My jaw clenched. I didn’t mind when he talked about me that way, but I wasn’t going to sit here and let him talk about her that way.
“Juniper has her own plans. She’s developing an app in her spare time, not that I need to explain any of that to you. She’s not just using me for my money, and any further insinuation about it is an insult to her and I would suggest you stop.”
The room turned silent, everyone looking at me. No one talked back to my father, at least not directly. We all just took it to the chin, sometimes making jokes along the way, but never actually saying anything. But this wasn’t about me, this was about her.
Arthur had his same blank glance. Samuel looked a bit nervous, and my father had the same hard stare I was used to.
I approached the table, lined up my shot, and sank the eight ball into the left pocket. The sound of the clinking balls rang through the room, echoing off the walls.
I set the cue on the table in the way I knew my father hated. “Looks like we lost,” I said before turning and heading up the stairs, taking them two at a time until I was walking through the lobby.
I didn’t need to stand there under my father’s scrutiny, questioning my girlfriend.
I stopped. Shewasn’tmy girlfriend, though. I didn’t like the insinuation my father tried to make about her, but she wasn’t my girlfriend to defend, at least not for real. And therewasmoneyin play. A lot of it in fact, but that was a mutual agreement, not some ploy on her end.
If anything, we were here because of me. Because I wanted my family off of my back. But now things felt wrong. It felt as if this very solid line we’d drawn in the beginning was being blurred by the minute, and I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. Or what she actually wanted.
“There you are,” Samuel said from behind me.
I turned on my heel to face him.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Fine.”
He scoffed. “Sure. Let’s get a drink.”
I followed him to the bar on the other side of the resort. It was the main one, with floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the ski slope. Thank god it’d just opened and was mostly empty.
I ordered a Negroni while Samuel stuck to a hard cider.
“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?”
