Free Cavanaugh Rules by Marie Ferrarella

her new partner’s name. “What do you know about Matt Abilene?”
    The wide, muscular shoulders rose and fell in a minor, offhanded movement. “Off the top of my head—nothing,” Tom admitted. “But I can ask around if you’d like.” He looked carefully at Kendra, as if trying to discern if everything was all right. “I heard that the chief gave you a new one,” he confirmed. “Is he giving you a hard time?”
    She didn’t want to answer that one way or another. To say yes would get her brother’s protective side up and Abilene wasn’t actually being condescending or disrespectful toward her, which meant that she couldn’t say that he was giving her a hard time. It was more that he was irritating her—mostly in ways she couldn’t talk about or explain, even to herself. Besides, knowing the way Tom thought, he just might interpret her words in a completely different and unwelcome way.
    So, for now, she remained evasive. “I just like to know the kind of person I’m working with, that’s all,” she said in the most innocent voice she could muster.
    “Wouldn’t you figure that out after a few days of interacting with him?” Tom asked, putting the logical assumption out there.
    For that, at least, she had an answer. “You know I’m the impatient type.”
    Tom grinned. “Which is why this new partner of yours gets more of my sympathy than you do,” her brother told her.
    Kendra eyed him impatiently. “So you’re not going to help?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    No, she had to admit that he hadn’t. And that relieved her. For a second. “You just like to yank my chain.”
    Tom didn’t bother suppressing the laugh. “Something like that.”
    Nothing new there, she thought. And then she remembered something else. Something she had jumped the gun on. Was this going to create problems now, she wondered uncertainly.
    Kendra took a breath, then said, “Mind if I ask you a question?”
    “Go ahead.”
    She pressed her lips together, then pushed ahead. “Think that the chief would mind my bringing two guests with me to his Saturday brunch thing this week?”
    “Which chief?” he asked for form’s sake, although only one of them really cooked. Brian just put up the tables. “We’ve got two of them in the family now,” he reminded her, tongue in cheek. “It might be clearer if you refer to them as Uncle Andrew and Uncle Brian.”
    She couldn’t bring herself to do that just yet. They were people she respected and in Brian’s case, was honored to work with. But they weren’t her uncles. Maybe in time they would be, but not yet. Not now.
    “Doesn’t feel right, yet,” she told her brother. “And you know I’m talking about the brunches the former chief has in his house—Andrew, all right?” she tagged on, exasperated as she used the man’s name.
    Tom ignored her irritated tone. There was a more interesting question here than why her temper kept spiking. “What guests?”
    She would rather not have said anything until later, but since he asked, she had to tell him. There was no easy way around it. “Abilene and his mother.”
    “So you’re getting along with him, then,” Tom assumed.
    She wasn’t about to launch into any long explanations right now. “One thing doesn’t have anything to do with the other,” Kendra countered.
    Tom crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “All right. Educate me.”
    She sighed. “Abilene got a call at the office from his mother today. She was upset. From what I could gather, her boyfriend walked out on her. Abilene said it wasn’t the first such occurrence. That it’s a pattern.” She recited the facts as she recalled them. “She sounds like a good woman who’s made a lot of bad choices because she’s afraid of winding up alone. Apparently, there’s no other family. I just thought...”
    Kendra let her voice trail off. Tom was the smart one here, she let him fill in the blanks.
    “—that being subjected to the Cavanaugh family