“This is gorgeous.”
“I bought it for you from New York. I was going to give it to you at a later date, but I figured maybe now would be a good time, seeing as you’re kind of mad at me.” And he shrugs. “I don’t want you to be mad at me.”
“I can’t stay mad at you, Luke, but when the night is finished, we definitely need to have a conversation.”
“We will definitely have a conversation.” He grins at me. “Why don’t you put the bracelet on? I had a feeling you would love it.”
“It’s gorgeous. Thank you.”
“Yeah, I wanted to get you something that I didn’t think you’d be able to get yourself.”
“What does that mean?” I stare at him, blinking.
“It just means that it was a really expensive bracelet, and I knew you would love it, but you would be unlikely to buy it for yourself, so I wanted to give it to you.”
“So, this is about money again? Poor me, I can’t afford expensive jewelry?”
“It’s got nothing to do with money. It has to do with the fact that I wanted to get you something that I knew you would love.” He lets out a long sigh. “Are you really going to hold that against me?”
“I am trying not to hold it against you. I just—I’m sorry. This is just really complicated. I guess this is why friends don’t normally sleep together because it does mess things up.”
“It doesn’t have to mess things up,” he says.
He turns to the side, and we both freeze as we see Rex heading over to us. I want to let out a groan because even though we’re here for Rex’s upcoming nuptials, I can’t stand being around him.
“Mia,” he says, nodding, and I’m surprised that he doesn’t make another rude comment to me. Then he looks at Luke. “Hello, Luke.”
“Rex,” Luke says.
There’s no love lost between them.
“So, I was just telling Andi here that you went to New York because I was chosen to take over the company and you couldn’t take it.”
Luke stares at him. “Is this really the time and the place to have this conversation?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rex laughs as if he didn’t just insult his brother. “Andi was just asking me why you left Coconut Beach, and that was it, right? It obviously wasn’t because of your budding romance with Mia. You guys weren’t together back then because she was kind of trying to bounce on my?—”
“Hey!” Luke shouts and grabs Rex by the neck. “Don’t you ever fucking talk about my girlfriend that way again.”
Andi looks over at Rex, frowning. “What’s going on, Rex? This is our engagement party.”
“And you told me you were pregnant, and you’re not.”
“I thought I was,” she says.
Rex just rolls his eyes. The air is cold and tense.
I press my lips together. I feel like this is not a conversation I should hear, and I feel like it’s not a conversation they should have when they’re about to get married, but it’s none of my business.
“Let me go,” Rex says, pushing his brother off of him.
“I will not have you disrespecting me and Mia every single time. We will just leave. We will do our own thing, and we won’t come to the wedding.”
Rex just stares at him and then at me. “Whatever. I don’t care.”
“You know what, Rex? I think you do care,” I say finally.
Luke looks at me in surprise.
