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Their eyes met and he saw compassion in her gaze. It was probably one of the things that made her so successful at her job. She was driven and competitive, but she also had empathy, which he knew he lacked.
Please,he thought,don’t ask me anything else.
“Is it a whiskey or beer night?”
“I was thinking serious drinking,” he admitted.
“Whiskey then. I think there is a bar set up down at the clambake. Want to go grab some food and drinks?”
No. But he knew that if he said he wanted to go back to his room, she’d leave.
“Sure. But I’m not going to be socializing.”
“Duh,” she said with a wink as she hopped off his lap. “When are you ever?”
He shook his head as she held her hand out to him. He stood and took her hand. She linked their fingers together and then looked up at him. “Don’t think this is more than friendship.”
He nodded. They had always been like oil and water and he was pretty sure that would never change. “Why are you doing this?”
“You need a friend tonight. Someone you can let go and be yourself with, and you can’t with your family right now,” she said.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Don’t thank me yet. We still have to navigate the clambake,” she warned.
Where his entire extended family and a bunch of friends of his parents’ and cousin, whom he’d known his entire life, were. Only the inner circle of his family and the Williams’ siblings knew the truth about Nick.
He could bullshit and keep secrets with the best of them. But he’d never been good at hiding his emotions. When he was mad, everyone knew it. He doubted that was going to change tonight. But as they approached the bonfire, his brother had given up singing and now Adler’s father, the rocker Toby Osborn, was singing his number-one hit song about rebellion and making his own path. Logan, who had always been the model Bisset son, listened to the lyrics.My path could have been easier if I had been a different man. Damn but those words resonated. He shook off that thought as he just followed Quinn.
Logan went to the bar, ordered two Jack and Coke, and then turned and bumped into Nick Williams. The groom, his business rival and, as of today, his half brother. The other man’s eyes were bloodshot, and he looked...well, like Logan felt. Nick had the worst of the news and if Logan were a better man, he would have tried to comfort him. But at the end of the day, Logan was still himself.
“Fuck,” Nick said. “Of course, I bump into you.”
“Ditto,” Logan said.
Nick gave a little half smile. “The only silver lining to this entire shit storm is the fact that I know you hate it as much as I do.”
Logan fought to keep from smiling. He’d never spent any time with Nick other than on the other side of a boardroom table negotiating to outbid him. Now he regretted it. There was something familiar in the other man; probably that DNA his father had contributed.
“Exactly my thought,” Logan admitted. “Let me buy you a drink.”
“Like hell,” Nick said. “I’ll buy the drinks.”
“You’re buying them all,” Logan pointed out gently. “This is your event. Where is your bride?”
“Listening to her dad sing,” Nick said, shaking himself and then standing taller. “And waiting for her drink. So move it, Bisset. I don’t want to keep her waiting.”
“You say Bisset like it’s a curse but you—”
“Don’t. Don’t say it out loud. I’m not ready to hear it, especially from you,” Nick said. He pushed Logan out of the way and Logan let himself be moved.
As hard as this was for him, it had to be at least the same if not more so for Nick. The family had gathered for his wedding and on the eve of everyone they knew arriving on an island, he’d learned he was the biological son of his business rival and the man who’d raised his worst enemy. Logan just nodded and turned to go find Quinn.
He knew that over the next few days things would more than likely get worse as the news broke in the press, despite Carlton’s best public relations spin. And at some point, Logan realized, he was going to have to come clean with his dad and with Nick about the patent he’d purchased out from under him after Nick had beaten him to the punch on another deal three months earlier.
Damn.
Quinn danced in the moonlight near his sister, Iris Collins and Adler. Logan stood there in the shadows wanting to join the women but also knowing he should let them be. Let Quinn help Adler adjust to the news that was rattling her as well. His cousin had been born into a world of paparazzi and tabloid headlines. Her mother had been the younger lover of a famous rock star known for his debauched lifestyle. Then, when Adler was two, her mom had died of a drug overdose, which had simply fanned interest in her. All of Adler’s life, she’d been struggling to stay out of the spotlight but televising this wedding was the kind of media attention Adler wanted. The kind that would give her legitimacy and take away the tabloid headlines—until today.
