"Hi," Sofia said softly, then glanced over her shoulder at Emma. "I thought you were my aunt."
Emma smiled and brushed the girl's hair over her shoulder. "I'm a pretend aunt. Caitlyn is your real aunt."
"I don't have any aunts," one of the other little girls muttered. "They were all killed."
Caitlyn's breath caught. She tried to recall the girl's name. She was one of Tino's classmates.
Emma moved over to the little girl and touched her shoulder. "Coco, I would love to be your aunt."
"Me, too." The woman seated next to Coco gave her a hug.
All the women echoed a desire to be Coco's aunt.
"Me, too!" Sofia cried. "I want to be an aunt."
Caitlyn smiled. Shanna was fortunate to have such caring friends. From the loving way they interacted with each other, it was obvious they were a close-knit group.
With a small jolt, Caitlyn realized these people were Shanna's family. They knew Shanna better than she did.
A twinge of annoyance needled her. She'd only been nine years old when Shanna had turned fifteen and taken off to a boarding school across the world. Caitlyn had sorely missed her only sister. She'd written letters, but never received a response. Shanna had simply left her family behind. And she'd acquired a new one.
Caitlyn knew she should be happy for her sister, but damn. Why hadn't she been good enough for Shanna? She'd spent most of her teenage years feeling lonesome and abandoned. It was clear her father didn't approve of Shanna or her new family. And he didn't even know the full story - that her son could fly.
"Here's Shanna now." Emma motioned to the double doors.
Caitlyn spun around, her heartbeat shooting to a fast pace. Tears threatened at the sight of her sister. Shanna was accompanying another woman, and each carried a baby.
Shanna still looked much the same, with her strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. She'd matured some, naturally, since Caitlyn had last seen her, but the years had only added a warm and beautiful glow.
Shanna's face lit up. "Caitlyn!" She rushed forward and passed the baby she was holding to Emma.
Caitlyn wasn't sure how to greet the sister she hadn't seen in years, but her awkward hesitation quickly passed when Shanna threw her arms around her in a big hug.
A few tears escaped as Caitlyn held her sister tight. It had been so long, but finally, she had her sister back.
"Look at you." Shanna leaned back and tears glistened on her cheeks. "You're all grown up. And so beautiful."
Caitlyn wiped the tears from her face. "I always thought you were the beautiful one. I missed you."
Shanna hugged her again. "Did you meet everyone?"
"Emma introduced me. Your daughter's precious."
"I totally agree." Shanna grinned. "You need to meet the birthday boy, too. He's outside playing basketball."
And flying up to the hoop. Caitlyn needed to get her sister alone so she could ask a few pertinent questions.
"Oh, you haven't met Heather." Shanna motioned to the pretty redhead who was holding a squirming baby in her arms. "I was helping her with the twins, Jean-Pierre and Jillian."
"This is Jillian." Emma strapped the little girl into a high chair and handed her a cracker.
"They're adorable." Caitlyn admired the two dark-headed babies. "How old are they?"
"Eight months." Heather placed the little boy on the floor, and he shot off in a fast crawl. She sighed. "He'll be halfway back to Texas before the party's over."
The women laughed.
"I'll watch him." A young redheaded girl jumped to her feet and ran after the baby.
"Thank you, sweetie." Heather smiled at Caitlyn. "That's my daughter, Bethany, otherwise known as Assistant Mommy and Lifesaver."
"Older sisters are good to have." Caitlyn glanced at her sister. And really painful to lose.
Shanna blinked and gave her a curious look. "We don't have to be separated ever again."
Caitlyn gulped. Had Shanna read her mind? They'd been so close when young, always in tune with each other's thoughts and feelings that she'd often wondered if they shared some sort of odd connection. It was a few years after Shanna's departure that Caitlyn had realized the full extent of her own unique abilities. She'd written about it to Shanna, knowing her sister would understand, but there'd never been a response.
"Shanna was telling me about your family while we were in the restroom," Heather said. "You lived in a lot of foreign countries."
Caitlyn nodded. "Yes, we lived in Poland, Belarus, Latvia - all over that area."
"And Mom home-schooled us," Shanna added. "I swear, every time Caitlyn went out to play, a stray dog or cat would come up to her. Drove our mom crazy 'cause there were too many to keep, and she'd have to find homes for them."
Caitlyn smiled, remembering her favorite kitty, a solid black cat she'd named Mr. Foofikins. Now she understood why animals came to her, but at the time, in her youthful ignorance, she had assumed everyone could understand the noises made by their pets.
"And every time we moved to a new place," Shanna continued, "Caitlyn was the first to pick up the new language. She was incredible. I swear she could learn a language in a month."
Caitlyn's face grew warm as all the women expressed amazement.
Emma watched her closely. "Is it true you know over a dozen languages?"
Caitlyn nodded. She had an odd suspicion that Emma's interest in her was more than casual.
"How long does it take for you to learn a language now?" Emma asked.
Caitlyn hesitated before answering. "A few hours." Her face burned hotter when the ladies gasped. It wasn't like she'd mastered some fantastic skill. It was simply a weird gift she'd been born with. Once she'd figured out she was a psychic linguist, she'd honed the talent to her present level of expertise. It wasn't something she usually talked about, since most people refused to believe she could understand any language she heard. They either thought she was lying or loony.
"That must have been extremely useful for your job with the State Department," Emma observed. "They were wrong to let you go."
Caitlyn stiffened and glanced at her sister, who stepped closer and lowered her voice. "I told Emma you were looking for employment."
"How did you know?" The State Department had done a good job of hushing up her big mistake.
"I called Mom to invite her to the birthday party," Shanna continued quietly. "After she gave me an excuse for not coming, she told me what had happened to you and that you were here in New York, looking for a job. She said Dad wanted to hire you for his team. I wanted to give you an alternative, so I asked Emma to find you."
Emma smiled. "I'm one of the owners of MacKay Security and Investigation."
So that was how they'd tracked her down at her hotel. Even so, Caitlyn was stunned that her mom hadn't wanted to come to her grandson's birthday party. "I don't understand why Mom and Dad aren't here. Or why Dad told me never to come here."
Shanna winced. "I was afraid of that." She leaned closer. "I just want you to know that you're not alone. You don't need to stay at a hotel. We have a townhouse in Manhattan that's mostly empty, and you can live there as long as you need to."
Caitlyn swallowed hard. "That would really help."
"Emma and I thought you might like a job with MacKay Security and Investigation," Shanna continued.
A job offer? This was the last thing she'd expected at her nephew's birthday party. She turned to Emma. "That's very kind of you, but I have no experience in the security business."
Emma dismissed that with a wave of her hand. "We conduct investigations all over the world. Your linguistic abilities make you ideally suited for that kind of work."
"Thank you. I'll be glad to consider it." Caitlyn looked over the faces of Shanna's friends and realized her sister was attempting to draw her into her family, a family her father didn't approve of.
"Before you consider anything," Shanna said with a worried look, "you need to know all the facts. About us."
The chill returned to tickle the back of Caitlyn's neck. Her instincts flared. The entrance to the rabbit hole loomed before her, gaping ever wider and enticing her to fall in. As much as she loved adventure, she wasn't sure this was a place she wanted to go. Her dad certainly didn't want her involved with these people.