Lib Novel Page 16
“We’ll take you,” Brayden says, placing his napkin on the table and standing up.
“Like hell we will.” Jordy stands too, hands on her hips. But Brayden’s eyes are on my empty skinny margarita bottle.
“Oh, because I can’t handle my alcohol? Because I’m the one causing issues here?” But even as I say it, I know I’m still tipsy. The food helped to dry me out, and my anger helped hide it. But I’d be an idiot to get behind the wheel.
Rule number one when backed into a corner: always have a way out. I fucked that up the moment I decided to drink.
“I’ve had enough.” Then I get up and leave the table, stopping only to grab my purse before I go out the door.
Chapter Five
Brayden
The table is up in arms as soon as Nina leaves, and I’m not sure what to process first; The way this family has formed a united front against the girl, the fact that my fiancé is in on it, or the realization—and not for the first time—that this is the family I’m marrying into.
But above all else, the woman I spent two amazing hours with the other night, a woman I haven’t stopped thinking about since we parted ways, is here—and she’s my fucking fiancé’s cousin.
Well played, Universe.
Today is a whole different level of insanity, and it makes me question what I’m doing here in the first place.
Jordy’s mom and aunt are busy in a heated debate, and their husbands seem to be trying to stay out of the line of fire. I take the opportunity to pull Jordy from the table and slip into her parents’ garage. It’s there that I see the empty coffee liqueur bottle beside an overturned red Solo cup with a smudge of pink lipstick on the rim, plus a large bottle of vodka. So that’s what Nina was doing before dinner. I could smell the alcohol on her from across the table, and I’m surprised no one else got drunk off the fumes.
“Looks like a party,” Jordy says, nudging the cup with the toe of her stiletto. “Should I make us drinks?”
She’s actually laughing, as if her cousin wasn’t just raked over the coals by an angry mob.
“What the hell was that?” I gesture back at the house, and she sighs, a look of annoyance on her face.
“God, I know. Nina is just so self-centered and rude, it’s hard to be around her sometimes. That was not how things were supposed to go, but of course she had to go ruin everything, as usual.”
“That’s not what I’m saying.” I run my hands through my hair, trying to make sense of how they treated her, and why it bothers me so much. It shouldn’t. I barely know her. I shouldn’t even be flirting with the idea of getting to know her—you know, like planning a horseback ride with her. But honestly, I’d be bothered by anyone who was backed into a corner by their very own family. The look on her face tonight, multiple times. The way she was treated like a second-class citizen by people who shared her blood. The way her own mother spoke to her, and not one person came to her defense? “It’s like you all took turns hitting her with a bat. You all had each other for backup, and she only had herself. And you wonder why she fought back? I just don’t get you, any of you.”
“Us?” Jordy laughs, her head tilted to the slanted ceiling of the garage. “You don’t know how much trouble that girl has caused. Nina moved out of her parents’ house when they tried to keep her from getting in trouble. She was constantly out at night, hanging out with guys she shouldn’t, and doing God knows what. When Aunt Poppy and Uncle Steve put their foot down, she moved in with Nanna Dot. But that’s not even the bad part. She had everyone fooled, even me. We used to hang out at Nanna’s all the time, especially when things got hard here. I thought I had an ally in Nina, and we really connected because neither one of us got along with our moms. But the whole time, she was really just grooming Nanna, getting close to her so that she could convince her to change her will. When Nanna died, we found out she left everything to Nina. The money, her house, even her old Cadillac. Millions of dollars, and Nina has all of it.”
It all starts to click. The comments at the table. The stories Jordy has told me. The mysterious villain of their family that I’ve never met in the five years Jordy and I have been together.
It’s nothing like the girl I met the other night.
“That’s her? Nina is the family member who stole your mom’s inheritance?”
“The one and the same,” Jordy says, then huffs a laugh. “Damn, she hasn’t changed a bit.”
“If you all hate her so much, then what was the point of this family dinner? Surely it wasn’t to rub all of this in her face.”
“Not exactly,” she agrees. “It was stupid really, my mom’s idea. I’d thought about transferring my senior year to Sunset Bay, because I’m sick and tired of this whole long-distance thing. I just wanted to be closer to you. But the rent is way more than what I’m paying now, and I know your parents would never agree to me living with you on the ranch since we’re not yet married.”
This is true. My parents are old fashioned enough to believe marriage comes before living together, though they let Jordy stay in a guest cabin on the property when she visits. I know if I insisted, they’d change their mind, but I’ll be honest, I’m not ready to take that step—even if my ring is on Jordy’s finger.
“What does this have to do with Nina?”
“My mom thought we could talk Nina into letting me live with her while I finish school and hopefully land a paid internship.”
“You all have a funny way of asking someone for a favor.”
“Okay, I guess we came on strong. And I can see from your side of things that you think we’re all the assholes. But I’m telling you, Brayden, that girl is bad news. I mean, she could probably talk your father into giving her the ranch, if given the chance.”
That’s stretching it, I’m sure. My dad won’t trust anyone with his ranch. He won’t even put his full trust in me with the ranch, though he doesn’t have much choice anymore.