She laughed, then looked at Mr. Aiona. “Yeah. He stopped by my first night with a basket from May. And I sent him home with sugar cookies.”
Kai smiled and it brought out two dimples. Lord.
“They were delicious, thank you.”
“Cookies? I never had any cookies.” His father sounded suspicious.
She looked at Mr. Aiona, then to Kai. “I sent a dozen home with Kai.”
A blush stained Kai’s cheeks. “I ate them on the way home.”
“All twelve?” she asked.
His father let out a booming laugh and slapped Kai on the back. “You’ll get fat, my son.”
“Not a chance. I’m going to grab a beer. Does anyone want anything?”
No one did and she watched him walk away. Inwardly, she sighed. It had been a long time since a man had caught her attention, but it seemed her libido had just come back to life. Damn, the man was put together fine. As she had noticed the night she met him, he wasn’t tall, but he was built. She studied the way the worn fabric moved over his shoulders and could tell that he was definitely defined. And from what Cynthia said, he had more than just that dragon tattoo.
She noticed that her brother and Mr. Aiona had gotten quiet. Kai’s father wore a knowing smile that had her face heating in embarrassment. God, how horrible. Caught ogling his son. When she turned to Chris, his thunderous expression didn’t settler her nerves. She didn’t need her brother going into protection mode the first night she met all of his friends.
Jocelyn knew she needed to get out of there. Chris was opening his mouth to say something when Cynthia walked up and saved Jocelyn from his wrath. She slipped her arm through Jocelyn’s and tugged.
“May, Dee and I want some girl time with Jocelyn. Go look at the meat and make manly sounds.”
Chris didn’t look all that happy about it, but he wasn’t about to make a scene, especially with Cynthia pulling her away.
Once they were out of earshot, she said, “Girl, thank you. That was embarrassing.”
Cynthia laughed. “Yeah, I could see that. I can’t blame you. Kai is hot. And he is a sweetie.”
Again, Jocelyn felt her face heat. “Yeah, well, nothing like lusting after a man in front of my brother. Not to mention his father. I thought Chris was going to say something.”
Cynthia’s blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “I’m sure he wanted to, but he has to weigh how it will look. If he makes too big of a scene, he’s afraid Kai will intrigue you even more.”
Jocelyn stopped and pulled her arm out of Cynthia’s. “What does he think I am, fifteen?”
“Yeah, I think so. He still sees you that way. And I’m going to warn you, Chris is going to be overprotective.”
She laughed. “Yeah, tell me something I don’t know. He’s always been that way. My first date he sat on the couch pretending to clean our daddy’s gun.”
“No, really?”
Jocelyn sighed. “Yeah. First real date and he wouldn’t hold my hand. Chris can be a pain in the ass.”
“Of course.” Cynthia slipped her arm through Jocelyn’s again. “I just want you to know that he was so very scared when we went to Atlanta.”
Shame washed through her. She should have never allowed it, should have never been in that position. Greg had pretty much escalated things and it had been out of her control in the end. But it didn’t mean that every day she didn’t fight the battle of shame versus anger. She’d learned through therapy she had to quit blaming herself, but there was a part of her that never would. It was the part that hated her family had been hurt by Greg’s actions and the resulting incident.
“Don’t start looking like that,” Cynthia said.
She glanced at her soon-to-be sister-in-law. The militant look on her soft features almost made Jocelyn smile. She might be petite, but Cynthia could be a tiger when it came to people she cared about.
“I hate that he went through that,” Jocelyn said.
“I don’t want you to feel guilty. You have no reason to be. It was bad, worse than I am sure you told us.”
Jocelyn looked away because it was the truth. And she could feel the press of hot tears against the backs of her eyes.
“Hey, stop. If you cry, I’ll cry.”
She fought back the tears and looked at Cynthia who was wearing one of the most devious smiles she’d ever seen.
“What?”
“I just want you to understand and not kill him.” She hesitated, then continued. “I would hate to raise our child alone.”
For a second, what Cynthia said didn’t sink in. When it did, Jocelyn opened her mouth but Cynthia shook her head. “I haven’t told him. I just found out today and I had to tell someone. If I had said something to him, he would have freaked out. And I didn’t want the party to be about that.”