“No. She never really hangs out with us anymore. She didn’t eat with us last night. It’s not you, I promise.”
I hate that I’m off on such a bad foot with her. I wish everything had played out differently.
The chef leaves a huge casserole dish full of risotto on the center of the table in the dining room, as well as a mountain of grated parmesan and some salad. I pull out a chair and sit down for my first family meal in years.
Laura flashes in my mind, as guilt-inducing as it is jarring. The coldness, quietness in her Inverness house no different to my own.
This right here is all she really wanted.
God, Laura. I am so sorry.I feel like I used her as a stepping stone to get here.
What Alex thinks about me is true: Iamdisgusted by the wealth they all have. It’s more than anyone needs. But if I happened to discover my dad was actually a millionaire and was just keeping me humble, hiring someone who can cook would be my first order of business.
I tried to make Alex a chicken salad last year and we both got astomach bug, as he assures me it was.
It was food poisoning.
But this risotto? Nothing short of incredible.
I’m sad Alex isn’t here, but it’s right that his mom has company.
“Are you still here over the weekend, Ophelia?” Mia asks, taking a second helping of the food.
“Yes, if you guys don’t mind?”
Josie’s voice is loud and clear beside me, her hand landing on mine. “We don’t mind!”
“We can bake a birthday cake for Alex!”
Shit.Alex’s birthday. He’s impossible to buy for. He has enough money to buy a small island, but the things he really wants are things money can’t buy.
“Sounds great. Red velvet, maybe.”
“Soooo …” says Charlotte, in a terrible effort to seem casual. “You guys are all made up?”
I snort into my lemonade. “Yes, we’re all made up.”
“Are you gonna break up again?”
“Josie!” Mia pinches the bridge of her nose, glaring at her sister.
“What? We were gonna ask her.”
“We were going to interrogate her in a more subtle manner,” says Mia, through her laughter.
“We’ve been waiting for Alex to get a serious girlfriend for ages,” adds Evie, a solemn expression on her face. “We were worried it’dneverhappen. And then he left you, and like … obviously we love him, because he’s our brother, but we wanted to strangle him. We never thought it was you who leaked the file. Well, none of us except …”
Another voice joins the fray, soft and lyrical just like Elise’s, but the accent American, rather than French. “Wow, E. Thanks a lot.”
The table quiets. I hope they don’t notice the way my shoulders stiffen with tension. I know who it is before I turn. Should I stand?No, she’s not a fucking earl.Go for a hug? She doesn’t want to hug me. Handshake?
I turn to face Fleur. I’ve seen her in pictures, billboards, and magazines, but she’s a lot more intimidating in the flesh. Her hair is dark like her brother’s, long enough that it kisses the top of her belt. She’s in an outfit that makes me realize that it’s not low-waisted jeans that are the problem, it’s me.
She has familiar piercing green eyes, and that sets me at ease. It’s hard to feel any hostility to anyone who has Alex’s eyes.
Still, anyone who can pull off low-waisted jeans makes my palms sweaty.
“Hey, Fleur,” I say, quietly. “How are you?”
