Kieren’s forehead furrows.
“You know, for accounting and tax purposes.”
“Leopold,” Evander answers.
“Okay, thank you.” I’m starting to think I could become a drinking game. Take a drink when Raine says okay, finish your beer when she says thank you. “It’s really an honor to be working here.” That’s better.
Kieren glares at me, and his blue irises are drained to a light pale blue. He shakes his head, pushes back his chair, and storms out of the room.
All I can do is watch his back leaving the room. My heart’s corkscrewing up my throat. “What did I say?”
“It’s not you. He’s had some news from home that he needs to deal with. It’s a lot.” Evander straightens in his chair and shoots back the rest of his drink. And it’s a lie if I ever heard one.
“Oh, home.” That throws me off. I thought this was their home. Neither Evander nor Roark offer more information. So that’s helpful.
Instead, Evander and Roark talk about a storm that moved through while I was asleep, and apparently Roark was too. And by the time the dessert course comes, another berries and cream cake, I’m so deep in my thoughts that I eat the whole thing.
“What are you going to do with the rest of your night, Duchess?” Roark asks.
I almost don’t answer, and then I remember our conversation. And I wish I could hide my expressions, but I can’t.
Which has Evander laughing. It’s a rich rolling laugh that fills the formal room, cutting the tension that’s been here since Kieren suddenly left. “Yes, what are you doing this evening?”
“I thought about going back to work. But I have a call to return before I head to bed, and some bills to pay since it’s the first of the month.” Mostly the payment plan for the last semester I attended at college. My parents stopped paying, but I managed to talk them into letting me finish at least the semester. I have to pay that off before I can start saving for the last semester I have left to finish my degree. They’ve never expected great things from me. It’s why they insisted I get a core job. It never mattered that I got great grades as a kid. No matter how much I tried, they always wanted more from me. I’m never enough for them.
“Bills,” Roark repeats.
“Yeah, they’re horrible, right?” I laugh.
But Roark glares at Evander, and there’s a silence in the room.
Okay then. “Well, I guess I’ll get going.” I stand, but Roark pushes between me and the steward, moving my chair away.
“I’m going that way. I’ll walk with you.”
“I’m going that way too,” Evander says and cocks his head at Roark. “I had an early day, and unlike you, my nap was short.” He pauses. “But you’re right. I should check in on Kieren. And you need to remember how to speak.”
My head snaps between the two of them. But Roark follows me upstairs. Unlike Evander, he doesn’t guide me with a hand on my back. It’s wrong that I wish he would. I know that.
But he walks past his room to mine. “When you turn your phone back on... I didn’t do anything but take a picture.”
“How do you know I didn’t turn my phone on? Did you?—”
“When I make a promise, I keep it. Have a good night,Duchess.” He turns away, and I watch him leave. It’s maddening how good he looked in athletic pants and no shirt, but he looks even better in suit pants and a button-down. I step into my bedroom and take my phone off the charger, turning it on, then sink into the oversized upholstered chair. “Holy...”
16
KIEREN
Ihear Roark going upstairs with her, and a minute later, Evander’s in my office. I’m trying to finish up the work I left to fly off home. I got back with only a few minutes to spare before dinner.
“You didn’t stay with them?” I ask Evander.
“We don’t want her on edge. You know, they say that those who are under stress can block the whole process. Both of us going up there would have given her cause for worry.”
“He told you to butt out?” I close the ledger.
Evander laughs. “Yes and no.”
