The Sterling Boys(79)

"Damn! Oh my gosh! When did you do that?" Rain gasps, practically rocketing off my lap as she rushes to greet someone.

I look up to see long, dark hair, but the face is covered by the blonde of my dreams.

"I needed a change, so I changed... a lot of things. Even my house. This is just part of the new package," Tria says. Whoa, wait. Tria?

I stand up to see around Rain, and sure enough, it's Tria. The girl I've never seen as anything but a platinum blonde is standing here with hair that midnight would envy. It's a jarring change, and I laugh as Rain runs her fingers over her sister's hair, inspecting it as though it's a wig.

"You moved? Why didn't you tell me?" Rain asks absently.

"I was going to. I was worried you'd... well, I just wanted to handle it."

Maverick frowns as he walks over to me and whispers, "She was afraid Rain would ask us to help her move her stuff. That's what she was going to say, isn't it?"

"Probably," I mutter dryly. It's not like they've put forth any real effort to make the girl less skittish around them.

"Come, sit, eat. Dale's finishing up the steaks, and there are people all over the yard. Uncle Paul and Aunt Margaret are out there with Raya's dad."

"And Uncle John is busy making Eleanor grin," Raya adds with a wide grin.

The man is definitely smooth, but then again, all of Raya's family is smooth. That's worrisome.

"He wouldn't do anything like that," Raya says, her eyes on me. I swear she can read minds sometimes. "They don't choose marks so close to home, and even if they did, my family wouldn't cross that line. They've only stolen Kade's watch once, and that was just because he was an ass."

Kade laughs lightly while leaning back, putting his arm around her waist. Raya is constantly torn between scolding her family and defending them. I don't envy her for that. But they are definitely interesting people.

It's funny to see only her family sitting at the poker table. I suppose everyone has learned their lesson; if you see a Drivel with cards, stay away. Raya doesn't have the Drivel last name, but she does have the powerhouse punch with a deck of cards. I've definitely been burned.

"They're having a major poker tournament later. Only Raya's family. It gets nasty," Kade says, grinning when he sees my line of view.

"Peachy," Raya grumbles.

"Britt kicked Joey's ass in poker earlier," Maverick says.

"She kicked Uncle Joey's ass?" Raya asks in shock. "How? The man stacks the deck."

"She has an eidetic memory. She was counting the cards and realized he was cheating, so she started paying attention to his sleight of hand. He's in awe right now. Wants to take her to Vegas to count cards and stuff."

"Not happening," I chime in, quickly shutting that down.

"Britt already told him no. Said it wasn't for her," Maverick adds.

I can't help but grin. Britt's the easiest teenager in the world. It's hard to believe no one ever took the time to love her. It's everyone else's loss.

"You want to meet some of Dane's friends?" Rain asks Tria.

"Actually, I'm about to go. I've got some work to do on my new line. I just came by to see you. I'll call you later, though."

Rain frowns, but she lets her sister walk away. Tria offers a few weak smiles on her way out the door, and I feel bad that she's so uncomfortable around my family.

"You guys have to start trying harder," Rain scolds as soon as Corbin walks in, his mouth full of cheese and crackers.

"What'd I do?" he asks, his voice muffled by the food, and he raises his arms.

"Tria is scared to damn death of all of you. I want us all to be close."

"Hey, I've invited her out with us, and she turned me down," Maverick says, pouting a little as though his oversized ego is wounded.

"Of course she said no. She's terrified of you. You have to show her the sweet Maverick that tried taping Mr. Harrison's cat's tail back on, even though the crazed thing tried to claw you to pieces."

"He did cut its tail off, so it had a reason to be clawing him up," Corbin chirps, prompting a few laughs.

Maverick turns his glare on him. "I didn't do that. It was you."

From there, the cat-tail bobbing goes into a heated dispute of it was you, no it was you. Rain rolls her eyes and sits down when she sees it's a lost cause.

She resumes her place on my lap, and I sigh happily as chatter erupts everywhere. It's easy to ignore the rest of the world when I've got exactly who I want in my arms. It's even easier when she's looking at me the way I only ever thought I'd get to dream about.

I used to wake up thinking I was happy enough. Now I could rewrite the Webster Dictionary's definition to the word happy.

Thunder crackles outside, and everyone stops talking.