Eleven-year-old Brenda Elizabeth Barrett heard the music and laughter coming from the vast back lawn of her parents’ Beverly Hills estate. She hurried and slid the large barrette into her hair, the tall, chestnut-brown curls forming into a ponytail. Then she slid on her shoes, the pretty black suede ones that were her favorite and always made her feel just a little bit more grown-up. As soon as she had her shoes on, she walked out of her bedroom. She glanced left and right down the long hallways to make sure the coast was clear, and then she raced down the staircase and headed towards the back patio doors. She scrambled to hide behind the bar when she heard the screen door open and saw her mother come into the kitchen with a blonde-haired woman. Both of them were chatting amiably.

     “I really would love the recipe for those stuffed mushrooms to pass along to my kitchen staff at home, Veronica,” the blonde-haired woman said.

     “Katherine, I’d be happy to give you the recipe; just remind me before the evening is over,” Veronica Barrett responded. “I can’t tell you how delighted I am that you and your brothers could make it tonight. It’s an honor to have your family here. And Alexa is certainly on cloud nine,” Veronica added with a Cheshire cat smile. “There’s really no hiding the fact that she’s very taken with Jax.”

     “Alexa is a wonderful young lady,” Katherine Jacks said. “She’s attractive, intelligent and extremely ambitious. I frankly think she’s perfect for my little brother.”

     “That’s so kind of you, but I think Alexa’s the lucky one, or haven’t you noticed that your brother has caught the eye of every girl here tonight? If Jax were the pied piper, that face of his would lead all the girls to follow him blindly off of a cliff,” Veronica said.

     ”Yes, well, my brother is far more than just his looks.”

     “Oh, I certainly didn’t mean to imply…” Veronica stammered.

     “And I’m quite certain that despite all of the understandable attention Jax gets - and will continue to get - his true interest lies in your daughter,” Katherine said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her tone as she forced a smile to her lips.

     Behind her father’s bar, Brenda rolled her eyes. All the boys were always flocking around her big sister. It was enough to make one gag profusely. And her mother was Alexa’s biggest fan of them all. Conversely, Veronica Barrett could hardly be bothered with her younger daughter, while doting endless amounts of time on her older one. Most times Brenda didn’t even think her mother liked her. Sometimes it bothered her, but then she’d remember how much her father adored her and she wouldn’t feel so bad.

     “I think if Alexa continues to meet with my approval, that my brother is inclined to get very serious about her,” Katherine added, glancing at Veronica Barrett to gauge her reaction to that prospect.

     Naturally the woman was borderline gleeful. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew that Jasper Jacks was the catch of a lifetime. The Jacks name, the Jacks influence, the Jacks lineage, the Jacks billions, not to mention Jax’s devastating good looks.

     “I have to tell you, Katherine,” Veronica babbled in a hushed tone of intimacy, “ I think they’d make the most splendid match!” she declared with an appalling amount of excitement. “Seeing Alexa with Jax even makes up for those dreadful six months her father and I had to endure while she dated that awful Ryan Thornton. I swear to god, I have never met a more classless boy! It’s difficult to even grasp that he attends the same prestigious private school as Jax and Alexa. It’s that nouveau money, you know. They can move up here with the families on the hill, mix and mingle with us, buy Jaguars and Porsches, but there is simply no buying class.”

     Katherine refrained from rolling her eyes in disgust. She knew all about Veronica Barrett and how she’d married into the money of the Barrett family by getting herself pregnant with Harlan Barrett’s child. This greedy, shallow woman was an accomplished gold-digger and a social climber, who was seeking the most fortuitous marriage she could for her elder daughter. It was common gossip in their circles that Veronica Barrett paid little to no attention to her younger daughter, which probably explained why Harlan Barrett doted on the child so much to make up for her mother’s neglect. Veronica Barrett was someone Katherine did not want to be bothered with and did not like. And after Jax was married off to Alexa, Katherine would make sure that the woman was out of their lives.

     “Now Jax, on the other hand,” Veronica continued, warming to her topic, “I declare that young man is just every mother’s dream. Brilliant, witty, so sinfully attractive and well-bred, well-mannered, from such a prominent, distinguished family, with genuine English and Scottish aristocrat lineage, no less. Oh, yes, I’ve heard all about that!” she said, squeezing Katherine’s arm fondly, as Katherine gritted her teeth to keep from flinging the woman’s offensive arm off her. “On Jax and Jerry’s mother’s side, correct? She was the great, great, great-granddaughter of a British Duke and a Scottish Princess, or some such thing. Isn’t that right? And your father… such a brilliant man…god rest his dear soul. You know Jacks Enterprises has done so much for the prestige and economy of our fair city. Not to mention the market value of this very street! Oh, yes, your brother Jax is a prize, that’s what he is, Katherine. A prize.”

     Katherine Jacks smiled, annoyed, appalled and yet pleased at the woman’s incessant gushing and obvious awe of Jax. It was a common reaction, of course. Jax tended to stun people and charm them witless with little effort at all. Ever since he was just a small boy, in fact. He was a natural. More than that, he was extraordinary, and Katherine knew that it was her tireless devotion to raising him, after their parents had died when he was only ten, that was largely responsible for that. Her devotion, along with his spectacular good looks and intelligence, were a force no one could derail.

     Katherine and Jax had inherited their father’s rich, golden locks, while Jerry, who was Jax’s full brother and Katherine’s half-brother, had inherited the dark locks of their grandfather. All of the Jacks siblings had acquired a combination of their parents’ Australian and British accents, but only Jax had inherited the strikingly handsome face of their father, John Jacks - a dashing, Australian oil tycoon, who’d struck it rich in Alaska before finally settling his family in the exclusive Beverly Hills splendor of sunny California. And while Katherine had inherited her mother’s rather ordinary brown eyes, Jerry had inherited their father’s heather-gray eyes, while Jax had inherited his and Jerry’s mother’s blue eyes. Blue eyes that could go from green to darkest, sparkling gray, and were really quite extraordinary.

     Jerry could have been extraordinary. If he weren’t so contrary and disruptive. But no, Jerry and Katherine were constantly at loggerheads - usually over Jax. No, Jerry didn’t have that mystical “it” factor that Jax did. That ability to make people stop in awe when you passed by and have the desire to simply be near you as often as possible. As Veronica Barrett had so aptly put it, Jax was the prize. The treasure. And Katherine cherished him above all else and knew that her obsessive devotion to him and careful, deliberate manipulation of his future would one day be richly rewarded.

     “Here, let me help you with that,” Katherine offered, placing some items on the dessert cart. The Barretts had money, but it was a pittance compared to the Jacks fortune, and while the Jacks had a household full of staff to do such things as cook and clean and answer doors, the Barretts did not. “I wanted to mention to you, Veronica, that I’m having a dinner party of my own next week - for Jax’s birthday. I do hope that you and your husband will be able to attend. And of course, Alexa.”

     Brenda rolled her eyes again. What was she, chopped liver? There were four people in the Barrett family, not three. Why wasn’t she invited, too? Why did everyone always ignore her, but her father? She never got to go anywhere! Sometimes it made her wonder if all the terrible things her sister said about her were true?

     “We wouldn’t miss it for the world. I confess I’ve heard all about the Jacks estate ever since I first got married to Harlan and moved up here on the hill. And I’d give my right lung to be able to get a peek in there at your family’s home!” Veronica said.

     Katherine smiled blandly. Lord, but the woman made her want to vomit. Veronica Barrett was so transparent and endlessly tiresome. But her daughter was perfect for Jax, and that was all that mattered. She would be the perfect wife for a political powerhouse, which Katherine fully intended Jax to be, and so Alexa’s tactless mother would simply have to be tolerated for the greater good.

     Brenda heard her mother and the woman called Katherine retreating back out to the lawn. As soon as the coast was clear, Brenda emerged from her hiding place and went back to the sliding glass doors, peering out at all the people. She sighed, wondering why her father always forbid her from being able to be around at any of her mother’s dinners or parties? Which always was just fine with her mother, of course. Did she have to wait until she was a teenager to be able to go to even her own family’s parties? It seemed ridiculous to her. She scanned the back yard for a sighting of her sister, who would surely be surrounded by gross, panting, pimple-faced boys, Brenda realized with a shiver of revulsion. She did spot Alexa, but she was with her friend, Eve Thornton, and they both appeared to be looking for someone.

     Deciding that she wasn’t interested in sneaking out to hide in the bushes and check out this dinner party after all and risk incurring her mother’s wrath, Brenda decided to sneak out to her father’s goldfish pond instead. Maybe she could finally find that pretty emerald-and-gold-topaz hearts bracelet that Alexa’s friend, Marie Tourneau, had accidentally dropped in the pond last week. Brenda had been spying on her sister and her friends and had gotten a good laugh over them shrieking about how the expensive bracelet could just stay there for all they cared because it was so unladylike to go into a pond full of smelly fish! Well, for their stupid information, the goldfish pond was kept very clean by the landscapers and the pretty goldfish did not smell at all! Why, Brenda would sneak off and splash around in that pond, playing with the fish all the time. She wasn’t some silly scaredy-cat like her sister and her sister’s dumb friends. She was going to get that bracelet and keep it. It would be her prize, just like she’d heard her mother say that this Jax person was Alexa’s prize. Well, Alexa could have some dumb, old boy, Brenda grinned. Brenda wanted that pretty bracelet with the gold-and-emerald hearts!

     She opened one of the kitchen drawers and got her daddy’s flashlight and then snuck out the side door towards the pond.

     Jasper Jacks, who was a week away from his seventeenth birthday, was bored out of his mind. As much as he liked being with Alexa, being with her at a dinner party where she seemed a little bit too inclined to keep showing him off to her friends as if he were a new car, was not his idea of a good time. Discreetly slipping away from the crowd, he made his way around the side of the property when his curiosity was aroused by the sound of splashing. He took the two steps down to the Barrett’s man-made goldfish pond and was stopped in his tracks by the sight that beheld him.

     Jax blinked his eyes, but she was still there. He thought he might be looking at an angel. An angel from the sea…What did you call those?… Mermaids, perhaps? He realized in the next instant that the angel/mermaid was a child - a little girl with a stunningly angelic face, whose tall curls of deep chestnut-brown were glittering in the moonlight as she emerged from the water. Jax grinned as the girl, wearing a fairly drenched party dress, laughing, and completely unaware of his presence, raced out of the water gleefully saying, “I got it, I got it, I got it! Yes!”

     “You got what?” he asked curiously.

     Brenda spun around, startled by the soft, deep, Australian accent that had suddenly appeared behind her, as she realized she was no longer alone.

     “Ummmm...” she began, slipping her treasure behind her back and then smiled up at him and just said, “Hi.”

     “Hi, yourself,” he replied. He was a bit knocked off-center when she smiled at him so unexpectedly. The little girl had a bewitching, dimpled smile - innocent and beautiful, yet with a hint of devilment. But even that was nothing compared to the color of her eyes. They were magnificent. They were darkly beautiful, and yet at this close proximity to her he could see the most incredible tiny flecks of gold. They were the most unusual, most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. They mesmerized him, quite frankly, and he knew he’d never seen a shade of gold-flecked brown quite this spectacular. It went rather splendidly with her face, which was equally spectacular for that of such a young girl.

     “Are you one of Alexa’ s friends?” she asked him, wondering why he was staring at her eyes like that. That awful Georgette Tourneau was always saying how weird looking her eyes were when you could see them closely; maybe that was why he was staring at them? Brenda cast her eyes down a bit self-consciously.

     “Yes. And who might you be?” Jax responded.

     “Oh, I’m her sister,” she responded. “Brenda Elizabeth Barrett.”

     Ah, the little sister who was talked about but never seen. “Well, hello, Brenda Elizabeth Barrett. Do you often go for swims? At night? All by yourself? In shallow fishponds? Wearing fancy party dresses?” He took in her complexion, which was a beautiful, flawless, healthy glow of natural golden-tan, quite a contrast to Alexa’s fair, doll-like porcelain skin. Just as her hair was a riot of gorgeous, tall, curls in the most appealing shade of rich, shimmering chestnut he’d ever seen, that reached the middle of her back, in contrast to Alexa’s straight, glossy shoulder length hair that was a pale, moonlight silvery-blonde. In fact, no one would ever have taken the Barrett sisters for sisters at all.

     Brenda gazed down at her dripping wet self and laughed when she saw the puddle she was making. She shrugged. “Umm… well, I fell in by accident,” she said. Then she smiled again, and again he was slightly knocked off-center by that smile of hers. Those appealing, little dimples had the damnedest effect on him. “Do you believe that?”

     Jax grinned. She was an enchanting little thing. “I hardly think so,” he said, watching her as she tucked something into her fist. “Went diving for treasure, did you?”

     Brenda looked at him then. Really assessing him. Her eyes studied his face carefully, and she immediately decided that he was quite simply the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. And then she realized that he had that pretty, spun-gold wavy hair like that lady in the kitchen. And come to think of it, he had an accent like that lady, too.

     “What’s your name?” she asked him.

     “Jax,” he said, extending his hand to her. “Jasper Jacks, but my friends call me Jax.”

     She hesitated in taking his extended hand. “I don’t want to get you all wet,” she explained

     “I don’t mind,” he said, giving the little girl a reassuring smile.

     She liked the cute dimple in his left cheek that flashed with his smile. He only had one dimple, she noticed, not two, like she did. But that one dimple was awfully cute. It made him seem rather devious, but in the most delightful way. And then she noticed that he had a sort of a dimple in his chin, too. She’d never seen one of those before - she liked it a lot. And his eyes positively fascinated her - she thought they might be blue, or maybe green, or maybe sort of gray. It was hard to place it, as they seemed to change shades, depending on where in the moonlight he was standing. Why, she really could just stand here and stare at him all evening, she realized. He probably wouldn’t like that though, she decided. It was rude to stare, after all, and she certainly hated when people stared at her. Although surely he must be used to people staring at him with a face like that one. Still, she did not want to be rude.

     Brenda quit her fascinated staring and smiled up at him, and then slid her wet hand into his. “It’s lovely to meet you, Jax,” she said, and she knew her Grandma Ruby would have been proud of how politely she had said that. “I knew that’s who you were,” she bragged.

     Jax sat down on one of the two benches that were positioned by the pond. “How did you know that?” he asked her.

     Brenda sat next to him, careful not to get him wet, even though he had said he didn’t mind getting wet. “I was hiding in the kitchen before and my mom came in with a woman who speaks like you do and has the same hair color as you do. And they were talking about my sister and this boy she likes and who likes her and how all the girls wanted this one boy. It has to be you, of course.”

     Jax was amused. “Why does it have to be me?” he wanted to know.

     Brenda’s uncommonly beautiful brown eyes widened. “You mean there’s someone else at the party who’s even more beautiful than you?” she asked in genuine astonishment, finding such a thing very difficult to imagine. He was practically perfect, after all.

     Jax laughed. She was delightful. And sweet. “Well, there’s you, for one,” he said, more serious than not. Damn, if she wasn’t a bewitching, little thing.

     Brenda looked as if he’d just handed her the moon. “Thanks,” she said, her smile dazzling him. “Even if it’s just lie,” she added, dwelling on the fact that the girls at her school never passed up an opportunity to tell her how ugly they thought she was. For that matter, her sister was always telling her the same thing.

     “I would hardly call it a lie, Brenda Elizabeth Barrett,” he murmured. Clearly the little girl had no idea how beautiful she was, which to Jax was unfathomable, but also somehow enchanting. Vain women turned his stomach. Vain children certainly had to be even worse. “How old are you?” he asked her.

     “Eleven-and-a-half,” she said.

     Good god, she was truly just a kid and yet she was so breathtaking. It was slightly confounding, to tell the truth. It was also little wonder that he’d heard those rumors about how her father basically kept her under lock-and-key, sending her to all-girl schools, banning her from being present at dinner parties, such as this one. He was probably afraid that someone would take one look at her and just up and take her away.

     Jax could only imagine what Brenda would look like a few years from now, when she was grown. The very image of a grown-up Brenda wreaked havoc on his imagination. That exquisite little face, the beautiful hair, those positively fabulous dark eyes of her, with their sparks of gold. Damn, but he could not get over those eyes. He tried to think of a description that would possibly do justice to such a breathtaking shade of dark, rich brown, with such stunning gold chips scattered throughout. The only thing that came to mind was the sun reflecting on the glittering oceans of the Caribbean at sunset. Or golden topaz jewels scattered against a background of dark velvet cocoa.

     And then he noticed her eyelashes. They were as thick and curly as his and he’d always hated his, thinking them too feminine looking, although the girls loved them. But seeing the lush, curly lashes that Brenda had, Jax got a whole new appreciation for why people coveted eyelashes like his. Like hers.

     “How come you’re out here by yourself?” Brenda asked. “The party isn’t over, is it?” she asked, suddenly alarmed. She had to get back inside to her bedroom before her family came back indoors and realized she had snuck out.

     “It’s not over. I just needed a breather,” Jax answered her.

     “Oh? Is it hard to breathe with all those girls around you? Sucking up all your air?” She giggled at her own joke.

     Jax laughed. “What were you doing in the water?” he asked, changing the subject.

     “Getting this!” she shared, excitedly as he opened her hand to show him the emerald-and-gold-topaz hearts bracelet. “It belongs to my sister’s friend, but she dropped it in the pond by accident, and she didn’t want to go in and get it. None of my sister’s dumb friends wanted to. So she just left it there. Can you believe that? A pretty bracelet like this, and they just left it there. So I went and got it myself,” she said proudly, dropping her prize into Jax’s hand.

     He gazed at it, watching the jewels sparkle in the moonlight. “It is pretty,” he agreed. Well, so much for comparing her eyes to gold-topaz. He was holding the jewel in his hand and they paled in comparison to the gold flecks in her dark eyes.

     “I should get to keep it, right? I’m the one who went in and got it, when the rest of them just wanted to leave it there.”

     “Finders, keepers,” Jax agreed, placing the bracelet back in her hand. “I think it’s too big for you, though.”

     “Oh, I know. I was going to put it on this for now,” she explained, unlocking the clasp of her heart-locket necklace and taking it off. She then fastened the bracelet’s clasp and slid it onto the necklace so that it dangled next to the heart locket. “See?”

     Jax nodded. Then a wickedly attractive grin played across his lips. “You’re not supposed to be out here, are you? Your parents probably think you’re up in your bed fast asleep, don’t they? Visions of sugarplums dancing in your head, ” he said.

     She flashed him a guilty smile that was really quite adorable. “I really am going to go back inside. I just wanted to see what was going on at the dinner party. I was just curious. But it looked boring, so then I thought I’d come out here and get this,” she said, as she tried to put the necklace back around her neck.

     “I’ve got it,” Jax offered, as he moved her long, wet hair to the side and fastened the clasp for her. Her hair was very soft against his fingers. And it smelled faintly of strawberries and roses.

     “Thanks,” she said. “I’d better go back inside now before somebody sees me… You won’t tell on me, will you? I wasn’t supposed to come downstairs at all. I’m never supposed to, when my mom is entertaining.”

     He pressed his finger to his lips and crossed his heart and was rewarded by another one of her beautiful smiles.

     “It was nice to meet you, Jasper Jacks.”

     “You, too, Brenda Elizabeth Barrett.”

     “What’s your middle name?” she asked him as she stood up, grabbing her father’s flashlight and her shoes, which she had taken off before going into the pond.

     “Ian.”

     “Well, good night, Jasper Ian Jacks,” she said with a tiny laugh that made him think of the soothing tinkle of soft bells.

     He smiled at her.

     “And have fun at your party next week, too,” she added, as she went up the steps that led away from the pond and hurried across the grass towards the side entrance of the house. He followed her.

     “What party?”

     “Oh, I heard that lady called Katherine - your sister, right?”

     “Right.”

     “Wow, she’s a lot older than you, huh?”

     Jax nodded. “Seventeen years,” he said.

     “That much? She could almost be your mom!”

     He grinned. “Don’t tell her that. She may bloody well kill you.”

     “How old are you?” Brenda asked him. “Same as my sister?”

     “Yes. Well almost. My birthday is next week.”

     “So you’re practically seventeen then. And so your sister is…” She counted in her head. “Thirty-four? Wow.”

     “Yeah, that must seem really ancient to a ten-year-old,” he teased her, folding his arms across his chest.

     “I happen to be eleven,” she corrected him. “And-a-half.”

     Jax nodded. “Yes, forgive me,” he smiled “Eleven-and-a-half. So what were you saying about this party?”

     “Oh, yeah, I heard your sister say that she’s having a dinner party at your house next week, since it’s gonna be your birthday, and my family is invited. Well, not me. But the rest of them. Alexa will be there,” she added, thinking that bit of information would make him happy. “And my mom seems to really want to see your house. Do you have a big house? ‘Cause my mom, she’s really into size”

     Jax choked back his laughter and then said, “Yes, my house is pretty big,” he responded. It was an understatement. The Jacks estate was positively enormous.

     “As big as mine?”

     “Bigger,” Jax admitted with a wink.

     “I bet you don’t have your own pond though, right?” she boasted.

     “No pond. We do, however, have a lake.”

     She laughed. “Okay, well, then you win. Do you have boats then? On this lake?”

     “A couple. But you’ll get to see it for yourself,” Jax told her.

     Brenda shook her head, her hand on the door, ready to sneak back inside the house. “Nope, I told you I’m not coming.”

     He rose an inquisitive eyebrow. “You don’t want to?”

     “I wasn’t invited. It’s just for older kids and grownups, I think.”

     “If it’s for my birthday, then I’m inviting you,” Jax told her. “It’s only dinner. You’re grown-up enough to eat, aren’t you? I must insist you wear dry clothing, though.”

     She laughed. He was funny and she liked the way he talked, all proper and polite and with that accent sort of like their neighbor, Mrs. K. “Can I really go?”

     “I’m inviting you,” he repeated. “Do you want to go?”

     “Yes,” she said, wondering if her parents would let her. “I’d love to see your house and your lake.”

     Jax grinned. “It’s not exactly my lake. It’s a lake.”

     “Will I have to bring you a present?”

     “Only if you want to.”

     “Will I be the only kid there though?” she asked with a tiny frown.

     “Probably,” he said. “Does that matter?”

     She thought about it, then shook her head and flashed her dimpled smile at him. “No. My grandmother says I’m pretty good at amusing myself.”

     Jax laughed. “I promise I’ll make sure you’re not bored.”

     But Brenda knew better. Jasper Jacks would be panting after her sister and would not even know she was there. She didn’t mind though. She thought it was sweet of him to invite her and to act like he would try to pay attention to her, even though she knew he wouldn’t. She liked him a lot - a lot better than any of her sister’s past boyfriends - not that she had actually gotten to meet any of them. But she was pretty good at sneaking around and spying and knew that they were all idiots. But Jax was different. She thought he could maybe even be her friend.

     “See you, Jax,” she said to her new friend, as she let herself into the house, making sure to glance around for any sight of her mother or sister first. If she were to run into her father, all she would have to do is smile at him and he would forgive her anything. Her mother and sister were an entirely different story.

     “Bye, Brenda,” Jax said, as he watched the beautiful, effervescent little sprite disappear inside the house. Her dark hair like a shimmering, chestnut waterfall over her shoulders and back was the last thing he saw before she was gone.

     “Jax! Where the hell did you run off to?”

     Jax felt the clap of a hand on his back and turned to face his friend, Ned Ashton.

     Jax laughed. Ned was scowling and looked like he was more desirous of a hiding place than even little Brenda was.

     “Something the matter?” Jax asked.

     “Yes! That annoying Eve Thornton is following me every which way. Your girlfriend is trying to pawn her off on me, damn it.”

     “A trio of dates does not make her my girlfriend… yet.”

     “Ha! You know you want her,” Ned said. “Half the male population of Beverly Hills wants her.”

     Jax just shrugged and gave his friend a noncommittal smile.

     “Your brother has already left, and Alexa is positively hounding me as to your whereabouts,” Ned continued. “What are you doing here, skulking about at the side of the house anyway?”

     “I just needed a breather,” Jax said. “So, Jerry left, you said?”

     “Yep. He’s the smart one; he’s escaped.”

     “Kat’s still here?”

     “Naturally. Matchmaking like a fiend, I’m sure. Or haven’t you noticed that she and Alexa’s mother have been inseparable all night, and you know damn well that you’re the topic of conversation between them, Jax. They’re trying to foist Alexa on you, come hell or high water. And I mean permanently. As in ball and chain of the future.”

     Jax shrugged, having grown accustomed to his sister’s attempts to blatantly manipulate his life. He usually let her think she was getting her way and then turned around and did whatever he wanted to anyway.

     Suddenly Jax wondered why Alexa had never mentioned her little sister. He’d told her all about his brother and sister, but he’d only heard about Alexa’s sister from town gossip of how Harlan Barrett tried to keep the younger Barrett offspring locked in a glass castle, so to speak. Having met Brenda tonight, Jax understood that better now though. She did put him in mind of a little princess, and she did inspire a fairly intense, somewhat inexplicable, feeling of protectiveness towards her - knight-in-shining-armor kind of nonsense.

     “Back me up and let’s split,” Ned said. “Unless you want to hang around with your girlfriend-to-be some more. In which case, I’ll just take off by myself. I think I’ve had it with the Barrett family dinner party for one night.”

     “I’ll go with you,” Jax said, as he and Ned headed back towards the back lawn. “Hey, Ashton, what is the prettiest shade of gold that you’ve ever seen?” Jax asked absently.

     “What kind of a weird question is that?” Ned muttered, tugging on his tie and longing to get it off.

     “Just be imaginative for once in your life and answer it.”

     “Hell, I don’t know. The sun? Wheat fields?”

     Jax rolled his eyes. “I did say imaginative, didn’t I?”

     Ned shrugged. “The color of a Corona?”

     Jax shook his head, seeing the futility of this. “My sister’s having a dinner party next week,” Jax began. “For my birthday.”

     Ned groaned. Jax laughed and shoved him in the ribs.

     “I’ll send you a card, but forget it. I’m not coming,” Ned said firmly. “Your sister’s parties are the pits, Jax.”

     “Yes, I know that, but if you come,” Jax continued, “I promise you you’ll see the most beautiful shade of gold you have ever seen in your life.”

     Ned gave him a perplexed look. “So what the hell is that supposed to mean, Jax?”

     “Well, I’ve got you bloody well curious, haven’t I?”

     “Yeah,” Ned confessed.

     “Curious enough to come, even though I know you hate my sister’s parties?” Jax asked hopefully. The night would be a drag if Ned weren’t there. Especially since Jerry might be out of town.

     “Well, that depends. What is this shade-o-gold mystery all about? I mean, what exactly are you talking about here? A new car you got? New racing motorcycle? New boat?”

     “Nooo. Actually, I’m talking about somebody’s very beautiful, gold-flecked, dark brown eyes.”

     Ned rose a dark brow. “Whose?”

     “Someone I met tonight,” Jax said vaguely, trying not to laugh as he saw his friend’s eyes light up with interest. He was sure that when Ned found out he was talking about Alexa’s eleven-year-old sister he’d want to punch Jax in the stomach. Repeatedly.

     “And would this be a he or a she?” Ned inquired, his interest growing.

     “A very definite she,” Jax responded, proud of himself for keeping his amusement checked and not giving anything away.

     “Where is she? Who is she?” Ned asked, by now openly intrigued.

     “Come to the dinner party and you’ll find out,” Jax said with an enigmatic smile, knowing that the sheer curiosity would get his friend there.