Brothers of Paradise Series

I grin. “I’m his favorite uncle.”

“Don’t say that when Henry or Rhys are around,” Hayden says.Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

“Because I’m right?”

He chuckles. “Yes, because you’re right.”

In truth, my brothers don’t live permanently in Paradise Shores, and that might contribute somewhat to my higher status in little Jamie’s pecking order. But Marchands are competitive to the core, and I won’t give them an inch.

“Come here, you rascal,” Hayden says. He catches his son around the waist. The boy has dark hair like his father. “It’s almost time for bed.”

My nephew wails like he’s been told it’s time for the gallows.

“Yes, it is,” Hayden says firmly. He spent years in the Navy. They had been dark years with him away and the rest of us none the wiser, particularly my sister. But the discipline drilled into him became a part of his very core. “No ifs or buts.”

“Yes ifs!” Jamie cries, with the expertise of someone who’s countered this argument many times before. “Yes butts! All the butts!”

Hayden gives me a withering look. “He has no idea what he’s saying.”

I smile at both of them. Hayden is holding Jamie upside down, the boy’s cape dragging on the floor, and walks calmly toward the stairs. “Let’s read a book,” he says.

“Parker!” Jamie calls. “Help!”

“Your uncle can’t help you,” Hayden says, all ruthlessness.

“Sorry, kiddo!” I call. “But I’m afraid of your father too!”

I hear Hayden snort, and then they disappear up the staircase. Jamie’s cry of disapproval disappears a few seconds later. He’s loud, and he’s determined, but he’s got a one-track mind. Tempt him with his favorite bedtime story and he’ll fold like a house of cards.

I lean back in the armchair and listen to the bustle my sister is making in the kitchen. Their house is close to mine, and now that we all live here again, I spend almost as much time here as I do at home. Little Jamie changed things for all of us.

“Jamie,” I say out loud. It has been a long time since I’d reflected on my nephew’s name.

Lily sticks her head in half a minute later. “Are you talking to yourself again?”

“What do you mean, again?”

She smiles and wipes her hands on a dishtowel. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” I stretch my legs out and look at the expensive glass sculpture on the coffee table. Lily likes it, and Hayden is not-so-secretly hoping their son would break it. I think it looks like a blob. “I was thinking about Jamie.”

“What about him?”

“Not him,” I say. “About his namesake.”

Lily disappears into the kitchen, puts the towel away, and joins me a minute later in the armchair opposite me. She absently fluffs the pillow behind her. “What about her?”

“Tell me about the promise again. With the names.”

She laughs a bit. “We were so young when we made that pact.”

“But you kept it.”

“I did. Well, partly.” She looks fondly toward the stairs where her husband and son went. “His real name is James. But yeah. I kept it.”

“How come?” I’m genuinely curious. It must have been years since the two of them saw one another… and I haven’t thought much about that. Not until she appeared in my restaurant.

Lily sighs. “What are these questions?”

“Tell me,” I say.

She draws her legs up beneath her in the armchair. “I hadn’t intended to keep it, actually. Hayden and I had a bunch of names we looked at. None really felt right. And then we came upon James. It was his grandfather’s name too, did you know that?”

“I didn’t.”

“He was someone Hayden had fond memories of, and you know that’s rare, with his family history. And I, well…” She picks at the edge of a neatly folded blanket. “I remembered the old pact. The name just fit. Jamie used to know everything about me, you know? And we hadn’t spoken in years when I had the baby. It felt right, like honoring people who mattered to both Hayden and me, but who were no longer with us… for different reasons, of course.” She shrugs, and gives me an un-Lily-like smile. It looks forced. “If she ever comes back, it’ll be complicated with the names, but I don’t think the odds are high anymore.”

I scratch along my jaw. “Right.”

“Parker.”

“Yes?”

Her gaze sharpens. “Why did you ask me about it? What do you know?”

I sigh. “How do you do that?”

“I’ve been reading you since I was born,” she says. “You’re only a year older than me. I had to learn to if I wanted to catch up. Now spill.” She leans forward, hands on her thighs. “Did you hear something?”

“You need to promise me something first.”

“No way. Tell me now.”

“No.”

“Parker Michael Marchand, I swear-”

“You have to promise me you won’t do anything rash. I don’t know where Jamie’s been, but she’s not the same person you remember.”

Lily’s eyes narrow. “You’ve seen her?”

“She’s back in Paradise,” I say, and hold up my hands. “Don’t overreact.”

My sister has gone completely still. “What?”

“She’s just taken a job at the yacht club.”

“You’re kidding, and it’s mean, Parker.”