Page 116 of Every Beat of My Heart

“In this case, it’s the Calloway brothers.” Wes tipped his head toward Daphne and Fiona, who sat at the head table. “Let’s leave our sisters out of it. They have significant others, and I don’t want them involved in this.”

“Whatever you want.” Sutton had been a part of our family since she and Wes were in first grade. I’d do anything to help her now.

“I’m going to offer to marry her—” Wes began.

Teddy leaned forward and bellowed, “You’re going to do what?”

A few people at neighboring tables turned to look at us, but when they didn’t see anything else happening, averted their attention.

Wes leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “We get married, she inherits the estate when her grandmother dies, then we get a divorce.”

“Are you sure you want to do that? Marriage is a big deal. What if her grandmother lives for years?” Ryder asked.

Wes winced. “That’s the risk we’ll have to take.”

“I don’t know if this is a good idea—” I said the same time that Teddy said, “It’s a terrible idea. What’s in it for you?”

“I want to help Sutton. She wants to hold onto the house, the things inside, and her family’s legacy. It’s important to her.”

“I can’t believe her grandmother would threaten to take it away from her.” I could see her wanting to keep money from Sutton’s parents. They’d always been greedy and only cared about wealth and status. But Sutton cared about the house itself and everything inside of it.

Teddy shook his head. “It shouldn’t be a surprise. Her grandmother has always done crazy shit like this.”

“Not quite like this,” I said.

Wes’s gaze snagged on Sutton and Claire, who were walking side by side into the ballroom. “Don’t say anything to her. I want to get a chance to talk to her first.”

“You think she’ll go for it?” Sutton was a strong woman, who didn’t take shit from anyone. I wouldn’t think she’d be okay with a plan that took things out of her hands, that forced her to marry her best friend.

“I don’t think that she has any other options if she wants to keep the house and the property in the family.”

The table fell silent because it was an impossible situation. Especially if Sutton wasn’t willing to walk away from it all.

Claire walked toward me with a smile on her face. I stood.

“Would you like to dance?” she asked.

I grinned. “I’d love to.”

I placed my hand on her lower back, guiding her toward the dance floor. When I took her into my arms, Claire asked, “What were you talking about? Everyone looked so serious.”

I glanced over at the table where Sutton sat next to Wes. His shoulders were rigid. He was worried about her, and I couldn’t blame him. “Wes is worried about Sutton. She’s going through some family stuff. Her grandmother’s always been a ballbuster. She’s the puppeteer who holds the strings on everyone in the family, and Sutton isn’t willing to walk away from it.”

“That sounds awful.” Claire chewed her lip. “I think I prefer my parents to keep their distance rather than have ones that were overbearing.”

Next to us, Faith was dancing with Izzy on the dance floor, and it was giving me all kinds of fizzy feelings in my gut. “What do you think about having more kids?” I was willing to do whatever Claire wanted. But I hoped she was on board with having one or even two more.

She smiled softly. “I’ve been thinking about a boy with long dark hair and a mischievous grin.”

I raised a brow. “Really? I was thinking of a girl with dirty-blond hair and blue eyes.”

“Maybe we could try for one of each?” Claire said, wrapping her hands around the back of my neck, pulling me flush against her.

“Are you being serious?” I tended to joke around a lot, and it made people not take what I said seriously. But I very much wanted to have a real conversation about this.

“We talked about it on Thanksgiving. Remember?”

I nodded slowly. She’d mentioned something about kids, and when Dad had come onto the porch, I’d taken the distraction for what it was and gone inside, not bringing up the subject again. “I worried it was too soon to talk about it.”

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