Pam lifted a brow. She couldn’t remember the last time Nadia or Paige had gotten excited about someone coming for dinner, least of all a man. The first time she had invited Fletcher, they had almost boycotted dinner until she’d had a good, hard talk about being courteous and displaying Novak manners.
“Yes, he said he was going back to the hotel to change clothes and would be coming back.”
“And don’t you think he’s very handsome, Pam?” Paige chimed in to ask.
Pam turned after placing the last plate on the table and faced her three sisters. Although Jill hadn’t voiced her excitement, Pam knew it was there—she could clearly see it on her face. The one thing she didn’t want her sisters to think was that Dillon’s presence at dinner had anything to do with her engagement to Fletcher. She knew what they were trying to do, and it was time she made sure they understood that it wasn’t working.
“Yes, he is handsome, Paige, but so is Fletcher. But I’m not marrying a man because of his looks. I’m not that vain and I hope the three of you aren’t, either. To set the record straight, so the three of you fully know that what you’re doing isn’t working, I will be marrying Fletcher.”
Jill smiled. “We have no idea what you’re talking about, Pam.”
Pam rolled her eyes and was about to give them a good talking-to when the sound of the doorbell stopped her. “Okay, that’s our guest and I want you on your best behavior, and please keep in mind that I am engaged to marry Fletcher.”
Jill made a face and then said, “Please, don’t remind us.”
* * *
“We’re glad you found out something about your great-grandfather today, Dillon,” Nadia said, smiling.
Dillon couldn’t help but return her smile, thinking she reminded him a lot of his cousin Bailey when she’d been Nadia’s age. There was an innocence about her, while at the same time if you looked into her eyes long enough, there was mischief there, as well. The same thing could be said about Paige, but Jill was a different story.
There was something about her and her antics tonight that reminded him of Bane. The thought of a female Bane made him cringe more than a little. Her eyes twinkled when she encouraged him to talk about his family. He couldn’t help but wonder if she was truly interested, or if her inquisition was a ploy. And he was smart enough to figure out it all came back to the same thing as last night. For some reason Pam’s sisters were not happy with the man she had chosen to marry. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that.
“Would you like something more to eat, Dillon?”
He glanced over at Pam. Their gazes met across the table and he smiled while at the same time fought down the tightening of his gut. He’d never been a man easily distracted by a beautiful face, but in the last forty-eight hours he’d known the real experience of feeling weak in the knees and having his heart thud mercilessly in his chest.
“No, and I appreciate your invitation to dinner.”
“Tell us some more about Bane. He sounds like someone I’d like to meet one day,” Jill said.
“No, he’s not,” both Dillon and Pam said simultaneously, and then they couldn’t help but glance across the table at each other and laugh. They agreed with each other on that point.
Pam excused herself to go get dessert, a chocolate cake she had baked earlier. Dillon smiled at the three females staring at him and, as soon as Pam left the room, he was surprised when they lit into him with questions they dared not ask while their older sister was still in the room.
Nadia went first. Her dark eyes, as beautiful as her older sister’s, stared him down. “Do you think Pammie is pretty?”
He smiled. That was easy enough for him to answer and do so truthfully. “Yes, she’s pretty.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?” Paige quickly asked.
He chuckled. “No, I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Would you be interested in Pam if she wasn’t engaged?”
Jill’s question would have shocked the hell out of him if he hadn’t gotten used to her tactics by now. She shot straight from the hip and he intended to answer her the same way.
“The key point to remember is that your sister is engaged, so whether I would be interested is a moot point, now, isn’t it? But to answer your question, my answer would be yes, I would be interested.”
“Interested in what?” Pam asked, returning and toting a plate with a huge chocolate cake.
“Nothing,” three voices said at once.
Pam lifted a brow as she glanced at her sisters. She then looked over at Dillon and he couldn’t help but smile and shrug his shoulders. Joining Pam and her sisters for dinner made him feel right at home and he wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
* * *
“I think I need to apologize for anything my sisters might have said that could have grated on your nerves tonight,” Pam said, walking Dillon out to his car. She had convinced herself this would be the only way she could get a few private words in without her sisters’ ears perking at each and every word.
He chuckled. “Hey, it wasn’t bad. I enjoyed their company. Yours, too. And dinner was wonderful.”
“Thanks.”
They didn’t say anything for a few moments and then she asked, “Will you be coming back tomorrow? To continue reading Jay’s journal?”
When they came to his car he leaned against it to face her. “Only if you say it’s okay. I don’t want to wear out my welcome.”
She chuckled. “You won’t be. Besides, finding out more about Raphel and Portia is like a puzzle waiting to be pieced together.”
Pam knew she probably should suggest that he take the journal with him—that way he wouldn’t have to bother coming back tomorrow—but for some reason she couldn’t do that.
“Well, I guess I’d better let you go now. See you tomorrow,” she said, backing up, putting proper distance between them.
“Good night,” he said.
Dillon opened the door and got into the car but sat there until Pam had raced up the stairs, let herself inside and closed the door behind her. He saw three pairs of curtains automatically fall back into place in upstairs windows, and couldn’t help but chuckle at the notion that he and Pam had been spied on. To be honest, he wasn’t surprised.
As he drove off, he could only shake his head when he remembered his siblings’ and cousins’ reaction to Tammi when he’d brought her home, a year before they’d married. Although his parents and aunt and uncle had tried making the Westmoreland clan behave, it had been pretty obvious that Tammi hadn’t been too well received. But that hadn’t stopped him for marrying her the following year and bringing her home as his wife. Now he wished that it had.
He shifted in his seat to pull his cell phone out of his jeans pocket, hoping tonight he could pick up a signal. He smiled when he did and immediately placed a call home.
Ramsey answered on the second ring. “The Westmorelands.”
“Hey, Ram, it’s Dillon. How are things going?”
“As well as can be expected. Bane’s been behaving, so that’s good.”
Yes, that was good, Dillon thought.
“I went up to the big house and got all your mail,” Ramsey was saying.
“Thanks.”
“You find out anything on Raphel yet?” Ramsey asked.
“Yes.” Dillon then spent the next