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“Did you get a room for tonight?” she asked as she eyed a passing platter of shrimp cocktail.
“Do you want some shrimp?” I asked, jerking my thumb at the tray. I didn’t want to answer her question.
“Hmm. Maybe one. But only one. I have a fitting tomorrow.”
I hunted her down a single shrimp. And through the crowd, I found Cora’s eyes waiting for mine.
Electricity sizzled through me, and I frowned, snatching up the food and turning to Mirabella. “Here you go.” I could still feel Cora’s gaze on me, so I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Enjoy.”
She giggled again, looking up at me curiously. “You’re a niceandaffectionate rich guy.”
“Come on. You should know this about me by now.”
“I know a few things about you,” she said with a wink before taking a delicate bite of the oversized shrimp.
I milled around with Mirabella for a bit, pausing to go horse around with the teens before they began their presentation to the guests. The kids were putting together a long-term project they wanted specific funding for—a STEM-inspired sculpture project that would combine metalwork and art. The finished piece would be displayed in the lobby of Fairchild Wealth. The kids we worked with were the coolest.
One whiskey turned into two. By the time I’d drained the second, warmth licked through me. And this time when I caught Cora’s gaze across the room, I didn’t feel the urge to ignore her.
No, I needed to confront her.
She chatted with Trace and Damian, looking as breezy and gorgeous as ever. Part of me knew this was what I could have had if we’d ended up together—catching her eye from across the room at high-class gatherings, joining the conversation with her and my brothers. Bringing her into my arms, disappearing into a room on the top floor once dinner and drinks were finished.
Just thinking about the life we’d lost still made my stomach bottom out. Cora filled my head and it drove me crazy. I’d managed to reduce the memories to a dull hum over the years, but even this distant interaction—this animosity-laced orbit—was still too much.
Eight years should have been enough time to move the fuck on. The fact that I hadn’t just made me feel ridiculous. Was this what soul mates felt like, something just shy of a mental illness?
“What are you staring at?” Mirabella searched the room, trying to follow my gaze.
“Hm?” I barely heard her over the raucous party of my thoughts.
“Tell me a celebrity arrived. Oh my God, who is it?”
Her voice registered as an irritating buzz, the type of noise I would swat away like a fly if I could, now that Cora was within arm’s reeach. Ifthiswas what soul mates felt like, then I needed to buck up for a lifetime of madness. Because even though Cora was headed for a divorce, my sense of justice would not allow me to drop this grudge I held. I could hold a grudge longer than an ash-encrusted corpse held onto pottery in Pompeii. I’d be holding this grudge until scientists looked at my remains a thousand years from now.
Cora did not deserve reconciliation. She would not get it from me, no matter how much she claimed to support our efforts.
And since my heart and my brain were not on speaking terms these days, I needed to physically remove her from my line of vision.
Except that I couldn’t stop staring.
“Axel, are you even listening to me?”
“I’m listening, Cora.”
Mirabella’s brows drew together, registering my slip before I did. “Cora? Who the hell is Cora.”
“Mirabella. That’s what I said.” I swallowed hard, dropping my gaze to Mirabella for the briefest of glances. “Bella. You must have heard wrong.”
Her side eye told me she didn’t totally buy it, but things were fine for now.
“I gotta go have a chat with someone real quick,” I told her. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Okay. I’ll go mingle.” She batted her eyes at me and pushed up onto her toes to plant a kiss on my lips. I stiffened, unsure how to respond. We didn’t often kiss in public. In fact, we rarely showed any affection, save the occasional ass grab. Everything else was reserved for the bedroom. But maybe my Cora-induced flirtation had accidentally opened that door.
I headed across the room. Cora laughed with her hand pressed to her mouth. Trace was deep in storytelling when I got there, and I waited politely until he was done telling her about the time he’d accidentally offended the King of Morocco.
Trace clapped my shoulder when he was done with the story. “Wasn’t that awful?”
