Page 18 of Brenna, Brat

“No way,” Sophie said. I turned to her, and she was staring across the room, too. “That must be her new boyfriend.”

“Who are you looking at?” I asked, and being Sophie, she immediately pointed, waving her hand around and acting so obvious that I wanted to smack her.

“That’s Carrington!” she told me. “That’s Danny’s old girlfriend.”

“That woman, there?” Now I was pointing, too, because we had to have been talking about different people. “She’s the one who used to go out with your husband?”

“She wanted to marry him but fortunately, he came to his senses,” Soph snarled.

“That’s Carrington? Is she CarringtonBates?” I asked incredulously.

“How in the heck do you know her name?” my sister asked.

“Because I know her brother,” I said. “Campbell Bates is standing next to her.”

“What’s going on?” Nicola asked, lifting her eyes from her screen just as Campbell moved his gaze from his sister and looked around the room.

He saw me. I had to hide, immediately, there was no time—

“Who’s that man?” Juliet wondered, because he was now walking toward us.

“I have no idea. What’s going on?” Nicola repeated, and Patrick and Grace (in a different shirt, for some reason) joined us just as Campbell did with his pretty sister right behind him.

“Hi, Brenna,” he greeted me. “How have you been?”

“I’m good,” I said and his sister spoke, too.

“How do you know her?” she snapped, and joined in the pointing. Her index finger singled out my older sister, Sophie.

“Carrington,” Sophie spat at the same time, because she had never liked her husband’s ex and had talked about her to all of us. And that, of course, was how I’d heard that distinctive name before, and why it had sounded familiar to me when Campbell had mentioned it when he’d bought her birthday gift.

“You must be Nicola,” Campbell said to my oldest sister. “Brenna described you all very well.” He went around the table and said hello to each of them by name, and they stared at him as he did. He paused at Sophie. “When Brenna talked about you, it reminded me of something, but I didn’t get it at the time. There’s more than one Sophie in the Detroit area.” He glanced at his sister, who was glaring back at him.

“More than one Sophie, but not too many Carringtons,” I mentioned. I swallowed the rest of my drink and slid out of my chair. “I’m leaving,” I told my siblings and the Bates siblings, too.

“How do you know these people?” I heard Carrington asking her brother, but he was focused on me.

“Nice size seven boots. Be careful that someone doesn’t try to make off with another pair of your Schönes,” he said.

“There’s no way that she wears a size seven,” Carrington scoffed, and Sophie told her that oh, I absolutely did, and how dare she say anything different? She needed to keep her stupid opinions about my feet to herself. My other sisters chimed in to agree,although I was sure that none of them had any idea what we were talking about. I nodded thanks and left.

“We’re going,” I heard Campbell say, and then I realized that both he and Carrington were right behind me. We were all leaving the bar, it seemed, and all of us moved pretty fast.

Just outside the door, she yanked her arm away from his hand and told him to leave her the hell alone. “Don’t do your big brother bullshit with me!” she hissed.

“You don’t want to be in a bar fight,” he said. “It would have been seven on two and I’m bigger, but it’s a numbers game. Think of how a mugshot would look on your social media.”

“I’ll do anything I want,” she informed him. “I hate that bitch.”

I could call my sister names, but this person? No.

I spun around. “You better not be talking about Sophia Curran right now, because—”

“Carrington, go,” he told her, stepping between us—and what the heck? I was staring up at his face and I could see that he was trying not to laugh.

“You find this funny?” I asked him.

Campbell engaged in a little additional conversation with Carrington instead of answering. It was mostly her swearing and him saying to scram, and then she took his advice. He watched her stomp to her car and speed off before he looked down at me, and yes, he still seemed amused. “That could have been a lot worse,” he commented. “My sister runs her mouthbut she never fought down and dirty before. I bet you girls could show her a few things.”

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