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He reaches over and grabs a bottle of water, then twists open the cap and glugs down half of it before setting it down and staring at it as if for answers. "Grandad changed his will so I'm his main beneficiary. My half-bros are not happy about it."
"Not like you need the money," Sinclair drawls.
"Except, his fortune makes my father’s empire look like a corner shop.”
“I’m confused,” Finn scowls. “Your grandfather changed his will so you’d get most of his money? In addition, he wants you to take over his empire?”
I nod.
“And your half-siblings? How do they come into the picture?” I ask.
Edward rubs the back of his neck. “Turns out my father is not my blood father.”
“He’s not?” Sinclair asks.
Edward sighs. “Ok… I warn you, this is very confusing and convoluted, and I willnotbe holding Q&A afterward." He takes a deep breath before continuing, "My blood father is the man my mother left for my father, who also happens to be his brother. She didn’t realize she was pregnant, and by the time she did, she was already married to my adoptive father. My blood father went on to marry again and fathered my five half-brothers. My adoptive father fell out with his family—no surprise there—changed his surname to his mother’s maiden name, and never spoke to them again. But when my grandpa realized I was the oldest of his grandsons, he wanted me to rejoin the family business. He wants my blood father to groom me to become his heir.”
Finn coughs. Sinclair stares. JJ looks at him with a speculative glance.
"Your grandfather asked you take over the Davenport empire?" Michael rumbles.
Edward shoots him a disgusted look. "Of course, you’d know."
Michael shrugs. "It’s my job to know about every deal, above and below the line."
"This is one deal I could do without knowing about,” Edward mumbles under his breath.
"Maybe it’s time you step back into a church; you look like you could use the prayers." Caspian snickers.
JJ whistles. The rest of us look at Caspian with varying degrees of exasperation. Bringing up the church with an ex-priest? Not advisable. The silence stretches.
Then Edward arches a brow in his direction. "Spoken like a true prick, Prick."
The rest of us propping up the bar chuckle.
"That fucking nickname." Caspian glowers at me.
"Don’t complain. It’s better than 2Dix." I nod toward the other end of the room where Gideon, one of our defensemen, is talking to one of Goldie’s friends at the coffee station. Yep, there’s a coffee and cupcake station, because the wife insisted on it. We're in her bookshop, and you need them as an accompaniment for hungry and thirsty readers, which most of her friends are. And there are wine and cocktails with innovative names like Dramanie, after the Dramione fan fiction that her friend Penny loves to read, and Sugar and Spice, because they love to read spicy books Then there's Cliffie, Five Chillies, G00d Girl, Booktail, The Pierced Eggplant, The HEA, and My Fave Trope, to name a few.
Most of the names are incomprehensible to me, but if it makes her happy, who am I to complain? I can’t take my gaze off of my wife where she’s talking to her friends. As if she senses my gaze, she looks up and flashes me a smile. Her golden eyes gleam, and her soft hair is a halo around her head. My golden girl, my angel, my redeemer, my rescuer. She kept me from falling into a dark place, she rescued me, gave me the happiness I didn’t think I had the courage to grasp, but with her by my side I can do anything.
I touch my tongue to my lip, and her gaze grows heavy. Her cheeks flush, then she shakes her head slightly.
I widen my gaze.
She shakes her head again and sends me a pleading look, which I interpret correctly as meaning,just a few more minutes; we owe it to our friends.
They all turned out for our second wedding. The Seven, the Sovranos, as well as Knight and Penny, and Cade and Abby. Even #Declene, along with Hunter, the Prime Minister of the country, and Zara turned up to toast us. Then, there's the rest of my team, who are scattered around the room.
This is a closed-door event, but the press got wind and camped outside until my wife and I went out and briefly spoke to them. After which, Abby took over and promised to send them exclusive pictures. We withdrew, shutting the main doors and closing the shutters of the bookshop. Once they realized there would be no more sightings of the goings-on, the paps finally disbursed.
I can’t wait to get out of here and take my wife with me. But she’s right; we do have to stay on a little longer. Yep, I’m learning fast that the key to a good marriage is falling in line with the wife’s ideas. Not that I would dream of doing otherwise. Keeping my Goldie happy is the most important job in the world, as far as I’m concerned.
There’s a woof, and the clatter of paws. Sinclair and JJ immediately grab the champagne bottles and hold them out of reach. Tiny stops in front of us. There’s a look of disdain on his face. He eyes the bottles of bubbles, then makes that pleading sound in the back of his throat.
"Nope, not happening." Sinclair shakes his head. "This can’t be healthy for you, ol’ chap."
JJ reaches down and rubs Tiny’s big head. "It’s for your own good."
