Sera sucked in a deep breath as she studied the gallery ballroom. Holy hell, they'd pulled this off. If she was honest, working with Jason hadn't been so bad. Except for the little matter of hitting on her last time, but whatever. She hadn't seen him much at all in the last few days as they'd both been running around with their last-minute items to do. But it had finally come together and she was really proud. A low voice behind her had her smiling. "Your concept was outstanding."

"Thanks, Jason. But the execution is what has really made this fantastic. I didn't have the contacts to get this venue. And while I called in favors, you moved mountains, so fantastic job."

He clinked his champagne glass with hers. "So you're ready to do this? The models are ready to go."

Along the hall, they'd lined up photos of each of the models in their supermodel glamor with their heels and makeup and gorgeous clothes. Thanks to Dylan, they'd even managed to get Jezzie and one of her friends to represent plus-sized models. Though how anyone could say Jezzie was plus-sized was beyond her. He'd also done them a solid and called Kisima too.

As people walked by the displays and stopped, each display changed to the video of the model removing her makeup until she was bare, then pulled back her hair. The idea was that everyone woke up looking natural and it takes a lot of work to look like they did in the magazines. And for the live component, the models would all come out and tell their stories of struggle.

"It would be totally cheesy if I said I was born ready, right?"

Jason's laugh was low. "A little. But hey, I'll embrace the cheese."

"Did someone just say ‘embrace’ around my girlfriend?"

As if on an auto responder to Dylan's voice, Sera's skin heated. He nuzzled her neck. "Hi, baby."

She immediately relaxed. In a matter of a week he'd be gone. She wanted to enjoy every minute. "Hi."

Dylan stood straighter and shook Jason's hand. "Hey, man."

"What? No one calls me baby?" Jason muttered. "I was checking with Sera here if we were all set to start."

Dylan wrapped his hand around hers and grinned. "Of course she's ready. She's done the work, now all she had to do is relax and not stress about it."

"Easier said than done. Have you seen Jezzie? Did she get in okay?"

He nodded. "Relax. She's here and ready to go. I just checked on her."

"Thank you for doing this." She smiled up at him. "I think she makes the piece and the campaign. I'm just surprised she said yes."

Jason frowned, more than a little lost. "What am I missing here?"

"Jezebel, er, Jezzie Donovan, the model. She's Dylan's sister. She's a little press-shy but she agreed to be part of the campaign."

Jason's eyes went wide. "You're kidding me, right? Which one is she? The one with the short cut and the bright-blue eyes?"

Dylan shook his head. "No, the one that looks like a taller version of Salma Hayek."

Poor Jason's mind was blown. "She's your sister?"

Dylan nodded. "Hands off her, too."

Jason rolled his eyes. "Seriously, you can't keep me away from all the hot women."

"Just the ones that are mine or related to me. Have at the others."

The lights dimmed and Sera held her breath. Show time. "Time for me to go up there."

Dylan leaned down and kissed the spot behind her ear. "Relax. You're fine. This will be great."

With a deep breath, Sera took her position. "Hello, good evening. My name is Serafina Justice. I want to first thank Girl Interrupted for the opportunity for Stark Branding and Communications to put on this event. This client holds a special place in my heart. As a young girl, I knew what it was like to feel like you're not enough. So many of us are bullied, harassed, and to make matters worse, we have our own skewed views of ourselves. I am one of those girls. I am one of you. And with this campaign, we wanted to show you that Girl Interrupted represents you, that they understand and they want to support you. So tonight, I've invited a few friends." Sera looked down at Dylan, who grinned at her. "These women will each tell you their stories, and they will show you who they really are." She drew in a deep breath. Here we go. "Without further ado, allow me to introduce supermodel Jezzie Donovan."

The room went dark, then the movie began to play on the screen of Jezzie's runway shows. The industry classified her as plus-sized, but she could have easily held her own with any of the size-zero girls taking the stage. Once the collage of her runway shows was over, the full-screen image of her appeared in full glam makeup from the lashes to the HD foundation. She looked like a honey-baked Barbie Doll and Sera would have happily played with her as a child.

Through time capture, the image of Jezzie began to de-glam. The lashes were the first to go. Jezzie stripped them off gently, tops, then bottoms. And started with the full makeup removal. With the wipes and makeup remover, all her makeup was gone in minutes. Eat your heart out, Neutrogena. Her skin had that natural glow to it that made girls pile on luminizers to attempt to look that dewy and fresh. No doubt she was still beautiful, but she looked almost human like this.

The lights went up and dressed in simple jeans and black tank and barefoot, Jezzie took to the catwalk.

The girls hooted and hollered and Sera smiled to herself. So far so good.

When Jezzie reached the podium, everyone went silent. "Hello everyone. I'm Jezzie. And as you can guess, I don't look like your average model." She addressed the crowd like a pro. Dylan had mentioned she was really shy, but Sera didn't see it from where she was standing. "Yes, I'm nearly six feet tall, but I'm also a size eight. Sometimes a ten. Also, clearly, I'm Hispanic. And ethnic models, while there have been some breakouts, don't go very far. I've struggled with weight, and bullying and racism, but I'm still standing, every day getting stronger, every day getting braver. This is what I look like, stripped down, simple. I wake up like this and I love myself. Every day."

This was everything Sera envisioned for the campaign. Model after model, despite what they looked like or their size, they had similar stories of triumph, and each time the girls hooted and hollered and were clearly excited to meet them. Sera faded into the background as each woman took her spot. After this would be the fan meet-and-greet, then the party would start and she'd be off duty.

Jason jogged past. "There's some problem at the front with someone trying to get in. I'll deal with it. Great job so far. You were totally right."

Do not gloat. Do not gloat. Do not—okay, a little gloating was fine. Hell, she deserved it. "Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Not going to relax till the party starts, though. Then I'm going to have a very large bottle of champagne."

He laughed. "Don't you mean glass?"

"No, I mean bottle."

"You look like you could use a dance."

Sera turned to find Dylan with his hand outstretched. "Are you planning on showing off again?"

"That depends on if you plan to keep up this time?"

"Keep up? Listen here, white boy. I was born to dance. Okay, not really. My mother dances like she's having some sort of shaking fit. But my dad, now that man could dance."

His low laugh tickled her nerve endings. "Just come here."

As the speakers blared The Weekend's “Earned It”, Sera went into his arms easily. Everything was so much easier with him. She didn't feel like she was fighting against anything. A sense of unease rolled into her shoulders. What would happen when he left—and he would leave. She'd deal with that when the time came. This was almost over. Don't think about it. Enjoy him now.

His hand smoothed down her back, just above her ass, and he tucked her even closer against himself. She could feel every edge, line, and hard muscle.

They moved easily for several songs before Jezzie strolled up with a big smile. "Sorry to interrupt you guys. But I need to get on the road. I'm due up in L.A. first thing in the morning."

"Oh no. We didn't even get to hang out." Sera pouted.

"I know. I'll come down and you can show me San Diego if I ever get to take a break from everything."

"Is the car here to take you to the airport?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah, D2. I called a service. He's outside."

He frowned. "The company is vetted?"

Sera slapped his arm. "Dylan, you realize she's not four, right?"

Jezzie smiled broadly. "I like this one, D. She calls you on your shit." Then to Sera she said, "Don't mind him, he's just not used to people not doing everything he says. It can make him cranky." Then she enveloped Sera in a big hug. "Thank you for letting me come and do this."

"Are you kidding? You did me the favor." Kisima and Derek joined them. And Sera frowned. "Oh no, not you guys too?"

Kisima rolled her eyes. "Don't mind my fiancé. He just wants to go back to the hotel for some, er, private time. I honestly don't think he's going to let me get out of the venue before he mauls me."

A laugh burst out of Sera as she hugged Kisima. "Would you look at that. They are brothers."

Derek hugged her too. "It's really nice to met you, Sera. You seem to have a good effect on my brother."

"I'm not sure about that."

He met her gaze with a frank stare. "You are. This is the most relaxed I've seen him all year. Everything last year really messed with him. He hadn't been the same."

She slid her gaze over to Dylan, who was talking to Jezzie. "Well, he's had a profound effect on me. Mostly I want to kill him, but it's all good."

Derek grinned. "That sentiment I understand. I hope I'll be seeing you soon with Dylan."

"I, uh…" What was she supposed to say to that? His family was acting as if she'd be around for the long haul. They knew as well as she did that he'd be leaving, and soon. Finally, she just settled on, "Maybe."

When Derek smiled, he looked just like his brother with more aquamarine eyes. "Give him time. It always takes Dylan a while to catch up to things." He smiled at his fiancée. "Trust me, I'm the same way."

Dylan slid closer to her and whispered, "Hey, I'm going to walk them out. Will you be okay on your own? There's extra security. Just stay in the ballroom."

"Of course. I'm fine. I'll stay here and I see Taj over there looking lonely, so that's where you'll find me." Sera watched him walk out and the bottom fell out of her stomach. What was she going to do when he left?

* * *

"You ever going to talk to me again, Derek?" Dylan let his sister and Kisima walk ahead of them.

Derek slowed his pace. "I am talking to you right now."

"Stop being a pussy and look at me. You want to swing it out like when we were kids? We can do that too, but we need to talk about this, because I have a solid lead and I'm pursuing it."

His brother narrowed his eyes. "I promise you it won't be as easy to beat me as it was when I was eight." That was probably true, too, as Derek had an inch on him now.

"If that's what you need to do to get over this, then cool."

Derek walked ahead, then came back. "You're telling me you really want to find her? You want to see that woman after the damage she did?"

"You don't have to talk to her if you don't want to. But we legit have a sister and I want to meet her. None of this shit is her fault. And as far as Mom goes, I've found her. I'm going to see her, ask some questions. I never thought I wanted to see her again, but now that I'm doing this, it's sort of important to me. I don't want those years back, and she's not my mother as far as I'm concerned. Sarah is my mother. Has been since I was ten. But I would like some questions answered about why and how she could just do that. Don't you want to know? Look I found out—"

Derek shook his head vehemently. "No. No. I don't want to know anything about her. I never want to lay eyes on her again. She nearly ruined us, Dylan. I mean, I'm so fucking independent that I couldn't see that I needed anyone in my life besides the family. And you. You're so closed off to any emotion. It's like you turned off a light switch and the shit shorted. This, right now, is the first glimpse I've seen of the Dylan who used to laugh all the time. At first I thought it was the shooting that did it, but you've been closed off for years. The stoic big brother and that's not the Dylan I remember."

"We were kids, Derek. I grew up, and in case you forgot, we had a hoard of other kids to look out for."

Derek shook his head. "If that's the way you want to play it. If you want to pretend you've been happy all these years. Even the women you pick. Women like Symone. It's a half-life. They don't challenge you, they don't make you feel anything. You get to just go through the motions." He pointed back to the building. "That girl in there. She's pulling something out of you and it's good. I can see it. "

"My assignment is over in a week. My job's done and I'm going back to my life."

"That would be a mistake. You gave me some advice when you came to L.A. about Kisima. Let me give you some. Sera is good for you. You seem happy even. You'll ruin it and yourself if you go overturning stones. Finding Mom will eat away at a little part of yourself you think is protected. Including your relationship. Don't do it."

"The situation with me and Sera is different than you and Kiss. It's not a relationship. We're having fun until I leave that's all there is to it."

His brother stared at him. Then shook his head. "You're a fucking idiot. I love you but you're an idiot."

"You want to talk idiot? You refuse to meet Michelle, a girl who has done absolutely nothing to you."

"Fuck you, Dylan. That woman is not someone I need in my life. I don't need reminders of our mother. And that's what she would be."

"She's our sister."

"No Dylan, we have six sisters. Six. Not seven. I don't want to meet her. I don't want to get to know her. And I don't want her dragging Mom's shit into our life."

"You're wrong about this." He knew Derek—once he decided, that was how he was going to go, but this time he was wrong. About Michelle. And definitely about Sera. As far as their mother was concerned, it was a toss-up, but there was no changing Derek's mind until he came around to shit on his own.

"Maybe. But I guess we'll see in the end. Let me know how it goes if you find her. I'll be curious to see how you feel then. But I'll tell you this, you fuck up with Sera and you'll regret that shit forever. Take it from someone who knows."

Despite being in the middle of an argument, they hugged each other. And Derek slapped him hard on the back. "I'll see you later."

Dylan watched as his brother climbed into the black SUV and drove from the curb. He was antsy to get back to Sera. Was Derek right about her? He shoved that thought aside. It was better not to think about it. In no time, regardless of how he felt, he'd have to let her go.