Page 32 of When I Had You

Surprisingly, acting like nothing is wrong doesn’t actually make the gossip go away.

How very disappointing.

A broken phone also doesn’t keep someone determined to get ahold of you from calling you either . . . I take the phone from Poppy, resting my case and point, and place it to my ear. “Hell—”

“What have you done, Marina?” My eldest brother has never been one to beat around the bush, but wow, I’ve never heard him so mad. He’s a lawyer, so time is money, I guess, even when it comes to family.

I brace myself for the onslaught by sitting on the couch. “I can explain, Loch,” I start, after just finishing telling Poppy everything, and I mean everything. From the argument in the paddock to the ride to dinner, the bathroom, and then how Cash held me like I was the only thing that mattered last night, I didn’t leave out a detail.

Closing my eyes, I touch my lips, remembering how the pressure of the connection was just right, how I not only got lost in that kiss but wished it could go on forever.

“Please explain,” Loch says, leaving the fight for the courtroom instead of with his sister. He can be a softy when he wants to be.

I reply, “It’s not as bad as it seems.”

“It may not be, but we have two sponsors on the verge of leaving, and that’s only from the implication of you two sleeping together.”

“Marina, this is Harbor.” If a call could end like a needle scratching across a record, that was it when Harbor took over for my eldest brother.

I flop back on the couch, not quite ready for the next lecture I’m doomed to receive. “I guess you’re all there.”

“We are.” His tone is relatively calm, but I know him. He’s good at neutrality, at least acting so. It’s a characteristic he got from my father. Me, not so much. It’s not a trait the youngest in the family usually inherits. “We’ve had the press hounding us since before the sun rose here in Miami. It’s a race day, so I can’t say I was sleeping, but I wasn’t prepared for this shitstorm either.”

I feel awful for so many reasons, but upsetting my family was never my intention. “I’m sorry.” I say the only thing I can think of, though I know it won’t make anything better. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do, whatever it takes to make this better.”

“It’s not that simple, sis.” There’s a pause, and I can only imagine he’s digging his fingers through his hair. That’s something Cash does as well. A guy thing? Probably just to get their temper from escaping. I hear shuffling on his end, and he says, “I’ve taken you off speakerphone because I’d like to hear your side before I fire our driver for seducing my sister.”

Seduce? People use that word? Guess it’s more polite than the alternative. “Cash didn’t seduce me, Harbor. He did do me a huge favor, but as you can see online, no good deed goes unpunished.”

A loud noise has me pulling my phone from my ear. Eyeing Poppy, I laugh anxiously in silence.

Poppy mouths, “What’s going on?”

I shrug, but then I hear, “Honey, it’s Mom.”

“Hi, Mom.” I put her on speakerphone. “Poppy can also hear you now.”

“Poppy? How are you, dear?”

Leaning toward the coffee table where I set the phone, she smiles at me, and replies, “I’m good, Mrs. Westcott.”

“You’re grown. Call me Delta, please.”

“Mom, this is business,” Harbor says in the background. I can only imagine he’s pinching a nerve in his forehead right now.

“I know, but since we’re all here . . .” More shuffling, then she says, “Can you hear us, Marina? I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Yes, I can hear you.”

“Dad and your brothers are here with me.”

“Hi, honey.” My dad’s voice pops in, sounding so supportive as always.

“Hi,” I reply again, unable to hide a giggle. How can I not laugh? This is a serious situation, and the whole family is involved now. At this rate, I’ll be on this call all day. “Let me just start with the facts. When my friends abandoned me, I called Noah last night—”

“I had a missed call from her when I woke up,” he says in the background, supporting my story, which I appreciate. “Sorry for not answering, Marina.”

“You were sleeping,” I reply, “I understand.”

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