Page 58 of Wild Promise

“You must be Lucy.”

Her eyes flared wide. “How did you know?”

I chuckled. “I’ve already talked with Olivia on the phone. Let’s just say she made a big impression.”

Vic laughed some more, and Lucy padded farther into the room.

“I heard my name.” Olivia sauntered in from the other doorway. When she saw me, her eyes widened, but there was nothing innocent or unassuming about the look she gave me.

“Good morning, Olivia,” I greeted.

“It is now,” she said with a beaming smile and came to sit on the couch beside me.

“Behave,” Vic grunted at his middle daughter, but even with his stuttered speech, the lightheartedness came through.

“Oh, please.” Olivia waved a hand at him like he was acting ridiculous. “When am I ever not behaved?”

“All the time,” Lucy muttered with a shy smirk.

“Don’t listen to them.” Olivia angled her knees toward me. She kept a respectable distance, but my stomach still dropped when she leaned a little closer and asked, “So, Zane Alexander, what are your intentions with my sister?”

“Liv!” Lucy objected.

But Vic hushed his youngest daughter with a gesture of his hand and leveled me with a glare. “I’d like to hear his answer.”

Knots formed in my stomach, and a multitude of words swirled through my head, but none of them seemed like the right ones. How could I explain to them what I wanted when I could barely admit it to myself? Especially when I hadn’t really explained it to Melina.

I took a deep breath and shrugged. “I like her.” But even as I said it, the words felt insufficient and thin. Not nearly enough. “I’d say I want to take care of her, but she already does a good job of that herself. So, I guess my only intention is to be with her and make sure she’s happy.”

The room went quiet. I looked at each of them, my pulse thudding in my ears.

Lucy spoke first. “I think that might be the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah,” Olivia agreed, and unless I was imagining it, her eyes were actually glistening. “Way better than Hallmark.”

I wanted to laugh, but my stomach was still clenched, waiting for the only opinion that would truly make or break me in this house.

Vic took his time. He shifted in his chair, adjusted his grip on his cane, and looked at me with an expression that held years of love and loss and hard-won wisdom.

“She deserves it,” he said, his words slow but clear. “She works too hard to make…us happy.”

The knot in my stomach unfurled, and something warm and unfamiliar settled in its place. Acceptance. Not just from Vic, but from all of them. This broken but beautiful family that Melina had held together with nothing but willpower and love.

And here they were, letting me in.

“I plan on giving her a whole hell of a lot, if she’ll let me.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Melina

After taking the fastest shower in history, I rushed to get dressed for work. But my hands were shaking so badly, I could barely button my blouse.

“Screw it,” I muttered under my breath as I ripped the shirt off and switched it out for a sweater instead.

Once dressed, I pinned my hair back and stared myself in the eyes through the vanity mirror. “Get your shit together, Melina. You are the fire.”

But my pep talk did nothing.