Page 14 of Business Casual
“Yeah,La La. Listen to your husband,” I tell her. When her glare intensifies, I hold up both of my hands. “Don’t worry about how much it costs. Don’t worry about the farm. We have a plan.”
Her eyes narrow. “Who is we?”
“Beckett, Layla, and I talked.”
She crosses her arms. “So, there was collusion?”
“In the name of your honeymoon? Yes. Yes, there was collusion.” I make no move to take the ticket that she is dangling limply between us. Thank god it’s just a printout and the tickets are digital. That thing looks like it’s been to hell and back. “Layla packed both of your bags, and they’re waiting in the living room of your house. There’s a car coming to pick you up at the end of the night to take you to a hotel by the airport. Your flight leaves in the morning and everything has been taken care of. You just need to go where you’re told.”
Stella shakes her head back and forth, dark hair flying around her shoulders. “It’s too much.”
“It’s really not.”
I make a boatload of money. This is a drop in a very large bucket.
“It is. It’s way too much.” Her eyes fill with tears. “Charlie, I can never pay you back for any of this.”
I grab both of her hands with mine, plane tickets crumpled between us. “I don’t want you to pay me back. It’s a gift, Stella. You don’t repay those.” My throat tightens again and I have to clear it. My voice drops and I rub my thumbs over her knuckles. “Do you remember that day you came to the house? All those years ago?”
Her mom had just died and she wanted to know her birth father. So she looked him up and found our address, brought all the letters her mother wrote over the years but never sent. She didn’t know about me, didn’t know about my mom, and didn’t know our dad was a giant disappointment with a track record of horrendous decision-making.
“When you were walking out the door, you told me, ‘We can be family, if you want.’ Well, this is what family does. I know we’re bothon a bit of a learning curve, but I have around twenty birthdays and Easter holidays and Christmases to make up for. Just…bundle it up together, okay? Let me do this for you.”
She sniffles. “You don’t give presents for Easter.”
“There are baskets, I’m told.”
“Easter baskets don’t have plane tickets in them.”
“Stella.”
She grips me harder. “You don’t have anything to make up for,” she whispers.
I shrug. She deserves to have a family member who’s not a disappointment. I want to be that for her. “Agree to disagree.”
“Charlie.”
“Stella, just say yes.” I exaggerate a head nod, my eyes wide. “Come on. It’s easy. Just say, ‘Yes, Charlie. I will go on this very nice vacation that I deserve with my husband.’ ”
She looks at Luka over her shoulder. He wipes a streak of eyeliner off her cheek. They have a silent conversation and then her body curves into his. She turns back to me with a wobbly smile. “Okay.”
“Let’s hear it.”
She blows out a noisy breath. “Yes, Charlie. I will go on this very nice vacation with my husband.”
“Ah.” Luka grins behind her. “I love that word.”
“What? Vacation?”
“No.” His smile melts into something satisfied. “Husband.”
She smiles at him, and I get that feeling I usually get when I spend too much time in their orbit. Like I’m intruding on something private. Like they’ve completely forgotten I’m two feet away from them. I avert my eyes to the dance floor. Gus is now trying to scale one of the trees. I can’t imagine that will end well.
Silver catches the corner of my eye and I see Nova, her back to me. I trace the strong column of her spine, the tease of dimples at the small of her back. The swell of her ass beneath the silver of her dress andthe curve of her legs. She sways back and forth absentmindedly to the music, another strand of hair spinning loose from her bun and falling between her shoulder blades.
“I still have a question though.”
I jerk my eyes away from Nova. I guess Stella has emerged from her impromptu make-out session with her husband.
