Page 31 of Wright Kind of Trouble

That was the problem.

Jensen Wright was running for mayor.

He was going to win. That was obvious. But the mayor had not been a Wright in a long fucking time.

And my father always had an in with the mayor. An in that he needed to keep. Which meant we needed a presence with the family that hated us.

The family that I’d avoided like the literal plague since Jordan and Annie’s wedding. A point that Ashleigh had made a few times since, but she didn’t know the real reason. She thought it was because of Annie. Hell, Annie herself thought I had been avoiding her because of the wedding. They couldn’t have all been more wrong.

It was Harley.

I hadn’t seen her since the day after the wedding. And as much as it pained me, I couldn’t chance seeing her again. I didn’t have enough self-control to be in her orbit.

“I won’t take no for an answer,” my dad said as he strode toward my office door.

I blew out a harsh breath. Great.

“Fine,” I muttered. “Just this once.”

My dad smiled at me as if he’d already known that he had me under his thumb. And he probably did. I owed him a lot, but how much more would he ask for?

“Thanks, son. This means a lot to me.”

I sighed once he was gone and sank back into my office chair. Well, there went my weekend.

Part of me hoped desperately that because Tech hadn’t started school yet, she wouldn’t even be there. The other part of me was hoping against all hope that she’d be there.

It had been five months since she’d walked out of my door and not looked back. Surely, she’d moved on by now despite how I’d stupidly asked her not to. I’d thought that distance would help me move on, too, but instead, I just missed her.

Tonight was going to be interesting.

I stared up at Wright Construction in dismay.

My office was only a few blocks down Broadway in the historic downtown area, but I almost never drove by here. I hadn’t stepped foot inside in since our high school debutante days. They’d rented out the top floor when Ashleigh debuted. The building had been a staple of the community for nearly as long as Lubbock had been incorporated. There was a reason Wrights were royalty here.

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered under my breath.

With a deep breath, I straightened my suit and entered the air-conditioned interior. I crossed the white tiled floor to the bank of elevators and stepped inside. It shot straight up to the restaurant that took up the entirety of the penthouse overlooking Tech’s campus.

The elevator dinged open on the top floor, and my jaw dropped. I had some vague memory of this place being a subdued business locale that cotillion had turned into a dance floor, but tonight, it was beyond imagination. Fresh flowers blanketed the room. Waiters in suits held trays of finger food and passed out fizzy flutes of champagne. Classical music was a soft melody in the room from the orchestral rendering of a string quartet. It was stunning. Jensen had clearly spared no expense.

“Champagne, sir?” a waiter asked, the brunette smiling up at me as she passed the tray in my direction.

“Thank you.”

I took a glass, not missing her fluttered eyelashes, before continuing deeper into the room. It was full of Wrights in every direction. Jensen at the helm of the party with his wife, Emery, at his side. All of his siblings joking around and laughing near the dance floor in formal attire. Jordan and Julian deep in conversation with Weston and Whitton nearby. And then…there she was.

My heart was in my throat at the first glimpse of her in five long months. Her hair was lighter than it had been before and layered into pristine waves. Her lips were an even darker red. So dark that it leaned toward black, but not quite. A quiet nod to her idol, Wednesday Addams. And the dress. My brain short-circuited at the dress. It was a black mesh number that clung to every single curve. The curves that I’d marked with my hands and tongue and imprinted onto my mind. Now, not a single one was hidden under the tight material.

I swallowed and adjusted my trousers. Fuck.

I was going to have to talk to her.

I should absolutely not talk to her.

That was a bad idea.

A horrible idea.

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