Do Rely on Your Protector (Jewel Family Romance Book 4) Read online

  “No problem.” Seth grinned. “So, you know Caleb.” He gestured over his shoulder.

  “Everybody knows and loves me,” Caleb said from the back.

  Breeze smiled at him over her shoulder. He gave her a happy wave. She caught Ridge’s eye. He looked more out of place than she felt. Poor kid. Yet it was his fault they were in the mess with Flint in the first place, so maybe she should be whipping his butt, not feeling bad for him.

  “On your right is Isaac. Air Force Special Ops, military hero, all that business. I wouldn’t recommend talking to him because if he slips and tells you too much, then he has to slit your throat.”

  She flinched slightly, even though she knew he was joking. Her parents hadn’t been as abusive as some, but they would backhand her and Ridge or smack them with fly swatters or wooden spoons. She didn’t like violence.

  Isaac rolled his eyes and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, Breeze.” He then reached back and shook Ridge’s hand.

  Ridge shook back, now looking awestruck. “Are all of you like superheroes?”

  The brothers all laughed at that. “Pretty much,” Caleb said. “But mostly me.”

  “Um, Isaac is a military hero who saves the world, and Seth is the best snocross and motocross rider in the world. He’s won the X-games! What do you do?” Ridge’s voice held reverence, as if he could hardly wait to hear how Caleb could top being a military hero or Ridge’s personal extreme sports hero.

  Caleb looked slightly offended. He put a hand to his chest and said imperiously. “I am the best middie in the NLL.”

  “NHL?” Ridge asked, his brow squiggled.

  Caleb pushed out a breath as the other brothers laughed. “NLL.”

  “NFL?” From the look on Ridge’s face, he could be listening to someone speaking a different language as he tried to compute what position a middie might be in football.

  “C’mon,” said Caleb, rolling his eyes. “NLL. National Lacrosse League.”

  Ridge still looked confused and Caleb still looked offended.

  “Sorry,” Breeze broke in. “We don’t have lacrosse back home.”

  Caleb’s mouth twisted. “That must be a miserable spot of earth.”

  Breeze wanted to defend the hardworking people of her hometown, but a massive, gorgeous mansion had just come into view and her attention automatically refocused. Breeze’s stomach did a nervous flip. She didn’t know how to act around ultra-rich people. Heck, she didn’t know how to act around semi-rich people. She looked to her right, where Isaac sat, and wondered if she dared take a chance crawling over the special ops dude and running for the woods.

  “Up front you have Joshua driving,” Seth continued his introductions as they drove along the short driveway. “He’s pretty much your billionaire genius.”

  Joshua raised a hand, smiling. Billionaire … genius? Seth had said his brothers were billionaires, but holy cow, she couldn’t even get through college. She glanced at Seth. She owed him a lot of money, twenty grand was big bucks to her. A billionaire sitting right in front of her. She’d entered an alternate reality.

  “And Luke,” Seth continued, “he’s kind of the same but more entrepreneur billionaire genius rather than corporate billionaire guru, if that makes any sense.”

  It made no sense. Entrepreneur? She’d heard the term but an entrepreneur in her world meant the farmer actually owned the field instead of rented it.

  Joshua stopped the car and the silence was unnerving. Luke undid his seatbelt and turned back, extending his hand over the console. “Nice to meet you, Breeze. We’ve all been praying for this day.”

  She shook his hand and asked, “What day?”

  Luke grinned at Joshua as if he knew exactly what his brother was intoning. “The day a woman would knock our spoiled baby brother Seth on his butt.”

  “But I’m not … he’s not …” Breeze felt miserably stupid now. Seth was the farthest thing from spoiled and he had rescued her, but she wasn’t knocking him around. Did Luke mean knocked him down in the sense that he’d fallen for her? That couldn’t be what his brother meant. She bit at her lip, not sure how to respond.

  Half a dozen women and an older gentleman holding a child were spilling out of the tall front door. Luckily, the men in the SUV got distracted, pushed their own doors open, and hurried out. Breeze slid out and stood by Ridge as Joshua, Isaac, and Luke all strode to hug the beautiful women who she assumed were their wives.

  Breeze’s gaze zeroed in on the petite, dark-haired beauty Luke was hugging. She was perfect—beautiful, classy, confident, and obviously in love with her husband. It made Breeze feel like she was watching a movie to stare at them. “Mar,” she breathed.

  “Who?” Ridge muttered.

  Breeze shook her head, not ready to explain her obsession with the woman. She looked at Isaac’s gorgeous, tall, blonde wife and Joshua’s exquisite, dark-haired wife. There were also two other beautiful, dark-haired, blue-eyed women, who she thought were Seth’s sisters, in addition to his parents.

  Seth put his hand on her lower back and bent down. “You ready to be inundated?”

  No. Wait, did he say inundated or intimidated? Because she was definitely the latter. She put on a lie of a smile, dredging up some of that Idahoan pride that she’d dumped when she let him rescue her, and said, “Sure.”

  He grinned and escorted her to the steps that led to the massive front porch. Caleb hung back and chatted with Ridge. She watched her brother visibly relax and was grateful Caleb hadn’t held a grudge about the lacrosse thing. Ridge needed an ally, and nobody could stay tense with the friendly Caleb close by. Well, maybe she could right now. What was happening? What was going to happen? She’d left her beat-up Mazda back at Flint’s cabin. She didn’t want to go back there, but she wanted to take Ridge and go home. Yet … she glanced up at Seth. She didn’t want to leave him yet. That was one thing she knew for certain.

  They stopped in front of the small crowd that was his family.

  “Everybody,” Seth called them to order and all the different conversations ceased. “This is Breeze Cain and her brother, Ridge.”

  They all smiled broad greetings as Breeze and Ridge both shyly waved. Seth started from the right and worked his way left. “My sisters Rachel and Eve.”

  Eve smiled serenely and lifted a hand in greeting.

  Rachel stepped forward and gave her a hug then waved to Ridge, who was still hanging back with Caleb. “Nice to meet you both.”

  Breeze had lost her tongue. That sweet hug had made her feel welcome and as if she were part of this family. She smiled in return.

  “Joshua you met, and this is his fiancée Jade.”

  So, one of them wasn’t married yet? She hoped she could remember all the names and details.

  Jade had incredible green eyes that fit her name. She also hugged Breeze. “You’re way too pretty for Seth, but don’t tell him I said so,” she said in an undertone that Breeze suspected everyone heard.

  Breeze blushed and wanted to tell her that Seth was way too pretty for Breeze but knew it wouldn’t come out right. She simply smiled at her, probably looking like the simpleton she was. Jade returned to Joshua.

  “Luke’s wife, Mar,” Seth continued.

  Mar followed Jade and Rachel’s example and bounced across the porch to meet them. She had on spike heels and a beautiful floral dress that danced around her knees as she walked. Breeze thought she was the most perfect woman she’d ever seen this side of a movie screen. Mar reached up and gave her a hug. Breeze humiliated herself by clinging. Mar smelled like the most incredible perfume. If a perfume could be alluring as well as sassy, this was it. Breeze just wanted to imitate everything about the woman, but, sadly, she couldn’t chop eight inches off her height. A sow couldn’t imitate an Arabian thoroughbred.

  Mar didn’t seem surprised at all by Breeze’s lack of etiquette. She patted her back in a comforting manner and whispered, “It’s okay, sweet friend. You’re with good people now. It’ll all be ok
ay.”

  Mar pulled back but grasped Breeze’s hands. “We’re so glad you’re here.” She didn’t say it, but Breeze knew that Seth had shared with Mar the awful situation she’d been in. She should’ve been humiliated but somehow couldn’t feel that with Mar smiling at her so kindly, as if they were friends. She’d called her “sweet friend”. Breeze knew that Mar was just a charming woman being kind, but she felt like Mar really was her friend, like Mar could somehow understand the filth and darkness she’d escaped from recently and grown up with.

  Mar stepped back and rejoined her husband.

  “Isaac’s wife, Cosette,” Seth said.

  Cosette also came forward and gave her a squeeze. She smelled like flowers and sunshine. Her long, blonde hair haloed her gorgeous face. “Bacon?” she asked.

  Breeze froze. Oh, great. All of these perfect women smelled like flowers and expensive perfume and she smelled like bacon.

  “You hungry, Cozy?” Seth teased.

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “I smell bacon.”

  “I cooked bacon this morning,” Breeze said.

  The group tittered with laughter. Isaac came forward and gathered up his wife who smiled worshipfully at him. “Sorry,” Isaac said. “Cosette’s nose is infamous. She and Mar own a perfume company.”

  “I know,” Breeze admitted. “I’ve always wanted to buy one of their fancy perfumes.”

  Cosette lit up. “Well you’re in luck, we always have samples on us. I’ll find the perfect fit for your chemistry, after you shower and change into some clean clothes.”

  Breeze’s stomach lifted at the kind offer but then dropped as reality crowded back in. She had no clean clothes and she wasn’t going to shower in this beautiful place. She needed to get her car, drive Ridge home, go back to working eighty hours per week, and fight her way through online school. She couldn’t stay in this alternate reality with these movie stars.

  Isaac chuckled. “Cozy can’t match your scent unless you’re odor-free. She made me strip to match my scent.” He lowered his voice, “Way before we were even married.”

  “Oh, you!” Cosette punched him in the shoulder. “The scent must be right.” She focused back on Breeze. “After you take a shower I’ll come to your suite and we’ll play with scents.”

  “I, um, don’t have any clean clothes,” Breeze admitted.

  Cosette’s eyes widened.

  Rachel spoke up, “You’re about my size. I’ll get you some clothes.”

  “Thank you,” Breeze squeaked. She was embarrassed, but nobody seemed to be put out by their men coming to rescue her and Ridge, as well as wasting twenty grand on them. She stood before them, a smelly awkward girl with only the dirty clothes on her back and her socially backward mechanic brother, asking to borrow clothes.

  “My parents,” Seth continued, “Peter and Madeline, and my niece Paisley.”

  “Great to meet you,” said his father, taking her hand in his.

  Paisley then shook her hand too with her tiny, soft fingers. “Hiya pretty lady,” Paisley said. “Youza looking like an angel.”

  “Sorry,” Eve apologized, “Caleb’s been showing her all the Star Wars and she loves Jar Jar Binks.”

  “Don’t apologize, she’s the angel.”

  Paisley lit up. “Meza thanking you kindly.”

  Everybody laughed and Paisley ate up the attention.

  Her dad waved to Ridge. “Nice to have you here, son.” Everybody seemed to realize that Ridge was even more awkward than Breeze, and nobody but Caleb tried to approach him. She appreciated them taking it slow with Ridge. Poor kid would rather talk with his tools than a real person.

  Ridge turned red but waved a hand. “Th-thank you, sir,” he managed.

  Breeze was right proud that he could respond at all.

  Seth’s mom came forward and engulfed Breeze in what she could only assume was a motherly hug. She’d never felt a hug like this. His mom was a thin, classy lady, but she was soft and womanly and smelled nice, and the hug felt better than anything Breeze had felt in her pathetic life. Well besides touching Seth, but nothing could compare to that. His hugs were strong, safe, and protective while this hug was more about comfort, kindness, and maternal love.

  Madeline kept her arm around her and directed her away from Seth and the rest of the group and into the house. Did she know how close Breeze was to breaking down and sobbing? Or how hard it was to dump her pride and take in all their kindness?

  Seth’s mom talked about how thrilled they were to have the two of them there as they walked through a two-story entry. Breeze could see a massive living area on the other side of a grand staircase. It was all so beautiful. She was sure her jaw was hanging open. The gargantuan cabin she’d stayed at the past few days was possibly just as beautiful, but with all the men filling, and destroying it, Breeze had never been impressed by the grandeur.

  Madeline kept talking as they walked up the wide staircase. “We’ll get you two settled, then we’ll decide on a plan for today. We’d love to have you stay as long as you’d like.”

  “Oh, well, we can’t stay here. We’d soil the place.”

  Madeline laughed. Breeze glanced over her shoulder and saw Seth watching her from down below in the foyer. Most of his family had filtered in behind him. Caleb had Ridge under his wing, and they were following her and Madeline up the stairs.

  “Please stay,” Seth mouthed.

  Breeze’s heart beat a little faster. His blue eyes were warm and appealing, and he’d just spent all that money on her and fought for her. She’d do about anything he asked. “Okay,” she mouthed back.

  He grinned.

  His mom directed her up the rest of the stairs and along the left-hand side of a wide balcony that overlooked the open great room below. Huge windows showcased the forest and mountains that were located beyond the landscaped backyard. This was like a palace. If Breeze could bury her self-respect, she’d set up camp on this balcony and never leave.

  They walked along a distressed wood floor to several doors on the left-hand side. There were similar doors on the right of the huge loft.

  “These bedrooms are over the theater, playroom, and indoor pool,” Madeline explained. “The suites on the other side are above the laundry and garage. I thought I’d put you in Seth’s suite, he can bunk up with Caleb. There’s an empty suite on the left that Ridge can stay in. Caleb will get him settled then I’ll check on him.”

  They walked through the door and again Breeze was stunned. The morning sun sparkled through clean windows showcasing a large bedroom with its own sitting area and a bed bigger than her entire bedroom at home. She could see a bathroom beyond with a glass shower and jetted tub. What she would give to soak in that tub.

  “It seemed Ridge was more comfortable with Caleb, but do you think he’d welcome some attention from me or be averse to it?” Madeline asked quietly.

  Breeze’s gaze darted to this classy mom. “He’s pretty shy so he’ll probably act awkward, but he’ll eat it up. There’s a lady next door back home who’s always bringing us treats and such and she forces Ridge to hug her. He looks as awkward as a stripper at church, but I can tell he loves it, and needs it.”

  Madeline smiled. “Have you seen many strippers at church?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Breeze liked her. “My friend Ivy, she pays her tithing in dollar bills.”

  “Oh, my.” Madeline chuckled. “Okay. Rachel will bring you in some clothes. I’ll have Seth come get his junk out of here. He told me you’d be coming so we’ve already had the maid service freshen the bathroom and change the sheets. I had them leave bath salts, lotions, and hair products for you on the counter. Feel free to take your time, take a bath, whatever you want. Are you okay with Cosette finding your scent?”

  So Seth had known he’d talk her into coming, even after she ran from him last night? That rankled her ego, but this all felt too much like a dream to be upset with him.

  “Oh, yes,” she told Seth’s mom. “That’d be a dream. I�
��ve always wanted to buy one of their perfume bottles. Just a small one, I’m not greedy,” she hastened to add. “I smell them every six months when I drive all the way to Logan for supplies at the Wal-Mart.”

  Madeline looked her over. “Have you had a hard life, sweetheart?”

  Breeze shrugged. She’d heard people say how “hard” she and Ridge had it, but where she came from, nobody was affluent or famous like these people, and everybody pitched in and helped everybody through their trials. Maybe if Breeze was a little more comfortable with accepting help, things wouldn’t be quite so tight for her and Ridge. Even being here and having these people be so generous with her rubbed her the wrong way. She wanted to be gracious. If only she’d been trained on how to do that.

  “I’ve worked hard and raised Ridge on my own so I guess some would say that’s hard.”

  Madeline looked proud of her. “That’s impressive.”

  Breeze wanted that look to continue. “In my time off I’m getting my degree and going to be a teacher soon.”

  “Good for you. What do you do for work now?”

  “I’m a reading specialist at the grade school near my house and a waitress at Joe’s Café every night but Sunday.”

  “Two jobs?”

  Breeze shrugged. “I had to get Ridge through school. He’s brilliant wrenching on everything but especially with motorcycles and snowmobiles. Sadly, he’s an idiot with money and drugs and gambling.”

  “I’m glad he has you. Some kids just have to find their spot, see the darkness to know how good the light feels.”

  “It doesn’t seem like any of your perfect kids have struggled.” Maybe she shouldn’t have said that, or at least not let her voice be quite so full of envy.

  Madeline shrugged. “Everybody struggles in their own ways. Seth and Caleb have blown up half this town and it’s a wonder that they haven’t hurt anybody or been arrested. Eve ran away to Vegas and married some jerk who got her pregnant and then dumped her. Cosette struggles with social situations, lost her mom a year ago, and she and Isaac were almost killed by her ex-fiancé.” She drew a breath and continued, “Jade hates her parents and it was hard for her to trust anyone, including Joshua. Joshua was almost ruined by a girl in college and didn’t trust anyone, until Jade. Luke thought he got his high school girlfriend pregnant and yet was broken-hearted to not be a teenage father. Mar has no family, grew up in foster care, and though she fakes confidence and is very impressive, it hasn’t been easy for her to be successful.”