Striptease. Alison Kent

I know you then?” she asked, knowing full well she’d have remembered this one if he’d been around. That grin. Those eyes. Oh, my. Oh…my. The other Zuniga boys—Colin and Richard and Jay—had been in and out and around the house during those years, but Aiden? No, she’d have remembered him.

      Aiden shook his head in answer. “I don’t think so. But then, I wasn’t home very often.”

      “You weren’t home ever,” Chloe accused, propping her feet on her brother’s lap. He grabbed her ankle and teasingly threatened to toss her away. “I totally blame Aiden’s abandonment for all my psychological issues.”

      One of Aiden’s brows went up. “And, knowing the way your little mind works, no doubt for the national debt, homelessness and Tom and Nicole’s divorce.”

      Chloe huffed. “That last one you could’ve gotten to a little sooner, you know. Before I hooked up with Eric would’ve been nice.”

      Renata couldn’t help but grin as she returned her gaze to Aiden, compelled to study him more closely while his sister held his attention.

      His hair, she decided, had once been blond but had darkened with time to a rich golden-brown. Like buttered wheat toast, or a jug of tea steeping in the sun. His eyes were the dark blue Chloe’s would be if not for her penchant for violet-colored contact lenses. The blue of big sky country, Renata mused, her thoughts spurred by his Wild-West look.

      He wore jeans that had been cut from a bolt of denim, but had faded and softened to what she imagined would be the texture of an aged patchwork quilt. His round-toed boots were black, the heels flat, the leather superb. Turquoise snaps closed a short-sleeved white shirt across his broad chest. A silver belt buckle lay flat against his abs.