“Is that a threat?” Bertie asks, looking outraged.
“You take it as you see fit,” I say, “but know it’s a fucking promise.” I turn and hold out my hand to Holly. “Now I’m going to take both of my girls and go.”
Holly smiles and takes my hand. “Well done.”
I shrug.
We start to walk away. Rory starts to usher his mother toward the door, but she slips past him and heads toward Evelyn.
Evelyn shrinks with fear, but Rory’s mother squats and picks up the hand sanitizer that bounced off Bertie’s head and fell at his wife’s feet. “This was nearly a full bottle. I don’t want to waste it on riffraff like you.”
Evelyn looks furious, but Rory’s mother tucks the bottle into her purse and heads down the hall.
Jane slips her hand in the older woman’s. “You forgot your breath mints, Grandma.”
Rory’s mother beams, and she squeezes Jane’s hand. “That’s okay. They were nearly gone.”
We strut down the hall like we’ve just won a rumble, which I suppose we have, and once we get out the door, Rory says, “So…we’ve got a Thanksgiving dinner to finish.”
“Thank God,” Jane groans. “Please tell me it’s normal Thanksgiving food. Evelyn served things like pickled herring and turducken.”
“Bryn ordered turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, and all the fixings,” Rory says with a grin.
“And my special sweet potatoes,” Rory’s mother says.
“I love sweet potatoes,” Jane says, then she looks up at Rory. “So seriously. Does this mean you’re my uncle?”
Rory laughs. “I suppose so.”
She nods as though considering it. “I guess it might come in handy having a billionaire for an uncle.”
“Jane,” I say in a warning tone.
“What?” she says in protest. “It’s just a fact.”
Holly laughs. “The girl’s not wrong.”
“Yeah,” I say under my breath. “And that’s what scares me. You two are going to make a habit of ganging up on me, aren’t you?”
Holly places a kiss on my lips and looks up at me with those mischievous eyes. “You can count on it,Hot Rod.”
Well, shit.
