Free Causing Havoc by Lori Foster

biceps.
    "Ah ha!" Jacki lifted the short sleeve further. "So you're into tattoos, too?"
    "Tattoo. Singular." He held the door for Lorna, who took the time to tie a scarf around her hair. "You have more than one?"
    "Not yet, but I'm considering another."
    Dean eyed her. "They aren't cheap." And she'd just been involved in a discussion about tight
    finances.
    The moment he said it, he regretted the words. Jacki slicked on a smile. Touching her hipbone, she
    said, "This was a birthday present from a friend."
    "Some friend."
    She propped her hands on her hips. "Oh, good Lord. Are you going to start playing concerned big
    brother, now?"
    "Hel no." He was not that kind of brother. "I was just making an observation."
    "We're going to get drenched if you two don't stop standing here discussing idiotic things." Lorna hustled past them for the restaurant entrance, and Jacki fel into step behind her.
    He looked at Cam, who scowled at him.
    "She's not had an easy time of it, Dean."
    "You don't say." Wearing his own insincere smile, Dean nodded. "But that's probably one of those complicated things better saved for later." He gestured for Cam to precede him to the entrance.
    Instead she put her shoulders back. "Look, anything you want to know, I'l tel you. But not out of
    order and not at inappropriate times."
    "Meaning?"
    She inhaled a deep breath. "Give me a little time, please."
    Dean felt like an ass. "Take al the time you need." And. again, he gestured for her to get a move on.
    She remained tight-lipped until they were seated, given menus, and had ordered drinks. Then, after
    a fleeting look around the table, she visibly girded herself. "Okay, here's the thing."
    Jacki groaned. "Don't tel me you're going to start spil ing your guts before dinner."
    "She brought him here," Lorna said, with venom. " Against my wishes, al for the purpose of tel ing him things that are none of his business. What you or I think doesn't matter to her. Of course she's
    not going to change her mind now."
    "Hey." Jacki held up her hands in a show of denial. "Don't group me with you, Auntie. I don't give a damn what she tel s him; I just don't think he'l care. But if she wants to lay it al out, that's her
    business."
    Bristling with irritation, Cam shot out of her seat. "Both of you wil be quiet."
    Other patrons glanced up. Lorna and Jacki stared at her. After a few seconds of silence, Dean
    couldn't help but grin. He lifted his water glass in a toast and said with facetious good humor, "So nice to be welcomed into such a warm and loving family. Thank you."
    Cam sank back into her seat, held her head in her hands, and let out a long wearisome sigh.
    Looking from Dean to Cam and back again, Jacki tried to make amends. "Hey, sorry, Dean. I didn't
    mean—"
    Lorna snapped, "Don't you dare apologize to him, Jacqueline Conor. You owe him nothing. Nothing."
    Dropping one hand while keeping her head propped on another, Cam addressed her aunt. "Now
    that's where you're wrong, Aunt Lorna, and you damn wel know it."
    Lorna said, "Do not—"
    "Too late." With al the poise of a woman facing the gal ows, Cam straightened and turned toward Dean. "I didn't plan to do this right now, but there's no time like the present, and I'm tired of dreading it." She stared right at him and said, "We're probably going to have to sel the house."
    Detesting al the theatrics, Dean narrowed his eyes at her. "Yeah, so?" He agreed with Lorna: It had nothing to do with him. Unless ... did she expect him to bail her out? Had she invited him here to take
    care of her financial woes? Like hel .
    "So it's part yours."
    An eerie dread crawled up his spine. "How do you figure that?"
    Jacki laughed. "This is great." When Dean glanced at her, she laughed some more. "Hate to tel you, Cam, but he's not only untouched by the gesture, he almost looks offended."
    Touched? What was there to be touched about? More annoyed by the second, Dean said, "Forget
    it. I've got my own house. Make that plural: houses. I