Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Dax looked at me. “It’s fine. If we have a daughter, I’m going to loathe whoever she marries.”
I felt my brows meet. “Why?”
“Because they won’t be good enough for her,” Dax replied. “No one will. They’ll be part of her life on my sufferance, and I’ll never let them forget it.”
Dane grunted. “That’s how it should be.”
“Agreed,” said Dax.
I looked from one male to the other, my lips parted. Well, at least they agreed on something.
A short while later, while Dax was driving us back to the villa, I looked at him. “You really don’t care that my dad’s being difficult, do you?”
Slanting the steering wheel to take a turnoff, he replied, “No. I told you, I’ll be the same with our daughter’s choice of partner, if we have one. What you’re not seeing is that Dane would act this way no matter what our reasons for marrying. That we’re honoring a pact just gives him more of an excuse to be remote and standoffish.”
Huh. He had a good point there.
“I suspect my dad will be the same with whoever’s Raven’s choice. God knows I won’t be any more pleasant to him. Neither will Caelan or Drey.”
“As a silent reminder for the guy to watch his step?”
“That, and we’ll feel she can do better than him—no matter who he is.”
I wondered if Dax would still feel that way if her choice turned out to be a close friend of his. I hadn’t been able to make her talk more about Rafael. She just kept reiterating that nothing had happened between them. That I believed. But her claim that nothing would ever happen? Not so much. There was something between her and Rafael. An unexplored potential.
I hadn’t mentioned my suspicions to Dax, though. Not merely because I couldn’t back them up, but because it would only cause friction between him and his friend. And I’d rather he wasn’t at odds with a full-on criminal.
“By the way”—I scratched the side of my cheek, feeling a little awkward—“thanks for coming with me today.”
He gave me a brief sideways glance. “It mattered to you the times I didn’t do it?”
I felt my nose wrinkle. “I wasn’t upset or anything. I didn’t even wish that you would come, since my dad isn’t exactly welcoming toward you. It’s just … I want us to be a team. A unit. Support each other.”
“And you occasionally need support when you’re with your family?”
“It’s just that they usually quiz me about how our marriage is going—it’s annoying at times. They don’t need to do it when you’re there, because they can monitor us and form conclusions that way. It means I can escape the round of twenty questions and simply enjoy the visit.”
He let out a deep, thoughtful hum. Long moments of silence crept by. “I’ll go with you from now on whenever you’d like me to.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know. But I will.”
“Okay. Thanks. I appreciate it. I also won’t hold it against you if you change your mind at any point.”
He slowed the car to a stop as we reached a red light. “I won’t. Dane will get used to having me around. Until then …”
“You’ll ignore him, and I’ll toy with his patience,” I supplied.
“Something like that.”
“See, we’re already making a good team. There’s hope for us yet.”
Chapter Eighteen
Sitting in the balcony area of the football stadium’s VIP suite a week later, I said, “Personally, I think Drey’s team has this in the bag.”
On my left, Alicia nodded. “They’re on form today.” Miss I don’t want any popcorn plucked a handful out of my almost-empty box, the scavenger.
“Yup.” Harri, sitting on my other side, bit into her hot dog. “The players on the other team don’t seem to have their head in the game.”
I was relieved it was half-time, since it meant I had a brief break from all the cheers, catcalls, shouts, boos, curses, and whistles. Add in the shots that were fired each time our home team scored and the noise-level could get insane during the game.
It was loud even now. Chatter and laughter came from the crowd. Music, voice-over ads, and game highlights blared over the loudspeaker. Those same highlights were replayed on the jumbotron while ad-banners scrolled at the bottom of the screen. Such noise wouldn’t normally bother me, but my head was throbbing like a mother.
In the suite’s indoor space behind us, Dax, Caelan, their parents, Jag, and Maverick were talking and knocking back beer while waiting for the game to resume. Dax owned the suite, and it was mega cool.
Feeling a smile curve my lips as an idea came to me, I said, “We need to snap lots of pictures of the suite to show Ollie. He’ll sulk.” Our brother had his own VIP suite, but it wasn’t as luxurious as this one.