4. Jamison

"When are you going to have sex with Rowan?"

Samuel choked on his whiskey. "Excuse me?"

"I wasn't asking you." Evie snuggled in her husband's lap, looking tiny even at eight months pregnant. "I was talking to Annabeth."

"I would hope so." Samuel shook his head, and then turned to Annabeth. "But seriously, when?"

Jamison smirked, glad not to be the one to bring it up. They were all in the parlor together talking while Simone gave Theo and Harper their baths. Evie had said she would do it, but sensing Jamison needed her sister near, Simone had offered.

Curled up on the small couch with Colonel Brandon asleep in her lap, Annabeth shrugged. "We're friends."

"Friends, like how I have friends?" As a notorious serial dater, Abe knew a thing or two about keeping friends with benefits. "Because I would believe that more than you two just being a platonic thing."

Annabeth tossed her brother an annoyed look. "No, we're only friends. I've never touched him."

"But you want to," Jamison argued. "Admit at least that you want to. Hell, I would date him."

All heads turned her way, and Jamison's cheeks burned with embarrassment. Hearing her say she would date someone was just as shocking to her as it was to everyone else.

But it would happen. Someday. Life would have to go on without Liam.

Which was hard to think about since she remained hopelessly in love with him.

It had all fallen apart six months ago. Years together, down the drain overnight.

They had met here at Haven House when the Bureau sent Liam to investigate a string of homicides. Back then, he had been an entry-level field agent for the FBI, and an annoyance to his superior. As the son of a world-renowned criminal profiler, Liam hadn't exactly been welcomed onto the case and was sent to track down an obscure piece of evidence that led him straight to her family.

But the evidence in question turned out to be not so obscure after all, ending Tobias Miller's reign of terror.

"I can find Rowan hot." Jamison took a long sip of her wine. "Yeesh."

Annabeth suddenly looked very uncomfortable over the idea of her finding Rowan attractive, and Jamison smirked. "I wonder if he has tattoos all over. Like on his chest and legs."

"He does." Annabeth glared at everyone when they all burst into laughter. "I saw them when he came over to help me relearn how to swim. What was he supposed to do? Get in our pool fully clothed?"

Her question made them laugh harder and Annabeth stood abruptly, knocking the poor disgruntled Colonel off her lap. "You know what, I need to get dinner ready. Don't talk about me while I'm not here to defend myself."

She hurried from the room with her head held high, and Abe leaned forward to whisper. "When she heard Rowan was on that plane, she got all weird. I think they'll be together before Christmas."

"No way," Jamison replied. "This has gone on for years."

"It's different this time," Abe argued. "I can smell it."

"You can smell it?" Samuel rolled his eyes. "Like you're what? A sex bloodhound?"

Abe blew him a kiss. "Yes, actually."

"I agree, and I'll even bet you fifty dollars that Abe is right." Evie poked her husband in the chest. "Rowan and Annabeth will officially be dating before the Christmas."

Samuel grinned. "You've got yourself a bet, Mrs. Fairweather."

Averting her eyes, Jamison couldn't look at her siblings. Not because she still had an issue with them being together. That had long since passed. It was their happiness that stung. One couldn't exist without the other, and she knew the feeling well. Its absence chased her daily.

"I better go help Annabeth." Evie wiggled off Samuel's lap and tapped Abe's shoulder as she left. "Can you help me hide the karaoke machine before the girls come down?"

Abe rolled around the coffee table to follow her. "Absolutely."

Once alone with Samuel, Jamison polished off her wine. "Who in the hell bought them a karaoke machine?"

"Who do you think?"

"Dad."

"He's going to get his ass beat the next time I see him." Samuel set his whiskey aside. "Alright, cut the act and ask me. I know you want to know."

They were friends. Samuel and Liam. While she hadn't spoken to Liam since the day he left their apartment, she was sure Samuel had.

"No, I don't."

"Liar."

"I'm not lying," she insisted, very much a liar. "I hope he's doing well and happy."

"He's not." Samuel rested his elbows on his knees and looked her over. "He's the exact opposite of happy. Tomorrow is going to be tough on him."

Her nostrils flared. "Way to be supportive of your sister."

"Jamison, you called off the wedding over a single argument."

Why was it that men couldn't see a problem until it exploded in their face? It wasn't one argument. It had been an ongoing discussion for months.

"I don't see how it's any of your business."

Samuel's brows snapped together. "If I'm watching mysister suffer because she's destroyed a relationship that was stronger than most marriages, then yes, it's my business. I mean, if you think about it, had the world not gone to hell these past few years, you two would already be married."

"And what?" She leaned forward, putting them nose to nose. Fairweathers were hard-headed to a fault, and she could hold her own with the King of Stubborn here. "Be raising our family by now?"

That shut him up, and Jamison smirked in triumph. "You don't get to sit here and lecture me when you're a person who has it all, including two daughters upstairs. I want my happily ever after, Samuel. The way I want it."

This weekend needed to be a celebration of her having the courage to seek her own way, on her own terms. The life she wanted included a loving husband and children. Liam fit the bill on the loving husband part. A best friend. A confidant. A man who loved her unconditionally and trusted her without hesitation.

It was the part about having a family he wasn't on board with.

She first noticed his reluctance when the Bureau transferred him to working trafficking cases after they first moved to Texas. Liam took things to heart and would spend hours of his free time seeking justice for those who had fallen through the cracks. The stories of the children hit him the hardest.

"I don't think I can bring a baby into this world," he would say, pouring over the never-ending files. "People are monsters."

She told herself he would get over it. Everything always came at them in extremes. Even their relationship began under intense circumstances.

"I want a family of my own. Liam couldn't accept that, but maybe…" She paused, the bitterness over what she was about to say sliding down her throat. "Maybe he'll find someone who wants the same things as he does."

"What about you?"

"Maybe I will, too."

Samuel gave up. Pinching his brow, he fell back on the couch. "You are so stubborn."

"Speak for yourself," Jamison said, ready to change the subject. "What was that Zanmi press conference this afternoon, and why wasn't I made aware?"

"Because I wasn't aware of it until an hour before it started." Samuel tossed back the rest of his drink. "Honestly, where the hell do these people come from?"

"Everywhere."

Too many movies and false documentaries based on Toby only fueled the Zanmi narrative. When things were at their worst, and the gates were installed, Simone demanded a state-of-the-art security system to go along with it. Of course, she got what she wanted, and all of their residences were covered. From the cottages, to the apartment she once shared with Liam, to even her oldest brother's house in Atlanta, none of them were left without protection.

Rowan oversaw the annual maintenance, making it the best of the best. Every room—excluding bedrooms and bathrooms—held a minimum of one camera manned by Fairweather Holdings' private security. Her father had mentioned recently that the company had hired on some sort of genius to take over the team and give Rowan extra support. This new person apparently wanted to revamp the entire way they approached threats from Zanmi, and it sounded like a good time to get started.

"Is that why you had Rowan come at the last minute?"

"Rowan was already coming," Samuel said. "He's upgrading some things at my place, but he just bought a penthouse over in Port Michaelson and closed on it this afternoon."

"He's transferring to the Florida offices?"

Samuel went to pour himself another drink. "He keeps submitting a request to move, but Dad wants him in Texas."

"Well, isn't that interesting."

"Why is that interesting?

She joined her brother at the serving cart, needing more wine. She wanted to get good and drunk so she could sleep all day tomorrow. "Let's just say I think you might lose that fifty-dollar bet you made with your wife."