Charlie chokes. I cough to cover my laugh.
“Welcome to the circus, Rhoswen. I look forward to learning more about you.” He pauses before adding on, “That is if Caleb and Keene don’t already have a dossier on you by dessert.”
Charlie steps closer, his hand brushing my lower back like he’s anchoring me to him so I don’t go fleeing into the night. “Go away, Phil. The idea wasn’t to terrify her.”
Phil snorts. “Then you should have introduced us one at a time instead of en masse.”
At this, I nod frantically because I’m certain Charlie must have left out one or two hundred people he’s forgotten to brief me on. I try not to let panic take over as I try to associate the names and faces on my flash cards with the people mingling around. I blink several times as a world-famous tattooed rockstar, who has a dark haired woman perched on his knee, lifts his drink to toast a different woman. When I recognize her face, the hair raises on my arms. “Is that Kee Long?”
Phil asks, “Want to meet her and her husband? They’re both close with Cass and Em.”
I manage, “I think I need more sugar for this.”
“You’re sweet enough without any additives.”
Phil snorts. “God, Charlie. Tell me you used better lines than that to win her over?”
Just then, Corinna shouts, “Soups on!”
En masse, the thousands of people who seem to multiply every time I turn my head in a different direction all descend on the long tables. Phil loops an arm through mine even as Charlie guides me to two empty chairs.
When he sits me across from the terrifying Keene and Alison, I blurt out, “No, he won me over when he dug up a rock at the place where my ancestors decimated his.”
Silence descends around the table. After Charlie sits next to me on one side, Caleb on the other, I dare to look up. I never thought it would be possible but Alison’s smile outshines her brothers. She reaches across the table and offers her hand. “Call me Ali. All our family does.”
Keene’s eyes sparkle with mirth before he turns on Charlie. “So, Charlie. Let me get one thing straight right up front.”
Charlie eyes his nephew by marriage warily. “What?”
“You’re in the hot seat tonight.”
Out of nowhere, a roll is thrown across the table and hits Keene in the forehead. He scowls. “What was that for, Cass?”
She leans forward and offers me a quick wave, which I return. “You will not put Rhoswen on the hot seat, my dear brother. She’s new.”
Keene offers me a devastating smile. “I apologize if there was any confusion, Rhoswen. My sister was correct. Charlie’s on the hot seat, not you.”
Affronted on his behalf at the idea of his family embarrassing him, I lay my hand on top of his in a show of solidarity. “Family or not, I’m not leaving your side.”
There are a few sighs around the table. Still, Keene drawls, “That’s what the first five said.”
The table freezes.
Charlie does too.
And just like that, I realize I’ve stepped straight into a past no one here fully understands—or is done bleeding from. But one thing is for certain. While Charlie may have explanations to make, the truth will still be the same at the end of the night.
Five women may have let this man go for various reasons.
I’m not going to be the sixth.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENT
Despite lovingevery person in this room, I’ve come to the conclusion that outsiders should be issued battle pay as a result of dining with my family.
Rhoswen was finally starting to relax after Cassidy and Ali stepped in. She has no idea, but she’s been making an incredible first impression when Keene dropped one of his sanctimonious one-liners. Not targeted at her, pissed at me.
