“What do you mean?” Finn asked.
“He invited us for the weekend at his home.”
“You said you’d turn it down,” Knox replied.
“I didn’t. We went, and now the deal is moving forward.”
My brothers all started talking at the same time.
“Holy shit! If Mom were here…,” Finn said above everyone else.
I zeroed in on him. “Is there any particular reason why you’re riding my ass so hard lately?”
Finn wiggled his eyebrows. “Because Mom’s been riding my ass for years. It’s good to finally see her focus all her efforts on someone else.”
Duncan and Chase were silent. I pointed at the two of them. “I can feel the judgment coming off you.”
“We can’t help that,” Duncan said. “I think we deserve prizes for withholding any comment.”
“You do,” I admitted. “I appreciate it.”
“What the actual fuck?” Chase said.
Duncan elbowed him. “Chase, come on. Loosen up a bit.”
“We all do crazy things sometimes, don’t we?” Wyatt asked.
“There are crazy things, and there are stupid things,” Chase countered. “This could bite you in the ass anytime.”
“I’m aware of that,” I said coolly, “and I’ll manage that if the situation arises. But for now, I’m going to take it as a win.”
“It is one,” Finn concluded. “Even I wouldn’t have had the balls to go about it like that, but I’ll take it.”
It was a strange day indeed when all the Sterling brothers turned on one of their own.
“What’s gotten into all of you? When Chase had that outlandish idea with the shell company, only Duncan was completely against it. The rest of us grudgingly agreed. Now you’ve somehow all decided that this is completely insane.”
“There’s a difference,” Duncan said. “When this one had that brilliant idea,” he said through gritted teeth, nodding toward Chase, “the only way it could bite him back was if Hannah found out, which she did. But this is different. It’s public. A potential business partner is involved. What do you figure will happen if he finds out about the ruse? He’d scream at the top of his lungs that Griffin Sterling isn’t an honest man.”
His words hit me right in the gut. Deep down, I didn’t thinkJude would be the type to actually scream anything at the top of his lungs. But you could never be sure.
“All right, I’d like everyone to get off my case right now.”
Chase looked at me. “I’m assuming the charade is over now, right?”
“That’s what Phoebe and I agreed on.” My tone was clipped. Yes, I’d agreed to it, but I didn’t like it. Not one bit. What she’d said was true. She was still recovering from the fiasco with that jerk. She wasn’t in a good place for anything. And yet I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
“Okay, so since we couldn’t go back to our brainstorming this morning,” Chase said in a clear attempt to move on, “should we do it now?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Duncan said, “Especially since the girls aren’t here, so we can’t bore them to death.”
“Actually, I did want to talk about something else with you,” Chase said. It seemed serious, judging by his expression. “I’d like to invite Hannah to join our weekly meetings. She’s very smart.”
There was a murmur of agreement.
“I think that’s a good idea. She’ll have a fresh perspective on things. Maybe she’ll even keep us in check,” Knox said.
“We actually need that,” Finn added.
