Dakota want to squirm. The same look her mother had always given any boyfriend she dared bring home.
“So,” Dakota said, turning back to the group of men, “where’s Heidi?”
“Right here,” Heidi said, stepping out onto the porch carrying a humongous serving bowl of tossed salad. “Great timing. Food’s just about ready.” She set the salad on one of the two picnic tables near the barbeques. “Boys, go get all the stuff off the counter and bring it out. I’m not your dang slave.”
The six brothers nearly tripped over their own feet, playfully shoving at each other to get through the sliding glass door as they went to fetch the rest of the food and condiments.
Dakota’s mother laughed and picked up a bottle of beer she’d obviously been drinking earlier, while her father joined Fridrik and Burke at one end of one of the picnic tables, their conversation centered around U.S. national parks conservation and hunting regulations.
Heidi opened the grills and started piling meat onto platters. Her parents thought this dinner was a celebration get-together, an anniversary for the company, but that was just an excuse. For three months she’d been living with Axel and Gunnar, attending weekly dinners at the dads’, and helping Heidi cook meals now and then for all the boys who seemed unable to feed themselves—or at least feed themselves properly, as Heidi put it. She still couldn’t get used to the amount of food these men could consume in one sitting.
Within moments, the tables were laden with salads, chips, condiments, meat and Heidi’s homemade bread.
Axel sat on one side of her, Gunnar on the other, and her mother right across from them.
“When are you going to have the new proofs for the winter ad campaign done?” Reidar asked. He sat next to her mother.
“I only started last week,” Dakota said with a frown. “I just got the photos back yesterday.”
“Yeah?” Kelan said. “How’d I look?”
“Not as good as I did,” Torsten piped in around a bite of chicken.
“You wouldn’t even take your shirt off for the photographer,” Sindre said as he reached behind him and pulled another beer from the cooler.
Dakota bit her tongue and glanced at Axel. There would be a few shots of the brothers in the ad campaign, but it was Axel’s company, and so he was the face of it.
He winked at her. She, Axel and Gunnar had gone through the proofs the night before and chose the photos that would be used. Of course, all the brothers had looked great, but she was a bit biased. And the only one she was using with no shirt was Gunnar. By far he had the best set of abs.
“That’s your answer to everything, isn’t it?”
Torsten said as he reached across her mother’s plate to grab a bowl of chips. “Just get naked.”
“Manners please,” Heidi said, slapping Torsten’s shoulder as she walked behind them. “Sorry,” she said to Dakota’s mother, “they really weren’t raised in a barn.”
“Sorry, ma’am,” Torsten added.
Her mother laughed. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you had your hands full with this bunch.”
“At least they know how to sit at a table, right?”
Heidi said with a laugh then sat down on the other side of Sindre.
Her mother’s assessing gaze traveled back to her then Axel, then Gunnar. Mary smiled and lifted a fork of macaroni salad, her eyes twinkling a little.
Dakota wanted to tell Axel and Gunnar to act more like their brothers. They ate with forks, had napkins over their laps. What the hell? They didn’t do this on a normal basis. They usually were as unruly as the rest of them. As loud as the rest of them too, and tonight they barely said a word.
“Thanks for the help,” Heidi said as she dried the platter Dakota had just washed.
“No problem. The guys seem to think this is a holiday or something.” She shook her head and grinned. “Besides, the way my mother keeps staring at me is starting to make my skin itch.”
Heidi laughed. “She’s pretty sharp. She knows something’s up and Axel isn’t just your employer.”
“I know.” She sighed.
“Hey, I want you to know something.” Heidi set the platter on the island and turned back to Dakota to place her hands on her shoulders.
“What? Jeez, Heidi, I’m terrified enough as it is.”
Heidi laughed and wrapped her arms around her, hugging her hard and quick. When she pulled back she said, “I want you to know that I’m really happy you’re part of the family. I always wanted a sister, and you’re about the best one I could ever imagine.”
Tears sprang hot and fast to Dakota’s eyes even as she smiled. “Thank you. I feel the same about you. The brothers make me kind of nuts sometimes, but I love it when you and I have girl time together.”
“Need any help?”
Dakota turned toward the door to see her mother standing there, smiling.
“Nope,” Heidi said, wiping the last platter. “We’re done. But thanks.” She set it on the island and turned to the fridge, pulling out three of the good, imported beers she kept hidden in the back so her brothers didn’t get them. She handed one to Dakota and the other to Mary as she walked out of the kitchen, leaving mother and daughter alone.
“Still mad we didn’t call first before showing up?”
her mother asked.
“I wasn’t mad, Mom, just surprised.” Dakota used the edge of the wood slab island to pop the top on the beer, as Gunnar had shown her, and traded bottles with her mother.
“You’re about as nervous as a cat in a room of rocking chairs tonight,” Mary said then took a sip from the dark green bottle.
Dakota opened the second bottle the same way and took a long drink. “Dad seems to have hit it off with Fridrik and Burke pretty well,” she said, trying to change the subject.
Her mother nodded and leaned her hip against the island, resting her hand against the old, scarred wood.
“Deer hunting and land management. I’ll be lucky if we’re not up all night the way those three are jabbering.”
Dakota snickered then took another drink. Her mother’s gaze landed on her hand holding the bottle.
Her left hand.
“You were never one much for jewelry,” Mary said in a tone so nonchalant it couldn’t have been more fake.
Dakota set her bottle of beer on the island and gazed at the ring on her finger. A braided band of two gold strands and one bronze. The symbol of her light-colored mates wrapped securely around her darker coloring.
“I’m just having a difficult time figuring out which one of them gave it to you.”
Dakota stared at the ring so hard her eyes blurred.
“And another thing. Turn around and raise your shirt a little.”
Dakota’s heart thudded. She looked up at her mom, turned and slowly lifted the bottom hem of the tank top to reveal the tattoo she’d gotten a month before when she’d accompanied Axel on a trip to Seattle. While he attended a trade show, she’d done the one thing she never thought she would. She’d surprised her guys and gotten a tattoo. One with the Falke family crest on it.
Axel and Gunnar told her it was the most incredible thing anyone had ever done for them, as much a symbol of her love for them as the two faint bite marks she carried on her flesh.
Her mother nodded. “I thought I caught a glimpse of something there when you hugged Burke earlier, and again a moment ago when I came into the kitchen.
It’s the same design they all wear on those collars, right?” She frowned. “Which is something else I find a bit odd.”
Dakota smoothed her shirt down. “It’s just…” She shrugged.
“Pretty permanent,” Mary said, motioning toward her.
“Yes, it is. Very.”
“I have it narrowed down to two of the six. It’s either your new boss or the one with the wicked twinkle in
