I might not have been the world’s number one trophy boyfriend, but I could make it clear I adored him.
Corey raised an eyebrow. “Defensive,” he said, lips twitching at the corner. “C’mon, you’re about to make sure I marry someone else. I’m not a threat.”
“I never thought you were,” I lied. I’d been steeling myself for the engagement announcement before he and Theo broke up. I’d been so sure Corey wasit.
Corey’s smirk widened. “If you say so. I was trying to get across that I’m glad to see the two of you happy,” he said, starting to walk in the direction of the house again. “Theo’s… he deserves it. Happiness.”
“Yeah.” That, we could absolutely agree on. Theo’s happiness was the greatest good in the world to me.
“There you two are.”
A cold shudder ran down the back of my neck at the sound of Theo’s mom’s voice. The morning had started out so well. I should’ve known that wouldn’t last.
“Mrs. Hargrave,” Corey said with so much warmth in his voice that it almost sounded sincere.
Theo’s mom beamed at him, so broad she almost looked sincere in return.
I hadn’t realized they didn’t like each other. Theo’s mom didn’t seem to actually like anyone, but Corey was attractive, successful, personable, etcetera—and he was planning to marry Delilah, not Madelaine, who was the golden child.
But then Delilah had implied she hadn’t gone to college not because of not being able to get her hands on her trust fund, but because of her mother. If Corey was sincere about how he felt about her—and despite everything, I was inclined to think he was—a little animosity made sense.
Another thing we could agree on. If she wasn’t a woman and more than twice my age, I would probably have gotten into a fist fight with Theo’s mother by now.
I didn’t particularly think I would havewonit, so it was just as well I hadn’t.
“Or should I sayMom?” Corey asked, grin widening.
I still didn’t like him, but I didn’t hate the way Theo’s mom’s eye twitched when he said that.
“Since we’re about to be family, and all,” he added.
“Mm,” Theo’s mom hummed, narrowing her eyes at him for a moment before turning to me. “Why aren’t you dressed?”
My stomach plummeted as, for a horrible moment, I wondered if I’d somehow been wandering around naked all morning.
I glanced down and breathed the subtlest possible sigh of relief as I caught sight of the dark jeans Ellie had talked me into getting. They were still stiff and uncomfortable—hard to forget I was wearing them, except in the face of this particular woman’s scrutiny.
The more time I spent with her, the less I understood how Theo was so relatively well-adjusted. Okay, he was alittleneurotic, and a little weird, but given what he’d grown up with he was doing great.
Corey slung an arm around my shoulders, pulling me to his side—a surprisingly protective gesture, coming from him.
“We’re just on our way to final rehearsals,” he said. “I know you’re worried on Delilah’s behalf, but I promise you today is going off without a hitch. Simon’s good at organization. Aren’t you, Simon?”
Huh. Had Delilah told him I’d helped out with the seating charts and catering arrangements?
“Uh. That’s, umm. What they pay me to do,” I said, pushing my slipping glasses back up my nose.
Theo’s mom gave me a once-over. Her mouth twisted a nearly imperceptible degree.Nearly.
“I was just talking to Simon here about how happy Theo seems,” Corey continued, as though the temperature of the conversation was still about the same as the sunny morning. “Who knows,maybe this’ll be good practice for when he and Theo get married. We could be back here this time next year doing it all over again!”
Theo would have died rather than get married in this place—possibly rather than have any of his family, with the exception of Madelaine, present. Corey must have known that. He was just torturing Theo’s mom.
She looked at me again, vague distaste turning to nose-wrinkling disgust.
Which was why Corey had said it in the first place. To annoy her, to disgust her.
Because he knew—theyallknew—that I wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t the kind of person who was going to marry Theo.
