“You always have to be the center of attention. The loved one.”
This time, I am the one laughing. “You are crazy, you know that? I have spent my entire life in your shadow, helping you, revolving my life around YOU. Of course you would make this crisis about you too.”
“The only crisis,” Kate says as she shoves the vases back in the bag. “Is that I am getting married and my maid of honor is too busy lighting her life on fire to notice!”
“Yes, you’re right,” I shout back, following her to the door. “I am too busy getting drunk at your bachelorette because you bought me nine hundred drinks and too busy going out with men I never wanted to go out with and too busy getting marriedto my boss all because of YOU to make the rest of my life also about YOU. Oh, and you know what else?”
“What?” she snaps, ripping the front door open and turning to face me.
“I’m pregnant!” I say before slamming the door in my sister’s face.
Chapter 32
Callum
The only thing worse than breaking the heart of the girl you were about to propose to is getting called into your dad’s office the moment you get to work.
Hiram Hardin is not a morning person. Ever since Avery and I started taking over most of the business running aspects of Hardin Records, he rarely shows face before 11am and by rarely, I mean never. It’s not that he sleeps in. I doubt if the man ever sleeps. He just doesn’t want to talk to people before he’s had two cups of coffee, one black and one spiked, eggs benedict with extra tomato and enough time to read the New York Times. Yes, we live in the South, and he reads the New York Times.
All that being said, I know something is up if the man is calling us into his office at seven thirty in the fucking morning. And if I had to guess, it has everything to do with me.
Even as Avery and I walk down the hallway, his face is plastered with a cocky smirk. I want to slap it off his face.
“You think pops learned how to navigate social media?” he asks.
“I think you should keep your fucking mouth shut and mind your own business,” I answer.
“See that’s the funny thing about being a Hardin. One of us fucks up and we all feel the ripple in our morning coffee. I do gotta hand it to you though, you’re not as straight and narrow as I thought. I’m almost impressed. Almost.”
I shove the door to our dad’s office open and march inside ready to get whatever this is over with.
“Anyone else coming or is this just a family affair?” Avery asks coyly.
“Shut the door, son,” Hiram says. He’s sitting at his desk, and he looks like hell. Tired. Thinner than usual. I’m concerned but I know better than to bring it up. Whatever is going on with his health doesn’t change the fact that Hardin men are proud. If he’s going down, he’ll go down swinging.
Avery walks over to a leather chair and plops down in it, leaning back and making himself comfortable. I stay standing, leaning against the bookcase, arms crossed.
“I might be old,” he starts in.
“We hadn’t noticed,” Avery interrupts.
“Shut up for once in your goddamn life,” my dad growls and Avery listens. “I might be old. But I’m not stupid. I know how to read the news. Gossip and all.”
Here we go.
His eyes drag over to me, but I don’t say anything.
“I don’t know dad,” Avery says, crossing his legs. “Maybe it’s best not to believe everything you read. Even if what you’re reading is pretty bad.”
“Oh, trust me, I would love to believe that none of it is true. Because right now, we are a joke. One of my sons got married after supposedly participating in a reverse auction in Vegas,”
Double fuck.
“I’m sorry, what?” Avery sits up and looks back at me. I keep my eyes on my dad who is turning paler by the second as he goes on.
“Not only that but there are rumors Amanda is pregnant!”
Avery snorts and I am about to level him, but I don’t have to. Dad turns his attention to him. “And my other son is dating a woman who has been photographed more times than I can count flirting with other men more often than she is photographed with him!”
