She buried her face in the horse’s mane. “Horses are expensive.”
“We can afford it.”
“We don’t have stalls.”
Nicholas shrugged. “We can buy a house with enough land to build stalls.”
Livvy lifted her head and stared at Nicholas, but he was checking his phone. “Come on, Livvy.”
“I’m a little scared the dress won’t fit,” Livvy admitted.
“There’s no such thing as the curse,” Eve said. “Besides, I think I already took one for the team with dress mishaps.”
Livvy and Nicholas exchanged a glance, and Nicholas smiled. “She’s right. It’ll fit, and you’ll come back happy. But if you don’t go, you’re going to have no dress to walk down the aisle with and then we’re going to have to elope to Vegas like I wanted in the first place.”
“Your poor grandfather would have never recovered. Fine,” she muttered, and started putting her equipment away.
Eve tried to hide her disappointment. “Would you like to come for a ride with me, Nicholas?”
“Where are you going?”
“There’s no set destination.”
“So you’re just... wandering?” Nicholas shook his head. “No, thank you. I’ll stay here and catch up on work. Why don’t you check with Jackson? Or Gabe, when he gets back.”
She maintained her smile, though the idea of talking to Gabe right now was a little unfathomable.Hey, so. I know you’re still pissed I overheard this explosive secret and horrified that I now know your parentage, and also we kissed, but would you like to go on a relaxing ride with me to the middle of nowhere?
That would go over real well. “I’ll see who I can find,” she hedged.
Nicholas drifted closer, and pitched his voice low so Livvy wouldn’t overhear him. “You haven’t heard from Dad yet, right?”
She focused on her brush. “Of course not.” After much debate, Nicholas had invited their father to the wedding.
She didn’t know if Brendan would show up. As far as she knew, he’d avoided saying anything bad about the Kanes by completely ignoring the fact that his son and heir was with Livvy for the past eight months. Eve didn’t know how tense work must be for her brother, but she imagined it wasn’t easy.
“He’s not coming, I’m guessing.” Nicholas absentmindedly petted the horse.
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “I’m not. He knows the terms of his showing up. If he can’t handle them, then he has no place at my wedding. Or in my life, outside of our professional ties.”
Eve pressed her palm against her horse’s mane. Nicholas’s words were cold and pragmatic, but Eve caught the hint of longing in them.
Nicholas wanted their father to show up to his wedding. And why not? Brendan was their only parent, toxic or not. “Would you like me to call him?” She wasn’t sure what she would say. She could count on one hand the number of times she’d called Brendan over the past few years, and she doubted she could prevail upon the man’s better qualities. Of the two of his kids, Brendan gave Nicholas a smidge more respect.
Nicholas shoved his hands into his pockets. “Absolutely not. Don’t worry about it. By the way, I got an email that Shel’s going on maternity leave.”
Willing to be distracted, Eve cocked her head. “Who?”
“Shel? She’s grandma’s sister’s—oh, it doesn’t matter. She’s a relative.”
Ah. The Chandlers did have an awfully large extended family, not that she or Nicholas knew many of them well. Their grandfather had always had a tendency to definefamilyloosely, happy to claim anyone remotely related to him or his late wife. “That’s great. Shall I send her a baby present?”
He shook his head. “My assistant already took care of it. The important part is that a job opened up.”
“Head-hunting is work,” Livvy said, coming out of the stall. “We said no work this week.”
Nicholas casually draped his arm around his fiancée’s shoulder and dragged her close for a kiss. “Not work. Just talking to my sister. Since I have a perfect candidate for Shel’s job right here.”
