted parents and had undoubtedly existed between her biological mother and her drug-addict husband and boyfriends.
No, this was the real deal, and she could see why because Nicole was absolutely gorgeous and nice with it.
Tall, slender except for the small bump of pregnancy.
Long jet-black hair, riveting cobalt-blue eyes.
And completely natural, without a trace of that complex, instinctive sense of competition beautiful women often had around other women.
She’d hugged Chloe with genuine warmth, looked Chloe straight in her eyes without even a thought to her clothes or bag or shoes, and then kept a friendly arm around her friend Ellen’s shoulders as she smiled at Chloe.
The body language could not have been more clear. For both women. Welcome. We are eager to be your friends.
Mike Keillor—he was another story. Not as tall as the men he called his brothers, but seemingly twice as broad.
He had the strongest shoulders and arms she’d ever seen on a man.
A body-builder but without that body-builder stiffness and clumsiness.
He simply looked…strong. Firmly planted on the ground, unstoppable, invincible.
It was a little harder to think of Mike Keillor as a brother.
The hugs of the two men, Sam and Harry—officially now her brothers!—and their wives, had been warm and brief. In the rush of excitement, she could hardly tell who was hugging her. Like plunging into a warm ocean, with lots of waves lapping at her.
But when Mike hugged her, time stopped, somehow. She was instantly aware of everything, all sensations separate and discrete. Each one unusual for her. Each one exciting.
The feel of him. That was what affected her so much. Harry and Sam were so tall she had to stretch up awkwardly to place her hands on their shoulders, up on tiptoe, brief hug, falling back onto her heels. The hug over almost before it began because hugging someone so tall was awkward.
Mike, now…Mike was the perfect height, taller than her but not too tall.
And the strength of him. Wow. She had never in her life touched someone as strong as he was.
Like embracing a man of steel. Superman, only without the leotard.
Superman, only shorter, broader, but with—yes—piercing blue eyes and yes, that lick of black hair over the forehead that just made you want to reach out and brush it back.
She’d had to clench her fists not to do just that.
He smelled wonderful, too. Clean, utterly male.
For just a moment, instead of a hug, it had been an embrace. He’d simply rolled her into himself, put his arms around her and held her close.
She’d loved it. That was a huge surprise. She didn’t have to reason it all out, like she did with most of her interactions with people. Should I do this, say this, and if I do this, what then? Is this normal, should I be feeling this, will they look at me oddly when I do that?
Her usual exhausting head games when dealing with people. She had no natural sense for it, had always been bad at it.
Maybe it was all those lonely years in the hospital, or having parents who never interacted with her.
Whatever it was, sometimes Chloe thought that everyone in the world except her had been handed an instruction manual at the beginning of their lives and knew what the script was, whereas she was perennially in the dark.
It was better once she was at Sacred Heart and afterwards, at university and out in the work world. But still, it seemed to her that she had no social instincts, only painful lessons learned in harsh schools.
But that moment with Mike—that moment out of time—it had been sheer instinct. They fit together so perfectly. There hadn’t been even a split second of awkwardness. In a second, she was held against him, her arms around his waist, his arms around her back, his head close to hers.
In that instant, something had stilled inside her. Her constant inner monologue stopped dead. She had no thoughts, only feelings, rushing in, overwhelming her.
Strength, heat, safety. Arousal.
Wow.
Mike moved away, and a lucky thing, too, because she was entirely incapable of it.
She actually felt bereft when he stepped back.
The whole front of her body felt cold, missing something vital.
She stood still and looked in his eyes, those bright blue eyes, wondering if he had a clue that something momentous had happened inside her.
He was looking serious. She had no idea what his normal expression was but right then he had looked deeply into her eyes, as if he could walk around inside her head. His face had been tight, a slight tic fluttered in his right eyelid. Chloe simply couldn’t look away.
Time stretched…
“All right!” Harry clapped his hands and Chloe jumped, the entire room zooming back into focus.
Harry and Sam were closing up shop, shutting down computers, putting paper files away.
Her brother smiled at her. “Chloe, we’ll swing by the Del, get your stuff, and get on home.
Your room will be ready by the time we get there, but we’ll be eating up at Sam and Nicole’s.
” He stopped, looked at her with a frown.
“You’re looking shell-shocked,” he said gently, picking up her hands. “Is all this too much for you?”
His hands were so warm. Chloe smiled up at him. “It is a little overwhelming. But in a good way.” She tried to still the trembling in her throat. “I’m still finding it a little hard to believe that I found you. That I have a brother.”
He bent and kissed her forehead. “I know what you mean. At least you had some time to get used to the idea before you came here. I was blindsided.” He pulled back to look down at her.
“But now, you know what? I feel like you’ve been there all along, it’s just that I didn’t know.
” He swallowed heavily. “And now I do. It changes everything.”
“Yes, it does.” Tears prickled. She gave a hollow laugh and swiped at her eyes. “At some point I’m going to stop crying, I promise.”
“I’m not, not for a while, anyway.” Ellen came up and kissed her cheek again.
“I don’t have a family, either, outside Harry and Grace.
So for me it’s like finding a sister. We’re all so happy.
” She spun around in the room, hands up in the air.
“And now we’re going to party! Let’s get out of here and get home! ”
“Here.” Behind her, Mike’s bass voice. Chloe turned, startled.
He was holding her coat up. She slipped into it.
His heavy hands rested, briefly, on her shoulders.
It felt good, really good. Events were was swirling around her, almost too fast to follow, making her dizzy.
His big hands grounded her, slowed everything down, made everything real.
“We’ll be there in about half an hour, forty minutes.” Nicole was talking into her cell, and snapped it shut. “Manuela’s still crying, but she’s also cooking up a storm and she is going to be very angry if everything gets cold. You do not want to make Manuela angry.”
“No, ma’am,” Sam said fervently, and winked at Chloe. “Without Manuela I’d never eat. Ouch,” he said mildly when Nicole elbowed him in the ribs.
She smiled sweetly at her husband, narrowing her eyes until only a cobalt-blue slit gleamed. “Another crack like that and I know what else you’ll never do again.”
Sam mimed horror and zipped his lips.
Chloe laughed and then barely refrained herself from clasping her hand over her mouth. Old habits. Her mother—her adoptive mother—had frowned on laughing in public. But she wasn’t here, would never be here again. Everyone smiled when she laughed and Sam winked at her again.
“Okay!” Harry twirled his finger in the air. “Heading on out. Chloe, you’re coming with us.”
“I’ll come with you too, Harry,” Mike said. “Barney is picking up my SUV. I left it in Logan Heights last night.”
For some reason, Harry and Sam shared sharp glances. Before she could puzzle out what it meant, a strong hand closed over her elbow. Mike, at her side.