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Her voice is quiet. Beau and I another look. What else would we think about his girlfriend? Beau grins and nods. “Uh, yeah. Aren’t you?”
“No! Ew.” She looks faintly sick while we stare at her. Angie shakes her head, scrambling for the words she wants. “He’s like, mydad.”
No fucking way. If Uncle Bill had a kid just younger than David and Ryan, we would fucking know about it. The world would fucking know about it. There’s no way he could keep that a secret.Billionaire’s love childwould have been splashed across every newspaper and gossip site long before now.
Pale under his basketball tan, Beau does a double take as I reach over, snagging her chin in my hand, turning her head from side to side as I compare her to Beau. The twins are the brunettes in the family. If there’s going to be a resemblance, it will be with them.
Angie rolls her eyes, slapping my hand away from her face. “Not biologically. I only meant to imply that your assumption couldn’t be further from our actual relationship if you had been trying.”
Beau sags in relief, and my stomach untwists. Thank God for that. The last thing I want on a family vacation is to have a mystery love child thrown into the mix. God, can you imagine the uproar? And thegossip?
“So, why are youhere?” I ask, my eyes narrowing as she sighs, her shoulders slumping. Her jaw tightens as she straightens up.
“You know, I’m not entirely sure. Your uncle asked me, and so I came.”
Oh, nice. Just like the rest of us. Only we have an actual reason – being related to Uncle Bill. As two staff members come in to serve the first course, our conversation stumbles.
They melt out of the room, but Angie doesn’t pick up her cutlery until we all do, her eyes sliding sideways surreptitiously, like she’s watching what I do first. Seriously, who is this chick? Well, she’s from Queensbridge, so I don’t think they use salad forks there much.
I smirk over at her as she eats a piece of squid. “So, do you still live in Queens?”
She’s already shaking her head before I finish speaking.
“No. Chicago.”
Huh. The same place as Uncle Bill. What a coincidence.
“You must like the cold.” I’m terrible at fishing, but I press on anyway. Angie shrugs.
“It’s a climate I’ve always known. But I get to spend time in Malibu as well. I like the heat in summer.”
Uncle Bill has a large beachfront mansion in Malibu. Another coincidence. There’s something off about all this. About Angie being here.
“I live in San Diego.”
She nods like she already knows that. Interesting. Whoever she is to Uncle Bill, she’s done her homework on us. After a beat, like she remembers that she’s playing some role, Angie turns to me with a smile.
“You must like the heat.”
I chuckle at her comment, as bland as mine, and shrug. Two can play the blasé game. “I don’t live there by choice.”
The corners of her mouth tug into a small smile, and she turns to face me, placing her back to Beau, who leans across to engage Max and his girlfriend in conversation.
“Okay. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?”
This has to be a trap. If she’s not his girlfriend, she has to work for Uncle Bill. It’d be exactly like him to set a mole amongst us for some weird power play.
“San Diego,” I reply promptly.
Angie’s lips twist into a mocking smirk. “Well, it is America’s Finest City.”
It’s a nice place to live. Not my first choice, but I like it well enough. I’ve been toying with buying a vacation home for a while, but haven’t had the time to focus on searching. I suppose I could hire someone to, but I picked my house in San Diego. I need to have some modicum of control over my life. Angie turns back to her meal, frowning a little, looking dubious as she forks in a mouthful of squid. She has nothing to worry about; the food is always delicious in Uncle Bill’s homes, and her face soon clears.
“Anything interesting?” Ryan chuckles low from my other side. I glance over, raising an eyebrow.
“She’s not his girlfriend,” I murmur back. Relief, followed by confusion flashes across his face.
“Then who the fuck is she?”
