Chapter 28
RAFE
“How do you trust her?” West asks. He’s walking beside me through the gardens, hands in his pockets. Where my sister was worried and outspoken, he’s been quietly skeptical since they arrived.
“I don’t,” I say.
He looks at me. “You two looked close earlier.”
“It’s not like that.”
“I’m just saying, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Crystal,” I say. “Remember how I didn’t give you the third degree about who you’re dating?”
“No,” he says, and his lips curve. “You punched me when you found out about your sister and me.”
“That’s right.”
“Who happens to have become your wife’s new friend,” West says. We walk past the lavender hedge in the garden, and the buzz of bees fills the air. “I don’t know how she did that. She was the most affected by what Ben Wilde did.”
“Nora is smart,” I say.
“You think she’s keeping her enemies close?”
“I think she fights differently than either of us,” I say.
It was bizarre to see Nora and Paige sit beside each other at dinner earlier.
The woman I’ve tried to protect for as long as I can remember and the wife I never asked for, talking like they’ve known each other for years.
Amber fit right in, and it seems like she and Nora are determined to make Paige feel comfortable in the group.
“That’s for sure,” West says. “But Paige cut out her uncle in this deal. That’s a mark in her favor as far as I’m concerned.”
“Yeah. I can’t understand that,” I say, even though I’m not sure that’s true anymore.
“Why anyone would double-cross Ben Wilde? That’s obvious. He’s terrible.”
“Yes, but he’s her uncle. Her only living family.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
He runs a hand over his chin. “Damn. That’s a tough break.”
“I believe her when she says she didn’t know what he was doing, stalking Nora. From what she’s said, it sounds like he hasn’t exactly been… clear-minded the last year.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” West says. “His company is spiraling toward bankruptcy because of his decisions, so he needed a scapegoat. It’s always easier to point the finger elsewhere.”
“When did you get so wise, huh?”
“I’ve always been wise. You just haven’t noticed,” he says with a grin. He’s been single for years, and now he’s suddenly in a very committed relationship with my sister. They’re getting married in September.
“Is everything still good? With Nora?” I ask.
“Of course it is,” he says. “She’s still annoyed at me for not telling her before your courthouse wedding.” He gives me a little shrug. “I told her right after.”
“I was the one who asked you to keep quiet.”
“You sure were, and you’re not doing that again, by the way. I never want to end up between two Montclairs again. Don’t make me choose.”
He walks ahead of me out on the stone dock with the lake’s waves softly lapping against it. The sun is close to setting. “But I’ll admit that I love it when she gets angry.”
I grimace. “Didn’t need to know that.”
“Not like that, you perv,” he says. “She’s getting better at standing up for herself. I like it.”
“Yeah. She is,” I say. She cussed us both out earlier. It’s a new dynamic in our relationship. For so many years, I’ve been the one taking care of her.
But she’s not a child anymore.
I like that my sister is finding her voice and becoming more herself. And I hate that I didn’t see her need for it before my best friend did. Now she’s angry at me for marrying Paige because she thinks I deserve better than that. Better than a marriage of convenience.
It’s sweet. But it’s entirely false.
I don’t deserve better than that.
“I’ve heard you ask her if she’s happy, by the way. On the phone,” West says. “It’s mildly insulting that you still feel the need to ask her that every time you call.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “And you wouldn’t do the same for Amber?”
“When you put it that way…”
“I’ll keep asking,” I say.
He tilts his head. “So you and Paige help each other out with sunscreen, do you?”
“Shut up,” I tell him.
His smile widens. “You know I won’t.”
“It would be very easy to push you off this dock.”
“I’ll take you with me if I go down,” he says. “You know that.”
A boat approaches in the distance. It’s heading straight toward us and sends cascading waves in its wake. My own boat, the dark wooden Riva boat my father loved so much, rocks beside the dock in the commotion.
“Rafe,” West says.
I glance at him again. “Yes.”
“She’s pretty. Objectively, you know.”
“Yes,” I admit. It would be an obvious lie if I didn’t. “Objectively speaking.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to have a little fun, too. If that’s what you two are doing. It’s okay.”
“We’re not. That would get messy, and I don’t like messes.”
He holds up his hands. “They’re not that bad if you—”
“We don’t like each other. It’s never going to happen.”
“Fine, fine. You were rubbing sunscreen on her to spite her, then, I guess. Makes total sense.”
“To win an argument, actually.”
“An argument? About what?”
I think of her taunts. You can’t stand to have your hands on me, can you? Deciding to prove it. The small tattoo under her full, curved breast, her perky nipples, the taunting smile on her face.
“You wouldn’t understand,” I say.
He doesn’t say anything. He just chuckles.
The wooden boat approaching the dock grows bigger. It’s going in a straight line, aiming for us with reckless speed.
“A hundred bucks Alex is driving,” West says.
I shake my head. “It’s too straight. Has to be James.”
“He wouldn’t go that fast.”
“He would, as long as it’s moderately safe.” I shade my eyes and look toward the two figures on the boat. They’re growing bigger by the second.
The one behind the wheel is slightly shorter than the other, and… yes. He’s dark blond. “And I won. Thanks for the money, Maude.”
“Still not my middle name,” West mutters, and reaches into his back pocket for his wallet. “Do you want it in dollars, francs, or euros?”
“You’re carrying francs?”
“Hell no. But I’m trying to honor your many nationalities. I was just hoping you wouldn’t pick that one.”
I hold out a hand. “Whatever you have, I’ll take.”
The boat pulls up neatly next to the dock as I push the cash into my own pocket. I’ll likely lose it later tonight. If there’s one thing we all do together, it’s gamble.
Alex gets out of the boat first. Over the fifteen years I’ve known him, he’s transformed from the skinny boy I first met. Now he’s the tallest of us, and the broadest, with a penchant for sports and horsemanship and general recklessness.
He holds up a wooden case and grins. “We brought cigars,” he says, his accent faintly Scottish, “and very poor judgment.”
“Speak for yourself.” James steps onto the dock and throws a rope to West. Together, they tie up the boat.
“Tonight is your bachelor party.” Alex slings an arm around my shoulders. “Even if we’re a little late. James here is furious that you didn’t tell us about your courthouse wedding.”
“And yet he continues to speak for me,” James says.
“You love it when I do that,” Alex calls. “You get so much more talkative when you let me do it.”
“He’s shy otherwise, is he?” I say.
“Terribly. It’s an English affliction.”
James pushes Alex away. “And you have the opposite affliction. You never shut up. Now, I know I’m your favorite topic, but focus on the groom.”
“You’re married, Raphael. Married,” Alex says.
“Rub it in, will you?”
“That’s what we’re here to do,” he says. “All night long.”
West joins us, the boat safe and secure. “Cigars, booze, poker, pool and bets. All things you’ll regret in the morning.”
“Regret builds character,” Alex says. “Or so people tell me.”
“It also empties bank accounts when people gamble as much as you do,” James says.
He looks past me, and his expression stills.
He hasn’t changed much in the years I’ve known him.
Cold, calculating, and aristocratic. Even if he hates it when we remind him that he’s technically a duke. “Ah. And this is the new wife?”
I follow his line of sight.
Paige is standing at the end of the dock in a white dress with her blonde hair spread out around her. She looks like an angel, I think, come down to judge us all.
But then she takes a step forward, and she becomes human again, flesh and blood. “I am,” she says. “Hi, everyone. Are you Rafe’s friends? Nora just told me about you.”
“All terrible things, I hope.” Alex extends a hand. “I’m Alex. I’m Rafe’s best friend, but don’t tell the others.”
I roll my eyes. “Jesus Christ.”
“I’m Paige.” She shakes James’s hand, too, and he gives her his name. Paige smiles at us all. “The way I understand it, our bachelor and bachelorette parties are both at the villa tonight.”
Alex’s eyebrows shoot high. “They are?”
“Separate parts of the property,” I say. “We don’t want anything photographed.”
“Of course not,” James says. His eyes are still on Paige, like she’s a mystery to unravel.
“A few guests are coming by boat too. Sylvie is coming,” Paige tells me. “And Leelyn.”
It shouldn’t surprise me. She’s charmed the people we’ve met here in record time. And isn’t that what I wanted? Look how in love we are.
“Good,” I say.
“Can’t wait to get to know you more,” Alex tells her, and lifts up a liquor case full of his family’s whiskey. “We’ll head inside and start setting up.” He heads up the dock. They’ve all been here enough to know their way around blindfolded. West gives me a look before he and James leave too.
They see too much.
“Bachelor party?” Paige asks. She crosses her arms over her chest. “I’m not sure you know how to have fun.”
“You just haven’t seen it, Wilde. There’s a difference.”
“Let me guess. You’re going to smoke cigars and listen to Bach.”
That makes me chuckle. “Oh, you really know nothing.”
Her eyes flash. She hates it when her barbs don’t land. “The wedding will fill up the house, you know. Guest bedrooms all taken, especially tomorrow, when more family arrives.”
“I know,” she says. “Karim already told me that you and I are sharing a bedroom tomorrow.”
The idea shouldn’t appeal to me. Shouldn’t be anything but a nuisance. But instead I’m thinking of her in my bed, her hair spread over my pillow and the need that I can barely manage as it is.
“There are too many people and extra staff around,” I say.
“I know. We can’t afford anyone talking.” She sweeps her hair over, down along one side of her neck. She looks perfectly unbothered.
Which means she’s not. I’ve learned that by now.
“Don’t have too much fun tonight,” I say.
“I always do,” she says.