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“I didn’t forget,” I growled back. “I didn’t have time. We rushed.”
She faced me with a big smile and a city burning in her eyes.
“We rushed because you needed to, remember?” She placed her hand on
my arm, telegraphing newlywed affection while grinding her teeth. “You
want your brother out.”
“And you wanted a few million dollars.”
Our drinks came. She jabbed her lime down with her swizzle stick.
The ice cube in my scotch had a crown embossed in it. A real family
made from a real marriage.
Logan and Ella were an act. A stage play put on for people who never
bought a ticket.
“You have everything,” Ella said, taking my hand. “Your family loves
you. Every last one of them. Even the brother you’re so busy fighting.
They’d do anything for you. You think I envy your money? No. Not after
tonight. Now take that fucking scowl off your face, Logan. You’re a
newlywed.”
I smiled but had to hide it behind my glass when I saw my mother
halfway across the room, practically running in her heels.
“Colton!” she shouted.
There he was, my failure of a brother in a backward baseball cap and
tuxedo pants that fit like a garbage bag, opening his arms so our mother
could run into them as if he were back from a war.
His presence on the earth irritated me, but he’d take some of the
attention off Ella and me while we regrouped.
“Is that the Colton you were talking about?” Ella whispered.
She should know that. She should know we watched him spend all his
money. That he was an embarrassment to the Crowne name. There was no
way she wouldn’t fuck this up.
“We need to go,” I said.
“It’s ten o’clock.”
“Let’s go. We have a suite on the east side of the house.”
She pushed her glass away with a tight jaw and eyes hardened into
stones. “I want to go home.”
“I’m your home now.”
Fuck. The way her face fell made me feel like the one who’d fucked up,
but Colton was a dead weight on my attention. I had thirty seconds or less
to avoid him.