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“No one is saying that.” I swiped viciously at my face. It wasn’t nausea, though this was almost worse. “But I’m not willing to uproot everything because you say so. Sofia and I have friends in New York. Family we actually love, who have been there for us since the beginning. I have a job. She already has a school. We have alife, Xavi. You don’t get to come in here with your wads of money and your arrogant grin and take our world away just because you knocked me up again!”
“Hewhat?”
Xavier and I both jumped at the sound of my brother’s voice, then turned to find him, plus the rest of my family, striding down the boardwalk toward us.
“Dammit,” I muttered.
“Fuck,” Xavier spat.
Matthew approached with a face as black as the night sky. “Frankie, is it true?” He turned to Xavier. “Did you get my sister pregnantagain?”
THREE
Matthew didn’t wait for an answer, just hurtled down the marina, followed by Lea, Kate, Joni, and Marie, all jogging in their heels and dresses to keep up with him like a row of ducklings.
“Mattie, don’t,” I started but had to turn away from them all so I could wipe tears and smudged makeup off my face.
Not that it would hide a freaking thing. But really, this was the last thing we needed right now.
“Fucking hell,” Xavier said, not even bothering to censor himself for my family’s benefit.
“Is this true?” Matthew repeated, already rolling up his sleeves in preparation for a fight. “Frankie, are you actually pregnant?”
I sighed and looked up at the stars, which twinkled brightly overhead. So much for not stealing his day. “I—I wasn’t going to say anything until after Italy. But…yes. I am.”
Matthew’s eyes darkened toward Xavier. “So this asshole left you high and dry for another woman? When you’re gonna have his kid?Again?”
“Well, to be accurate, I left him,” I pointed out. “Not to mention—”
“What the fuck did he just say?” Xavier demanded, taking a few menacing steps in Matthew’s direction. “What is he talking about, ‘other woman’?”
Right. Yeah. We’d had plenty of fights about the fact that I’d left England in such a hurry…but I hadn’t had the guts to tell him that final reason why.
Tears pricked at the fleeting memory of Imogene Douglas, Xavier’s beautiful blonde neighbor, leaning over his desk as her lips met his.
Thiswas why I couldn’t talk about it. Because recalling her stupidly perfect face for even a second crumpled mine like a piece of paper and made my throat seize with trapped sobs. And the idea of saying “you kissed Imogene Douglas” out loud had the same effect on my insides as my stomach’s current reaction to meat and cream products.
Plus, I didn’t want to feel more pathetic than I already was.
“You limey motherfucker.”
Before I knew it, my brother strode to where Xavier stood, wound his arm back, and punched him clean in the face.
Xavier stumbled backward, perilously close to the edge of the dock. He stood up straight again, hand to a bleeding lip. “Try that again, mate. I fucking dare you.”
Matthew took three more steps, so they were chest to chest, despite the fact that Xavier topped him by at least three inches. He shoved him hard right in the sternum.
To his credit, Xavier didn’t move this time.
Matthew tipped his chin up. “How’s that…mate?”
And that was all it took.
All at once, the two of them were grappling on the pier, caring little for splinters or pebbles, or the fact that if they moved more than six inches, both of them were going to end up in the Mediterranean. Xavier landed several punches that seemed to attack Matthew’s kidneys, though my brother was no slouch as he managed a solid blow to Xavier’s gut and kneed him in the hamstring.
“Oh my God!” I shouted at them. “Get off the ground! This is insane. Matthew, this is yourwedding day!”
“Clock him in the ear, Mattie,” Lea called behind me. “He’s not guarding his right side.”
