She puts up another finger. “Then I’m angry at Rafe. He’s convinced himself that he needs to defeat Ben Wilde in order to avenge me. Or keep me safe somehow.” Her sigh is heavy. “But he’s doing it for other reasons, and I hate it when he uses me as pretext.”
“He’s a frustrating man,” I say. It might be the truest thing I’ve said all day.
“You’ve noticed that, have you?” Nora says.
I chuckle. “Just a bit. He needs to relax.”
“He’s great at many things, but not that.” She pulls up her legs and turns to look at me. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot,” I tell her. Maybe this isn’t a woman I should feel camaraderie with. She’s a Montclair and I’m a Wilde. But sitting here in the sun, I don’t feel the irritation that’s constantly buzzing inside me when Rafe is around.
“Why did you marry him?” she asks me. “Why did you send him that email?”
“To save my family’s company,” I tell her. “We have hundreds of employees who depend on us, and my uncle was driving us toward bankruptcy. I didn’t have a choice, really. But I wasn’t just going to hand it over to Rafe. I want a seat at the table.”
She looks at me for a long few seconds, and then she nods. Like that solves everything. “I know a little about wanting a seat at the table,” she says, and she nudges my shoulder. “Tell me, do you have a bachelorette party planned?”
CHAPTER 28
RAFE
“How do you trust her?” West asks. He’s walking beside me through the gardens, hands in his pockets. Where my sister was worried and outspoken, he’s been quietly skeptical since they arrived.
“I don’t,” I say.
He looks at me. “You two looked close earlier.”
“It’s not like that.”
“I’m just saying, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Crystal,” I say. “Remember how I didn’t give you the third degree about who you’re dating?”
“No,” he says, and his lips curve. “You punched me when you found out about your sister and me.”
“That’s right.”
“Who happens to have become your wife’s new friend,” West says. We walk past the lavender hedge in the garden, and the buzz of bees fills the air. “I don’t know how she did that. She was the most affected by what Ben Wilde did.”
“Nora is smart,” I say.
“You think she’s keeping her enemies close?”
“I think she fights differently than either of us,” I say. Itwas bizarre to see Nora and Paige sit beside each other at dinner earlier. The woman I’ve tried to protect for as long as I can remember and the wife I never asked for, talking like they’ve known each other for years. Amber fit right in, and it seems like she and Nora are determined to make Paige feel comfortable in the group.
“That’s for sure,” West says. “But Paige cut out her uncle in this deal. That’s a mark in her favor as far as I’m concerned.”
“Yeah. I can’t understand that,” I say, even though I’m not sure that’s true anymore.
“Why anyone would double-cross Ben Wilde? That’s obvious. He’s terrible.”
“Yes, but he’s her uncle. Her only living family.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
He runs a hand over his chin. “Damn. That’s a tough break.”
