Margo watches them much as I do, slightly smiling and enjoying it. Then she shakes her head. “June is right. Attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder.”
“All right, then,” March says, turning his gaze on me. A sinking feeling opens in the pit of my stomach. There’s a gleam in his eye that I don’t like. “Since our dear Penny is the one who said we were all so hot—”
“Attractive.” It comes out gravelly. As for hot? That would be my cheeks.
“Attractive,” he amends. “She can tell us who’s the most attractive of us all.”
August grips his glass with a muttered, “Jesus.”
It’s so soft, I almost miss it. As I’m right across from him, Ican’t escape the look of annoyance on his face. To be sure, he’s been annoyed since I opened my mouth. And, honestly, I’d love to end this whole conversation right now. But there’s something about his attitude that irks. Suddenly, I feel buoyant, impish. Maybe this is how March feels when he stirs things up. If so, I can forgive him.
I take a long look around. “Oh, that’s easy.”
Despite themselves, everyone seems to lean in. Everyone but August, who doesn’t even meet my eye, his indifferent expression and languid body language suggesting he’s bored by the whole thing.Game on, Luck.
“It’s August.”
August chokes on his water. Badly.
He covers his mouth and coughs as March bellows an outraged, “What!”
I shrug and neatly cut a slice of roasted potato. “August is the most attractive to me. No offense, ladies. You’re more beautiful by far. But if I’m going for flat-out attractiveness, then it’s got to be August.”
May and June start to laugh. Margo sits back, looking pleased. While August turns an interesting shade of red. He finally lifts his head. That ice-blue gaze of his cuts like a knife when it slashes into mine. He doesn’t say anything. He simply stares at me like I’ve grown another nose. I smile at August. With teeth.
“Oh, come off it,” March protests. “My jawline is definitely superior—”
“Nope,” I say. “It’s not.”
“It so is,” March says. “And my eyes are definitely prettier.”
“Sorry, Hairball—” an old nickname he hates “—but you asked, and I answered.”
March sits back in a huff muttering about fixed games and unfair judges.
Still August stares at me. Flummoxed.
I stare back. Nice teeth indeed. Victory bubbles through my veins like champagne. For the first time in my life, I haven’tbeen reduced to a bumbling, blushing mess when put on the spot. It feels so nice, I don’t know how to fully process it.
It all crashes down when August’s mouth curls in a soft, slight smile. His voice, when he finally speaks, is a low rumble that touches my skin like a hot finger. “For what it’s worth, Penelope, I think you’re the most attractive person here as well.”
All that fuzzy, fizzy champagne victory explodes in a riot of blushing butterflies. August Luck just said I was the most attractive person in the room. Me. Pen. I’m the most— Wait. I’m theonlyperson in the room he’s not related to.
I deflate with as much grace as an untied ballon let loose.
August
“How could you hurt Pen’s feelings like that?”
May’s irate question and hard poke at my ribs has me yelping. Can’t a man do the dishes in peace without his little sister popping up at his side like a Whac-A-Mole to attack him? I swear, the girl can get the jump on me better than any linebacker.
My heartbeat returns to normal, and her words sink in.
“Wait. What?” I set down a soapy platter before it drops. “What the hell are you talking about?”
May glances back toward the great room before answering in a hissing undertone. “That crack about finding her the most attractive person in the room? Not cool.”
My skin feels too tight and too hot. It has since dinner and that unfortunate round of Mirror, Mirror. Fucking March. He always goes too far. But me?
