The look of horror on Liam’s face would be funny if I wasn’t equally horrified at the prospect of spending an evening with both him and my brother.
Before either of us could argue with this plan, Andy appeared at my side. “There you are,” he said. “Thought you got lost in the crowd.”
“Hey, Andy,” I said, and from the way his eyes narrowed I could tell he caught how high-pitched my voice had gone. And that right there was exactly why this dinner would be a bad idea. I could never hide anything from my brother. Stupid twin powers.
“Andrew Knight,” Mrs. O’Conner said. “How nice to see you!”
I watched as my brother adopted his professional facade and greeted Liam’s parents. Anyone else watching would probably see his expression as warm, but I knew better. This was the persona Andy had forced himself to adopt when he went into business. He didn’t want his colleagues and competitors to see him as a bitter kid, someone with a chip on his shoulder—that would be too easy to exploit. So he’d worked hard to show the world this version of himself, instead. The confident, friendly, unaffected business tycoon.
“Josie this is my brother, Andy,” I said. “Andy, this is a very special student in my class, Josie O’Conner.”
He held out his hand to shake the little girl’s and she stared up at him with wide eyes. “My Granny said you have more money than God,” she whispered, and Andy let out a true bark of laughter.
“I haven’t seen God’s quarterly earnings, so I can’t say for sure.”
“Andrew, we were just discussing dinner,” Liam’s dad said. “We’d love for you and Grace to join us.”
Andy glanced down at his watch. “I have a conference call with some Chinese investors in a few hours,” he said. Then hiseyes traveled from me to Liam, who was once again standing very close to me, before narrowing. “But I suppose I could spare a few hours to eat with my sister and her friends.”
I could practically feel the tension radiating off of Liam. Across from us, Jay looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh.
Seeing no way out of the awkwardness I was sure was coming, I plastered on a smile. “Shall we head out then?”
CHAPTER 21
Since I’m the expert in Austin dining, I was in charge of picking the restaurant. I settled on the same Mexican restaurant I was supposed to take Liam to the night of the flat tire. The atmosphere there was low-key and fun and I figured everyone liked Mexican.
What I didn’t anticipate is that Liam would recall the name of the restaurant—and that the fiery look in his eyes for the first ten minutes of our meal would make it obvious to me that he was remembering exactly why we had never made it here that night, and how we’d eaten pizza naked in bed instead.
“You have to stop,” I muttered to him, leaning closer under the pretense of picking up my fallen napkin.
“Stop what?” he whispered back.
“Looking at me like that!”
“This is the way I always look at you.”
“And that’s the problem!” I straightened and found his mother’s eyes on me, that same knowing glint in them. Dear Lord, this could be a long night.
To my surprise, Andy seemed much more comfortable with our companions than I was. He grinned wickedly while he toldJosie all the embarrassing stories about me as a kid, Liam occasionally chiming in to add his own.
“Well, this is a fun conversation,” I muttered after a laughing Andy told Josie all about the time I got so excited for a school field trip to the history museum that I ended up puking on the bus, causing the other 4th graders to call me Gross Grace for the rest of the year. “Anyone else need more wine? I need more wine.”
“Josie, don’t you listen to them,” Leigh said. “Grace was absolutely delightful as a young lady.”
“Your grandmother is very wise,” I told Josie, and she giggled.
“Don’t worry, Miss K. I won’t tell any of the other kids at school about your barf breath.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You better not. Remember who grades your report card.”
Andy nudged her shoulder. “I’m just teasing. That’s kind of my job as her brother.”
“Who’s older?” Josie asked, looking between the two of us.
“I am,” I said smugly. “By seven whole minutes.”
“How does it feel to have a billionaire little brother?” Jay asked, and Andy grinned.
