He didn’t really want me to answer that, did he? I stared him down.
He held my gaze for an extended beat, considering, then growled. “Fine. I’m not losing. You caught me. I’ll die before I lose.”
I had to bite back a laugh.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “You think I’m juvenile. Well, I don’t care. She’s far more juvenile.”
I didn’t point out that an argument over who was more juvenile was pretty much as juvenile as it gets.
“You’ll know when you’re ready to make up with your mother.” I took his hand and traced my fingers over his palm. “I have faith that you’ll do the right thing.”
“Oh, don’t phrase it like that.” Galen looked pained. “I have towork this out with my mother on my own time, Hadley. She and I have had a difficult relationship my entire life. I can’t let her have her way on this. Not this time.”
“Because you’re worried what she will do to get rid of Julian?” I asked, curiosity winning out over tact.
Galen’s eyes flew toward mine. “I hadn’t even considered that, but you’re right. She’ll start underhanded machinations to get rid of him. In her mind, if he’s gone everyone will forget him.”
This was a tricky situation. “What do you want?” I asked.
His expression was blank. “What do you mean?”
“What do you want?” I repeated. “Do you want a brother? Do you want an acquaintance? You get to decide. Julian will follow your lead.”
“If I tell you I don’t know what I want yet, will you think less of me?”
“Of course not. That’s a very human reaction. I would want time to figure it out too.”
“Here’s the thing.” He licked his lips. “I think it’s going to be easier to figure out what I want if I don’t have my mother breathing down my neck with her demands.”
“Your mother doesn’t get to decide the pace,” I said. “I’m with you no matter what.”
“And that’s why I love you.” He gave me a hard kiss. “And you love me because I’m far better looking than Booker, right?”
All I could do was laugh. “Something like that.”
2
TWO
We were still arguing about wedding details when Julian arrived with several members of his management team.
“I’m not saying you can’t have crab for the meal,” Galen argued. “I’m saying we can’tonlyserve crab.”
“Why not?” I wasn’t backing down. I had some ideas. And, as he’d already pointed out, I was spoiled. “People love crab.”
“You love crab,” he shot back, shifting me so he could climb off the lounger and stand to greet his brother. “Other people like other things.”
“Nothing as good as crab,” I groused.
Galen pinned me with a serious look as he shook Julian’s hand. “Maybe we should ask an outside observer what he thinks.” He tilted his head to Julian.
I narrowed my eyes. “No way. He’ll agree with you just to agree with you.”
“What makes you think that?” Julian asked.
“Because you guys are doing the new brother bonding thing,” I replied. “You don’t know how tight you want to be, but you’recurious enough to be careful around one another for a bit. That means I’ll be on the losing end of this particular argument.”
Julian blinked. “You’re trying to manipulate me,” he said. “That is reverse psychology. You think I’ll agree with you because you said I would agree with Galen.”
