Page 59 of Gravity of Love
She smiled and glanced over at Frankie and Tristan. “Have you heard the good news?”
His mind hit the panic button, spinning through possible meanings. Was this about Frankie? Was this about Frankie and Tristan? Were she and Tristanactuallywalking down the aisle? Was that why Cora, his dad, and Tristan were in town?
“Good news?” he repeated, eyes slicing to Frankie, then back to Cora.
“Cora and I are getting married,” his dad announced.
Liam blinked as his brain caught up with the words he’d just heard. His eyes bounced between his father and Cora. He was sure that he must be having some sort of mental breakdown. Surely, he’d misheard.
“On Saturday,” Cora added excitedly, lifting her left hand to reveal a diamond—the size of a golf ball—that caught the afternoon sunlight and scattered it in every direction. Liam would estimate it was, at minimum, a four-carat oval diamond ring. “And we’d like you, Tristan, AJ, Niko, and Frankie, to be in the wedding.”
His eyes shot back to Frankie. Now she was staring at the drink in front of her as if it were an aurora borealis—the most interesting, beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“You don’t have to answer now.” His father’s tone was steady and businesslike, as if he were negotiating a merger. “We’ll be at Mountain Ridge Resort all week. You can reach us there.”
“I heard there is an amazing spa.” Cora reached across to Frankie. “Maybe we can get a treatment while we’re there.”
“You’re staying at Yaya’s,” Liam stated.
Frankie turned to Tristan. “Yeah, I said we could?—”
“I don’t want to be an imposition,” Tristan interrupted her. “And you know, I have that cat allergy.”
They were staying together? Right, because they were engaged. Liam kept forgetting, Cora didn’t know they had broken up.
Cat allergy my ass. He just didn’t want to stay because it wasn’t five-star accommodation. Also, he was most likely going to use this week as time to try and get Frankie back.
Fuck that.There was no way Liam was going to let that happen.
“Why don’t you all stay at my house?” He heard himself suggest. “There’s plenty of room.” The words came out almost sounding rehearsed, like a sales pitch.
Eight pairs of eyes turned to him in synchronized disbelief.
Cora’s voice trembled with gratitude, but a flicker of doubt passed through her eyes. “Are you…sure?”
“Like you said, it’s been too long.”
The offer shifted the dynamic of the table drastically as everyone silently recalculated their strategies. Liam could see the gears turning behind his father’s measured gaze, as if Sterling III was already running a cost-benefit analysis on accepting hospitality from his black sheep progeny. He was trying to decipher if this was a trap or a goodwill gesture.
“It won’t be an imposition?” His dad’s eyes narrowed.
Liam met his stare squarely. “Not at all.”
“I’ll have Margie keep the rooms for the night of but cancel for the week.” His dad lifted his glass, and everyone around the table did as well.
Liam grabbed an untouched water.
“To family.”
“To family,” everyone repeated, Liam’s eyes trained on Frankie, who was avoiding eye contact with everyone, not just him.
He wasn’t sure how this week was going to play out, but he was damn sure it wasn’t going to be with his brother and Frankie secluded in a cabin. And right now, that felt like a win.
18
Last night Frankiewas staring up at the ceiling downstairs while she was in bed with a different brother. Maybe she should feel guilty about that, but she didn’t.
That wasn’t true, shedidfeel guilty. She felt guilty that Liam had opened up his home to his dad, who he hadn’t spoken to for almost twelve years and who he’d never confronted about finding out that he was not his biological father, and he’d done it because of her. She’d seen the look on his face when Tristan talked about not wanting to inconvenience Yaya and that he was allergic to cats.
