It’s strange, realising how much life she sucked from him. She’d been toxic to me—as my bully, as my step-sister—but she’d been a leach to him, too. I thought I’d been making it up, that it’d just been jealousy because he’d chosen her over me and our friendship. But it seems clearer now.
As we leave the ranch with the others following close behind, I say, “I’d hate to be in any of those cars.” I look over my shoulder and grimace. “I can only imagine what they’re saying about me.”
“Us,” Casper rectifies. “I’m making myself the problem.”
I shake my head before turning back to the road ahead. “You’ll never be the problem in their eyes,” I reply honestly. “Not only are you a Sterling, but Stella still obviously thinks you belong to her. That’s why she’s so mad about this.”
Casper makes a sound in the back of his throat. “I never belonged to her,” he says, voice tight.
I raise a brow at that. It’s clear he’s not telling me something. That he’s hiding something about him and Stella.
Which should be impossible. I knew every little detail about their relationship from Stella herself. When they first kissed, when she screwed him, every detail she could spit at me, she did.
It was just another layer of torment from her. And she’d been happy to do it.
“Try telling her that,” I reply instead, sitting back with a frown.
“I sure will,” he replies. “But you won’t like how I do it.”
I keep my mouth shut the rest of the drive to the restaurant. It’s new, somewhere I haven’t been before. Located halfway up the mountain, it sits by a small bundle of shops that once fed the resort up the road. Now, these businesses are something else. I’m tempted to go to the bookstore and make a note of going later.
First, I need to survive lunch.
The large deck overlooking town is quiet. Midday on a weekday means a whole lot of privacy, which will either work in our favour—or bring a hell of a lot more drama.
The young waitress shows us to a large table and leaves us with a pile of menus and a promise to return soon.
I miss the buffer she provided almost immediately.
“So, when did you two reconnect?” Brad asks, taking Stella’s hand as we all sit. The tension in his shoulders is even more prominent than when we left the ranch.
Which means their drive wasn’t nearly as relaxing as ours.
I glance at Casper, but he just smiles. “After the article about Hattie in that fashion magazine. I’m sure you know the one. My mother found it, shared it with me. I reached out to congratulate her on her success, and it just went from there.”
My stomach tightens, heart fluttering. Based on the uncomfortable looks shared between Mom and her husband, they have no idea what he’s talking about. That should piss me off more than anything.
And yet, knowing Casper knew about it?
That makes the anger disappear.
Brad hums under his breath. “You know, I think I might have seen something about that.”
I blink in surprise. “Really?” I ask, sitting back. Beneath the table, Casper grabs my knee, the warmth of his hand startling me.
“Yep.” Brad reaches for the ice water in the centre of the table and pours a glass for him and Stella before offering it to Casper. “Saw the interview while I was in New York.”
Casper takes the water, pours our glasses, then pours water for Mom and her husband. Both look almost surprised, then guilty immediately.
“It was fantastic,” Casper says, leaning back, hand going back to my knee. “She’s pretty sought after.”
“I guess Hattie travelling makes it hard,” Mom’s husband says. “The relationship, that is.”
I tense, but Casper is somehow able to go with it. “Not really,” he replies. “Do I wish I could see her more? Sure. But she’s successful, talented, and some of the most famous people in the world want her. Can’t argue with that.”
Mom shifts uncomfortably, and even Stella looks a bit embarrassed.
My heart is pounding, beating out of my chest with the way his words settle between us. Again, I should be mad that none of my ‘family’ ever cared to know much about my career—my life. But I don’t. They were never really much of a family to me, anyway. But the one person I thought disregarded me hadn’t.
