14. Chapter 14
“I’ll see you at home?”
Her brother was trying not to laugh. It was infuriating, really. Lindsey finally swallowed a mouthful of the whisky.
“I get it now,” Luke drawled.
“What?”
“Why you and Graham broke up,” he said with a self-satisfied smirk. He settled back onto his stool and brought his refilled glass to his lips.
“Excuse me?”
“He’s a good-looking guy. A little feisty. Definitely the jealous type.”
“Jase is not jealous. He’s…”
An idiot. Jason Sr.’s words, and they definitely applied.
“A man goes nuts over you hugging another man isn’t jealous, huh?”
“There’s nothing to be jealous about.”
“Sure. Well, now I see why you don’t want to tell Dad. You’re living with the guy.”
She slammed her glass down and sloshed a couple drops on the bar top. “We’re all living together for now. Me, Jase, and Graham. And Graham’s fiancée.”
He stared at her, eyes bright and wide with interest. “Okay, I definitely need to hear about this.”
“This is…” She furrowed her brow. What was this? No one outside the small circle of Jason’s marionettes could possibly understand. Lindsey explained it all as best as she could, and at the end, her brother called for another round of Macallan.
“Did Graham’s dad love you or hate you?” he asked with his fourth drink in hand.
“I’ve been wondering the same thing a lot lately. I think—well, I thought—he had some grand plan. The trip, now this. I just don’t think it’s working out the way he hoped it would. Even God can’t account for free will or idiot sons.”
“Or falling for the other brother,” Luke murmured.
“No, that’s not—”
“Hey, I’m just calling it how I see it.”
A tiny ember of hope burned a little brighter, in her heart and lower, every time Jase turned possessive. As if in his own totally backward way, he did want her for more than the money.
“Are you going to do it?” Luke asked. “Stay in the house for two weeks?”
She shrugged. “I don’t have much of a choice. If I don’t, they lose almost everything. But if we stick it out, I get the house and they get a fortune.”
“As long as you play his twisted game first.”
She put her glass to her lips, warming to the taste.
“It’s a really, really nice house.”