Time of Possession (Seattle Lumberjacks #5) (10 page)

He chuckled as they watched Tyler’s badass
cat swat at the chocolate lab. The dog cowered and tried to crawl
behind the couch. Another cat lounged on the back of the couch,
apparently too lazy to harass the dog. “Your family does love
animals. You guys treat them like part of the family.”

“Absolutely. The dog is Simon, he’s Derek’s.
The lazy cat is Charlie. Rachel has had him for years. And Coug is
the orange tabby. He’s Ty’s cat. He’s evil when it comes to
dogs.”

Brett walked over to Coug and scratched him
under the chin. “So you’re Tyler’s cat. I’ve heard a lot about
you.”

Coug opened his mouth and meowed, as if to
say “damn right, buddy.”

Estie moved to stand beside him, loving how
comfortable he was with the animals. “We think he has Ty’s foul
mouth, too. We don’t speak cat, but he gets his point across.”

“Like Bongo.”

“Yes, like Bongo, except he speaks English.
How is our naughty parrot?”

“He’s fine.” Brett met her gaze and for a
moment Estie couldn’t breathe. A strange feeling of longing
squeezed the breath from her lungs. As crazy as it was, she wanted
Brett. By his hungry pale blue eyes, he felt the same. It’d been so
long since a man looked at her as if she were the hottest woman on
earth. She didn’t quite know how to respond.

Tyler hobbled into the room, giving Estie a
guilty start. She bent down to coax Simon out from behind the
couch.

“You’ll be seeing a lot more of him and his
furry kids,” Tyler said.

Estie forgot about Simon and whipped around
to face her brother. “What?” She propped her hands on her hips and
glared at him.

“He’s your new renter downstairs.” Tyler’s
smirk irritated her. He loved being the one in the know when
everyone else was in a blackout.

“Brett’s my new renter?” This could not be
happening. Estie needed to find a place to trade in siblings for
gentler, kinder models, because the two she had were absolute
jerks. If only Tyler realized what temptation he was putting one
floor down from her. She was having a hard enough time resisting
Brett with the limited amount of time she saw the man. What would
she do with him living downstairs?

“Uh, you didn’t know it was me?” Brett
shuffled his feet, looking as embarrassed as she felt.

Tyler shrugged and waved it off as if it
were no big deal. “I thought I mentioned the name.”

“You just said a teammate.”

“Oh, well, meet my teammate who’ll be living
in your basement apartment for the next few months. It’s a perfect
arrangement, freeing Brett up to concentrate on his game, while you
take stellar care of his animals.”

“I’ll pay you.” Brett offered, obviously
uncomfortable being stuck between this sibling disagreement.

“We’re moving him in next week. Unless
that’s a problem.” Tyler’s sharp blue eyes dissected every nuance
of their body language.

Estie turned away, knowing her brother
didn’t miss a thing when he was looking. Half the time he didn’t
bother to look if it didn’t concern him, but his sisters definitely
concerned him. For all his selfish bullshit, Tyler cared deeply
about his family and turned into an overprotective oaf when the
need called for it—and often when it didn’t call for it.

“It’s not. A problem. Not at all.” Estie was
in deep shit and getting sucked deeper every moment.

“Hey, everyone!” Derek yelled and rang a
large brass bell to get their attention. “It’s time to eat, but I
thought we’d do a toast first.”

Estie listened with one ear while her head
pounded over being railroaded by her brother into accepting Brett
as her renter. Without a good excuse to say no, she’d try to make
the best of it. That didn’t include sleeping with her renter as a
tenant perk. Brett was never home, just like her brother, the very
brother who’d forgotten all about screwing with her life and was
now cuddling with his girlfriend, Lavender.

Her dumbshit brother was crazy about his
girlfriend of over a year, but he refused to propose, and Estie
wondered how much longer Lavender would tolerate his lack of
commitment.

If only Richard would look at her with the
same devotion as Tyler looked at Lavender, maybe she wouldn’t go
crushing on hot quarterbacks with a love of animals.

God, her entire family had some form of
major dysfunction except her mother and now-dead father. How could
two such perfect parents have such screwed-up children?

Maybe they weren’t so perfect after all;
maybe she never took off those childhood blinders with regard to
her parents.

Since it was his house, Derek held up his
wine glass for a toast, and Rachel hurried to his side, put her
arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, while nuzzling his
earlobe. He bent his head to listen, his eyes getting bigger and
bigger. His face broke into a broad grin as he hugged her close,
lifting her off the ground to kiss her soundly on the lips.

A twinge of jealousy shot through Estie. She
wanted that comfortable affection for each other and utter
devotion, just as much as she wanted Tyler and Lavender’s passion
and fire. She shot a glance at Richard, who sat on the couch as
stiff as a mannequin in a store window.

Unbidden, her gaze slipped to Brett, who was
watching her. He was always watching her, as if he were waiting for
something. He managed a half smile then looked away, as if
embarrassed to be caught looking.

Estie focused her attention—or tried—on her
cousin and Rachel.

Derek couldn’t stop smiling. In fact, he was
smiling so broadly that the normally rowdy crowd had shut up, every
one of them suspecting that they were about to be clued in on
something big.

Estie held her own breath, not daring to
speculate what that big
thing
might be.

“Rachel just gave me the best Christmas
present ever.” Derek paused, his gaze seeking out his stepmother
and father. He beamed from ear to ear. “We’re pregnant.”

A huge cheer went up around the room
followed by a standing ovation and much backslapping and hugging.
Estie was so happy for them, she could hardly breathe. She was
going to be an aunt. Maybe not technically, but she’d be one just
the same. Shouldering her way through the family, she threw her
arms around Rachel.

“I can’t wait to be Aunt Estie.”

Rachel laughed, absolute joy radiating in
her eyes. “Since you live so close, we’ll be counting on you for
babysitting duties.”

“Anytime. I’d be more than happy to do the
honors.”

Estie glanced back at Lavender, who was
wiping her eyes, while Tyler stared straight into space, not
blinking or cracking a smile. Trouble in paradise for sure.

Estie sighed. She had enough issues. Her
brother was on his own with Lavender, but that didn’t mean Estie
wouldn’t give him a piece of her mind.

Richard shrugged and patted her arm, to
catch her attention. “My parents are expecting us in a half
hour.”

Estie scowled. “We haven’t eaten yet, and we
were with your parents last night.” And it had been pure hell.
She’d be damned if she’d spend a second straight night in with
Richard’s family.

“You know how my mother is.” Richard’s voice
took on that whiny tone when he was pleading with her.

Boy, did she ever. “Today is my family’s
turn. Your family had Christmas Eve. You go ahead if you must. I’m
not going.”

Disappointment spread across Richard’s face,
causing a twinge of guilt. Damn it, she would not cave. She was not
going with him. Not this time. His parents hogged all of the
holidays. If they were going to be married, the Michaels needed to
learn to share.

“I guess I’ll go without you, honey, but it
won’t be the same,” Richard sniffed, as if she’d broken his heart.
She hated it when he did that, or maybe it was his
passive-aggressive guilt trips she hated.

“Merry Christmas.” Estie smiled sweetly,
torn between her sense of duty to family and her fiancé but
determined for once to hold her ground.

Merry Christmas
shouted the members
of her family. Not one of them made even a token attempt to
convince Richard to stay. Reality hit her head on like a collision
with a semi-truck. Her family was actually
glad
to see him
go. Every one of them.

Even worse, so was she.

* * * * *

Brett blew out his held breath. In fact, all
the tension in the room deflated like a pricked balloon as soon as
the door shut behind Estie’s fiancé. Obviously, Brett wasn’t the
only one who didn’t care much for the guy. He didn’t get why a
wonderful woman like Estie would even be interested in Richard,
unless he was good in bed. The thought of that man pawing Estie
almost made Brett retch.

And their marriage? The weekend after the
Super Bowl. If that didn’t make Brett queasy, he didn’t know what
would.

“Thank God that wuss is gone.” Tyler poured
a shot of whiskey and downed it in one gulp. He wiped his mouth
with his sweater sleeve.

Lavender swatted him. “Ty, behave
yourself.”

“That’s not the song you were singing last
night, honey.”

“Tyler.” His mother spoke like a woman ready
to put her son in a corner for the rest of the night. “He’s going
to be your brother-in-law.”

“I don’t need a fucking brother-in-law
that’s a pansy-ass.” Tyler didn’t seem to notice the daggers his
mother shot at him; obviously his language and his attitude were
par for the course. Brett suspected he’d gotten into lots of
trouble growing up and was immune to being scolded.

“Hey, I’m just saying what everyone in this
room is thinking. The guy’s a tool.”

“No one would be good enough for Estie in
your eyes,” Derek said, not refuting Tyler’s statement, and Derek
usually liked everyone. In fact, in silent support of his cousin,
Derek poured a shot and swallowed it, even though it made him
gag.

“Someone needs to watch out for her.” Tyler
snorted and put back another shot of whiskey, obviously working on
a good drunk.

“I take care of myself just fine, and
Richard adores me.” Estie crossed her arms over her chest and
glared at her brother, but her doubts were growing.

Tyler just raised both eyebrows and
grinned.

“The food’s getting cold,” Rachel called
from the dining room as she placed the last bowl on the table and
waved them over.

They jockeyed for position at the table, and
Brett found himself seated next to Estie in the seat that would’ve
been Richard’s. Brett couldn’t help but think he was in the right
place, wrong time.

Derek’s father, Cole Ramsey, the family
patriarch, carved the turkey. Brett had heard Estie’s father had
died from a sudden heart attack when his children were still in
college. He didn’t know much more, other than rumors the man had
been a fighter pilot and a great father.

Brett held his own in the resulting melee
that was this family’s Christmas dinner. He wasn’t a stranger to
big family dinners and the dysfunction and drama that goes with
them. For example, Rachel’s brother, Mitch, didn’t seem overly
impressed with Derek, his brother-in-law. Freddie belittled Estie
every chance she got. Their mother ran interference and tried to
keep her brood from killing each other. Cole attempted to control
the loud, rowdy crowd then finally retreated to his food and
Scotch, obviously deciding to let the kids have at it as long as
there wasn’t bloodshed.

Brett couldn’t imagine this boisterous crowd
with little kids thrown in. The thought had him smiling. Imagine
that, a loner like him actually enjoyed all these people. For a
moment, he pictured himself in the middle of all this, instigating
some good pranks on Tyler with Derek and Zach’s help. Yeah, it’d be
fun to get even with the guy who’d been relentlessly driving Brett
into an early grave, though he couldn’t fault his try or his
intentions.

“How you holding up, Brett?” Derek asked
from the side opposite Estie. “This group can be overwhelming.”

“I’m fine. It’s fun.”

“I’ve heard us described lots of ways, but
fun has never been one of them.” Derek laughed.

Freddie smiled, a very rare smile for her.
“Yeah, remember a few years ago? Derek and Rachel took a waterfront
walk in downtown Seattle early Christmas day and came back with a
dozen Russian sailors who were in port for the holidays.”

Tyler almost snorted up his mashed potatoes
and gravy. “Hell, yeah, Derek’s always bringing home strays, just
like Estie, but the human kind. None of us spoke Russian, and they
didn’t speak English.”

Estie turned to Brett, her eyes shining. “We
communicated via charades and sign language.”

“Hey, it was one of the most entertaining
Christmases I’ve had in a long time.” Derek spoke up.

“Yeah, though I liked the year we invited
the senior center group over. They were a hoot.” Tyler argued.

Estie explained for Brett. “Tyler loves
animals and old people.”

Interpreting Brett’s open-mouthed expression
as disbelief, Lavender jumped in to explain. “Tyler has a soft spot
for geriatric veterans and homeless animals even though he’ll never
own up to it.”

“I own up to it. I’m turning Harris Mansion
into a retreat for disabled veterans.” Tyler crossed his arms over
his chest and scowled, as if he’d been insulted.

“It doesn’t matter what we do for Christmas
as long as we spend it together,” Cole Ramsey interrupted and
raised his glass.

“Here, here,” they all shouted in chorus,
clinking glasses together. Brett watched it all with sense of envy,
part of the group but not belonging, always on the outside looking
in. Hell, he felt that way even in his own family.

After an excellent dinner, the best Brett
had ever eaten, complete with homemade pies for dessert, he joined
the men around the bar in that age-old ritual of drinking while the
women cleaned up. Only it didn’t quite work out that way. The next
thing he knew, he was standing in the kitchen wearing Estie’s blue
apron and holding a dish towel. Tyler stood at the kitchen sink
washing pots and pans too large for the dishwasher and wearing
Lavender’s pink apron as if it didn’t put one tiny dent in his
manhood. Only Harris could carry that off. Zach and Derek were
clearing the tables, wiping counters, and loading the dishwasher.
No one complained much after the initial mutiny by the women, and
Brett suspected that the men did KP duty after every family
meal.