“It’s the least I could do since you and Caleb made up for all the shit I had to grow up with by gifting me Lex and Izzy.” Beth smiles as if she genuinely thinks she’s doing us a favour.
My face twists in confusion. “What the fuck, Beth? We didn’t give you shit.”
“Yeah, you would have had us by the balls if we tried,” Mason adds, bouncing Briony in his arms.
“You’re not off the hook yet.” Beth pokes Mason’s chest. “You really made it hard for yourself by being last to shack up. My standards for sisters arehigh.”
“Your standards for everything are high,” I mutter.
Beth shrugs. “I know my worth.”
“I’m not planning on wifing up anytime soon. I’m not like these two saps,” Mason says, waving a hand to Caleb, who’s now joined our circle.
“Sexy and passionate?” Caleb asks.
“Satisfying and patient?” I add.
Mason snaps. “Smothering and pathetic.”
Caleb looks offended as he smooths a hand down his red tie.
“What an interesting way to describe our loved-up brothers, Mason,” Beth says, eyes surveying the crowd. “Oh, look, Westley is here.”
I turn my head and see Lee and Westley walking through the crowd. They each have a girl on their arm. I recognise Lee’s girlfriend, Claire, but not the dark-haired woman who walks with Westley, or the brunette woman beside her.
“Looks like he brought his lovely girlfriend with him, and is that his sister? Or should I say Mason’s new assistant?” Beth asks.
“What happened to Steven?” I ask absentmindedly as I study Westley’s sister. Her hair falls in waves over her shoulder from the high ponytail secured on her head. She’s wearing a plaid mini dress with black Converse high-tops. Interesting. My brother’s type iswoman, but still, she’s different for him.
“He and his husband won the lotto and bought some run-down resort in another state,” Mason grumps. “I told him I’d buy him a hotel here for Barrett to run, and give him a pay rise if he’d stay with me, but it’s been their dream to buy that resort. It was where they first met in high school. They want to go back to where they grew up.”
Beth claps with a smile. “It’s so cute. I told him I’d help consult on the interior.”
“Traitor.” Mason pouts.
“Am I, though? Or are you just mad because your previous assistant wasn’t tempting to you, but Westley’s little sister is?”
“Wait a minute.” Caleb shakes his head. “I’ve met Westley a few times whenI’ve hung out with Lee. Didn’t his sister just have a baby?”
Mason’s nostril flare, his cheeks puffing, flustered by Caleb and Beth’s constant querying. “She is not. Tempting, that is. And,yes, she did just have a baby. But it doesn’t matter because I’m not mad. She doesn’t affect me one bit. Watch me walk out with someone tonight.”
I look to Caleb, who looks equally as confused as I am by our youngest brother’s odd outburst.
“Okay,” Beth says, taking Briony from Mason. We all watch as he storms off into the crowd. “Hundred bucks and a week’s stay at Steven’s new resort that he goes home alone tonight.”
“Should we be concerned?” Caleb asks.
Beth is still watching the crowd where Mason escaped into, a calculating little smirk on her face. “Only if he develops a sudden obsession for the colour blue.”
“What’s special about blue?” Caleb asks, but I don’t stick around to find the answer. With a kiss to Briony’s head, I step around Beth to lean over the bar, watching Isabelle as she chats happily to James Huxley and the rest of the High Rollers.
“You know, you’re technically still on maternity leave,” I say.
Her eyes find mine, the beautiful bright blue looking enchanting as ever with the way her dark lashes frame them. Her tight, blonde curls are half swept up on her head, with the rest of them falling down her back.
“Maybe I’m not back here as your marketing manager,” Isabelle says, sliding across the bar to stand in front of me. “Maybe I’m here as your supportive wife, wanting everything to go perfectly for her husband.”
“I’ll only ever know perfect as long as I have you.”
