“Stop!” I jump over Levi’s back, and as hard as he tries to fling me off, he can’t shake me. An entire team of security guards rush the stage, and the entire lot of us is bum-rushed out of thebuilding.
“What the hell!” I scream in my brother’s face. “I was just having a littlefun.”
“You were shoving your tongue down his throat,” Levi roars back. He glares at Brody and gives him a shove. “And you were lettingher!”
Brody gives Levi a hard shove back. “Sowhat?”
Levi stumbles a moment, dumbfounded. “I knew it.” He shakes his head, incredulous. “As soon as you said you hit the jackpot, I knew you’d be a different person. The old Brody Wolf would never take advantage of my sister that way.” He turns to me in a rage. “Andyou. Dammit, Raven. Sometimes I wonder if all you care about is money. I know that Mom has drilled that whole marry well routine into your head, but you don’t jump the first billionaire you see! This isBrodyfor God’s sake. Now stop acting like a fucking gold digger and get a grip on yourself. In fact, I don’t want you living with him anymore. I’m taking you to my place tonight. Low will help you pick up your things in themorning.”
My mouth falls open. I glance to Brody. “I’m not a gold digger, and Brody knows it. Brody and I are in love. In fact, we’re married. And yes—we’ve slept together. I hope you choke on the visual for thinking so little of me!” I give Brody a slight shove to the arm. “Tell him. Tell him we’re inlove.”
Even the homeless guy on the corner leans in as if to hear theanswer.
Brody looks at me as if he’s hearing all this for the very first time. “It’s true.” His shoulders sag as if he were disappointed in the answer. “Raven and I accidently got hitched a few months back.” He holds his hands up as if it weren’t his fault, and it technically wasn’t. “We were drunk and nothinghappened.”
Levi bows his head a moment before rearing up with a newfound rage. “And now that you’ve struck it rich, something is happening.” He looks to me with those accusatory eyes, and I shake my head athim.
A horrible surge of emotions rises in me, and all of the negative energy is honed in on my very own blood. “I never thought I would say this, but I hate you, Levi. How dare you imply that I’m after hismoney.”
“I never said that. You did.” My brother glowers at me a moment. “Raven, I’m only calling you out on this because I want this to stop between you two. You told me yourself a couple weeks ago at that you thought someone like Brody was beneathyou.”
My jaw goes slack, and I eat my own words. “No.” I shake my head. “That’s because I was hiding what we had.” All of those conversations I had with Lex, with Low about dating beneath me come back at me like a baseball to the face at a hundred miles an hour. I look to Brody. “I didn’t mean it.” My words come out lower than awhisper.
That pained look in his eyes lets me know he doesn’t quite believeme.
He picks up my hand and gives my finger a tug. “You said those exact words to me,too.”
“Brody,” I protest. “I love you,” I say, but tears glitter in his eyes as if he’s not sure if he still feels the same. I look to Low and Lex. “I need to leave.” I charge down the street to a waiting Uber and hop into the back. Both Lex and Low pile in with me as I scream for the driver to get the hell out ofthere.
I said those horrible things, but I never meant them, did I? A horrible weight coats me from the inside. I may have meant them once upon a time, but that was a different me, a different world where I didn’t get a chance to experience Brody’skisses.
I don’t think Brody Wolf is beneathme.
I think in the end I simply don’t deservehim.
Nothing works out for me, and Brody is just another one of those things I wished for that I will never trulyhave.
Brody
All I’ve wantedin life was peace, love, and family. It’s what everyone else hopes for and dreams of. It’s the true American dream, a universal one at that. And here with Raven I had it. I had it before my grandfather gifted me a single dollar. I had it before Levi came home from his honeymoon and had my head spinning in all sorts of wrong directions regarding his sister. Come to think of it, Raven and I had the magic between us from the moment we met. We just clicked. Her sarcastic clever wit meshed perfectly with my dry sense of humor, and I loved every bantering minute of it. And now here we are past the traumatic incident that landed us on either side of the relationship divide. She took off for her mother’s. Levi gave me that information for free. He says she needs space, for me to give it to her. But I’ve been calling, texting, wishing on a star, and nothing seems to work. Raven is pissed—hell, I am, too, at myself. How dare I accuse her of anything. How dare I walk right along her brother’s side and tear her down in front of everyone that night. Even if that’s not exactly how it played out, it felt that way. Levi plunged the dagger, but I twisted it, if only with a word. I’m a damn loser, and that’s all I’ll everbe.
I work the bar the next two nights as if nothing ever happened. Tuesday is my mother’s birthday, so I invite the family to The Sloppy Pelican, dinner on me. I’m damn lucky the entire lot of them is still speaking tome.
If someone had told me last summer that my entire world would change come winter, I wouldn’t have believed it. It sounds too contrived to be true. The girl I’ve secretly pined for falls in love with me? I get to take her to bed and have my way with her nightly? My absentee grandfather walks back into my life and we get to know one another? Oh, and he leaves me his billions? Yes, it sounds right up there with flying pigs and unicorns. I would have had better luck finding a unicorn in the forest than having any of the above happen in my lifetime, let alone all at the very same season. I still can’t figure out if I’m a lucky bastard or a very unlucky asshole who happened to find the most beautiful—feistiest—woman in the world in his bed one too manytimes.
Raven Masterson stormed into my life like a hurricane, and now all that’s left is the destruction and debris. I try to put her out of my mind and concentrate on the bar, on the fact I’m about to have dinner with my family, but I can’t. It’s impossible. Raven Masterson has etched herself over my soul. I can no more escape her than I canmyself.
Colby and Mom stroll in, each with an ear-to-ear smile. Colby is holding a bouquet of balloons, every single one with their own birthday greeting scrawled over the Mylar. My father hugs a bouquet of red roses as he holds up the rear. We might have been through the wringer lately, but in the end, we are still afamily.
“Here’s the birthday princess,” I tease as I give my mother a kiss on thecheek.
Colby bumps her shoulder into mine before I offer her an embrace as well. “I’m the princess around here.” She wrinkles her nose at me and looks every bit the way she did when she wassix.
Dad comes over and offers the strongest hug yet. “How you doing, sport?” I told him about what went down with Raven. And he concluded what I’ve thought all along. Raven was never in it for the money. She hung out at this bar for me. Or at least that’s what I’m choosing tobelieve.
We sit down as a family unit and enjoy dinner on the house. Colby orders two entrées and takes a couple of nibbles from each. She has never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth or deny him the opportunity to lavish her. Steak and lobster, she asked for. The two most expensive items on themenu.
“Don’t judge,” she scowls my way as she pushes away her plates. “It was probably the last time I’ll have such expensive meals. Five K doesn’t exactly go all that far these days. I looked into the dorm at Briggs, and it’s going to be a priceyride.”
