When I opened my eyes again, she stood in front of us. There was an eerie familiarity in the way her gaze tracked over Tristan. It was the same way she’d eyed Bryce when I’d introduced them all those years ago.
Tension coiled tight around my spine.
I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stop the comparison inside my head. Eleanor was everything I wasn’t. Her makeup was magazine cover worthy: bold eyeshadow, fake lashes, and merlot matte lipstick.
I’d stuck to my bronzer and a few coats of mascara.
With her sleek maroon pantsuit, she’d be at home in a boardroom while I’d fit right in at a BTS concert with my boyfriend jeans andSugatee.
We were so different.
“You sure know how to pick ’em, Katie.” Her voice was overly sweet and breathy. I had a hard time not rolling my eyes. “If I’d known you were hiding this one, I might’ve held out a bit longer.” She stepped back and her attention finally shifted to me. “Let me know if that little law firm you work at has any good divorce lawyers.” With a wink she threw her head back and laughed. “Juuuust kidding.”
She wasn’t. That cackling sound slithering over my skin warned me she’d take everything I wanted just because she could.
Chapter twenty-one
Tristan
What in the ever-loving fuck?
I’d climbed out of my car and stepped straight into the damnTwilight Zone. I wasn’t used to family acting the way Kate’s had. There were no boundaries, no invisible lines you weren’t meant to cross.
I’d never known anything like it.
That kiss on the cheek from her mother had been the first one from a woman I hadn’t wanted to sleep with. My mother did not believe in hugs and kisses. Neither did my father. They firmly believed boys shouldn’t be coddled or given any comforting attention whatsoever.
“Stop crying, Tristan,” my mother had said when I’d scraped my knee at five. “It’s just a scratch.”
“Real men don’t cry,” my father had said when I was nine and upset because he refused to come to my baseball game.
“I don’t have time for this. Go look it up on the internet.” That was my mother’s answer when I’d asked about girls.
Over the years, I’d learned not to ask them anything. I’d taken my already low expectations of them and reduced them to zero. As a teenager, I’d acted out, maybe secretly hoping they’d show an interest in me.
They never had.
The few times I’d gotten into trouble, they’d sent the family attorney to sort it out. Insult to injury, since both my parents were attorneys. Two of the best in New York. Their firm was ranked as high as Livingston and Thornburg.
It’s why I took the job there.
Why making partner was so fucking important.
“Couldn’t be bothered to make an effort, I see.”
Kate’s sister’s nasally voice pulled me from my unwanted trip down memory lane. I didn’t like her. The way she’d strode in and kept her attention on me, instead of acknowledging her sister, didn’t sit well with me.
My uneasiness might’ve also had to do with the nervous energy radiating off Kate in droves.
“Really, Eleanor?” I missed the usual bite in Kate’s tone.
And I missed her body pressed against mine. Returning to my spot next to her, I threw my arm over her shoulder. My thumb brushed over the skin her tee exposed. Back and forth, back and forth, I reveled in the satiny smoothness.
“She doesn’t need to.” I gave Eleanor a pointed stare. “Kate’s effortlessly stunning.”
Kate never needed me to save her. I knew the strong woman who loved to challenge me was still there. She might’ve been in hiding, and until she was ready to come out, I’d fight whatever or whoever she needed me to.
“Well done, Katie.” Eleanor did a dramatic slow clap. “This one’s a keeper for sure.” She eyed me up and down yet again. And like earlier, it was fucking hard to hide my disgust. “Or maybe he’s agiver.”
