Beatrice crossed her arms in a close imitation of Irina’s. “No, she hasn’t started to cry because she realized she’s supposed to spend her entire life with the world’s greatest putz.”
Without even the slightest hesitation, Knox’s dad hopped right into the ring. “You know, if you’d been nicer—”
“What if—” Courtney snapped both fingers. “We moved this conversation, so it’s not happening in front of all the parentals?”
“Yeah.” Irina huffed through the hurt, then strode to the hallway that led to the wing of the house with their bedrooms. She went to her bedroom instead of his, for no other reason than home-field advantage seemed like a good idea.
She didn’t need to look to see if Knox followed her, she could tell he did by the thud of his gait behind her.
He closed the door behind him. “Irina.”
Oh boy, he said a whole lot with just her name.
“I have a quick question.” She held up a hand like she was in school. “What have I done to make you think I don’t want to get married? Was it the planning of the ceremony? Or the effort I put into the reception?”
“I’m just saying it makes sense to leak the photos if you don’t want to see this through,” he said, as though she hadn’t gotten that from the before conversation.
“Why aren’t you grilling Courtney?” she asked. “Or, I don’t know, Grace. Or Cathy or Craig? Hans? Where the hell is Hans, and how do you know he didn’t do it?” She went back to her resting actress pose with arms crossed in front of her. “Because I took the photos, yes. But I took them on Craig’s phone. You posed for them, so you know I took ’em. Maybe—” She held up her little-bit fingers. “You should take it down a notch, Mr. Taking-Things-Too-Far.”
They stared at each other for one beat, two, then three.
Knox’s pissed-off facade cracked. “Fuck.” He smiled a timid smile. “I’m an asshole.”
“Well, we’re trying to fix that. Aren’t we?” she countered.
“Fuck.” Knox dropped to sit at the end of her bed.
She didn’t love that, because mostly right now she wanted to strangle him for implying she’d expose him after he’d asked her not to.
“What’s going on with this whole thing, anyway?” she asked. “It’s not like someone dropped a sex tape. I don’t get the unwillingness to be a hero.”
“I don’t know,” he said. But he said it in that way people said things when they actually did know, but they didn’t want to admit that they knew.
“And, also,” she went on. “We are getting married because Courtney has an entire spread prepared forPeoplemagazine that involves you, me, and a pirate ship. I like the way my life is going since you agreed to marry me and we started this whole thing.”
“You like the way your life is going?” he asked, out-of-place confusion on his face.
“Yes, I do.” She sat beside him, not touching because she still sort of worried what might happen if they touched each other again in private. “Do you?”
“I don’t hate it,” he admitted. “I wanted to hate this whole thing a lot more.”
“This whole thing being me?” The question was light and not heavy. They didn’t need to do heavy. This thing between them didn’t need to have weight. It wasn’t a winter-parka type of relationship. More like a light jacket.
“The wedding,” he said. “I don’t hate hanging out with you. Or the rest of it.”
The relationship?She wanted to ask, to use the word, but if he had a problem with the hero word, he’d probably not appreciate the relationship word.
“Look, Knox.” She nudged him with the edge of her thigh. “The hanging out with you and all the other stuff is pretty awesome. So, let’s just continue not hating it and let it do what we need it to do. But I’m straight with you, next time you want to accuse me of something before you have any evidence to the contrary, please don’t. It hurts my feelings.”
“Thank you for not leaking those photos.” He dropped his head to his hands. “Hans didn’t do it. I know that. Craig and Cathy knew I didn’t want them out, so they probably wouldn’t. They said they owed me and that’s the favor I asked. Grace…yeah? Could’ve been Grace?”
It didn’t really matter since they were well and truly leaked. “They’re out there. Just let it be what it can be for you.”
He shook his head. “No comment is my only comment to the press about them.”
“Because you don’t want to be a hero?” This was really his hill to die on. “There are so many worse things.”
He kept his face in his hands as he said, “Because heroes are relied on. I’m not that guy. Not the person people count on.”
