“Oh, I’d love to see you try.”
“Boys, boys,boys.” Cignette clicks her tongue. “Stop fighting over lil olemoi. There’s plenty of me to go around, alright?”
“I need to get youhome,” I counter.
“Psh.” She turns around, stumbles again, then faces the others. “They’re fighting over me,” she tells them, pointing at herself, then giggles. Fuckinggiggles. “They’re…fighting–hiccup–over meeeee.”
“Good God, she’s something else,” Eddie says.
That comment makes me laugh. “Isn’t she?”
He shakes his head. “I mean, you’ve risked your ass for her on more than one occasion, so she’s most definitely gotta be.”
“The things we do for the people we care for.”
He looks at me as if he’s studying me, then nods and gives me a smile. “You’re lucky you have that – people that you’re close to; a fond family of sorts.” There’s a suppressed sadness to him now, as if he envies me, but isn’t malicious to act on it.
“You’re part of it too,” I say, simply because he’s been there for me and my crew for years now, and it’d be unfair not to appreciate that.
He laughs. “Was that a lie to make me feel included?” He raises a brow. “That’s not your style, Ledge; I thought you knew that.”
I roll my eyes and give his arm a playful punch. “I meant what I said, so you best believe it, asshat.”
He chuckles. “Thanks. Ithink.”
I flip him off, to which he chuckles again.
“Dorran?” comes Cignette’s voice.
I turn to her, and notice that her complexion has paled.
Fuck.
“I think…I think I’m gonna throw up,” she says.
Maverick is on his feet in an instant, and so are Alex and Varsha. Jayce and Solo glance at each other, and then, with unison sighs, stand up as well.
“I wonder why that is,” Solo comments, then averts his gaze when Maverick and I glare at him.
Jayce clears his throat, and I know he’s doing so to stifle his laughter.
Dipshit.
Maverick makes his way to Cignette, and with a nod in my direction, he starts leading her to the bathroom on the other side of the room.
I sigh and look at Eddie. “I gotta go.”
“Duty calls, I see.”
I lift a shoulder, then bump my fist against his before following after Maverick and Cignette.
64.
17 days later
The floral and slightly fruity smell of amaryllises hits my nose as I enter my uncle’s estate gardens. The entire area is vibrant, full of flowers and beautifully manicured grasses. It’s well-kept and eye-appeasing – a complete opposite of the figurines on my estate grounds, which make absolutely no sense whatsoever. But the thing is: I don’t care enough to get them removed, so I guess they’ll be staying there until they fester and fall off.
Mave’s held up at the estate’s gate with a few of the guards manning it, so I’ve decided to move ahead since Uncle Chase had made an appointment for him and I to have macaroons and coffee in his lawn at about 10:30a.m. It’s 11:12a.m. right now, so I’m already quite late.
