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“Can you join them tonight?”
“Austin…” Paris sounded like she was going to cry.
“Oh, we’d love to!”
Austin flashed a knowing glance at his sister. “Piper will be excited. She was planning on making lasagna. Is that okay with y’all?”
Sal chuckled. “Am I Italian?”
“Great. Six o’clock still work?” he asked Paris.
She pulled her shoulders back. “Yep. Six is good.”
“All right. See you then. Nice to meet everyone.” He nodded at me and then went to one of the stools by the lowered counter area that faced the kitchen. “Usual please, Summer,” he said.
“Well, this is just going to be the best day.” Mom clapped her hands together. “I know we’ve already intruded too much. I hope you don’t mind that we join you at your brother’s tonight.”
It was like Paris blinked, and every wall I’d worked to break down was erected with reinforcements. “Not at all,” she replied in a perky tone. “If you don’t have plans until then, I’ll take you around downtown. There are some really cute shops.”
“I would just love that.”
Summer came by with the bill, and Sal grabbed it before I could. He pulled his wallet out and handed her a hundred-dollar bill. “Keep the change.”
“Thank you. Have a great day!”
We went outside, and instead of driving, we walked down the street. Paris and my mom were ahead and Sal and I just followed them into the shops. “You seemed surprised about your dinner plans tonight,” he pointed out once they’d disappeared into the back of a bookstore.
“I just forgot that she told me about it.”
“Don’t lie to me, son.”
“Don’t do this right now, Sal.” I countered and took a step away from the wall.
His ginormous frame blocked me from going anywhere. “You tell me, or I’ll find out on my own.”
He would, too. I should have been pissed at him, but when Sal came into my life, he made it clear he gave a shit. Even though I was an adult now, he was still looking out for me, and I couldn’t fault him for that. “Her father is Arthur Donovan. I’m sure you’ve heard of The Donovan Corporation.”
“Capital Investments, right?”
“On paper, yeah. Not surprisingly, her dad is scum, and she’s had a rocky past because of it. Austin met a woman their father didn’t approve of and disowned him, but he’d already prepared and started up his own firm, one that’s legit and moral. When Paris realized how easily Austin was shunned, she finally decided she was done being a pawn, which got her the same treatment as her brother. She was smart enough to hide money from her dad, so she invested everything she had into a wedding planning business, which she was fucking great at.”
“Why didn’t it work out?”
“Some catty-ass bitches started spreading rumors that she was sleeping with the grooms, so she lost all her customers and hasn’t been able to recover.”
“Did she?”
I rolled my neck and sucked my teeth at the implication. “Fuck you.”
“It’s a legitimate question.”
“One that I won’t dignify with a response.”
He held his hands up. “Fair enough. Continue.”
“If I were to guess, Arthur was behind it. Warrenville is a small town, but Paris did the majority of her business in neighboring cities. It makes no sense that gossip would travel that far, let alone have the implications that it did.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”
