She continued rambling on, oblivious to his seething anger. “I had a salad, and then some pasta, ham, turkey, fried chicken. Oh, it was so delicious! Then we went and tried the soft serve ice cream over on Wilmington.” He stood there waiting for her to realize that she was in trouble. He had no idea where that woman got off taking his sister, but he was going to find out. Then he was going to drain her dry for taking his sister without his permission and scaring the ever-living hell out of him!

“Did you know that they had electric scooters at the grocer’s?” she asked in an accusing tone, cutting into his murderous thoughts.

Shit.

He had known. He just hadn’t told her because he didn’t want to chance even that slowing him down. He hated going out in public and having her along would just prolong the experience.

“It was so nice to pick out my own fruits and vegetables. The produce and meat departments are so much larger than I remembered. Cloe was so nice. She never once complained about how slow I was going,” she said casually, but he didn’t miss the reproachful tone in her voice.

He watched the woman in question open the hatch of her SUV. Something whacked him on the thigh, rather hard. He glared down at his sister who made no move to hide the fact that she’d just hit him with her cane.

“Don’t just stand there. Go help her bring in the groceries,” Marta said with a huff before she continued making her way inside the house.

Oh, if she was about forty years younger he’d actually consider pulling her over his knee and spanking her like their father had when they were children. She sent him a look that told him if he didn’t move his ass soon that she would come back down the stairs to give the other leg a good thump. Damn it, when had she gotten so bossy? He grumbled about annoying little sisters as he walked over to Cloe.

Cloe had three bags in her arms when she finally turned around and spotted him. Her warm smile appeared genuine, making him instantly cautious. No one looked at him that way except for Marta. Everyone else looked at him as if he was a freeloading freak. No, this woman was up to something. She’d already kidnapped Marta. Granted, she’d returned her, but from what he’d heard she was already spending Marta’s money like there was no tomorrow. Correction, she was spending his money like there was no tomorrow.

“Hey, Hoodie, I’m surprised to see you here,” she said as she somehow managed to pick up another bag.

“It’s Christofer,” he said evenly, making her smile falter a little.

“Yes, of course. I’m sorry,” she said sheepishly as she moved to step past him. He moved to the right, cutting her off.

“As much as I’d love to stand here and chat with you, Christofer, these bags are kind of heavy,” she said as she tried to adjust her grip on the bags.

“What are you doing here, Cloe?” he asked softly as he fought the urge to lean in and inhale her scent more deeply into his lungs.

“At the moment? Probably developing a hernia,” she groaned.

His lips twitched, despite his mood.

“Christofer, you help her!” Marta yelled from the front steps.

Grinding his teeth so that he didn’t say something that would upset his sister, he reached out and relieved Cloe of the bags. She took a deep breath and nodded. “Thank you,” she murmured with a grateful smile.

He expected her to go inside and leave the bags to him, but instead, she turned around and grabbed three more bags and easily stepped around him and headed for the house, leaving him to follow after her or stand there looking like an idiot.

“So, are you Marta’s grandson?” she asked in a conversational tone as they walked towards the house

“No, I’m her brother,” he answered, stepping to the side so that Cloe could walk on the path.

Cloe’s back became ramrod straight, causing her to stumble before she righted herself. Without a look back, she hurried inside the house, leaving him to wonder what the hell that reaction was about.

Chapter 4

“What the hell do you mean you hired her? She’s not staying here!” Christofer shouted from the living room. Whatever Marta’s response was, it was quiet.

Cloe sighed as she headed back out to her car to grab the rest of the grocery bags. It had been a while since she had to buy this much food for one of her employers, but Marta had insisted that there wasn’t anything in the house. After a quick inspection of the kitchen before heading back outside, Cloe quickly agreed that they hadn’t overdone it.

After grabbing her iPod, she grabbed the last of the bags, locked her car, and headed back inside. Once she was back in the kitchen, she could hear him yelling again. With a sigh, she cranked up the volume on her iPod.

Whatever his problem was about her being here she had no doubt that Marta would win. Normally she wouldn’t care one way or the other about losing a job, but Marta was a very nice, feisty, if somewhat shy woman who needed more help than her spoiled brat brother was giving her.

At first she’d been a little unnerved at the discovery, but she’d been working with the older generation for a long time now and Christofer was not the first very young sibling that she’d encountered. That didn’t bother her. No, what bothered her was the fact that the nice guy she’d thought she’d met in the pharmacy was really a toad who treated his sister, his elderly sister, like an unwanted dog.

The man didn’t want to take his sister anywhere when she clearly wanted to go out and live her life. Marta damn near broke her heart when she got all excited about driving to the grocery store. Then she began pointing out all the places she’d heard about, heard not been to, to Cloe and told her how she was just dying to try this or that. Finally, Cloe hadn’t been able to take it any longer and took her to the buffet. Marta seemed so excited to be there. It was obvious to Cloe that she hadn’t been out to eat in a very long time. Marta acted the same way at the store.

When she’d thought the brother was an old man she’d been fine with the situation, realizing that there wasn’t much that an elderly man could do to help his sister. She’d decided that she would try helping them both out, but when she’d discovered the brother was much younger, healthy and lazy she got a bit pissed. This was classic elderly neglect. For God sakes there wasn’t so much as a box of baking soda in the house.

After she put the last of the groceries away and no one came to tell her that she had to leave, she decided to make herself useful. She grabbed the new cleaning supplies they’d bought and started cleaning.

The counters, stove, table, refrigerator and cabinets probably took a half hour to clean. She swept up the floor and was about to get the mop, but decided she would just have to get on her hands and knees and scrub the damn floor. It was clear that the floor hadn’t been mopped in years. Well, at least not properly, she amended a moment later when she spotted the telltale signs of a mop having been moved over the floor at some point. With a resigned sigh, she filled up the bucket with hot soapy water, grabbed the brush and got to work.

As she worked, her mind kept going back to the playful banter she had with Christofer at the pharmacy. It really was a pity that he’d turned out to be such a spoiled little ingrate. Oh well. Marta said he stayed in his basement room most of the time and only came up to check on her or make her a meal so she probably wouldn’t run into him very often if she stayed.