Page 12 of Earned Husband

Those memories resurfaced with surprising clarity now, though. With Colin standing beside me, I couldn’t help but get the sense that our fates were supposed to have been intertwined, but then something had happened, derailing the Saad-Thayer connection.

When I’d asked Ashanti about it, she’d simply shrugged and said that Jane had gone through hell, but she’d left it at that. Given how openly the Saads tended to talk about nearly everything else, her omission to explain stood out like a sore thumb.

I turned to rest with my hip against the railing, facing him, and took another sip of my cocktail. “I heard you have a lot of brothers.”

The corners of his mouth twitched, but he didn’t quite smile. “I heard the same thing about you.”

I shrugged. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

He finally turned his head toward me, arching an eyebrow before cocking his head like I’d scandalized him. “Here? Deja, there are children on board.”

I chuckled. “Something tells me those children have heard far more interesting things than a conversation about family size.”

“You’re not wrong.” He grinned as he glanced back toward the upper deck. “I’m pretty sure Cameron was hearing insider info about every big acquisition in the Northern Hemisphere by the time he was a week old.”

“That’s probably a fair assessment.” I kept sweeping my gaze across his profile, the strong line of his clean-shaven jaw, and wondered why he was being so cattish about sharing absolutely anything about himself. “Fine. I’ll go first. I have six brothers and a sister.”

“Wow,” he said. “Your family is even bigger than mine. We’re only six. There’s me and Jane, and four younger brothers.”

“See, was that so hard?” I asked teasingly.

The faintest outline a flush streaked across only the very tops of his cheekbones. “It was, actually. I’m not really used to answering personal questions.”

“I can tell,” I said, sounding coy without really having aimed for it. “Is this how you get the girls, Mr. Thayer, by being a man of mystery?”

He seemed so surprised that he laughed. “There’s no mystery. Trust me.”

I smiled. “Oh, but there is.”

Something about him was so unexpectedly appealing that it was difficult not to tease and flirt at least a little bit. At first glance, he came across as so serious that he was almost reserved, but now that I was actually having a conversation with him, he was warmer than I’d anticipated and it turned out he even shared my sense of humor.

“Are they aboard this evening as well?” I asked. “Your brothers, I mean. So far, I think I’ve only met Westwoods, but to be honest, there are so many people that I might’ve lost track.”

“Nah, they’re scattered all over at the minute. Jane, Isaac, and I are in Chicago. He works for Thayer as an engineer. The others are mostly still in college or working on projects in different parts of the country.”

The ease with which he spoke about them made it obvious how much he cared about his family. Since I was close to my own, that was another thing we had in common, but curiosity was still simmering in my veins. Maybe even more so now.

“If Isaac also works for Thayer, why isn’t he an executive?” I asked. “You said he’s an engineer, not a Chief Officer of Whatever.”

Strangely, Colin’s shoulders went a little rigid at the question, his jaw ticking. His attention drifted toward the dark water sliding past the yacht. “Yeah, that’s a complicated one.”

As I watched, he lifted a hand to the back of his neck, rubbing the muscle in his shoulder almost as if it was a habit he’d developed after years of being asked questions with no easy answer. I waited for a moment, knowing that in big, old-money families who headed up big, old-fashioned companies, when people said something was complicated, it usually was.

“Thayer has gone through a lot of changes over the last few years,” he said finally. “Most of the executive positions were filled during that time. I was moved into mine during the shift and Jane eventually managed to earn hers, but Isaac was still in college then.”

Meaning that, for some reason, their brother was presently still working his way up. Despite his last name and his relation to the CEO. There were definitely pieces missing from this story, but I doubted it was false.

Ashanti’s comment drifted back into my mind. If Jane truly had gone through hell, then judging by Colin’s reaction, the rest of the family had gone through it with her.

Finally realizing that this probably wasn’t a topic he wanted to dredge up with a near-stranger during a cocktail party, I let it drop. As I turned back to the water, my shoulder actually brushing his because of how close I got to him with the movement.

Colin abruptly ducked his head and sneezed.

The sound echoed across the otherwise quiet deck, and for a second, he looked mildly annoyed with himself. “Excuse me.”

I laughed. “Are you allergic to me?”

His eyes widened, but also immediately began watering. “No.”