"I'm just shocked that you were able to make all this. I'm impressed," Garrett said to me with a nod. "The crepes are all uniform, and everything looks equally high quality. It is very efficient."
"You just received the highest compliment," Archer said, elbowing me gently in the side.
We sat down at the table. Archer surveyed the younger children and groaned.
"Y'all, I am trying to be the fun older brother, but if you keep eating your salad with your hands—Henry, yes, I am looking at you—I will be forced to be the mean older brother who no one likes." He stuffed a fork into Henry's hand.
A commotion in the hall resounded through the dining room door.
"I feel bad. Maybe we should have brought them something," we heard Josie say as she and Archer's identical twin, Mace, walked into the dining room and stopped short.
"You made this?" Mace asked in disbelief.
"Of course Archer didn't make it," Garrett said snidely as he stood up to take another crepe. "Hazel made it."
"Archer paid me," I clarified. I didn't want Josie to think I was moving into her territory or anything.
"Hazel Loring?" a man stated. I looked up. From another entrance to the dining room, Hunter Svensson watched me warily.
My eyes narrowed when I saw him. Though I teased Meg about sleeping with him, I didn't think he should actually get back together with her. I still remembered how upset she had been after what he had done.
Hunter's face was a blank mask. "How is Meg?"
"She's still mad at you," I blurted out.
"Does she know you're here?" he asked, his expression unreadable. "I highly doubt she wants you to get in some sort of tryst with a Svensson, especially not that one." He motioned to Archer.
"We're not in a tryst," Archer corrected. "I'm paying her."
The way he said it made it sound cold and impersonal. I didn't know why I was thinking things were any different. Maybe because of the flirting earlier that day? Then he sent me the Instagram message, and part of me thought Archer and I were maybe becoming a little friendlier. But I guess not.
"I have to go," I said abruptly, pushing back my chair, ignoring Archer as he called after me.
The Svenssons' voices tapered off as I fled the large estate house. That was the lesson Meg was always trying to teach about the Svensson brothers—don't trust them.
10
Archer
"Ihope you're not involved with her," Hunter said in a clipped tone as soon as Hazel left. "She's the lieutenant mayor's sister."
"Yeah, I got that," I told my older brother. "She's on the art committee with me."
"Hunter,youare the only person Meg has a problem with," Garrett said, returning to the table with more food.
"You know, for someone who wasn't being all that helpful earlier, you sure are eating a lot," I told Garrett. He ignored me.
"Aren't you trying to convince the city to sign off on your conference center?" Hunter demanded.
"Yeah, so?"
"Meg will go scorched earth on you if she thinks you're after her sister," my older brother stated.
"Of course I'm not after her. Not that she would even have me after that prank I played."
"Wait, Hazel was the one you tricked into calling Greg? Archer," Mace said reproachfully, cutting a bite off my crepe. I resisted the urge to stab him in the hand.
"You might as well just pack up and go back to Manhattan," Garrett said. "There's no way you're winning that conference center."
