Eve tensed and she placed her hand over her heart, as if that could control the organ better. She rarely ate Greek food anymore. Not because it pained her to be reminded of her mother’s cooking. It pained her to be reminded of the fact that her mother had eventually stopped cooking. After a certain point, Maria had stopped humming and dancing too. At least when Brendan was around.
By example, her mother had taught Eve it was better to be ignored than ridiculed or chastised. Let no one see her. No one could hurt her if they couldn’t see her.
Out of habit, she touched her wrist, but only her sun-warmed skin greeted her, her bracelet obviously absent. She walked slowly to the entrance, pausing by the small fountain in the middle of the circular driveway. There was no one around to witness her behavior. She dipped her fingers into the water, letting the liquid coast over the digits.
Her refection in the water wavered as she moved her hand back and forth, each second melting away another inch of her dizzying stress.
Gabe had seen her. He hadn’t hurt her, though he’d witnessed her breakdown. On the contrary, he’d been kind and thoughtful. Her head just had to transmit that fact to her instincts.
What was the worst that could come from him seeing her?
He’d think poorly of her. And who cared if he’d been left with a bad opinion of her?
You do.
Livvy wouldn’t. Madison wouldn’t. Sadia—well, Eve didn’t know Sadia that well yet, but the woman seemed far too busy with her child and her work to care what anyone thought about her.
So she wouldn’t either.
Eve removed her hand from the water, flicked away the droplets, and straightened. Easier said than done, but she could try to do it.
Gabe crossed his ankle over his knee and took a sip of his iced tea. He knew he shouldn’t be as worried as he was. Eve was a grown woman. She’d texted him she was fine.
But he couldn’t get her tearstained face out of his head.
He finished the final marks on the sketch he’d made on his tablet, a perfect, elegant dress. It was the dress, of course, the one she’d bought, and it was her body, though he’d left the head off. Bad enough he was drawing inspiration from her. He didn’t need to go re-creating her face.
His phone rang and he almost fumbled it, trying to get to it in time. His hope that it was Eve calling him died when he looked at the display. He answered. “Rhi.”
“I swear to God, if you don’t tell Mom to back down about this dress thing, I’m not coming to the wedding.”
Gabe bit off a smile, though Rhiannon couldn’t see him. Or could she? He didn’t trust his tech-savvy sister. There was a reason he’d taped over the webcam on his laptop the second they’d started making webcams on laptops. “You know I can’t do that.”
His sister growled. He imagined her flopped on her hand-me-down sofa in her darkened warehouse apartment, black hoodie pulled over her head, tight black curls peeking out around her face. At some point, he’d ask Rhi what she did with all her cash, because she definitely didn’t seem to be spending it on anything tangible. “Mom listens to you,” whined the thirty-six-year-old woman who was regularly featured on the cover of tech and financial magazines.
“Mom listens to no one. You know that. And you can’t skip the wedding.”
Rhi sighed. “I like Livvy. I really do. She is a tolerable human.”
That was high praise, coming from Rhi. He noticed she didn’t say anything about Nicholas, which wasn’t too surprising. Most men were beneath Rhi’s notice. “She is more than tolerable. You can’t skip the wedding.” More than appearances, he wanted her here. “I haven’t seen you in forever. Come for me.”
“Ughhhhhhh. Fine.”
“If you could wear something remotely dressy, Mom would probably get off your back,” he suggested.
“Mom won’t be happy until I’m wearing an evening gown to every damn place, including the grocery store. She says I need to dress my net worth, whatever that means.”
“It means she didn’t have much money when she was young, and she wants to make sure no one gives you the hard time they gave her,” he said soothingly.
She gave an annoyed growl. “Thanks for making me feel bad, jerk.”
“You asked.” He scanned the tree line, most of his attention on waiting for Eve to emerge.
“How’s your little game of Clue going?”
“Clue?”
“Yeah. You know. House party. Rich people. I’m guessing there’s a creepy butler.”
