Caught in the Frame (Ponderosa Pines Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) by ReGina Welling (novel24 .TXT) 📕

easily Lila had been drawn into Javier’s close-knit family. They made her feel included, even loved, within minutes of meeting them.

Baylee barely made it down the stone steps toward the milling horde before being surrounded and eventually shuffled out of sight. Tomas was hoping to be cleared to travel the next day, but Chloe was sure Baylee was in good hands until then. Earlier in the day, Antoine had delivered the welcome news that no charges would be filed against Baylee or Javier for breaking into Remy’s room, provided they both testify when his case came to court. In trade, Remy would plead out to a lesser offense on the kidnapping charges. He’d still be spending most of his twilight years in a correctional facility, but it would be a minimum security one versus a federal penitentiary.

And then, Lila dropped a bombshell on Chloe. “You’ll be meeting your new step siblings later on today,” she said, as though this wasn’t entirely new information.

“My new what?” Chloe couldn’t process the words. “You couldn’t have told me before?”

“You didn’t ask,” A trace of rebuke was softened by a smile. “We were busy and things have been frantic. It never came up.”

A dozen thoughts crowded into Chloe’s mind. How many siblings was she about to gain? Would they like her? Being an only child had its privileges, and yet it had also, at times, meant for a lonely childhood. Changing schools, leaving friends behind, and never having anyone else with the same experiences had left more of a hole in Chloe than she realized. It might be late in the game, but sisters and brothers, if they were anything like the rest of the clan she’d met so far, weren’t an entirely horrible prospect. Nerve wracking maybe, but good.

“How many siblings am I about to get? Are they younger or older?” The questions came rapid fire. “Do they know about me, at least?”

Lila held up a hand to stop Chloe talking, “Three. A sister and two brothers. All younger, but not by a lot. They can’t wait to meet you.”

“You still could have told me.”

“Yes, Dear, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.”

* * *

The sun hung low on the horizon when Javier’s progeny made their arrival. In style—in a helicopter with the Garritek logo emblazoned across the side. The whirlybird touched down just long enough to discharge it’s passengers, then lifted off quickly. As it rose into the sky, Chloe felt like it took her stomach along with it.

Javier rushed ahead to greet them while Lila and Chloe hung back, allowing them a moment. She experienced a moment of envy when Javier greeted his daughter by picking her up and giving her a whirl as though she were eight years old instead of closer to twenty-eight. It was a father/daughter thing, she supposed. Not that she’d had any experience with those. Chestnut curls framed a delicate face and played off the woman’s full, red lips. Javier certainly made attractive children.

All the feelings of not fitting in roared back through Chloe like stampeding stallions when the young people greeted Lila with hugs and familiarity. Inch by inch, her spine stiffened, the old shields built up and up. She felt like a mile of distance separated her from them, and this time, it was worse, because her mother was on the other side of the divide, still talking animatedly with the sloe-eyed beauty.

“Chloe.” Javier’s questioning tone pulled Chloe back to focus. Flanking him, his two sons looked enough alike to be twins—twins who bore a marked resemblance to their father. The same white smiles, smooth olive skin, and warm, generous eyes. Only their hairstyles and clothing choices differed.

Fatherly pride radiated from Javier as he introduced first Cisco, who wore ripped jeans and a band tee—a shock of raven hair angled over his forehead, and then Miguel who favored his father’s relaxed, yet classic style. Chloe wasn’t sure what kind of greeting they expected, so she slapped on a tentative smile and held out her hand.

Before she had time to utter the first word of greeting, Chloe was nearly knocked over by five feet-two inches of dynamite. “I am Bianca. I have wanted so long to have a sister and all I get are these two—” Bianca let go of Chloe and waved a dramatic arm toward her two brothers. “Come, we will go inside, get a nice limoncello and get to know one another.” It wasn’t like she had a choice; Bianca possessed a firm grip and an iron determination. Her smile, though, was warm, and thawed Chloe’s resistance. She let the chattering Bianca lead her away with only a short backward glance, which showed Lila looking slightly misty.

* * *

When Lila had described Javier’s mother, Concetta, as a firecracker, she couldn’t have been more on point. Shorter than Chloe by almost a foot, and nearly as round as she was tall, Concetta possessed a certain joie de vivre, even at her advanced age. Cha-cha-cha-ing across the pub stage, singing a spirited karaoke version of an old disco-era tune in beautiful Spanish, she had everyone in the audience on their feet. With a final bow and a conspiratorial wink in Chloe’s direction, she handed off the microphone to Lila once more.

In another life, Chloe’s mother might have had a very successful singing career, and Lila never turned down an opportunity to display her talented pipes. As she took the stage for at least the tenth time that night with naked glee, Chloe knew they had hit the bachelorette party nail on the head.

No inappropriate phallic-shaped ice cubes or embarrassing plastic tiaras for Lila; two-hundred-dollar bottles of Crystal flowed like water into Swarovski flutes alongside caviar-covered toast points and pate de foie gras. Maybe the karaoke wasn’t in keeping with the otherwise five-star accommodations, but the juxtaposition was wholly Lila.

Over the evening, instead of dwindling, the crowd swelled for a time as more new arrivals stopped in for a