Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
No more Rocky.
How’s that going for me?
Superbly. Just . . . so wonderful. I’m doing backflips down the aisles.
She starts composing a text, and the chimes to the bookshop door jingle.
Jake Waterford has entered the chat. He catches my eyes, and I figure I’ll just get a friendly wave, but he surprisingly approaches.
“Is he gone?” Jake asks.
I jerk back. “That doesn’t feel like a country club welcome. Didn’t you take cotillion?”
He side-eyes me. “I’m not really in the mood for perfunctory politeness.” He glances over at Hailey for a quick second. “Is your brother out of the loft?”
Hailey texts on her phone and says, “Oh yeah, he left this morning.”
“Can you show me?” he asks.
Her phone beeps, and her lips downturn at a new text from her brother. “I’m kind of busy . . .”
I turn to our landlord. “I’ll show you, since you seem to have a hard-on for evidence.”
Jake blinks slowly, like this is not the outcome he’d hoped for. Hailey was his first choice. Noted. He takes a readying breath before he just nods. He follows me out of the bookshop and then up the flight of stairs to the loft.
I push the door open, and Jake asks, “Mind if I just check all the rooms?”
He hates him that much? I can’t remember the last time Rocky has rubbed someone this raw. “Sure,” I say. “Don’t forget to check under the beds. I hear that’s where the monsters live.”
Before Jake can move toward my bedroom, two guys emerge from the room. The leaner of the two has a crooked grin as he says, “Don’t know of any monsters under any beds. But I can point you in the direction of a few.”
I ignore the confusion wafting from Jake’s body. I can’t help it. I grin. “Oliver.”
“Little sister.”
Elation surges as I rush toward him and go in for a hug, barely registering the truth he spoke out loud. His arms swoop around me in brotherly affection. At six-foot-three, he’s much taller than me. Wavy pieces of his light brown hair fall into his eyes, and his long trench coat looks like something from a Banana Republic catalog. He pulls off the preppy style with pure ease.
Oliver was helping Mom with a job in Minneapolis while we were in Carlsbad. I haven’t seen him in person in a good four months.
“Phoebe.” That voice comes from deeper in the hallway.
I break from Oliver to see Nova propped against the wall, his muscles flexed, hair shaved short. He has light facial scruff, and he wears his usual we need to talk about business expression along with his staple utility jacket that he mostly wears off jobs.
I want to hug him, too, but I hesitate since he hasn’t called me his sister.
His eyes flit to Jake. “You are?”
“Landlord,” Jake says, crossing his arms. “I’m not sure if Phoebe told you, but guests aren’t allowed to stay longer than a week and Rocky has already capped that perk out.”
Pretty sure that’s not how the rental contract phrased it, but I don’t want to ruffle Jake’s precious peacock feathers more than Rocky has.
“We won’t be staying here,” Nova confirms. “I take it you’re not a Rocky fan.” Oh, my brother is definitely prying. He must know it’s strange for Rocky to have already made an enemy in town.
“To put it mildly,” Jake says. “How do you know Phoebe?”
“We’re both her brothers,” Oliver clarifies first, and I can’t remember that truth feeling this good. A brightness swells in my chest, and I breathe in the filling sentiment.
“The three of us,” Nova chimes in, “we’re not just brothers and sister.”
I go still. He’s not going to . . . ?
He won’t say the whole truth.
Is he really . . . ? My head is spinning.
Twenty-One
Phoebe
Nova never shifts his intense gaze off Jake. Not even as he says, “We’re triplets.”
The truth bomb explodes at my feet.
I’m stunned for a long, long second. When’s the last time we’ve told someone the depth of our relationship? Uh, almost never.
Most of the time they refer to themselves as my older brothers—because they technically are. Just older by minutes instead of years.
I want to be just as excited about living inside the whole truth, but nerves are swarming me.
Jake’s brows rise in surprise. “Triplets?” He swerves his head to me. “You didn’t mention that.”
I shrug. “It’s not something I bring up.”
“Seems like a big fact about yourself.”
Oliver grins. “We treat her like a little sister, so she likes to distance herself from our triplet status.”
I roll my eyes. “They try to treat me like a little sister.”
“How much older are you guys?” Jake wonders.
“Fourteen minutes,” Nova says.
Oliver holds up ten fingers. “Double digits for us both.”
Still lording that over my head. The excitement of Oliver’s and Nova’s presence starts to recede. Why are they even here? Does this mean our mom is on her way? What about Addison and Everett?