Page 46 of Filthy Rich Ex's Brothers

The hug is brief. “Shit, sorry, I probably smell terrible.” I laugh, remembering my bug spray and muddy boots from the walk back down the other side of the mountain. “What are you doing now? We should do a movie night. Pride and Prejudice?”

Bianca stammers for a second, tucks her hair behind her ear, then glances up at the staircase like it might be able to tell her the answer. Finally, looking back at me with a strange expression, she says, “Oh—okay. Yeah, let’s do it.”

Once the plan is in place, we fall into our roles. I take a quick shower and haul all the pillows and blankets from my room into hers. Bianca microwaves the popcorn—I always manage to burn it, somehow—and I dig through the bottom cabinet until I find my secret stash of special movie M&Ms. They’re a little old, but they’re still tasty.

Then we’re sitting in her bed, her laptop perched at the end of the mattress, playing the opening credits to our all-time favorite movie.

“So,” Bianca says, as the field appears on the screen, sun shining golden over grass. “Where were you coming in from? No offense, but you really did smell like shit. Are you, like, getting into nature photography or something?”

Yesterday, if someone had asked me that, I would have laughed out loud at the idea. Now, even with a sore and tired body, the whole episode feels… worth it. Even with the storm that nearly made me crap my pants, it was worth it to see those waterfalls.

Especially to see Graham standing beneath them, looking up at me like I was the sun.

“Uh, earth to Serena?” Bianca’s eyebrows raise, and she adjusts her criss-cross position to look at me better. “What isthatlook? What are you thinking about right now?”

Suddenly, I’m hit with everything my best friend doesn’t know. It’s like our constant connection blinked out the day after Alex threw my things out on the lawn—she hasn’t heard about Travis, the fancy hotel rooms, Ryan and the delicious food. Bianca doesn’t even know that my money problems are, at least temporarily, solved.

A grin—the kind you get when you have really good gossip to share—tugs at the corners of my lips. I shrug, “I’m not sure you’d believe me if I told you.”

“Well, now you have to.”

So, I do.

Because Travis is ignoring me and nothing actually happened with Graham, I tell her about Ryan. I describe literally running into him while working. The way he’d looked at me, flirted with me. I tell her about seeing each other again in his cafe, then him hiring me for the bakery opening.

“Does Lillie know?” she asks incredulously.

I bite my lip, shake my head. Things have been so hectic since I realized who Ryan was that I haven’t had a chance to tell her.

Bianca throws her head back and laughs, “I hope I’m here when you tell her. She is going tokillyou when she finds out you’ve been keeping it from her.”

“I haven’t beenkeepingit from her,” I defend, shrugging a shoulder. As if Bianca hasn’t been in and out of the house constantly, too. “I’ve just been… busy, I guess.”

“Busy with Ryan!” Bianca teases, turning her full-wattage smile on me. “Lillie will forgive you. I’m just happy you’re moving on from Alex.” There’s a pause, then she glances up at me, “Youaremoving on, right?”

For some reason, it feels like the answer to that is important.

“Yes,” it’s a definitive answer. Easy to say, and I really mean it. Bianca reaches for my hands, holding them like we’re two sisters making a promise. “I was actually just thinking, when I came in today, that thoughts of him and what he did—they don’t even really hurt anymore. Like, I think my life is actually better without him in it.”

“Of course it is,” Bianca says, voice warm, squeezing my hands, her brown eyes serious, deep pools. “You two were not meant to be together. It’s good that you’re moving on.”

Of course she’d say that. Bianca has always been an advocate for moving on and being an independent woman. Not settling. Not letting a man—or anything else, for that matter—occupy space in your mind if he doesn’t deserve to be there.

I nod, thinking of our differences. How hard I’d worked to be the right woman for Alex, when it was never going to be truly possible. Two unmatched peas just can’t be in a pod together, or something like that.

Bianca is still smiling at me. Maybe it’s the fact that I miss her, or maybe it’sthismoment, so close and warm, but I decide to tell her about everything else I’ve been doing. All the ways I’ve been keeping busy without Alex there at my side.

I start with the day after Alex broke up with me, what it was like barging into Travis’s office. How I’d thought for sure he was going to fire me. I tell her about the hotel launch and the luxury room, all our roommates here reacting to the fancy card at the door, delivered right into my hands.

And then, skating over the best details, I tell her about what happened in that hotel room with Travis. How good it felt to be wanted like that. His experienced hands, his body, a different sensation altogether. How, suddenly, sex felt like less of a chore and more like something Ireallywanted.

Then, since I’m on a roll, I tell her about where I was last night. The hiking, the mountains, the gorgeous photos I can’twait to edit. How much I wanted Graham to touch me, and how insistent he was on being loyal to his brother. When I finally come up for air, I expect her to be giving me a shocked look, or laughing hysterically, but she’s not doing either. Instead, her brow is slightly wrinkled.

I knew to expect it, though. As much as Bianca chafes against her family’s expectations, she still comes from old money. She still carries with her an affinity for old, traditional values, even if she doesn’t say them out loud.

“Wait,” Bianca pauses, swallows. “Travis like… TravisOakley? And GrahamOakley?”

“Yeah,” I focus on the popcorn, trying to find the warm M&Ms at the bottom of the bowl and pull them out without crushing them. “When you asked about me getting into nature photography? I guess it’s kind of true. I was hired to take some pictures of this place, this, like, grotto. Graham is lobbying to get it protected, turned into a National Park.”