“You don’t have a lot of negotiation room here, Princess Plainy.”
“Emma wants me to stay here.”
The kittens mew softly behind me. I need to check on them. See how they’re doing. Determine if I need to have that vet come out tomorrow and examine them again. But I don’t want to do it while she’s standing here.
Or while I’m mostly naked, which doesn’t botherme, but would botherEmmaif it caused an incident here.
I could argue that Laney’s lying about Emma wanting her to keep an eye on me, but I know she’s not lying.
One, there’s no reason for her to lie. Her mother once cornered me at a high school dance and informed me thatDelaney’s no-no box is off-limits to the likes of you. Completely unnecessary, considering I’ve never been under any delusions that Delaney Kingston might ever look at me as anything other than a waste of oxygen, no matter how I might’ve felt about her once upon a time, but she still did it.
And Laney reinforced that she agreed with her mother’s opinion more times than I care to remember.
But worse—Emma’s stressed to the max and Chandler’s being a dick at every opportunity.
Usually, we both make an effort to get along for Emma’s sake.
But this trip—this trip isn’t normal. And he’s the groom, which means he’sspecial.
He doesn’t get a babysitter.
I do.
Em won’t ask her sorority sister. Not when she’s told me not to flirt with Claire, who doesn’t need more drama from men right now. She’ll probably think I was flirting just by offering Claire a drink, but I wasn’t. I was merely being a nice guy. Promise.
Won’t ask Sabrina either, and not just because Sabrina’s Chandler’s cousin and therefore obligated to be on his side. Sabrina’s pissed at me for her own reasons, and while she’s fucking Fort Knox when she has a secret she doesn’t want you to know, she also doesn’t get pissed at you without the whole world becoming aware that you have crossed her.
And for the record—I didn’t cross her.
I just didn’t tell her what she wanted to hear.
Emma also won’t ask the triplets. They’d toss me off a balcony—one higher than sea level—at the first opportunity to teach me a lesson.
For fun.
And with something soft to land on underneath.
And then we’d all have beers together and crack up at how funny it was, because we hang out and do stupid stuff like that all the time.
Basically, they’d be useless as babysitters and that would piss off Chandler more.
Laney’s the best choice.
Can’t really blame Emma here for making a smart decision. It’s what she’s done her whole life.
“He fucking started it,” I mutter like a toddler.
Laney’s whole body seems to deflate. “I’m sorry. It must be difficult to not get along with your sister’s fiancé.”
Warydoesn’t even touch how I’m feeling as I study her.
I’m used to the Delaney that looks at me with as much disdain as her mother does. So her giving me any credit and considering my feelings?
This is cause for suspicion.
She hitches a shoulder. “He wasn’t exactly innocent in you getting set on fire. And I’m sure it’s unpleasant to know you’re stuck with me now.”
“Is this a trick?”
