Chapter Nineteen
Lucas
Iparked in front of the garage beside a Range Rover and let myself into the house. I couldn't picture myself ever living in a place this size. It was fucking enormous. I'd stayed in hotels that were smaller.
Everything about the house spoke of old-world quality. I'd spent enough time rehabbing my own place to appreciate the smooth grain of the quarter-sawn oak and the way the ivory walls contrasted with the dark wood trim without being cold.
Winters House smelled of beeswax and faintly of flowers. My mother's trailer had reeked of stale cigarettes, undercut by the bleach that clung to her skin after long days of scrubbing toilets.
Memory and reality clashed, shoving me off-balance.
I followed the sound of voices through the front hall to what looked like the formal living room. The heavy crown molding, silk drapes, and expensive furniture called for cocktail dresses and suits, but the Winters clan was having none of that.
Even Aiden wore jeans with his button-down shirt. I didn't think I'd ever seen him without a tie. Despite his casual dress, stress had drawn grooves on either side of his mouth and the dark circles beneath his eyes were worse.
When he saw me, he grinned in triumph. I stopped myself before I could growl in response.
I spotted Charlie a second later, curled up on one of the couches, trying gamely to hang onto her cousin Vance's daughter, Rosalie. The baby was five months old and didn't seem to want to cuddle.
Beside her sat Maggie, a shapely redhead I'd met a few times when she came by to see Charlie. Engaged to Vance, Maggie already seemed to think of Rosie as her own. Charlie looked up to see me and her eyes brightened.
"Hey. You're here. Do you want anything to drink?"
She passed Rosalie back to Maggie and picked up her beer off a side table.
"I'll take a beer," I said.
"Sure you don't want a whiskey?" Aiden asked, a gleam in his eye.
"After your Macallan, everything else is a step down," I said, grinning at him. I heard a hoot of laughter from across the room and saw Vance elbow Jacob, her brother.
"You owe me," Aiden said.
I shrugged and shook my head. "I don't think so. That would be Charlie. I was just in the right place at the right time."
"I'm jealous," Jacob said. "I asked him twenty times to let me try it. Nothing, the selfish bastard. How was it? "
"It was so smooth," Charlie interrupted, smirking at her brothers and Vance. "So good, I don't think words can do it justice."
"You know if any of us had stolen a fifteen thousand-dollar bottle of whiskey from Aiden, he would've beaten the shit out of us," Vance said blandly.
Charlie shrugged. "I've spent my entire life putting up with you overbearing Winters men ruining all my fun. There have to be some perks. Anyway, Aiden deserved it."
"Agreed," Vance said. At Aiden's noise of affront, he looked at his older cousin and said, "Sorry, man. But you did. Firing Charlie was an asshole move. You know it. I know it. Everybody knows it."
"He's right," Jacob said, ignoring Aiden's scowl.
"You guys always gang up on Aiden," a low, sweet voice broke in.
Abigail Jordan. I had a feeling it wouldn't be long until she was Abigail Winters if the way Jacob looked at her was any indication.
I hadn't seen her since the night I killed Big John, and then only the back of her robe as she ran for Jacob's safe room.
Tonight, she was dressed more formally than anyone else in the room in a light blue linen dress with matching shoes, her hair up in a complicated looking twist. Except for the last time we crossed paths, I'd never seen her casually dressed.
She looked directly at me, her eyes filled with an emotion I couldn't name. I wondered if she was afraid of me. I'd shot and killed a man only a few feet from her. That would be enough to scare anyone.
Turning to Charlie with sympathy in her eyes, she said, "I'm sorry, honey. I agree he didn't handle that very well. And I know sometimes, these guys go overboard when they think they know best. But he acted out of love."
"It's nice to know someone around here appreciates me," Aiden said, his smile at Abigail affectionate and gentle.
Jacob shook his head at his brother.
"Stop flirting with my woman," he said.
Abigail sent him an exasperated look. "Just because someone's nice to me, doesn't mean they're flirting," she said.
"You guys are such cavemen," Maggie complained. She held Rosalie up in front of her and nuzzled her nose into the baby's stomach. Rosie erupted into a fountain of baby giggles, the sound pure joy. "I shudder to think what Vance will be like when Rosie discovers boys."
"Rosie is never going to discover boys," Vance said. "Rosie is going to join a nunnery when she's twelve. If she behaves herself, I may pick her husband for her when she's thirty-five. Preferably a eunuch."
Jacob and Aiden both made sounds of agreement. Maggie just shook her head and ignored them.
A bell rang somewhere in the house, and everyone stood. Must be dinner time. Charlie handed me a beer she'd gotten from the wet bar by the door and looped her arm through mine as we walked to the dining room.
Abigail stopped us in the hall with a hand on my arm. Looking up at me with brimming eyes, she said, "Lucas Jackson. I'm so sorry I haven't been to see you since Charlie moved in next door. Jacob wouldn't tell me where you lived before."
"Why did you want to see me?" I asked, confused, and sent a quick glance at Jacob, who was eyeing us with an amused expression.
"I wanted to thank you for everything you did for me. I know trying to help me made the whole situation with Big John worse. You didn't have to do that."
"Yes, I did," I said. Abigail had been in a bad spot with her former father-in-law. I couldn't have left her to face it alone. She'd risked her future to help her sick mother. She didn't deserve what Big John was going to do to her.
"No," she said, her eyes meeting mine with a level gaze. "You didn't. Except for Jacob, no one else helped me. I was in your way and you changed your plans to keep me safe. It means a lot and I wanted you to know. I wish I'd been able to thank you at the time, but—"
But I'd just shot a man and hadn't stuck around to chat. And Jacob hadn't been eager to let his woman anywhere near me.
"It's okay. You're welcome. I'm just glad to see you're doing so well. Is your mom hanging in there?"
She nodded. "Some days are better than others. I don't think she has a lot of time left. It's good to be able to visit her so much."
"I'm sorry," I said. Her grief when she spoke of her mother was palpable, weighing down her voice.
"Thank you, so am I. I hope you didn't get in too much trouble for, um, Big John. Jacob said you didn't."
"No, I didn't. Everything was fine."
"Good," she said with a smile.
Jacob swept by, sliding his arm around her waist. He swung her away from me with an exaggerated scowl in my direction and said to Abigail, "I told you to stop flirting. Especially with men who once threatened to kidnap you."
Abigail let out a lighthearted giggle, a sound I'd never heard from her before. She patted the side of his face before kissing his cheek. "Maggie is right. You are a caveman."
Jacob made a grunting sound and nuzzled her ear as he led her into the dining room, oblivious to Charlie and me behind them.
The formal dining room in Winters House was more suited to a state dinner than a family meal. A long, polished table stretched the length of the room, surrounded by heavy, ornately carved wooden chairs with dark velvet seats.
At one end was an enormous stone fireplace, left cold this time of year. The beamed ceiling rose for two full stories, and along two sides of the upper level, a railed gallery gave access to a built-in library, the shelves filled with books.
I couldn't see a way to access the library from the dining room. There had to be a hidden door to the second level. Winters House was impressive, but that dining room was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
From the size of the table to the secret library tucked into the walls above our heads, it was all I could do not to stare. I was usually cooler than this.
Turning my attention back to Charlie, I let her lead me to a surprisingly comfortable seat. Few chairs were a good fit for a guy my size. With its tall back and well-cushioned, wide seat, this one was perfect.
I couldn't imagine myself living in a house that could pass for a hotel, but there was something to be said for having a personal chef. Especially since the Winters family tastes ran more toward home cooking than haute cuisine.
On the menu tonight were stuffed pork chops, some sort of potato dish layered with cheese, and green beans almandine. I wasn't a huge fan of green beans.
Based on the way Vance was shoving them around his plate, half burying them under the potatoes, neither was he. I saw Maggie elbow him and his sheepish smile in response. I had a feeling he'd be eating at least some of those green beans.
The conversation flowed around the table, hopping from topic to topic.
It wasn't hard to keep up. None of them treated me like I didn't belong.
There was no posturing about my relationship with Charlie, no attempt to get me alone and 'explain things'.
Nothing was said on the topic at all. The lack of challenge left me unsettled.
Was it possible they'd already granted their approval?
Or did they know our fling had an expiration date, so they weren't wasting their energy?
They didn't give me a clue, and I found it frustrating. I was good at reading a room, but I couldn't make sense of the Winters family. They defied my every expectation.
Wealthy but not elitist.
Controlling and bossy but supportive and loving.
This had nothing to do with my experience of family.