Page 20 of Right With You
Kenny’s eager, bright blue eyes shut in slow motion and he cringed. “Well, there you go.”
I waited for more, but he didn’t elaborate. “There I go what? How do I go? What is so obvious?”
The look he gave me was all disappointment. “You embarrassed her.”
“How is this embarrassing for her?I’mthe one who lied and is now coercing her into doing something for me because I acted like a child in order to avoid having my trust taken away again, and still can’t bring myself to deal with my family any other way.” The edge in my voice was unusual as I tended to be fairly level-headed, but Elise’s reaction had unsettled me.
“Au contraire, mon frère, which, can I just say, is so much more fun to say toyouin particular?”
I glared at him.
He huffed and leaned against the edge of my desk now that we’d entered my office. “Point is, you’re wrong and I can’t emphasize this enough. Just… completely wrong. So wrong it’s amazing you?—”
“Please. For the love of everything good in this world, please just spit it out.”
When I looked up again, the little turd was grinning. He crossed one ankle over the other and replicated the movement with his arms. “I don’t know Elise super well, but I’ve observed her enough to know she’s strong and proud and works hard for what she has. She’s survived the jerk of an ex, and you offering to pay her to essentially existcan’thave gone over well. Even if she doesn’t realize you’re basically a European prince?—”
“I am not a prince, and?—”
“Like I said,practicallya French royal?—”
“I amnotroyalty. My family is?—”
“Nearly a direct descendent of the Sun King himself…”
He trailed off and waited for me to react, but I’d known the little twerp long enough to be sure it’d only escalate.
He flashed his brows up and down, doofy smile still in place.
“No,” I sighed. “I am not in fact related to Louis the Fourteenth.”
He sniffed and glanced at his nails as though they were perfectly manicured and not just neatly trimmed. “Well then why are we even here?”
“If you weren’t nearly engaged to a CIA agent, I would consider plotting your accidental demise.”
He cackled, throwing his head back with all the careless ease of a man who’d found the woman he loved and gotten everything he wanted—or was well on his way. He deserved every bit of it, too. But right now, he might just find himself at the wrong end of something sharp if he didn’t get it together.
“Okay, okay. I see it. I get it. You need me to focus, and I will.” He unfolded himself and paced toward me where I’d stopped near the doorway. “You gotta go be honest with her. Not the formal, fancy version of honest, but the uncomfy one. The ‘I have a weird dynamic with my Grandpappy and need to placate him somehow but I don’t want to marry someone I hardly know, so I’m begging you to let me be your fake boo and dupe him, and because I know that may be horrendous as I am horrible-looking and rude and generally smell like garbage covered with Axe Body Spray, I want to fairly compensate you for your time under duress.’”
I turned and walked out.
“Hey! That was good advice!” he whined, trotting after me.
I kept going, straight into the conference room because he’d babbled for long enough—our meeting was starting.
Bruce had organized the schedule for the next two weeks and presented a tentative task matrix for the duties surrounding the Silver Ridge Charity Gala coming up soon. This event brought hundreds of visitors, and among those would be celebrities who needed protection. Sometimes, the local PD would contract with Saint to help with events like this, too, though it sounded like so far we didn’t have any of those obligations. All of this proved to be a great distraction from Kenny’s irritating—but possibly good—advice, and the fact that my family intended to accept their invite to this very event.
After seeing my assignment, my mind dragged me back to Glazed, and I worried over what to say and how to make things right with Elise. I didn’t know her well enough to gauge how upset she was, but it felt like ants under my skin knowing I’d upset her at all.
Was it pathetic how this ate at me, knowing she might’ve been insulted by what I’d said? She couldn’t fully understand how much her wellbeing mattered already because it didn’t make sense. Of course it didn’t. But I liked her, and it certainly didn’t help my ability to swallow the fact that I’d hurt her.
As soon as my lunch break came, I’d head back there. If she was already gone for the day, I’d figure something out. I needed to make sure she was okay. Make sure she was good. Happy.
And worse, but perhaps most pressing, I needed her to agree to be my fiancée.
CHAPTERTEN
Elise
