“You need to be out here soon for this toast,” I reminded.
He didn’t respond and I looked at my timer briefly before he pushed out of the room. He didn’t speak. He just walked past me.
I spun around and fell into stride beside him.
“You good?” I asked.
“I’m straight.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
I knew that he was lying but I also knew that I wasn’t going to push. I was going to let him get through this night however he needed to get through the night. I stood with the family while Rook made a toast to his marriage and thought about how in a year that would be me, standing in the very place he was, the only Barron of our generation to choose a spouse for himself.
We made it through the toast and the family slowly started to split up. I saw King grab Rook and pull him to the side and I stood off and waited for them to finish up, speaking to a guest but aware of the direction the two of them would be returning from.
A few minutes went by. Then, King came out alone.
“I hope you enjoy the party, alright?” I smiled at the dude in front of me and hit him on the back as I walked around him,heading toward where I knew Rook was, probably annoyed and fucking reeling.
I knew for a fact King had torn him a new one about the shit with Sydney. The way we looked in public was important and King wasn’t going to let Rook fuck that up, whether he was in love or not, which was why I’d known I would have to either find a woman who was fine with me being with Asante or leave the family completely to be with him. I was glad I wouldn’t have to do either of those now though.
I started to quickly climb the stairs and was shocked when King gripped me by my arm when we were passing each other. I froze immediately.
“What’s up?”
“We’re not going to get a file on Asante,” he said. “Even if we pull up all of his and his family’s information we wouldn’t get all the answers we get from going through the binders. His desires, needs, priorities and values won’t just be laid out for us.”
“I know.”
“Then, you know that we need to get to know these things about him.”
I tried to get a read on King but it was damn near impossible. I tilted my head slightly to the side while I tried to guess where he was going with this.
“You want me to give him one of the questionnaires?”
“Nah. I want you to have him around us more. You can start with Rook and Winnie’s brunch the day after tomorrow.”
I blinked at him. I swallowed and cleared my throat and nodded. I knew immediately it wasn’t really a suggestion. It was a demand, one that made sense but still shocked me.
“I’ll invite him.”
“Good.” King hit me on the back and continued down the stairs.
I watched him go.
When I looked back toward the balcony, Rook was already back inside and being cornered by a series of guests.
I made a note to check in on him as soon as I saw him alone but my entire brain focused on my left ear when I heard Hawk call out a drunk and disorderly code. I touched my earpiece.
“Where?”
“Kitchen.”
“I’ll handle it,” I offered. “Stay focused on bigger shit.”
“Got it.”
