Cherish Hard
Page 64

“You’re wearing makeup.” It was a disdainful statement.
Catie curled her lip at Sailor’s youngest brother, who, despite being a year older than Catie, was much shorter and looked far more like a child. “And you have dirt on your face, hunter-gatherer caveboy.”
Scowling, Danny folded his arms. “At least I don’t come to camp with goop on my face.” He fluttered his lashes and pretended to put on mascara.
“Danny.” Amused by the two of them, Sailor nonetheless cut off the insult-fest before it degenerated any further. “Where are Mom and Dad?”
“They got all smoochy”—rolled eyes—“and went for a walk on the beach. You’re early.”
Sailor nodded—they’d hit almost no traffic on the way down. He indicated the bedding Ísa was carrying. “Take that into Mom and Dad’s tent.”
While Danny did that, Jake waved at Sailor from where he was pounding in a tent peg. Sailor called out a hello to his brother before he had Ísa and Catie put their things in the center of the site, then grabbed one of the tent packages it was Gabe’s job to bring. He hadn’t seen his brother’s SUV in the parking area; he had a feeling Gabe had made a run into the small local township to buy something they needed before the shops all shut.
“Come on,” he said to his girls. “Let’s put this up.”
They were ridiculously bad at the task—but they laughed throughout, making random and terrible suggestions as to how to speed up the process, which had him cracking up. Catie fell once, her smile fading for a second before Sailor hauled her up and told her to stop trying to get out of putting up the tent. She stuck out her tongue at him, but the light was back in her eyes.
But it was the naked emotion on Ísa’s face that got him. Running his hand down her back while Catie was distracted, he nuzzled a kiss to her temple.
She said, “Thank you for taking care of my baby sister.”
“If she’s yours, she’s mine,” Sailor said, because that was the absolute truth.
Ísa’s gaze shimmered.
“Hey, eyeshadow girl, what happened to your legs?” Danny’s curious question had them both looking up.
“A crocodile ate them.”
Sailor bit back a grin while beside him, Ísa fought not to laugh.
Danny, meanwhile, was having none of it. Narrowing his eyes, he said, “Yeah? What kind of crocodile?”
“Leggus eatus crocodilus.”
Ísa snorted a laugh. “Catie.”
Gabe walked into the campsite just as Danny seemed to be building up to a scowling response. Sailor’s elder brother was a broad-shouldered and muscled man, six foot five inches in height. Not many people wanted to get in his way on the rugby field. But women liked his size, black hair, and gray eyes just fine.
Unfortunately for those women, Gabe’s focus was on his stellar rugby career.
But Sailor’s brother always found time for family.
Currently his arms were full of shopping bags that Jake and Danny quickly grabbed and ran off to store. “Potato chips,” Gabriel said to Sailor. “Mom forgot to put that on your list, and the boys were about to have a meltdown at the idea of camping without their favorite salty snacks.”
“Ísa, Cat,” Sailor said, “this is my brother Gabriel.”
“Hi.” Catie waved from where she was pushing in a tent peg with the kind of concentration most people reserved for surgical operations. “Did you bring chocolate too?”
“Sorry, Cat.” Gabe took in the badly constructed tent with an amused glint in his eye. “I will next time.”
Going over to the cooler, Sailor rummaged around in it before he found the large family-size bar he’d added to his shopping list after recalling the chocolate he’d seen in Catie’s kitchen. “Hide it,” he said after passing her the bar. “Or Jake and Danny will see it, and then it’s all over.” His brothers didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but they were teenage boys—they ate anything and everything in sight.
Beaming, Catie quickly put the chocolate bar into her backpack. “Thanks, Sailor.”
“It’s lovely to meet you,” Ísa said to Gabriel at the same time.
“Right back at you.” Those steely eyes took in the way Sailor was hovering close to Ísa’s side. A glint lit his gaze. “You sure Sail here isn’t a bit puny for you?”
“Hands off.” Sailor pointed a finger at his troublemaking brother. “I may not be able to take you down in a fair fight, but I can spike your beer with laxatives.”
“Try it and feel Mom’s wrath,” Gabriel said darkly before nodding at the tent. “You want some help?”
“Nah. Why don’t you get ours up?” Sailor bumped fists with his brother while Ísa and Catie gave them strange looks. “I’ll make sure the girls’ won’t collapse on them.”
“Hey,” Ísa protested. “It’s not that bad. We got that central pole thingy up, didn’t we?”
Sailor didn’t resist the temptation to kiss her. “You’re so cute.”
Eyebrows drawing into a dark vee, she said, “You and Gabriel—is that normal brother behavior? Insults and warnings, then being best buds?”
Sailor shrugged. “Yep.”
“Boys are weird,” Catie pronounced.
Ísa nodded in agreement. “But, sadly, I appear to like this one a whole lot.” She was the one who stole a kiss this time.
And Sailor’s heart, it melted.
“Hey, enough mushy stuff.” Catie scowled at them. “Gabe’s gonna beat us with putting up his tent.”
Driven by the spirit of competition, they finished up at the same time—just as Alison and Joseph walked up from the beach.
His mother made a beeline for them. “This is wonderful,” she said to Ísa after a round of tight hugs. “I’m usually surrounded by so much testosterone I begin to worry I’m going to sprout chest hair and start belching.”
Catie giggled while Ísa’s smile was shy but real. “I should admit that we’re not the most experienced campers,” she told his mother.
Alison waved a hand. “I wasn’t either until I met my husband.” Turning just as Joseph reached them, she introduced Sailor’s father to Ísa and Catie.
Both Sailor’s redhead and her sidekick fit into the Bishop-Esera family like keys turning in a lock. Though Catie’s version of fitting in seemed to be to make fun of Danny. His youngest brother, in turn, made a production of pretending to paint his nails or put on mascara anytime Catie so much as looked in his direction.
As for Ísa, Sailor could literally see her falling in love with his parents.
Hope burst in his heart. It’d work.
But even as he thought that, his gut told him he was being a bullshitter of the highest order. Yes, it might work. He’d planned it all out, hadn’t he? And he’d gotten Ísa’s agreement. It’d involve a serious lack of sleep and a serious lack of spare time, but he and Ísa would soldier through.
At what cost, dumbass?
The question came from the part of him that was all about harsh truths. And the truth it showed him was a staggering one that cut his legs out from under him.
* * *
OF COURSE THERE HAD TO be a rugby game post-dinner. Ísa tried to sit it out, but Sailor dragged her onto the field. “No shirkers, that’s the rule,” the blue-eyed demon said firmly. “Cat! You too!”