“Did you pull the small straw having to talk to me?” I asked once we got our drinks.
He barked a laugh. “No. Arthur had to stay with dad. And that’s way worse.”
I supposed that was true, but couldn’t muster up any amusement. My head was a mess.
“Are things really going well?” Samuel asked. He didn’t look at me while he did, always avoiding anyone’s gaze while talking about something hard.
“Yes,” I said.
Last night felt like it flipped everything on its head and made me see our situation differently. But I had no idea what was going on in her mind. Yes, we agreed on physical release, but last night felt more than physical. And I didn’t know how to cope with that.
“Then why are you worried about what dad thinks?”
“I’m not,” I said. “I just don’t like him talking about June that way.”
“I get that,” he said. “When I told him I was going to marry Rachel, he asked me if she was too similar to me.”
“Why?”
He sighed. “Because we’re both fun, and he felt like I needed someone to balance me. A.K.A. he wanted me to find someone more serious to make me serious.”
I had no idea he’d said that. Despite the fact that they weretooin love for me, Rachel and him fit like a glove. “What did you say?”
“To be honest, I worried he was right.”
I blinked. “Why would you be worried about that?”
He raised his brow at me. “You’re not the only one he’s been reaming our entire lives. He’s always thought I wasn’t serious enough, and because I was the spare to the heir, he had to worry about me a little bit. I didn’t get it as bad as Arthur, and you got it way less harsh than either of us.”
“I don’t think that’s true.” Any time that man and I were in the same room he commented about something.
“That’s because you get to work in your office on the other side of the building. Everyday it’s ‘Samuel, the clients aren’t friends, stop being so nice.’ But I also get the most deals and that’s why.
“And the more I thought about what he said, the more I realized how wrong he really was. Rachel is perfectfor me.Not his vision of me, but who I truly am. So I proposed to her anyway and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I leaned back in the barstool, considering his words. I assumed Arthur had it much worse than all of us, but Samuel had always seemed so… normal. He was always happy and Dad didn’t say much, at least not in front of me. But maybe thatwas part of the problem. Maybe this was more of an act that I thought. His own form of being the family fuck up.
“We should all probably go to therapy, huh?” I asked.
He laughed then. “I am.”
My brows rose. “Really?”
He nodded. “Rachel convinced me to go, and it’s really helped.”
That made sense. Rachel was good for him. And even if I was joking, it was probably true. Though I thought therapy was a good idea, I’d never gone because any time someone talked about it my father gave the very patriarchal answer of “men don’t need therapy,” which had probably stuck with me longer than it should.
I added that to the mental list of things I’d tell my therapist one day.
“That’s great.”
We fell into a brief silence. It was snowing outside and I watched the flakes come down, bathing the world in a sheen of white. The large hearth crackled in the corner, and the smell of burning wood was heavy around us.
“I do like her,” Samuel said.
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “You need someone willing to tell you you’re wrong. And she likes when I make fun of you, and Rachel loves her. Can’t get any better than that.”
