Page 3 of Bound To Be Mine

Sebastian didn’t seem bothered by my tone. He was used to me.

“I’d love to help Elizabeth,” Mom said, shaking her head at Sebastian. “I think that was an in-your-head-only idea. But Elizabeth could run with a baby line.”

Sebastian and I exchanged a quick look. Losing our father had hit our mother the hardest. She had picked up and carried on and anyone on the outside looking in would think she was fine, but that was because she felt she had to be. She was fine in the sense she wasn’t curled up into a ball.

It had been about two years since Dad passed away, and for the past year, she had been throwing herself into new projects. She was volunteering a lot more. Sitting in on meetings. Searching for something we all worried she could never find because it was gone.

Dash sat in the seat next to me. “You should come up some ideas, Mom,” he said. “You used to design stuff here and there.”

She nodded like she was considering it.

I leaned away from my little brother. “You smell like a brothel.”

“Have you ever been in a brothel?” Dash retorted.

“Absolutely not.”

“Then you don’t know that I smell like one.”

“Okay, you smell like you’ve been rolling around the perfume counter at Bloomingdales. It’s not a good smell.”

“He’s right,” Bernadette said. She waved a hand in front of her nose. “Tell your girlfriend one or two squirts of perfume is more than enough.”

“As if he would have a girlfriend.” I scoffed.

Dash leaned over, giving me another unwanted whiff of the cloying perfume. “I have many girlfriends. That’s what normal single men do. They date.”

“You flit,” I said.

Dash made a face. “What the hell is that?”

“You’re like a honeybee. You flit from flower to flower. I’m surprised you don’t have a gaggle of kids. Maybe you do. Maybe they’ll show up on your doorstep one day.”

Now it was his turn to lean away from me. “Why would you jinx me like that? Whatever. At least I go out. You’re on the verge of monkhood at this point.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh yes, just what I want, dating advice from my little brother, the town bicycle. Everyone gets a ride.”

Dash didn’t even look embarrassed. “I’m just saying you might be a lot less uptight if you got laid.”

Mom sighed. “Dash, don’t talk like that in front of your mother. You’re all still my babies no matter how old you get.”

We stayed quiet until Mom started chatting with Bernadette. Then I leaned in and spoke quietly to Dash. “I appreciate your concern for my love life, but I assure you, things are just fine.”

“When’s the last time you went on a date?” Dash asked.

I would have loved to give him an answer, but I couldn’t remember. “I’ve been busy.”

“You’re always busy.”

“I’m the family attorney and head of the legal department at the company. Someone has to keep this family from being sued. Someone has to negotiate contracts.”

He snorted. “Sounds an awful lot like a monk.”

I let my attention wander back to my phone and the contract on the screen. Dash moved over to talk with everyone else. I was dimly aware of Sebastian’s laughter as he and Dash caught up. My mother and Bernadette shared all their hopes of who this brand new Blackwell child might be.

At some point in the near future, Bernadette and Sebastian would start a family of their own. With some luck, our mother would find fulfillment in stepping into her grandmother era. She would still pine for dad, but perhaps babies and children would heal some of the heartache from these last years.

Dad would want her to enjoy every second of it. To spoil the grandkids rotten since he couldn’t do it himself. That man had been all about family, and all of us were happy to carry on the tradition. Well, most of us.