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I startled at Joel’s voice. He stood near me now. They all did, arrayed subtly out so we all weren’t bunched together.
“Yeah.” I stepped away from the bar so I wasn’t in the way anymore. “That’s him. In the flesh.”
Rowan shrugged. “Not what I imagined the asshole to look like.”
I blinked at him, and I caught a flicker of something deeper in his gaze. The feeling that what he showed on the surface wasn’t nearly everything. Of course it wasn’t. This was all for show.
So why did I desperately want to peel back those layers and find out what he was hiding? Just like after the kiss, the air spun out between us, going electric. I needed to get my shit together.
“Isolde, there you are.” My mother appeared in front of me and grabbed my hand. Cade just barely rescued my wine from my other hand as she towed me across the ballroom. “Sorry to be so abrupt. Marie can’t stay and she wanted to see you.”
One of my mother’s friends and business partners. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
I held back my sigh. Clearly that wasn’t the truth, but Mom would get to it when she got to it. “Oh, it looks like she left already.”
“Mom, if you want to talk to me, you can just say you want to talk to me. You don’t have to make stuff up.”
“Yes,” she said. “But why do I get the feeling if I tell you I want to talk to you that you’ll find an excuse to stay with those handsome men and dodge my questions?”
Because you’re right.“I have no idea.”
She sighed and touched my arm. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Mom gave me a look I absolutely deserved. I left so quickly I gave my family whiplash. They barely heard the news before I was out of the city. I couldn’t look at anything without feeling like I was going to lose my mind. Every place in Clarity Coast had memories attached, and so many were of Beau. They were happy, and then all of a sudden it was like my entire world was covered in sadness and pain that couldn’t wash off. I couldn’tbreathe.
“I’m fine, Mom. Promise.”
“It just seems sudden, with this pack. I’ve asked you about meeting anyone, and you said no.”
I flexed my fingers, resisting the urge to run them through my hair and ruin the gorgeous waves Ronnie managed to give me. “Yeah, I know. But everything with Beau was so public. Afterthat, I wanted some space just to get to know them without anyone looking at us.”
We weren’t paparazzi famous. But we didn’t have to be. Society in Clarity Coast, and an hour north in Sunset City, everyone knew everyone. Beau and I had been a golden couple. Two big families coming together by chance because of work. It was—should have been—a fairytale.
“Well,” she said softly, “theyare certainly looking at you.”
I didn’t have to look back to where we came from to know she meant my guys.
My heart stuttered at that thought.Myguys.
“I hope you like them,” I said honestly.
“I’m sure I will. If they’ll be around for everything, it’ll be nice to get to know them.”
“They will be,” I said.
Pulling me into a hug, she sighed. “I just want you to be happy, Isolde.” My eyes pricked with tears because I could hear the emotion in her voice. “I know this really isn’t the place, but I can’t think about anything else.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know.” She pulled back, blinking quickly to clear the tears. “I know you are. And whatever you need to do to be happy is fine with me. I just hope we can be a part of it.”
Shame washed up and over me. My family was going to fall in love with them, and when the whole charade was over, they were going to be devastated. “For sure.” The words felt like dust in my mouth.
“Okay.” She brushed invisible lint off my shoulders and arranged my hair. “I need to get back to it. Everyone’s here for me and Henry, after all. But the family and the wedding party are having breakfast tomorrow. We’d love to see all of you.”
