It was just warm enough to hang out on Callie and Dax’s porch after dinner. Jasmine burrowed her face deeper into the funnel neck of the sweater that she’d stolen from her brother when she’d come home for a visit when she was still living in Ohio, something Isiah still grumbled about. Jasmine enjoyed Sunday night dinners at Dax and Callie’s house. It was always nice to spend time with her surrogate family, especially when she was feeling homesick.
She smiled behind the soft wool that hid the lower half of her face, watching her brother and his friends’ antics playing out. Their bets and bragging evolved from who could do more pushups to who could change a diaper faster, with Isiah as referee. Jasmine watched with Callie and Mae while they laughingly shouted encouragement to their husbands. Once the babies were diapered, it became a contest to see who could get their offspring to fall asleep faster.
Dax was gently rocking his daughter in his arms, walking in circles.
“How are things going at the clinic?” he asked as he walked by.
Jasmine pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “It’s going okay. I’ve had a couple of difficult clients, but that comes with the territory. Today was frustrating. There was a client who wasn’t too happy to have a woman, and especially a Black woman, taking care of his animals. I’m pretty sure he would have run me off except for the fact he couldn’t get someone else quick enough.”
Dax stopped in his tracks and turned around.
“Who was it?”
Jacob jumped up from the porch railing he’d perched on and came to stand in front of her, saying, “You shouldn’t be going out to farms by yourself.”
All three of them—her brother, Jacob, and Dax—started peppering her with questions and demands.
“You need to tell me when you’re going to make a house call,” Isiah demanded.
“I’ll install a tracking device on her truck just in case,” Dax said.
Jasmine laughed but stopped when she realized Dax was serious.
“I have a list of people she should avoid,” Jacob added.
Her brother and his two friends formed a huddle and were strategizing as if she wasn’t there. They ignored her the first two times she tried to get their attention, so she put her fingers in her mouth and gave a high shrill whistle that startled both babies and made them cry.
“I didn’t mean to make the babies cry. It’s the only thing that works when they get like this,” Jasmine said.
Callie plucked her daughter out of her husband’s arms and started bouncing her. “That’s okay. They were asking for it.”
“If you hadn’t done something, I was about to slap all of them upside the head,” Mae muttered, with Dante over her shoulder, patting the hiccupping baby, who was glaring at Jasmine with big fat tears rolling down his cheeks.
Mae looked at Jacob. “Don’t be such a chauvinistic lumberjack,” she said with more affection than censure.
Jacob leaned over and kissed his wife on the cheek and his son on the top of his head. “Sorry, Pixie.”
He turned to Jasmine. “It’s just because we love you, Mighty Mouse.”
“We just want to make sure no one gives you a hard time,” Isiah said.
Jasmine shot her brother a look. “You know if they do, I can handle myself.”
She looked at the three men. “Look, I appreciate you looking out for me. I really do. I’m lucky. When Isiah came home from boot camp for the first time, I didn’t just have one brother return home. I ended up with three. But you forget that I’m a grown woman and not some wide-eyed, naïve little girl who doesn’t know about the dangers in the world. Isiah, you and Dad made sure I learned self-defense and how to handle a firearm.”
Isiah came over and gently grasped her arms. “I know, and I’m proud to have a sister who can kick ass if she has to. I never want to put you in a position where you have to defend yourself again.”
“I’m not going to let you do that. You can’t protect me every minute of every day. You can’t wrap me in Bubble Wrap. I have a life to live, and so do you. If I need help, I’ll ask for it. I’m not stubborn like—” Jasmine bit down on her lip.
Isiah narrowed his eyes. “Like who? Me?”
“Never mind, forget I said that.”
“You’re talking about Rhett, aren’t you?” Jacob asked.
“Are you getting serious with Rhett Colton?” Isiah asked.
He was using his interrogation voice, or at least that’s what Jasmine thought of it as. It was the same tone her father used when he questioned boys who came to pick Jasmine and her sister up at the house when they were in high school. And it irked her just as much now as it did when her dad used it.
She held her hand up. “This conversation is over.”
“This conversation is far from over. What were you thinking, sis?”
“If you don’t back down right this minute, Isiah Owens, then we are going to talk about Presley Beaumont, Mr. Knightly,” Jasmine countered.
Isiah’s jaw went tight while Mae snickered.
“Fine,” her brother said between clenched teeth.
He let go of her arms and moved over to the porch railing, leaning against it with his arms spread wide, looking out at the yard. Bringing up Presley may not have been fair, but her brother was like a dog with a bone, and she’d endured all the testosterone she could handle for one day.
Mae came over and patted her shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I shouldn’t have said anything. I didn’t mean to make the evening all about me.”
“They are wonderful, caring men, but sometimes they can be so dumb,” Callie said.
“And stubborn,” Mae added.
“Hey, we’re standing right here,” Dax said.
“Well, now you know how it feels,” Jasmine said.
Dax wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Fair point, Mighty Mouse.”
Jasmine groaned. “Are you ever going to stop calling me that?”
“Probably not.” Dax chuckled.
“I’m going to need an extra-large piece of Callie’s 7UP cake to make up for it.”
“I think the men should feed their sisters and wives cake to make up for behaving like Neanderthals,” Mae announced.
The mood remained lighter for the rest of the evening while her brother, Dax, and Jacob shared stories from their time in the service together. For all the misadventures they shared, Jasmine knew they faced a lot more danger than they would ever admit.
She couldn’t stop thinking about what dangerous situations Rhett had been in that he hadn’t shared with her. Was he talking to anyone about what gave him nightmares? It was hard to watch him hold so much inside.
“You okay, sis?” Isiah asked on the short drive to her apartment from Dax and Callie’s house.
“I’m fine”—she gave her brother a reassuring smile—“really, I am. I shouldn’t have thrown Presley Beaumont in your face.”
Isiah sighed. “It was a low blow, but I was asking for it.”
“You know you can’t fix everyone, and not everyone needs fixing,” she said.
“And you can’t heal everyone. Some wounds are too deep. Jasmine, you are one of the most loving and compassionate people I know. You can’t blame me for worrying that you’re going to give too much of yourself again.”
“Don’t you dare. I can’t believe you would…” She clamped her mouth shut.
“Rhett’s a good guy, but he walks around like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. I don’t want to see you sacrifice yourself again trying to help carry it for him.”
“Rhett isn’t Darren,” she said quietly.
“Are you sure about that?”
Jasmine gripped the door handle tightly, trying to catch her breath. “This conversation is over. We may live in this same town, but that does not mean you get to interfere in my personal life. I’m a big girl now, Isiah, and I know the risk I’m taking.” She took a deep breath, willing herself not to cry in front of her brother. She got out of the car, slamming the door shut.
Isiah rolled down the window, calling out, “Jas, I didn’t mean…”
His words faded away as she ran up the stairs to her apartment. Jasmine leaned against the door and finally allowed her tears to fall. She sank down to the floor and put her head in her hands.
For the first time since she moved to Colton, Jasmine questioned her decision to relocate. Living close to her brother had its advantages, but privacy wasn’t one of them. Deep down, she knew Isiah meant well, but she didn’t need him reminding her of her failure.
Jasmine allowed herself a minute to wallow before she pulled herself up and wrapped her arms around herself, wandering over to the window. She stared into the darkness, trying to sort through her jumbled feelings. The sound of glass shattering and an alarm going off made her jump.
Jasmine pulled out her phone and quickly dialed 911 as she ran down the stairs, worried that something had happened at the clinic. When she got to the sidewalk, she froze as she saw a figure running away from the doctor’s office. She’d barely started telling the dispatcher that there was a break-in when she saw her brother tearing out of town hall with one of his deputies by his side. She called out to her brother, pointing in the direction where the man had ran off. A cool breeze swept through the park, and she shivered. She went to the clinic and checked in with her new night attendant before heading back upstairs. There was nothing she could do other than check in with Isiah later. It turned out she didn’t even have to do that when Isiah knocked on her door an hour later.
“Hey, did you catch them?”
Isiah shook his head with a scowl. “No, that’s why I came by. Can you give me a description?”
“Dark sweatshirt and pants. I can’t give you more than that. I heard the glass break, and then I saw someone running away when I was calling 911.”
Isiah paced her living room. Every few steps, he’d glance out the window, his gaze darting around the town square.
“I think it may have been the same person who tried to break into Walker’s Pharmacy last week,” Isiah said. “I’ll have Dax check the security cameras he’s got installed on the block in the morning. I don’t know why we didn’t leave the cameras up,” he muttered, looking out the window again.
Back when Rhett had alerted Jacob to the threat against Mae, Jacob, Dan, and Isiah added extra surveillance cameras to the park for the Fourth of July celebrations. The footage from Mae’s kidnapping that night was used in court to convict the kidnappers.
Isiah folded his arms and leveled her with one of his no-nonsense looks. “Are you sure you have enough security at the clinic?”
“Dax put together the system for me. I don’t have a lot of medications on-site at the moment, but everything is in the safe.”
“Do me a favor and double-check with Dax and make sure there aren’t any upgrades you can do. We’ve been getting calls about break-ins around the county in the last few months. Whoever it is, they must be getting desperate, trying to break into Walkers and the doctor’s office. Everyone around here knows there are security cameras in the park.”
“If someone is desperate for drugs, they aren’t going to use a lot of logic.”
“True. And they can also be dangerous when they’re desperate. I want you to be extra careful, okay?”
Even though they’d just argued about his overprotectiveness, Jasmine didn’t make any objection. Isiah was right, and she planned on reviewing security protocols with Imani in the morning.
“I’m gonna head back. I want to make sure the window that was broken is secure before I head in for the night.”
Jasmine went over and gave her brother a hug. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
Isiah sighed and wrapped his arms around her. “You know I was just trying to be a good big brother, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
They hugged it out, and Isiah left. Five minutes later, there was another knock on her door, and Rhett was on her doorstep with a worried look in his eyes.
“Hey, I just thought I’d stop by and check in.”
“Let me guess, you heard about the break-in at the doctor’s office,” Jasmine said with a wry smile.
Rhett leaned against her doorjamb, his hair loose around his shoulders. “I have an app that alerts me to any 911 calls in the area.”
“Is that because of your job?”
Rhett snapped the elastic around his wrist. “Not really. It’s because of me. I… there are still people around who, for one reason or another, were not arrested the night they kidnapped the mayor.”
“Was your Larry Atwood one of them?” Jasmine asked.
“Larry is one of my cousins.” His expression became pained. “Having relatives who were already involved with the organization I went undercover with was a bonus.”
“Oh, Rhett.”
He gave her a brittle smile. “Don’t feel bad for me. Families aren’t all perfect.” Rhett moved closer and grasped her arms. “Tell me the truth. Has Larry been giving you any trouble? I’m worried about him coming after you, thinking it would be a way to hurt me.”
Jasmine held onto Rhett’s hands and gave him a reassuring smile. “Other than going around telling a few people I stole his dog, no.”
Rhett exhaled and pressed his forehead to hers.
“Hey, Callie sent some 7UP cake home with me. Would you like some?” she asked.
Rhett nodded. “That sounds good.”
She gestured to the sofa and told him to take a seat. Rebel trotted in and made himself comfortable. She cut Rhett an extra-large slice of cake and carried their plates into the living room.
“Rhett, how many other times have you driven by the clinic checking on me?”
Rhett took a big bite of cake, and closing his eyes, he inhaled while he chewed.
“You can’t hide behind cake, Rhett. Eventually, you’re going to have to answer my question.”
He tried to look innocent. “But it’s excellent cake.”
Jasmine set her plate aside and leveled Rhett with a stern look. “Are you spying on me? Because I already have an overprotective brother and his two best friends watching over me. I don’t need my boy—I don’t need anyone else being overprotective of me.”
Rhett’s eyebrows shot up, and his lips curled into a smile. “Were you about to call me your boyfriend?”
Heat flooded her cheeks. “No.”
“It kind of sounded like you did.”
“No, I almost did, and then I stopped because… because I’m not really sure what we are.”
Rhett set his plate down and took her hands in his. Her heartbeat ticked up a notch when he lifted her hands and pressed his lips to them. Jasmine could feel his pulse through her fingertips, and she knew he was aware that hers matched his.
“I wish”—he swallowed—“there are so many things I wish, and they all involve you.”
“What’s stopping you from making those wishes come true?”
“You deserve much more than I can give you.”
Jasmine scooted closer until her knees bumped against his. “You may think you know what I deserve, but I know what I want.”
Jasmine told Rhett she’d be patient, and she was trying, but she wanted him, and she knew he wanted her. He pulled back for just a minute, his eyes searching hers. What was he looking for?