Pride and Papercuts

by Staci Hart

  Business was good. Excellent in fact, our income making steady work of the debts my mother had accrued.

  If we could only get rid of Evelyn Bower’s lawsuit, we could save this place in full.

  I made my way through the work tables, passing coffee to Tess and Luke, who were chatting about something he was constructing for a display as she arranged a bouquet.

  “Thanks,” Luke said, taking a sip, subsequently swearing as he burned his mouth.

  “Never were patient,” I said.

  Luke rolled his eyes, but like Jett, he gave me a second suspicious look. “Something’s different.” He inspected me. “Did you tie your tie in a full Windsor knot instead of a half or something?”

  “Look at that. I didn’t think you even knew what a Windsor knot was. Color me impressed.”

  He made a face. “Seriously, what’s with you?”

  “He was just whistling,” Jett tattled from the front.

  That earned me a full-blown stare-down from Luke and Tess both.

  “Whistling?” Tess asked.

  “How about a, Thanks for the coffee, Marcus. How did all the legal bullshit you’ve been single-handedly dealing with go yesterday?”

  Luke’s brows flattened. “Pardon us for noticing you’re not wound up like a—” His face shot open. “You got laid.”

  “Oh my God, he did,” Jett yell-laughed over his shoulder.

  I turned for the greenhouse so I didn’t pop one of them in the nose. “Fuck you, ingrates.”

  “Oh, don’t let them get to you, Marcus.” Tess chuckled. “Good for you.”

  I threw a look at her. “Not you too.”

  “Forgive us for wanting to see you whistling.” She leaned into Luke, who was still laughing as he wrapped an arm around her.

  “Was it one of Mom’s garden club girls?” he asked. “Did you get on Bumble? I was wondering if you’d figured out how to use it.”

  But I kept on walking toward the back. “I don’t need an app to get laid.”

  “Coulda fooled me,” he called as I pushed the swinging greenhouse door open.

  The scent of fresh, wet earth hit me like a humid, familiar wall. I loved this place despite my tendency to stay away—greenhouses were no place for Italian suits—but when I did visit, I always promised myself to come here more. We had grown up here, running barefoot and filthy through the rows of flowers. I remembered when Luke used to toddle around in my rain boots and a diaper. I remembered dirty hands and dirty clothes and sunshine pouring in through high, lead-veined windows. I remembered Mom teaching us the genus and species of each flower, prompting us to taste the ones that were pleasant and a few that weren’t, just for kicks.

  This place was just as much home as our house was. More maybe. Because unlike at home, the greenhouse was supposed to be dirty.

  A chuckle exited my nose.

  I didn’t see Dad but found Kash in the wide center aisle, shirtless and sweaty as he shucked dirt from a wheelbarrow to a bed of irises.

  “Hey,” I called, holding up my last cup of coffee. “Broughtcha something.”

  But he didn’t smile or greet me. Instead, he frowned, brows together and eyes accusatory.

  I frowned right back as I stopped in front of him. “What’s the matter with you?”

  With a furtive glance of a predator over his shoulder, he snagged me by the elbow and dragged me toward the basement storage.

  “The hell is wrong with you, Kash?” I removed my arm from his grip and stopped, squaring up. I was an inch taller than him, and I drew myself up to it.

  He glared at me. “I saw somebody leaving your place last night.”

  I froze, lungs locked. Under my breath, I hissed, “Fuck.”

  “Yeah. So if you’d follow me, Your Highness,” he said, sweeping a dramatic hand toward the basement.

  Questions and lies and a dozen excuses pinged around in my skull as I headed down the ramp, stopping just inside the basement. Kash did a cursory inspection to make sure we were alone before hanging his hands on his hips in a stance that could only be called aggressive.

  “Put your shirt on,” I said. “I can’t take you seriously with your nipples out.”

  He rolled his eyes but pulled a tee out from its tuck in his back pocket and tugged it on. The words Weed ’em and Reap stretched across his chest before his arms folded over them.

  “Got something to tell me?” he asked, his voice low.

  I slid my hands into my pockets. “Depends on what you saw.”

  “You know what I fucking saw. You know who I saw. What the fuck, Marcus? I mean it. What in the actual fuck was Maisie Bower doing at your apartment?”

  “Maisie Bower?” Luke blurted from behind me.

  I gave Kash a look. “Way to go, man. Way to fucking go.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one sleeping with a Bower,” Kash noted. “Of all the girls in Manhattan, you would pick the one you can’t have.”

  “Who said I’m sleeping with her?”

  “You were whistling,” Luke said as if that explained everything.

  Kash made a sour face. “Whistling?”

  “You’d think I walked in here in a goddamn cocktail dress.”

  Luke shook his head, waved a hand, and blinked a handful of times in a second. “Stop. Back up. How’d you find out, Kash?”

  “Yeah, how’d you find out?” I asked, folding my arms.

  His cheeks flushed above his beard in an expression wholly unlike him. “I, uh … well, Lila and I were walking home.”

  Luke and I swiveled to face him as a unified front.

  “Walking home from where?” Luke asked, smirking.

  “At midnight?” I added.

  “We were just out, okay?”

  “But why were you over here?” I asked. “You guys live—”

  “This isn’t about me. It’s about you fucking a—”

  “Hang on,” Luke started, pausing to belt a solid laugh. “You brought her to the greenhouse, didn’t you?”

  When he sputtered, Luke and I both broke into laughter.

  “Oh my God,” I said. “What are you, sixteen again?”

  “It’s none of your goddamn business why Lila and I came here—”

  “Where’d you do her?” Luke asked, nearly giggling. “Tell me it was in the hay.”

  “Nah, that’s all you and Tess,” Kash shot, not at all amused. “Any-fucking-way, we saw Maisie leaving your place with sex hair and her makeup all smudged, and if you try to tell me you were having a legal meeting, I swear to God—”

  “Shh.” I glanced toward the ramp. “Shut up. Mom can’t know yet, and you know she’s always snooping around. She’s as nosy as Luke.”

  Luke frowned. “Wait, I’m the metric for being nosy now?”

  I gestured to the two of them rather than explain.

  “Just try not to say her name,” I said, taking a breath, looking into their disapproving faces as they waited for me to elaborate. “You’re not wrong, Kash.”

  I didn’t have a chance to say anything else before they started talking all at once, asking questions and making accusations and generally being a couple of barking dogs in the echoing basement.

  “Oh my God, would you shut the fuck up!” I whisper-hissed at them.

  Mercifully, they pulled themselves together.

  I raked a hand through my hair, mad as all hell that I had to explain this within hours of it happening. But I shouldn’t have expected any less.

  “I met her before the meeting with … them a few weeks ago. Literally that morning, and I asked her out. Or she asked me out, but I asked for her number, and—” I waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter. And when I walked in the boardroom, there she was, sitting next to Evelyn Bower,” I said under my breath. “I didn’t know who she was, but I liked her. Liked her enough to … anyway, I knew better than to get involved. I fucking knew better. But I couldn’t help myself. Especially not after she stood up to her mother, on the record and in front of all those people
, for us. For Mom. She doesn’t belong there. She doesn’t belong under her mother’s thumb.”

  “What do you mean, under her thumb?” Kash asked.

  “I mean that her mother has a leash on her. Everything Evelyn Bower does is to try to heel Maisie.”

  “Maisie?” Kash’s face was bent in confusion.

  “Margaret Bower. Maisie.”

  “I don’t understand,” Luke started, his brows stitched together. “You like her? Who gives a shit, man? She’s a goddamn Bower, Marcus. Out of all of us, you are the one who, without question, would shut her down immediately. What you think of her doesn’t change who she is.”

  Kash nodded his agreement.

  My teeth ground together in my skull so hard, my jaw hurt. “Would you still act like a dick if I told you she was spying on Bower for us?”

  Both of their mouths popped open, and I wasn’t even gonna pretend like that didn’t satisfy me.

  “She’s not who you think, and she is not one of them. Yesterday, she walked into Bower prepared to quit—not just the company, but her mother. Her inheritance. If she sticks it out, that company is hers. Think about that for a second. What if they weren’t our enemies? What if they were allies?”

  “And how the hell do you think that’s ever going to happen with Evelyn at the helm?” Kash asked. “I bet she lives to a hundred-and-eighty, fueled by nothing but spite.”

  “Ten years, and Maisie has only one share less than her mother,” I answered.

  “That feels like a long time from now,” Kash countered in disapproval.

  “But in the meantime, she’s still our ally as long as she stays in that hellhole. She’s gonna help us stay a step ahead when it comes to the lawsuit.”

  “How do you know she’s not spying on us for Bower?” Kash asked.

  “Because I know,” I answered simply. There was no other way to explain.

  “I don’t know if that’s good enough,” he said, his jaw sharp and eyes stony.

  Fury rose in my chest at the audacity. “When have I ever put this family in danger? Whenever have I done anything but take care of you? Of Mom? Of this shop? I put every fucking penny I own into saving Longbourne, and if you think I would fuck that off for a girl, you’re mistaken. And you know it.”

  Kash still frowned, but the tension in his shoulders eased. “You can’t blame me for asking.”

  “I don’t. But also, fuck you.”

  They chuckled, and the tension between us eased too.

  “So what are you gonna do?” Kash asked. “What’s your plan?”

  “Right now, it’s to lay low until the lawsuit is over. We’ll tell Mom once it’s said and done and things are settled. No way can I drop that on her until then.”

  “And then?” Luke asked.

  “And then … I don’t know. We’ll have to come clean to her mother at some point, but I have to leave that to Maisie—she’s the one with everything to lose.”

  Kash eyed me skeptically again. “It’s fishy, that’s all I’m saying. Why would she risk all that?”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said, trying not to sound petulant.

  “I mean it, Marcus. It’s her whole life she’s putting on the line, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask why.”

  “Think about growing up under Evelyn Bower. You’d turn out one of two ways. Either you’d be exactly like her or—”

  “You’d be the exact opposite,” Luke finished.

  I nodded. “If you think we hate that woman, we’ve got nothing on Maisie. You either trust me on that or you don’t. But I’m not gonna sit here and convince you—I know a brick wall when I see one.”

  Kash finally understood, unhappy as he seemed about it. His forehead smoothed, and he let loose a mighty sigh. “I’m sorry. We trust you. Don’t we, Luke?”

  Luke nodded, rubbing a hand over his lips. “You know what you’re doing better than any of us. It’s just hard to override a lifetime of conditioning against them, that’s all.”

  “I know. Trust me, I know.”

  “You’re gonna have to be more careful than you were last night,” Kash warned. “The second Mom hears you whistling, she’s gonna know you’re seeing someone—”

  “God, you guys and the fucking whistling—”

  “And when she figures that out,” he said over me, “your secret won’t be safe. She’d burn down hell to figure out who it is, and you know Luke can’t keep his mouth shut.”

  Luke punched him in the arm hard enough to knock him off balance.

  “Don’t tell Laney.” I pointed at Luke.

  “Why would I tell Laney?”

  “I don’t know, why would you tell anybody? Jett either. And Kash, not a word to Dad.”

  “Like Dad and I gossip about you assholes all the time? Please. I think combined we utter a paragraph a day. And even if he knew, he’d never tell Mom. Not unless she asked him point-blank with Marga—Maisie Bower’s name in her hand. Just make sure you stay ahead of it until then.”

  I nodded once. “In the meantime, we’ve got plenty to figure out. The faster we get through this lawsuit, the better things will be for all of us.” I checked my watch. “I’ve got to meet Ben. Bower is going to try to bury us in legal fees, so we’ve got to come up with a plan to head them off. If we can stay ahead of them, the whole thing will be behind us real soon.”

  “Hopefully, Mom survives depositions,” Luke said. “If last time was any indication …”

  “She’ll be fine,” I assured him. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it under control. All of it.”

  And God help me if I didn’t.

  15

  One Look

  MARCUS

  Maisie giggled, delving her chopsticks into my orange chicken. “She did not, Marcus Bennet.”

  “I swear,” I said on a laugh. “Mom had us all lined up by age like the von Trapps and spanked us, oldest to youngest. Not one of us ever started another mud fight again. Not with the greenhouse dirt anyway.”

  She kicked her head back, and the sight kicked my heart into my sternum. “God, there must have been mud everywhere.”

  “After Luke made a Slip ’N Slide out of mud in our foyer? I think there’s still dirt behind his ears from that. You should have heard him crying, waiting for his turn to get put over Mom’s knee.”

  “Aww,” she cooed. “He was just a baby.”

  “Don’t worry—she barely popped him. I think he cried more worrying about what was coming than the spanking itself.”

  I watched her take a bite of chicken, the piece too big to eat gracefully. Her lips closed over half of it, and the display inadvertently bordered pornographic.

  We were stretched out in bed, wearing almost nothing—me in a pair of jersey sleep pants and her in one of my tailored shirts, unbuttoned so low, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the V and the occasional glimpse of her breasts when she did things like lean over me to dig in my food.

  I never shared food with anyone, but Maisie could have whatever she wanted. I’d share it all, especially when there was a view involved.

  I’d enjoyed that view for nearly a week, every morning, every night—a view I couldn’t seem to get enough of. She’d become a regular fixture at my place, and every night when she left me to go back to her warden’s house, I watched her go with the determination to boost her from that particular prison. If for no other reason than to have her in my bed for a whole night.

  “I can’t believe your brothers found out already,” she said, swiping her hair out of her face with the back of her hand, the one with the chopsticks.

  When it fell right back in her face, I tossed my chopsticks in my carton and tucked the errant lock behind her ear. “They’re nosy as all hell, so I can’t say I’m surprised. I just hope they keep their mouths shut.”

  “Are you gonna spank them if they don’t?” She smirked.

  “In the nose with my fist,” I answered, digging a bundle of lo mein out from her container. “Is your Mom st
ill going crazy?”

  “As is her way. Too bad I can’t spank her in the nose with my fist.” Poking around in her noodles, she glanced down. “I spent the entire day at one of our farms in Long Island, pretending to like her while we took eleventy billion photos.”

  “And you’ve got the sunburn to prove it.” I booped her rosy nose.

  “Longest day ever. But she wasn’t so bad today. The worst part was the car ride home. At least at the farm, we had fresh air. Sharing a confined space with her for hours was the actual worst.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t suffocate.”

  “Trust me, it was touch and go for a minute there. Listening to her garden club drama is mind-numbing. Whose daughter is sleeping with whom. What so-and-so said to whomever about the state of their begonias. As if any of them grow their own flowers.” She snorted, rolling her eyes. “I especially don’t want to hear another recount of her overthrowing your mom.”

  Anger bolted through me at the mention, gone as soon as it appeared. “I hate them. All of them.”

  “All of them? Because I heard you dated half the members’ daughters,” she said bashfully, casting her eyes down.

  “I went on dates. I never dated them.”

  “No?”

  “Not a single one. I didn’t even kiss any of them.”

  When she met my eyes again, hers were smiling. “Not even Verdant? She kisses everybody.”

  “Nope. That one was all Kash.”

  With a laugh, she turned the conversation back to her mother. “Honestly, Mother has been on her best behavior. For the most part, she’s kept her composure since that first night, but I can’t shake the feeling that things are a little too calm, a little too easy.”

  “I wish this wasn’t so hard. I wish you didn’t have to deal with her.”

  “I’ve been dealing with her my whole life. At least now I have something worth the trouble.”

  “Who, me?” My smile rose on one side.