Chapter Forty
Grace
Maybe it’s because Huxley is standing by my side the entire time—the solid feel of his arm around me, its comforting protective support. Or maybe it’s the decisive way he said his family would love me.
The anxiety that’s been plaguing me vanishes, and I find I can smile with ease when the first brother, Noah, arrives. He’s a wildlife photographer, as well as a social media and carb addict, according to Huxley. He said Noah was lucky to marry the best baker in the county. And his wife, Bobbi, follows from behind. A pretty blonde with dark brown eyes, she towers over me, and has a lanky but ropey body that doesn’t seem to be capable of storing carbs. She gives me the first hug, then Noah.
“We’re the first, yeah!” he says.
“Only because you cut me off.” Grant is one of the two financial geniuses in the family. His wife Aspen is a pretty redhead with a dancer’s posture, spine straight, her limbs supple.
Noah shrugs. “You blinked.”
“You should show more respect for the Bugatti.” This from another brother. Emmett, the one whose mother Huxley respects and adores, and the other financial genius.
“Ignore the boys,” Aspen says, hugging me. “It’s good to see you again.”
Emmett’s wife Amy hugs me too. A blonde with no-nonsense eyes, she works for Grant at the financial firm. Huxley told me Emmett hates it that his wife has to work for Grant, who apparently makes her work too hard and too late. “You look so pretty! I love your dress.”
“Thank you.” I flush. “And yours is lovely, too. That blue really brings out your eyes.”
“Some impression you’re making,” says Nicholas to the brothers. He’s the nice, steady one, according to Huxley. And it turns out that I actually know his wife, sort of. Molly has a popular Instagram account on romance novels that I follow.
She gives the best squeeze, all soft and sweet. “I love your posts,” I tell her. “You’ve recommended so many great books!”
Her eyes sparkle. “I’m so glad! We should compare notes later. And you should totally come over. Nicholas built me the most amazing library. You’ll love spending time there.”
“Hear, hear,” Amy says. “That’s where we go when we want to hang out and read.”
“I’d love that.” I smile, relieved—thrilled, even—at the genuine affection and warmth that Huxley’s brothers and their wives are showing me.
Griffin appears in the foyer. He’s in a casual T-shirt with a stain that’s somewhere between yellow and green on his shoulder and faded jeans, although the outfit still doesn’t make him look like the kind to beat up people for tenure. He must’ve noticed my stare. “The stain’s old, and the shirt has been laundered so it shouldn’t be too gross. I’d have worn something else, but this is the only clean shirt I have in the closet after the kids decided to drool and smear food on everything over the last four days.” He sounds chagrined and slightly tired.
“It’s my fault,” his wife Sierra says, shoving her messy strawberry-blond hair out of her face. “I didn’t feel well the last two days, and Griff’s had to deal with the triplets on his own. They only want Mommy and Daddy, not their nanny.”
The brothers and wives make a sympathetic noise. Triplets! I’m stunned at just being pregnant. How did she cope when she heard she was going to have three babies at once?
“We’ll bring the kids next time,” Sierra says. “We thought it might be less hectic without them. Plus, I really need some adult time. I love them to pieces, but oh my God! I’m not a red-haired pony!”
We laugh. The last to walk through the door is Sebastian. The CEO of Sebastian Jewelry and, according to Huxley, the biggest asshole in the group because he can’t stand losing. But from the affectionate glint in Huxley’s eyes, I figure Sebastian’s cool in spite of his competitive streak.
He comes in with his wife Lucie, who is a six-foot blonde with ice-blue eyes. I’ve never admired somebody’s jewelry before, but the stuff on her is amazing. Even to my casual eye, it looks priceless, sparkling like it has its own inner light. A string of rubies wrapped around her ankle is stunning, the color like fresh blood backlit by fire. Karie often puts on a lot of bling to display how wealthy she is—and it’s as ostentatious as she can afford. But Lucie’s pieces are balanced for elegance and beauty, giving off an air of casual affluence in the service of exceptional taste.
“You made it!” Bobbi says. “I brought a key lime pie!”
“You’re the best.” Lucie hugs her, then turns to me and hugs me too. “I’m going to hug everyone before I get moody. Pregnancy hormones are not being kind to me.”
“You okay?” I say as we move toward the dining room.
“Oh my God. Mood swings and weird food cravings.” Lucie sighs. “How about you? How are you holding up?”
“I’m doing surprisingly well,” I say, feeling a little abashed and squirmy that I’m doing so much better than her. “No morning sickness or anything. Not too moody. But it’s still early, so…”
“I’m happy for you,” she says warmly. “Hopefully it stays easy.”
“Pregnancy is different for every woman,” Amy says, patting Lucie’s shoulder affectionately.
“Perhaps so.” Sebastian glowers at Lucie’s belly. “If that baby doesn’t start behaving, it’s going to get a good spanking when it comes out.”
“Yeah, right.” Noah snorts. “If it’s a girl, you’re the one who’s gonna be whipped.” He makes a whip-cracking sound.
“I don’t think so,” Sebastian says. “I plan to be a stern disciplinarian.”
From the way Huxley rolls his eyes and the other brothers shake their heads, everyone agrees with Noah.
Tilda and the staff set a massive spread of grilled beef, pork roast, chicken, Caesar salad, pasta, veggies sticks and lots of bread and salted butter before everyone’s arrival. She didn’t bother with desserts because Bobbi said she’d send some. We grab whatever we feel like eating and go to the table. Huxley puts down his plate and pulls out a chair for me. I notice all the brothers do the same for their wives. Lucie only has a slice of key lime pie and some celery.
“I want to tell you how much I admire what you’ve done. That revenge was inspired,” Noah says, before biting into heavily buttered bread. “It’s almost like you knew a guy who knew a guy! How did you get the recording of them in your bedroom? Do you have a stalker who films your house?”
Curious eyes turn on me. “No, thank God. I’m not that interesting.”
Huxley makes a skeptical sound deep in his throat. “Don’t underestimate yourself,” he whispers.
Flushing and elbowing him teasingly, I cut the roast beef on my plate. “Viv has a habit of stealing my things and then denying that she did so, even though it’s obvious that she did. So I got fed up and installed a camera in my bedroom without telling anybody. It only records if it detects motion or sound in the room. I sort of forgot about it because I’d been occupied with the wedding and the pregnancy. But when she decided to make me an online celebrity, I thought I’d return the favor. Peter getting caught in it is a bonus, since he helped her.”
“Damn. That’s good .” Noah turns to his wife. “We should get one of those for our bedroom.”
Bobbi stabs some lettuce. “No. You’d just watch the videos of us over and over again for your own entertainment.”
“So? I might get lonely out on the veldt. With nothing but the wilderness around, shooting cheetahs. I might need something to comfort me.”
Sebastian rolls his eyes. “If your precious cheetahs could, they’d get a restraining order against you.”
“They don’t even know I exist. Yes, I am just that smooth.” Noah nods with deep self-satisfaction.
Next to him, Bobbi rolls her eyes, but a small smile on her lips says she’s crazy about him. They lock gazes, and something illicit and unspoken passes between them. I look away, feeling an urge to blush.
“How about the license plates?” Sierra leans forward. “How did you manage that? Did you have a camera set up to capture it too? Maybe a drone?”
I shake my head. “I wish I could take the credit, but that was all Huxley.”
“Damn.” Emmett whistles.
“That’s brilliant.” Molly beams. “No wonder you work in advertising!”
Huxley preens. “Why, thank you. I’m glad some body recognizes where my talents lie.”
“Your mom still saying you should join the firm?” Grant says before shoveling a piece of pork into his mouth and reaching for a glass of Merlot.
“Yes, of course.”
“The woman doesn’t give up.” Griffin grunts. “The worst ones never do.”
Huxley leans over. “He probably got a call from his mother asking him to be her date to some party in Barcelona.”
“Barcelona? Like, in Spain ?” I ask.
“Rachel doesn’t care,” Huxley whispers.
“I was disappointed that you didn’t want me for some reinforcement,” Emmett says to Huxley, dragging my attention back to the conversation.
“Me too.” Sebastian grunts, then immediately pours more pear cider into his wife’s now-empty glass. “Although I would’ve done better than everyone here. I don’t let anybody fuck me over and get away with it. And if they touch one of us”—he makes a circle with his knife—“they just fucked with the wrong man.” The knife stops, pointed at him.
“You think you can do better than that sex tape and L84ANAL?” Noah is skeptical.
“Hell yeah.”
“I’ll call you next time. Just to see if you can top it,” Grant says with a glint in his eyes.
“You’re just bitter because you lost the tennis match last weekend.”
Grant bristles. “You cheated!” He pretends to look far beyond Sebastian’s back. “‘Wait… What’s Aspen doing with Zack?’” His peeved gaze returns to Seb. “Really, asshole?”
“That’s low,” Griffin says, then chuckles.
“Were you losing until then?” Huxley asks. Sebastian declines to answer.
Aspen snorts. “I have told you a hundred times, Zack is just a friend,” she says to Grant, half exasperated and half amused.
“Exactly. Have more faith in your wife, man.” Sebastian shoots Grant a smug grin.
“Still an asshole,” Grant mumbles.
Something pings on Noah’s phone, and he immediately checks it, then starts scrolling. Bobbi tears a piece of croissant off for him, and he opens his mouth to accept it, his eyes still glued to the screen, then places a quick peck on her retreating fingers. The corners of his eyes crinkle, and she smiles.
“Oh, by the way, your ex resigned,” Molly says as though she’s just remembered.
“Where did you hear that?” I ask. I haven’t followed what happened to Vivienne and Peter that closely.
“Jeremiah mentioned it when I saw her to discuss my lawsuit against my boss.”
“Serves him right. He’ll never work as a lawyer again. Who could respect him after that small-dick comment from Dad?” Huxley says with evil satisfaction.
“By the way, when is your boss going to jail?” Emmett says, then turns to me. “The guy sexually harassed and assaulted Molly. A bunch of other women, too.”
“Wow. What a jerk. I hope he rots in jail forever,” I say most sincerely.
Molly wrinkles her nose. “It’s a civil suit, so no jail. He wants to settle in exchange for an NDA.”
“Ha! Trying to buy your silence. Tell him to go suck it,” Grant says.
“Jeremiah will.”
“By the way, what does Dad have that I don’t?” Noah says mournfully, finally looking up from his phone. “I still can’t believe you wanted Dad as your backup for the revenge thing.”
“Well, I didn’t want to bother any of you,” I explain, hating that he’s unhappy.
“Still…” Griffin sounds disappointed. Actually, all the brothers look sort of disheartened.
“Next time—if there is a next time—everyone at this table will be first on my list. It’s just that Ted’s been really kind,” I say.
“He isn’t too terrible.” Lucie bites into another slice of key lime pie. She still hasn’t touched the celery sticks on her plate. Maybe they’re garnish…? No, wait. She puts a glob of the pie on the celery and starts chewing. I have to look away.
“Jesus, that’s criminal,” Noah says, his face scrunching.
“That’s an…interesting mixture of flavors, for sure,” Amy says diplomatically.
“The combination is di vine . Try it.” Lucie scoops up more green pie on the green celery stick and munches happily, completely immune to everyone else’s reactions.
“It’s the baby,” Sebastian says defensively.
“Are you craving anything?” Huxley seems like he wants to will me into craving something bizarre, just so he can bring it to me and tell his brothers it’s all cool, I’m just pregnant.
The question makes me blink and realize I haven’t had any weird cravings. “Not at all. As a matter of fact, I feel great.” I glance down at my plate with its decimated beef and mashed potatoes and the last bite of a roll. “I’m just glad I’m not hankering for tuna and broccoli like Jeremiah.”
Grant makes a gagging noise. “Ugh. That’s disgusting.”
Sebastian’s eyes slide to Huxley. “That explains some things.”
“Bite me,” Huxley mutters, but his eyes twinkle.
I marvel at the affection running through every interaction they have. It’s nothing like the meals I was forced to share with Nelson and his family. Not only that, there’s so much unspoken thoughtfulness. Huxley hands me more beef, probably because he noticed me gobbling it up. And Bobbi silently pushes the butter closer to me when I pick up a roll. I smile my thanks, and she grins back.
“Wonder what Grandma craved when she was pregnant with Dad,” Noah muses out loud.
“Probably bleach,” Emmett says.
“Don’t be mean. Ted can be nice,” Molly speaks up. “He is just a bit, you know…”
“Monomaniacal?”
“Egotistic?”
“Convinced of his own divinity?”
“No,” Molly says, “Just a little…outlandish, that’s all.”
“It’s only because you have a terrible father that you think he’s acceptable,” Nicholas says, then turns to me. “But you must have the worst to call Ted kind .”
“The worst ,” Huxley says. “He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.”
Sebastian considers. “True. If Roderick had touched Lucie, I would’ve killed him.”
“And I would’ve been your alibi,” Noah says gravely.
The rest of the brothers nod in agreement. They seem like an unbreakable spear and shield for each other—and that protection extends to their women as well. Huxley reaches and squeezes my hand. Abruptly I realize I’m now part of this tight-knit family. Shock shivers through me. I’ve been alone and defenseless for so long, it’s difficult to process.
Still, I lean my head on his strong shoulder and take it all in, feeling lucky and also wishing my life could be like this forever, even though experience has taught me that good things rarely last.