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“Explain yourself,” I grunted, feeling ancient and judgmental.
Lucas shifted from side to side, clearly uncomfortable. “Well, I—”
Mia plucked a coffee out of the tray in my hand and plopped down on the sofa. “Oh, for god’s sake. Tell him, Luc.”
Lucas raked his fingers through his hair. “It’s just that…”
Mia sighed. “Prescott is an asshole user, and he pressured Lucas into getting engaged in the first place.”
I set the drinks tray and pastry bag down and crossed my arms in front of my chest. “I’m sorry?”
Lucas paced back and forth. “I can’t talk to you without clothes on,” he muttered, heading to the bedroom.
Mia’s expression held a warning for me. Clearly she had real feelings for my brother. “He’s terrified of disappointing you,” she said softly. “So you’re going to listen and be empathetic, even if it kills you.”
“But… why?”
“Because you love him. He’s your brother.”
“No. I mean why agree to the engagement?”
Lucas came back out dressed in cutoff sweats and a clean T-shirt. “Because you wouldn’t have agreed to the trip otherwise. We needed a big reason to get away. Nat and I had already tried everything we could think of, and I thought if I got engaged, we could use it as an excuse to take a trip.” He held up a hand. “And before you tell me how ridiculous that sounds, believe me, I know. The truth is… I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Besides. It worked. We got you out of town and onto the ship.”
I gaped at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve been to St. Mitz at least four or five times in the past two years since Mason purchased the yacht,” I said. “You could have come with me any of those times without getting fucking engaged. In fact, I invited you to come a couple of those times.”
“And Mason disinvited us as soon as your back was turned. One of the times, he asked us to stay home because he had a big proposal planned. Then the other time he told us you really wanted to be alone because of stress at work.”
If I hadn’t wanted to throttle Mason before for being a manipulative asshole, I definitely did now. “I’m sorry. I never knew,” I said, feeling helpless and frustrated.
“And after the breakup, we asked you to come to Vail. You said you couldn’t.”
“I was on the yacht,” I admitted. “I was licking my wounds.”
Lucas smiled. “I know. Julo called me. He knew we’d be worried about you, so he wanted us to know you were okay.”
I was torn between wanting to fire the man for betraying my privacy and wanting to promote him for knowing me well enough to make that executive decision.
Lucas continued. “Then we asked you to come down to St. Mitz, and you said we could go without you because you had so much work to do.”
I finally relaxed enough to sit down in a nearby armchair. “That’s because I’d been away so long. I couldn’t leave the office again so soon.” I reached for my coffee and took a sip. “But that doesn’t explain you two. And where is Pres?”
Lucas looked nervous again. “He’s at his own place. I told him I was on call last night and today.”
“When did the two of you get together?”
Mia looked to Lucas for permission before responding. “Last night. There’d been something between us on the ship—”
Lucas cut in with a laugh. “That something has been between us for months.”
Mia blushed, the pink contrasting adorably with her messy purple hair. It reminded me of the time she’d blushed at my sister on the ship, only Lucas had been sitting right next to Nat at the time. I’d completely misunderstood. “Fine, but you were dating Pres.”
“Only because I’d asked you out several times before getting together with Pres, and you shot me down.”
I held up a hand. “Tangent alert.”
Lucas flashed me a guilty look. “I need to break it off with Pres. He doesn’t know. I didn’t mean to… cheat… like this.”
I snorted and then started laughing for real. This was like something out of a soap opera. “I don’t think you need to feel as guilty as you think.”
“Why not? I’ve never cheated on anyone in my life. Pres deserves better.”
Mia sighed but kept quiet.
“No he doesn’t,” I said firmly. “You know how he flew down to St. Mitz a day early because he’d gone to his cousin’s graduation in Georgia?”
Lucas nodded.
“Well,” I continued. “He picked up a guy at a club in St. Mitz and slept with him that night.”
Lucas and Mia both blinked at me.
“How do you know?” Lucas asked.
“Because that guy was Cal.”
We all stared at each other a beat before they began shooting questions at me a mile a minute. I explained as best I could, leaving out the part about trying to reveal Prescott’s predilection for cheating.
