Page 6 of Infinite Love Novella

They both hesitated half a second before resuming their approach. “I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” Connor offered, removing his Ferragamo sunglasses and perching them on top of his head as he shot questioning looks at all of us.

“Just wondering where the hell you were.” Lourde made it a point to jump up and hug her brother, effectively ending the topic. “You look too skinny,” she decided, holding him at arm’s length.

“Listen to her.” Connor rolled his eyes at me before chuckling. “She pops out a kid, and suddenly, she’s everybody’s mother.” The gentle shove Lourde gave him made him laugh harder.

“Fine. See if I care. Wither away.” Lourde sat on my lap to free up a chair for Pepper, who sank into it with a sigh.

“Traffic was a nightmare. We should have flown,” she told Connor, who could only shrug. “Anyway, here we are. Hopefully, we didn’t miss anything.”

On the surface, everything seemed normal. Pepper still wore the engagement ring Connor had given her, and they sat almost as close to each other as Lourde and I did. Connor draped an arm around her shoulders as they settled back into their chairs, and Pepper reached up to take Connor’s hand, resting on her shoulder—the sort of careless, intimate gesture born from years spent together.

What was I thinking? I was letting Lourde get in my head. Just because Connor went to Vegas didn’t mean he was cheating on Pepper. All right, so I might have liked being invited on a guys’ trip, but that wasn’t grounds to declare their relationship null and void. “What have you been up to lately?” I asked Connor while Lourde loaded a plate with cheese, crackers, and meats from an elaborate tray. “You’ve been a ghost.”

There it was. Connor’s gaze shifted. One second, he was looking at me. The next, he was staring over my shoulder. “Oh, you know,” he murmured, sounding vague. “I’ve been busy.”

“Anything interesting?” Lourde prodded, and I was proud of how casual she managed to sound.

“You know how it goes,” he told her with a chuckle. “Business, business, business. I have to keep reminding myself not to turn into a boring old prick like Dad.”

“Don’t worry.” Pepper snuggled a little closer to him. “I won’t let you. If you get boring, we’re done.”

“With all that work…” I mused, “… it’s good for you to get away like this. When’s the last time you got away for a little while?”

This time, Connor stared into his glass Ari had provided. “Oh, I don’t know. I can’t remember.” He looked to his fiancée, who shrugged.

“No idea. We’ve both been so busy,” she replied.

A general sense of unease tinged the breeze that stirred the fringe on the umbrella overhead. Something was off, and it was clear from the looks Evelyn and Magnus gave me that they felt it too.

Olivia clapped her hands, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Okay, boys, I know none of you are interested in the finer points of wedding arrangements, so I’m going to take the girls inside to see my dress!”

Lourde was off my lap in a shot, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. “I can’t wait!” she squealed, and soon the women scurried off, giggling and gushing over how wonderful everything was going to be.

I looked Ari’s way in time to catch his loving grin as he watched them retreat. “That makes it all worth it,” he murmured loud enough for only me to hear. “Watching her like that. All the questions from the planners, the scheduling conflicts, and the invoices. It’s all good, so long as she’s happy.”

“Now, just keep that in mind for the next fifty years, and you’re golden.” I raised my glass to him, and he did the same.

In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but wonder when to pull Connor aside and ask what the hell he was trying to hide from us.

* * *

Magnus looked murderous, and the flickering glow from the bonfire heightened his stormy expression. “You’re fucking kidding me. What an asshole move,” he growled out.

I scowled and shook my head slightly, then looked across the fire to where Connor lounged on a blanket. He and Ari were deep in conversation about extra arrangements Ari had made to surprise Olivia. He was flying her favorite singer in just for the reception, and all the arrangements left him checking his phone seemingly nonstop.

“We still don’t know for sure what it’s all about,” I reminded Magnus in a tight, hushed voice. “And we don’t want to ruin anything. I’m not sure what to do. Do I reach out to TMZ and pay to kill the story? What if it’s all over nothing?”

“They seem fine,” Magnus pointed out. The girls were sitting together on the terrace, and their laughter floated our way on the evening breeze. They were already well into another pitcher of sangria from the sound of it.

“Do they, though? He’s been weird all day. Sort of spacy,” I observed, watching Connor talking with Ari. He seemed fine at the moment, but throughout the day, I’d caught him staring off and sometimes frowning like he had something on his mind that pissed him off.

“That’s true,” Magnus agreed, sounding disheartened. “He zoned out on me twice during dinner in the middle of a conversation.”

“Lourde is beside herself.” As if on cue, the familiar sound of my wife’s laughter reached my ears. “Granted, I think the sangria is helping,” I added, making Magnus laugh.

“I say we pull him aside,” he decided. “We don’t have to make a big deal about it, but he needs to know what’s coming. If those pictures come out and he’s blindsided, I’ll feel like shit. Even if he deserves it a little,” he adds with a growl.

“We don’t know that he did anything wrong,” I reminded him.

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