“Even the soccer player? Excuse me, the football god.”
She sometimes forgot that what she’d called soccer all her life was football over here. And Callum Thurston-Hughes had been one of the best—Manchester United’s star player until a career-killing injury had taken him out the year before. But Tori gave him credit. Rather than being bitter, Callum treated every new day like a gift to be used to its fullest. It sometimes made him reckless, dangerous. “You must have heard that I’m dealing with a paternity case for him. It’s all over the press.”
“All right. That headline was hard to miss,” Piper conceded. “Hey, at least they’re keeping you busy.”
Tori scoffed. “I just love the phone ringing at three in the morning with some new Thurston-Hughes surprise that ruins my night of sleep.”
“Well, if you won’t consider your very hot bosses as potential mates, Dane has hired a couple of new guards who are smart and funny. I think you’ll find them attractive. My husbands also have some cousins who would love to meet you. I have to warn you, though. There are five of them and they’re very traditional.”
Tori felt her jaw drop. Had her sister lost her damn mind? “Five? I don’t know where you put three.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Piper began. “One in—”
“Stop.” Sometimes her sister overshared, and Tori didn’t need to hear more of this. “I don’t want to know. I would like to keep my ears as virginal as the rest of me.”
Piper froze. “You’re kidding. Still?”
“You were a virgin until you got married. I don’t understand the shock.”
“After Dad died, I had you to raise, so I didn’t date. What’s holding you back?”
How did she explain her choices to a sister who had been swept off her feet and made a queen literally? “I watched a couple of friends get their hearts seriously broken by guys who used them for sex. I don’t want to end up like them.
Tori refused to give up that piece of herself to someone who didn’t value her. Her friend Brooke had once had a one-night stand. Nine months later, it turned into a battle for child support fought by two parents who couldn’t stand each other. But it wasn’t simply pregnancy or single motherhood that worried Tori.
“You have to take a chance at some point.” Piper sat back, her eyes soft with empathy as she looked her sister over. “You can’t hide away all of your life. Mom and Dad had a great marriage.”
Of course Piper had to bring up the one subject guaranteed to send her into a tailspin. Unfortunately, not even that kept her from thinking about the Thurston-Hughes brothers—all three of them.
“Yes, until Mom died and Daddy turned into a shell of himself.” Tori took a long breath. Her chest tightened, as it always did when she thought about her parents. For most of her life they’d been blissfully happy. Then her mother’s long fight with cancer had ended. Afterward, her father had faded away until a car accident had stolen what had been left of his life. “Do you ever wonder?”
Piper sniffled, her eyes glazing over with a sheen of tears. She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “If he let it happen because he wanted to end his suffering? All the time. He knew those roads like the back of his hand.”
Had their father driven off that road so he didn’t have to live without his beloved anymore? “The thought of a love like that scares me, Piper.”
“Sweetie, life is basically meaningless if you don’t love like that,” Piper argued. “Dad wouldn’t have taken back the years he had with Mom, even if he’d known how they would end. He wouldn’t have chosen to spend his life with anyone else. We don’t know what happened the night he died, Mindy, but he was a good father. Shouldn’t we give him the benefit of the doubt?”
Tori nodded because she didn’t want to talk about this anymore. It was easier to deflect this subject with the Thurston-Hughes family. They didn’t know her the way Piper did. Tori easily handled them with a fake engagement ring and a couple of phony calls to her “fiancé.”
She used that pretend engagement like a blunt instrument. It worked best on Oliver. Callum and Rory still flirted, but the moment Oliver had heard the “news,” he’d become chillingly polite. Every now and then, she still caught him looking at her like a hungry lion. Whenever that happened, she flashed her cubic zirconia rock, and poof, they were merely work associates again.
“Tell me about Sabir’s birthday party,” Tori said, completely changing the subject. The elder of her two adorable nephews was having his birthday soon, and Tori intended to forget her romantic issues for a while and play auntie. It was her favorite role.
For a moment, Piper looked like she would press the subject, but she finally stirred her tea again and sipped. “I’m so glad you’re coming. I hope you can stay for a while. The boys miss you. I think we’re going with a pirate theme.”
While her sister chatted away, Tori thought about the men she should never, would never touch.
* * * *
Oliver Thurston-Hughes clenched his fists and tried to quell his urge to punch someone. Then again, a day rarely went by that he didn’t feel it. “What do you mean?”
“I need a place to stay temporarily.” His younger brother Callum leaned forward, wearing an earnest look on his sun-bronzed face. “Just until the crack pot births her spawn and I get the results of the DNA test. Apparently, I can’t force her to do one until the nipper makes his actual appearance, so we’ve got some months to wait.”