Isabella wasted no time in wrapping Colin in a hug, her arms tightening around him as she sent me a kind, slightly sad look over his shoulder.

“I didn’t know you were my aunt yesterday,” Colin said once she let him go, rubbing the back of his neck. “Or I’d have been nicer.”

“That’s okay,” she assured him, her voice as soft as her delicate features.

She sidestepped Constantine and came straight for me.

My purse slipped from my grip in time for her to crush me against her petite frame.

Stronger than you look. A little like her brother, after all.

“So, you’re the one who’s turned my brother into the teddy bear I always knew he was but refused to let anyone see,” she whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear, let alone anyone else.

“Guilty,” I returned in an equally hushed tone.

“She’s a little overzealous. Easy, sis.” Constantine tugged her away from me before hugging her himself.

“Thank you for having your father’s six out there today,” Isabella said to Colin afterward, gently nudging his shoulder. “I saw what happened on the security cameras from the garage before I wiped them clean.”

Colin swiped away his megawatt grin with the back of his hand. “Oh, um, this wasn’t from that fight, by the way.” He pointed to his eye as if embarrassed he’d let anyone land a punch.

Isabella took hold of his cheek as if she’d known Colin her whole life and examined the bruise. “Not too bad.”

I knelt and picked up my purse, narrowly missing tripping over our bags to get to Constantine.

“How about we go farther inside and not hover in the hallway,” Isabella, or I supposed I’d heard Constantine call her Izzy, suggested. “I don’t bite, I promise.”

“She does, in fact, bite.” Hudson’s comment earned an elbow from her.

Constantine took my hand to navigate around the luggage without tripping. The man didn’t miss a thing.

“This is sick,” Colin announced, arms wide open while spinning around, taking it all in.

It was pretty badass in an over-the-top billionaire-home way, but I couldn’t focus on the luxury around me. We could have been walking into empty space for all I cared. Decorations didn’t matter when I had everything I wanted in front of me—Constantine and Colin.

“Where’s Mom and Dad?” Constantine asked her.

“He’s working, you know him,” she said when Colin went over to the wall of glass that overlooked the park. “He never stops. Mom is in the wine room because she thinks getting us drunk is a good idea.”

She chuckled, then her gaze zeroed in on our clasped hands, and she lifted her chin as a reminder we were supposed to be playing roles. If their parents saw us handholding, the jig would be up.