Chapter Twenty
Chase
Iknocked on Annabelle's door before breakfast, but there was no answer. I couldn't imagine she'd had time to get back to her room, get ready for the formal breakfast, and beat me downstairs, but if she was still in there she wasn't answering.
I thought I heard water running, but it was hard to tell.
I was unsettled. Off-kilter.
The look on her face when she'd walked out… Had I got it wrong?
I'd opened my eyes and she'd been gone, just as I'd expected. Then she was there, dressed, her hair everywhere and a tense, guilty expression on her face.
She'd been sneaking out.
There was no way to mistake that.
She'd gotten out of bed without waking me up, and was standing by the door fully dressed, looking guilty that I'd opened my eyes and caught her.
What was I supposed to do? Beg her to stay?
I was good enough for one night after a little too much champagne, but not good enough to wake up with.
Fine. She could stay locked up in her tower, alone for the rest of her life if that was what she wanted. I'd been begging for scraps of her attention long enough.
I told myself all that as I showered and got dressed, but it didn't sit right.
If Annabelle was going to have a one-night stand, why wait three years? If she wanted sex, she didn't need me for that.
None of the pieces went together the way I wanted them to. I tried to shrug it off. I'd see her at breakfast. We could figure it out then. Or after, on the ride home. I wasn't sure if an hour alone in a car with Annabelle was a gift or a curse.
It might be the most awkward hour of my life, but maybe not. Maybe we just needed to talk.
I told myself I was being a hopeful idiot.
I was so distracted, I didn't notice her empty chair until I sat down. I didn't know most of the other people at our table, so I focused on my coffee and watched the happy couple celebrate their morning after breakfast.
Jacob looked smug, his silver eyes warm rather than their usual ice, and Abigail wore a satisfied smile. Not quite as smug as her husband, but close. Her wedding may have been over, but she still looked like the happiest bride I'd ever seen.
Aiden stood up at one point, clicking a fork against his mimosa, the bright, crisp sound far too happy for my dark mood.
I didn't hear a word of his short speech and only barely registered Abigail sniffling and standing up to give him a tight hug, Jacob leaning over and slapping him on the back.
I did notice Annalise shoot me a glare as she stood and left the dining room, her heels clicking against the hardwood in angry taps. Riley met my eyes from across the room and slowly shook his head, his mouth grim. He glanced at the seat beside me, then back at me and shook his head again.
What the fuck?
I didn't have to wonder long.
A few minutes later Lise was back, sliding into Annabelle's chair and giving me a scowl. It was bizarre to see that angry look aimed at me from eyes so like my own.
"Just so you know, you're giving us a ride home."
"Us who?" I asked, not following.
"Us as in Riley and me. I just gave Riley's keys to Annabelle."
"Why the fuck would you give Riley's keys to Annabelle? Annabelle is riding with me."
"Yeah? Then where is she?"
"We overslept. I thought she was getting dressed," I said, hearing the words come out of my mouth and realizing I was an idiot.
First, I'd confirmed I'd spent the night with Annabelle, which she might not have wanted me to share with Lise. And second, it was obvious Annabelle wasn't running late.
She was running away.
"She's not getting dressed. She left,” Lise confirmed.
"She's supposed to ride with me," I said, still an idiot.
Why was she running away? She was the one who snuck out. There were other tables if she didn't want to sit with me.
She didn't have to make a dramatic exit in a borrowed car. I could take a hint.
"She doesn't want to drive home with you," Lise said. "I'm pretty sure she never wants to see you again. Whatever the hell you did, I hope you're ready to apologize."
"I didn't do a fucking thing," I growled back, shrugging a shoulder at Lise's annoyed grunt over my language.
"You must have done something. It's not like her to bail. It's not like her to cry, either."
I started to shove back my chair, ready to go after her and figure this out. Lise's hand closed over my wrist, stopping me.
"Don't bother. I watched her drive away myself."
"Why did you give her your keys?" I demanded.
Why was Annabelle crying? She'd walked out on me. I was the injured party here.
"Because she's my friend," Lise said slowly, as if I were a child.
"I wasn't here for that whole thing with Tommy.
We've been friends since we were kids and I let her go through that alone.
Whatever's going on with you two, I don't care that you're my brother, I'm not letting you stomp all over her.
If she needs my car keys—or Riley's—she can have them. She can have anything she wants. You’d better figure out a way to fix this. "
She didn't give me a chance to respond, pushing her chair back and returning to her seat across the room with Riley.
Great. Now Violet, Aiden, Charlie and Lucas, even Vance and Maggie—everyone in the family had noticed that I was sitting at breakfast alone, my date nowhere to be seen.
Wonderful. I had no idea how this had turned around to be my fault.
I'd have to get through the rest of this breakfast, get back to Atlanta, and then I could figure out what the hell had happened.
We left Chateau du Jardin not long after the breakfast ended. Jacob and Abigail were staying another night, then leaving for a two-week honeymoon in Europe. The rest of us had to pack up and depart paradise to go back and face real life.
I wasn't looking forward to it. Annalise and Riley met me in the parking lot, bags in hand. Riley took the front passenger seat and Lise climbed into the back. She pulled out her phone and started texting, conspicuously ignoring me.
Fine.
We'd been driving for twenty minutes when Riley cleared his throat, gave me a sympathetic look and said, "So, what did you do?"
"None of your fucking business."
Lise already wanted to string me up by my balls. I wasn't having this conversation in front of her. She might have been my half-sister, but she'd made it very clear who had her loyalty, and it was not me.
"Come on, man. You must have done something.
Annabelle is a fucking champion at gritting her teeth and doing what she has to do, even when it's killing her.
The whole time she was getting divorced from that asshole, she never missed a day at the café.
I never walked in when she didn't have a smile on her face.
Even when I knew she felt like hell. So for her to bail on the breakfast? Come on, what the fuck did you do?"
Annabelle had quite the army of protectors, didn't she? Every one of my half-brothers and cousins had looked out for her for years. Now Riley? No wonder she only needed me for sex.
Dodging his question, I said, "How do you know her so well? You only got back together with Lise a little while ago."
"Jealous," Riley murmured under his breath.
"Fuck you," I muttered back.
Riley and I were friends, closer than I was to any of my new relatives, and normally we poked at each other for fun, but I was not in the mood.
"It's not me you want to fuck," he said in a low tone that wasn't quite low enough, based on the punch Lise threw into his shoulder from the back seat. "Sorry, babe."
"Asshole," she said affectionately.
Finally answering my question, Riley said, "I know Annabelle from when she was in college with Lise, and because most of Sinclair Security goes to her for coffee. On the rare occasions we have office meetings, we always get Annabelle to cater."
"Kind of out of your way," I muttered. Sinclair Security was in Buckhead. Not exactly around the corner.
Riley shrugged a shoulder. "That's what interns are for. Anyway, how I know Annabelle isn't the point. The point is she took our car and drove home and she'd been crying. We all know she spent the night with you, so I want to know. What the fuck did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," I burst out. "I woke up, caught her sneaking out on me, and that was it. I don't know why she's mad at me."
"What do you mean you caught her sneaking out on you?" Lise asked, putting down her phone and leaning forward.
"It's none of your business, but if you have to know—"
"I do," she interrupted, and I took my eyes off the road to glare at her in the rearview mirror.
"I mean exactly what I said. I woke up and she wasn't in bed and then she came out of the bathroom with all of her stuff heading for the door, dressed and ready to go."
"What did you say?" Lise pressed.
I focused on the road ahead and tried to think.
What had I said?
I'd been pissed off. I couldn't remember my exact words. I just remembered looking up and seeing her, the guilty expression on her face. She looked ready to flee and it felt like a slap. I opened my mouth and…
Shit.
What had I said?
Truthfully, and regretfully, I admitted, "I don't remember, exactly. I was pissed off. I think I said something about this being done. And if she wanted to go she should go."
"Are you sure she wanted to go?" Riley asked.
I didn't answer.
I had been.
I'd been completely sure she'd been on her way out.
Could I have been wrong? Could I have misread everything and then kicked her out of my room?
That would make me a Grade-A asshole, wouldn't it?
Staring at the road, and trying to think, all I could say was, "Shit."
From the backseat Lise chuckled, and I fought the urge to throw something at her.
It turns out little sisters are little sisters, whether you'd known them a lifetime or a few weeks.
Sometimes annoyingly right, and sometimes just annoying.