by K. A. Linde
The girls continued to chatter about Katherine as if she weren’t a matter of feet from us when my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I pulled it out and was surprised to find my sister’s number displayed.
“Excuse me for a minute,” I told Harmony and the rest of the group. I stepped away and answered the phone. “Melanie? Is everything okay?”
“Natalie, I’m so glad that you answered. I know you’re at the Fashion Week gala. I’m so jealous, and I need pictures, but I had to call you.”
“That’s fine. You’re okay?”
“Better than okay,” Melanie gasped. “I’m engaged.”
“What?”
A ringing filled my ears. Melanie was engaged. Only a few hours ago, I’d thought about what it would be like if Penn proposed. It had been a distant thought, but still. And now, my little sister was engaged?
She was seven years younger, and I hated her boyfriend. Hated him with the fire of a thousand suns. They had dated basically their entire lives, and then he’d broken up with her the week before homecoming their senior year of high school so that he could take her best friend, Kennedy, instead. And Mel had still taken him back. She’d only just turned nineteen. What the hell was the rush?
“Michael proposed,” Melanie gushed. “And I said yes. It was magical. I can’t believe it.”
“Me either.”
“Please be happy for me, Nat. I know that you don’t love him, but he’s going to be your brother-in-law soon.”
“Of course. Of course I’m happy for you,” I said, dredging up enthusiasm from somewhere that I didn’t recognize. “Do you have any information? A date?”
“No, no, it just happened. I had to call you. But we’re going to have an engagement party in a couple of weeks, and we want you to be there. Do you think you can make it?”
“Yes, I’ll be there. I’ll bring Penn.”
Melanie squealed. “Yes, please bring Penn. You know I love him.”
I rolled my eyes. “I do remember that.”
“This will be perfect. I can’t wait. Okay, I have to call a bunch more people. Have fun at your gala. I love you!”
“Love you, too,” I told her.
I would definitely be there for that engagement party. And figure out what Michael was thinking…and hopefully fix this disaster.
Chapter 19
Penn
The line at the bar was long enough to make a man want to drink.
I ordered a double when I finally got to the front because I wasn’t going to wait again if this continued. I didn’t remember having this problem in past years. I tipped the bartender extra for having to deal with this many people and then took my drink and Natalie’s champagne far, far away.
My gaze traveled the room again, finding her still standing with Harmony. I took one step toward her when I saw the three people who had approached them. Fiona, Isabel, and Sloane. Three of Katherine’s friends. Socialite types who had more money than brains. They also happened to be three of the women I’d slept with last year to try to get over Natalie and get back at Katherine. Walking over there would not be smart. And it would result in a lot of questions.
I was surprised that the cling-ons weren’t attached to Katherine. I found the form I knew so well standing all alone. I narrowed my eyes in confusion. Katherine, all alone? Since when? She was always abuzz with friends and followers and people who wanted a sliver of attention. But now, those people were with…Natalie.
I frowned. Lark had said that Natalie was some new it girl, but I hadn’t really processed that until this moment. She was in a designer dress, surrounded by all these people she hardly knew, and she had fifteen thousand followers in twenty-four hours. Maybe she really was this it girl.
It was unsettling in some way. She’d asked me to train her, and I had. Maybe I should cancel any further lessons. She was succeeding beyond what I’d imagined she would. This world didn’t take well to outsiders, but I’d made her an insider. And now, she was practically kicking Katherine off of the throne she’d claimed for so long.
Katherine glanced in my direction then. Our eyes met, and we spoke across the room, as we’d done for so long, growing up.
She arched an eyebrow. Clearly saying, “What are you looking at, Kensington?”
I shrugged and tilted my head at the troop of girls surrounding Natalie. “Where are you cling-ons?”
Katherine rolled her eyes. “As if I care.”
I snorted. She cared. Katherine always did. Then Camden appeared. His hand moved to her ass, touching her where I gathered welts had graced her backside from whatever kink he was into. She winced and then stepped out of his embrace. But I saw something else there, too.
Was that relief?
Was Katherine glad to see Camden Percy?
She didn’t meet my eyes again once he was there, so I had no way to ask. But what could have happened on that honeymoon to change how she felt about a man she had hated for years? Maybe it was best not to know.
Natalie was still engrossed with the other girls, so I slipped to the periphery of the crowd and found the person I had been looking for.
“Rowe,” I said with a nod of my head at my friend.
He dipped his chin in greeting. “Penn. This is my boyfriend, Nicholas Moreno.” He gestured to the man standing next to him.
Nicholas was an inch or two shorter than Rowe with curly brown hair and skin a golden brown. They wore matching tuxedos and were both practically glowing. Rowe’s fair skin was pink at the introduction.
I shook hands with Nicholas. “Nice to meet you. Penn Kensington.”
“It’s a pleasure. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Oh god, I can’t imagine,” I said with a laugh.
“He’s pretty tight-lipped but not about his friends.”
“Why do I find that doubtful?” I had never heard Rowe be particularly loquacious.
“Because you know me,” Rowe deadpanned.
“You two met at a tech summit?” I asked Nicholas.
He nodded. “Who knew that the famous Archibald Rowe was such a sweetheart?”
Rowe nearly choked. “Please. Infamous.”
We all laughed at that.
“Well, it was nice to finally meet you,” Nicholas said. “I’m trying to convince him to let me meet Katherine now.”
“Ah, Ren is hanging out with Camden,” I said, gesturing to the center of the room.
Nicholas wrinkled his nose. “I’ve heard of him, too.”
“Unfortunately, we all have.”
Nicholas wrapped an arm around Rowe’s shoulders. “Come on. We don’t have to hide in the shadows.”
“I like the shadows,” Rowe said, but he obliged him, giving me a quick good-bye.
I was blissfully alone for a whole minute, waiting for Natalie to get away from the crowd of mean girls, when my brother appeared at my side.
Jesus Christ, I’d thought the night was off to a good start before this.
“Hey, little brother,” Court said with a shit-eating grin.
I turned my steely gaze on him. “What do you want?”
“Want? Nothing. I thought I’d say hello.”
“Sure you did.”
Court snickered. “I saw your girlfriend looking all hot.”
“And this conversation is over,” I said, taking a step away.
“Chill. Chill. It’s so easy to rile you up.”
“What do you want?” I repeated.
“I can’t want to talk to you?”
“No. You slept with my ex-girlfriend. We’re not on speaking terms.”
“How many times do I have to say that Emily came on to me?”
I glared at him. “That doesn’t make it okay.”
“Now, you have a new girlfriend.”
“And if you touch her, I’ll kill you,” I spat at him.
He sighed in exasperation. “I’m not interested in Natalie.”
“I don’t like her name in your mouth.”
“
Look, I saved her from Camden. And that was when she was fucking your best friend. I’m not the monster here.”
I massaged my temple, wondering why I was even still having this conversation.
“What? Not even a thank you?”
“Thank you,” I said begrudgingly. I hadn’t even been dating Natalie when Camden tried to hit on her while he was high. But I was glad that Court had stopped him. Even if it made us far from even.
“So…you pissed election season is coming up?” Court asked, changing the subject.
I groaned at the thought of my mother campaigning again. It was never a good time to be a Kensington. “Yes. It’s going to be awful.”
“It always is. I wish she’d fucking leave us out of it for once.”
“With Dad dead, she has to parade us around as her poor little children that she had to raise without him. Which is true, except for the part about either of them raising us.”
“Yeah, and we were fucking adults when he passed, and good fucking riddance.”
“Amen,” I muttered.
“I kind of hope she loses, so we don’t have to deal with this again.”
I kept hoping that, but my mother always got what she wanted. A quality she had instilled in both of us apparently. “Wishful thinking.”
“Did we just have a real conversation?” Court asked with raised eyebrows. “Did we actually agree?”
“Who knew it was our mother who would bring us together?”
“Mommy issues,” Court said with a laugh.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed, too. “She’d love to hear this.”
“Uh…is that Natalie running over here?” Court asked.
I turned away from my brother and ignored the confusion in my stomach that said that conversation wasn’t supposed to be possible. He was right. Natalie was practically jogging over to where I stood with Court.
“Looks serious,” Court said and then disappeared to give us privacy.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as soon as Natalie was before me.
“Melanie and Michael are engaged.”
“Isn’t that the jerk who broke up with her?”
“Yeah. For her best friend.”
I furrowed my brow. “And they’re back together? And now engaged?”
“Yes. She asked me to come to her engagement party. We have to stop this from happening.”
“Breathe, Nat. Slow down. When is the engagement party?”
“I don’t know. In a couple of weeks.”
“And you want to go…to break them up?”
She nodded as if that made perfect sense. “Yep.”
“Or you could go there to support your sister and let her make her own decisions. And her own mistakes. Just like you did. It’s not like she’s going to listen to you if she got back together with him.”
“I know,” she grumbled. “But…she can’t marry him, Penn.”
“No, I’m sure it would be a bad choice, but it’s also not your choice.”
She huffed. “Fine. Fine. Be logical about it.”
I cracked a smile again. “That’s what I’m here for.”
“Well, will you go with me?”
“To your sister’s engagement party?”
“Yeah,” she said softly, her cheeks blooming a soft pink. “To Charleston.”
This was something I’d never done before. Go home to my girlfriend’s house and meet the parents. Play the nice guy. All the other girls that I’d dated were from this world. It had been a different thing entirely. With Natalie, this would be important. And I wanted to be there for her.
“You don’t have to,” she said hastily, as if she had overstepped.
“No, I want to go. I’ll go with you.”
“You will?” she said in relief.
“Of course. It’ll be an adventure.”
“A better reason for you to be in Charleston,” she muttered.
I agreed. The last time I’d been there, she’d turned me away.
This time…we’d be together, taking that next step in our relationship.
Chapter 20
Natalie
I was nearly asleep on the flight to Charleston when it hit me. I sat up straight in the first-class seat that Penn had insisted on purchasing for us to return to my home. I’d thought it was a frivolous expense. He’d just ignored me.
I yanked out my laptop and connected to the wifi. I’d been waiting all week to hear back about the restraining order about Lewis. The attorney had said that I’d hear Monday at the latest. But while I’d been waiting, there had been something itching at the back of my mind. Something that I should remember but couldn’t.
Apparently, I’d had to get to thirty thousand feet before I would remember.
Anselin-Maguire.
That was the business deal that Lewis had been working on when we were dating. His father had brought it up over dinner because he had to close the deal over the phone at night. There was also that weird point where he’d had to do business at a party. I’d thought it strange then but hadn’t put much thought into it.
Now, I could see the red flags.
Maybe there was something here to go on.
The name didn’t pull up anything in particular. Maguire was really generic and wouldn’t get me anywhere. So I searched for Anselin instead. I skimmed through a few articles about the company but didn’t see anything out of place.
I huffed. Maybe it was just coincidental that he’d had weird business hours. It had felt like a lead.
I kept searching through the most recent articles until we hit a bout of turbulence, and Penn woke from his slumber. I slapped the laptop closed.
“Are we almost there?” he asked.
“About to descend into Charleston.”
“I didn’t think we were supposed to have bad weather.”
“Afternoon showers are pretty common,” I told him with a smile as I stuffed my computer back into my bag. “Won’t ruin anything.”
He stretched out and opened the window shade to the dark sky beyond. “Why did I decide to take the last flight in? And why do airplanes make me so sleepy?”
“For most parents, when they can’t get their kid to go to sleep, they drive them around the neighborhood. And now, those kids always fall asleep on long car rides. Your parents probably flew you around the neighborhood.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Hilarious.”
“I thought so.”
The flight attendant came over the intercom, informing everyone that we were about to land and to stow our belongings. It was a rocky landing with the storm overhead, but we landed safe and sound and found Amy waiting for us.
She squealed and rushed me. I laughed, dropping my bag, and pulled my best friend into a hug.
“I missed you like crazy,” Amy said.
“Missed you, too,” I said. “I’m glad to be home.”
“Only because you brought your big hunk of a man home with you,” Amy said, releasing me and hugging Penn. “Glad you could make it.”
“As if I would miss it.”
Amy snorted. “Let’s get the bags.”
Luckily, our suitcases appeared first, and then we loaded up Amy’s Tahoe. It was a lot of car for one person. But if it worked for anyone, it worked for Amy. She chattered the entire way to my parents’ house about the bedroom that she was renovating.
“Did you really have to renovate my old room, like, this week?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t know you were going to come visit or that Mel would get engaged like an idiot. Do you think she’s knocked up?”
I choked. “Dear god, I hadn’t thought of anything worse than her marrying Michael. You succeeded. Congrats.”
“Well, why else would a freshman in college get engaged?”
“Love?” Penn piped in.
“Shut it,” I said at the same time Amy said, “Yeah, right.”
We both burst into laughter. It was so good to have the easy banter of being with Amy. We talked on the ph
one, but it wasn’t the same. I hadn’t realized how draining it was to constantly be on when I was in the Upper East Side until I let it all roll off my shoulders. No lessons, no cameras, no expectations. I could see why Penn wanted to get away. It was exhausting.
We pulled up into the driveway of my parents’ two-story yellow Charleston-style home with the colonial columns and balconies on both floors. While it looked large, I knew that looks could be deceiving. I’d spent four years of high school in this little house, but Melanie had basically grown up in it. I knew it would always feel more like home to her than me.
But there she was, waiting to greet us on the porch. She vaulted down the stairs in her heels and miniskirt and straight to my car door. I was barely out of the passenger seat when she squeezed me around the middle.
“You made it!”
I beamed like a fool. “Sure did. And I brought a friend.”
Penn stepped out of the backseat. “Hey, Mel.”
“Friend or boyfriend?” Melanie teased.
“Boyfriend,” Penn confirmed.
Melanie shrieked in excitement and attacked Penn. I just shook my head and grabbed my messenger bag.
“Good to see you, too.” Penn patted her back twice before extracting himself. “Let me get the bags, Amy.”
“Aww, a gentleman,” Amy teased. She passed Penn his suitcase and then my bag. “Okay, kids. As much as I want to stay and hang, it’s late, and I have to open the gallery in the morning.”
“Such an adult,” I joked.
“Hey, one of us needs a real job.”
“What’s that?” I asked, poking her in the ribs.
“I hope you’re writing up there,” Amy said. She tugged me in for a hug. “Because, otherwise, I guess good dick is a decent enough reason.”
I cackled and released her. “You’re the best ever.”
“Don’t I know it. See you tomorrow for the party,” Amy said. She waved at Melanie. “Congrats, Mel! Hope you’re not knocked up.”
Melanie’s face turned bright red. “Oh my god, I’m not!”
I giggled. “I mean, you can’t blame her for asking.”