Free Always Mine by Christie Ridgway Page A

anywhere near.
    His heart.
    Â 
    In the master bedroom suite, Izzy took plates off the tray that Bryce had carried up the stairs and passed them to the two brothers who were sitting at places set on a card table she’d found stashed in a closet. Bryce pretended to swoon as he breathed in the smell of the lasagna that she’d made from the sauce she’d simmered two days before.
    â€œI love your pretty fairy wife,” he told Owen. “She’s beautiful, she cooks and she even told me I don’t have to worry about doing the dishes later.”
    â€œStop flirting,” his brother answered. “And damn right you’re going to do the dishes.”
    Bryce groaned. “Me and my big mouth. Would it aid my cause if I complained about the looooong board meeting Granddad presided over today? I doodled through an entire pad of paper.”
    Izzy pulled out her chair and sank into her seat as Owen gave Bryce a considering look. “The day you waste time doodling is the day I put on ballet slippers and dance in Swan Lake. ”
    Bryce clapped his hands over his ears. “Not another word. Don’t burn that image onto my brain!”
    Owen glanced at Izzy. “Bryce can take in the details of a meeting, plan another and write up the report on a third all at the same time.”
    â€œNot to mention managing my fantasy baseball team,” Bryce said, around a bite of lasagna. “Oh, God, this is good, Izzy. Really, I’m so marrying you.”
    She had to smile at him. “But I’m already married.”
    Bryce’s eyes brightened. “About that…”
    â€œDon’t go there,” his brother warned.
    Don’t go there. But they had gone there, Izzy thought, for no less than a thousand times, and then had not even gone on to discuss the next step—an annulment—since she’d moved into Owen’s condominium. Of course, they’d been pretty much keepingto their corners these days. Though she knew Owen was going stir-crazy, she hadn’t felt much like being his entertainment or distraction. That box of books that Emily had delivered seemed to sit on Izzy’s shoulders, weighing her down. It was good to have Owen’s brother here to give them both another focus.
    â€œDid you hear that, Isabella?”
    She started, directing her attention toward Bryce again. “What?”
    â€œI was saying that you two have a reprieve from the Marston machine even when the ’rents get back from their cruise. Right after, Mom’s on tap for a benefit she’s organizing and she’s roped Dad into helping her with the last-minute details.”
    Izzy thought of the elegant older woman. “Something for the symphony, I suppose?”
    â€œNah,” Bryce answered. “She abhors the symphony.”
    Owen smiled, and Izzy instantly noticed. He hadn’t been doing much of that lately, and it looked good on him. He had strong white teeth and the smile crinkled the corners of his eyes.
    â€œMom has the pearls and the blue blood, but to give her credit, she’s no snob,” he said. “She really abhors the symphony just as much as she loves the opera, Springsteen and the Stones.” He looked over at Bryce.
    â€œShe’s a piece of work,” they said together, then laughed.
    â€œDad’s favorite phrase,” Owen explained.
    The brothers shared a smile that forced Izzy to stare down at her plate and swallow a sigh. There was a wealth of family memories and familial closeness in the way Owen and Bryce spoke to each other and spoke about their parents. It made her want to grab a book and escape like she’d done so many times as a child. Inside the pages of a story, she wasn’t the outsider, the charity case, the person others felt sorry for.
    Even if the book was about an orphan like Rose of Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom, the character wasn’t left to fend for herself. In books, Izzy had always