Page 133 of Knocked Up By the Silver Foxes

“Well what would you call a conniving, manipulative⁠—”

“Evelyn.”

It just comes out. I wasn’t even planning to say anything, I just said her name, and there’s a beat of silence where all three of us realize I accidentally answered her question, and Asher makes this sound next to me like he’s swallowed something, and I have to fold my lips under my teeth for a second to get it together before I look back at Evelyn with my most reasonable expression.

“Why would either of you blame me for your own choices?”

“Because everything was fine before you showed up,” Monica says.

“Fine?” I put my hands in my lap so I’m not tempted to gesture with my fork. “You mean the version of fine where you treated Asher like an accessory you weren’t sure you wanted to keep? He was better to you after you broke his heart than most men would be to someone who’d done what you did to him and you know it. That’s not fine. That’s him being a better person than the situation required.”

Monica’s jaw tightens. Asher doesn’t move beside me, but I feel him go very still.

“And Evelyn,” I say, and she tilts her chin up like she’s preparing for impact, “in the years I’ve been Sophia’s best friend, you’ve never shown this much interest in her life or in this estate unless there was something in it for you. The most present you’ve been in that girl’s world since I’ve known her is these last few months, and we both know it’s not because you suddenly discovered maternal instinct. You walked back in swinging because I was here and I was easy to aim at.”

Neither of them says anything.

“You’re blaming me because you both let go of something that turned out to be worth holding onto, and it’s easier to make me the problem than to sit with that. I didn’t take anything from either of you. I showed up and the people you didn’t value enough started feeling valued and that’s not my fault. That’s just what happens when someone decides to actually show up.”

Evelyn holds my gaze for a long moment. Something shifts in it, barely, fast, and then she straightens and picks up her bag and she looks at me one more time with an expression I don’t have a name for, and she leaves.

Monica doesn’t move right away. She’s looking at Asher, not at me, and there’s something real in her face for about two seconds before she puts it away.

“He seems settled,” she says, quietly, like it’s not really for me.

“I am,” Asher says. Not unkindly. Just true.

She nods once and goes.

The dining room settles back into itself. Asher’s arm is still around me and his thumb starts moving again, slow and easy, and I sit with that for a second before I let out a breath that’s been building since those heels hit the marble.

“That was impressive,” he says.

“I accidentally called Evelyn conniving to her face.”

“You really did.”

“By saying her name.”

“Beautifully,” he says, and presses his mouth to my temple, and I laugh for the first time all day, really laugh, and it feels incredible.

He pulls me in close for a second, just holds me, and I close my eyes, breathe him in, and let myself have it.

Then he says, “Finish your lunch, mon coeur.”

I smile against his shoulder before I sit back up saying, “Yes, sir.”

51

KILLIAN

I’m shutting my laptop and reaching for my jacket to get the hell out of here when someone knocks on my door.

“Come in,” I say, hoping it’s not some last minute meeting, but instead I turn and see the one person I haven’t seen in weeks. “Evelyn.”

“Not even a ‘hello’? Or ‘how have you been’?” She steps into the office with her bag over one arm, dressed for something other than the vineyard, which tells me this wasn’t an impromptu visit. She planned this. “Considering I’ve lost my seat and every shred of administrative standing I had here, I thought you might at least manage a greeting.”

I take an internal breath and let it out slow. I have somewhere to be. Harper’s appointment is in forty minutes and I told Maddox I’d be downstairs by ten. “You and I both know you never really wanted that seat or the duties that came with it. So say what you have to say.”