Page 85 of Scheme
And I was loved, though I didn’t think I was brave enough to act on it.
Straightening my shoulders, I led Kit past the brick walls and through the open wrought-iron gate, winding through the cars parked on the driveway. From the street, the house itself was hidden by tall, established trees, but I felt Kit’s hand tighten the moment he saw the residence proper.
“Wow,” Kit said in a slightly strangled voice.
“Yep,” I muttered. The house was nearly as old as the village, an enormous red brick monstrosity—complete with parapet—with eight large bedrooms upstairs, big enough to house even our generously-sized family.
With a final strained smile at Kit, I pushed open the unlocked door to my childhood home, leading him into the enormous entry hall—all high ceilings and white cornices. As well as the kitchen and dining room, there were three separate reception rooms downstairs, all of which sounded and smelled like they were packed to the gills with guests. The two rooms at the back opened onto a patio and extensive gardens, which is where I was confident I’d find Nana, but we’d have to wade through this veritable sea of disapproving relatives first.
“This place is very… grand,” Kit settled on, seemingly struggling to come up with a word that wouldn’t offend me, which was hilarious, as I doubted there was much he could say about this house thatwouldoffend me. It hardly held any happy memories for me.
“It is,” I agreed wryly. “And to be somewhat fair to my parents, they reproduced prolifically, so we did need a lot of space. However, they purchased the house for status rather than practicality.”
There was really nothing at all downstairs to indicate that children had ever lived here, and that was exactly the way my parents preferred it.
“Margot!” I managed to stifle my dread as Layla appeared, her youngest son in her arms, messily eating a cracker and seemingly getting more on my sister’s dress than in his mouth.
Not that it detracted from her appearance in any way. Even with six kids and never getting a full night’s sleep in a decade, Layla was stillstunninglybeautiful. Perfectly proportioned, lightly tanned, with all the elegant features that had missed me in the gene pool, and naturally thick dark brown curls. Like all of my siblings, she looked as though she’d just walked off the set of a photoshoot.
“You’resolate,” she hissed. “You were supposed to be here to help set up and watch the kids. What the hell are you playing at?”
“No one asked me to come early,” I replied mildly. I’d known they’d expected me to, but just this once, I wanted to beasked, the way Layla was always politely asked whenever Mum and Dad wanted her to do something.
“It’s not like you have anything else to do,” she retorted with a filthy look before turning to Kit with a painfully forced smile on her face. “You’re a friend of Margot’s, I suppose.”
Well, I could hardly hold Coleman against him now after my sister had decided to show her whole ass.
Kit observed her with that slightly unnerving silence for a beat longer than was polite. “I’m a lot more than a friend.”
She didn’t believe him, and it was written all over her disdainful face. I’d known none of them would.
“I’m Layla, one of Margot’s sisters.”
“This is Kit,” I said after a long silence. Apparently, he wasn’t inclined to respond.
“Margot, watch Lincoln for me. Fraser is bored out of his mind talking to Dad’s colleagues; I need to keep him company.”
Kit stiffened next to me, and I busied myself with taking Lincoln off her hands and distracting him until Layla was out of sight, pretending to eat his cracker and tickling his belly so he didn’t bawl for his mother. No need to add more to the list of grievances Layla had for me.
“Fraser?” Kit repeated in a low voice.
I swallowed tightly.
“Yes. And yes.ThatFraser.”
“The alpha you were courting.”
“That alpha, yes.” I couldn’t meet Kit’s eye, so I smoothed back Lincoln’s soft baby curls instead, glad he looked like his mother. “But I don’t think of them that way. He is Layla’s mate. Has been for twelve years. A brother of mine, I suppose.”
Not that I treated him as such. I had as little to do with Fraser as possible, and he was very happy to reciprocate.
“How?” Kit gritted out. “How did that come to be? Don’t,” he added with a warning look as I opened my mouth to make a sarcastic birds-and-the-bees joke, eager to deflect from the tension.
With a heavy sigh, I led Kit closer to the front door, away from the crowds in the reception rooms, hoping Lincoln was too little to repeat any of my words.
“Fraser and I started courting when we were teenagers and his family moved in next door. Our parents immediately hit it off—mine were thrilled, since they didn’t fancy my chances of finding an alpha who’d be willing to have me on account of my unfortunate face. Don’t interrupt,” I said quickly, holding up a hand. “I hate everything about this story, and if you interrupt, I won’t get through it.”
I waited until Kit reluctantly nodded before continuing.
