Page 56 of The Marriage Deal
"Beauty and brains. The only woman good enough for my nerd brother," Ivy said.
I felt heat creep up my cheeks.
"Brunch is ready," Aire shouted.
We all swarmed to the prepared table in the middle of the terrace. It was a beautiful array of different types of dishes. "The theme is breakfast around the world in eighty dishes," Aire said. "The dishes aren't eighty, but there's eighty different ingredients. At the top is New Zealand, going down next is South Africa, I'm eager to try thevetkoeks, then next is Tanzania," she pointed to each dish naming the country of origin and when she was finally at the end she said, "And finally Greenland."
Everyone clapped. "You really outdid yourself this time, Aire," said Ivy.
"It's Magnus you should thank. I came up with the concept, and he did the rest." She gestured to a buff man in a black chef's uniform who was busy smoking some meat on a grill.
"I am going to steal your chef one of these days," Carey said.
Nolan chuckled. "I would love to see you try. Aire and Magnus have become such good friends that if I were any other man, I would have thought they were having an affair."
"If I were to leave you for anyone, you know it would be Magnus," said Aire. Both Magnus and Nolan chuckled as though she had referenced some inside joke. "Well,"she darted her eyes around the table, "dig in."
"I thought you would never say the words," Tyler said, leaning over to grab a tong and reach for a vetkoek.
Everyone else followed Tyler, and soon we all had full plates. The food was delicious. I took a bit of everything, following Levi's cue. I thought as fancy high-class people they would be fussy about table manners, but I soon discovered they didn't care about that sort of thing. The Hawthorne family was pretty relaxed, casually chatting to each other and not caring about which fork one uses.
I turned to Levi. "Your family isn't what I expected."
"What did you think we would be like?"
"I don't know. Snobby. I mean, you literally come from aristocracy."
"My mother wasn't a good first impression, I have to admit."
"Your mother was lovely!" I protested.
He scoffed. "You saw her good side."
"Does she have a bad side? She seemed like an amiable woman."
"She's trying to be a different person. We'll see how long that lasts." The vitriol in his voice was enough for me not to probe further.
By the time we were done eating, the sun had become too hot to tolerate, so we went inside, where Aire and Nolan had several parlor games planned. We were paired into teams, and Levi and I scored high marks on Charades and Pictionary, beating everyone else.
"It's not fair," Willow said after I guessed Levi's charade in a second. "You two are like historians. Of course you will get it."
Levi chuckled. "The construction of the Eiffel Tower is hardly a vague historical event. You're just jealous that we're in sync."
Willow harrumphed. "If you beat us this round, you're off the wedding guest list," she said playfully.
"Then I will have to return my gift," Levi said.
Willow's eyes widened. "You can't do that. Tell him Raine."
Raine was busy shuffling cards, and without looking up, said, "You can't do that."
We beat them again in the next three rounds. "Take that!" Levi screamed at Raine and Willow when I guessed correctly again.
Raine pouted. "That's it. You're dis-invited."
The two brothers started playfully arguing about whether to remove Levi as a groomsman. The other siblings, Carey, Tyler and Sebastian joined in.
"I've never seen him this carefree," Nolan said. I jumped. I had not seen him settle next to me. He had a glass of brandy in one hand and a cocktail similar to the one I was drinking in the other. He handed me the fresh cocktail and took my empty glass and placed it on the table beside him.
