Page 5 of Under the Influence

“Are you a librarian?” I ask, trying to remember anything I’ve heard about Edith.

Edith smiles at my words. Her grin drops quickly, and then she frowns at me. “I work for my family.”

“Like Lola works for our family.”

“Are you happy your daughter is marrying my cousin?”

“I want Lola to be happy,” is all I can think to say while I try to remember if Edith is in her early twenties like Tuesday.

What the fuck am I doing?Does it matter how old she is? Edith isn’t an option. Whether she’s twenty or thirty, this woman might as well have “OFF LIMITS” flashing over her lovely head.

“You don’t seem happy about them getting married.”

“I don’t know Val.”

“He’s a moron,” Edith says quickly and glances at her spring roll before resting the plate on the table and picking up the single item in her long delicate fingers. “But you don’t need a NASA scientist to run your club. He’s smart about the stuff that matters.”

“He acts like a hyper child.”

“That’s because heisa hyper child,” she mutters, clearly irritated with me. She takes a bite of the spring roll before spitting it onto the plate and turning to me angrily. “He has a black belt in karate. He knows weapons and strategy. He can be a great leader if you’ll give him a chance.”

Meeting her irritation with my own, I mutter, “That’s what I’m doing by letting him marry my daughter.”

Edith doesn’t back down. She cocks one of her luscious dark brows and purses her puffy pink lips.

“Val annoys me,” she says. “But he’s family, and I expect people to treat him well.”

“I’m loyal to my family, too. If Val does right by Lola, I’ll treat him right.”

“He thinks Lola is his dream girl.”

Startled by her words, I step back and glance at Val walking around with Lola. “Does he now?”

“Yes. The members of my family fall hard for their partners. You’re lucky to have someone like Val love your daughter.”

“Oh, now, he’s in love?” I balk, irritated more than necessary by her words.

“He thinks he is. When that feeling wraps around people in my family, they won’t let go. We love deep.”

Her words anger me. Mostly because I’m already dreading when Edith walks away. I’m curious about her and want to know what her lips taste like. However, she’ll always be out of reach, and I don’t have much choice except to be okay with that.

“And you think one of my guys might be your dream guy?” I ask, sounding harsher than I intend.

Edith’s bitchy expression drains from her face, leaving behind a pout.

“I might have to leave home to find him,” she whispers, glancing at the guys singing along with Skynyrd playing over the homestead’s sound system.

“Where do you think your dream guy might be hiding?”

My words poke at Edith in a tender spot. I scan her family spread out around the party. Her brother Ike and his new wife are to our right. Tuesday and her hitman husband are on our left. West and his redheaded wife are with Val and Lola.

Everyone in her family seems to have fallen in love with their dream person. Yet, somehow, this gorgeous creature in front of me is considering whether to lower herself to date one of my sweaty guys.There isn’t any justice in the world.

“I’m glad Val cares about Lola,” I say, trying to make peace with an irritated Edith. “Hopefully, they can be happy together even if he never loves her.”

“Why can’t he love her? Is she defective?”

Instantly pissed, I grumble, “Lola is a catch.”

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