“Jävlar.” Viggo leaned his head back against the couch and pinched the bridge of his nose. “My mom has always been a calm, levelheaded, easygoing woman who respects boundaries. She practices yoga and she’s always talking about the importance of finding your inner peace. I don’t know where that woman went, but I’d sure as hell love to have her back. Seriously. What is it about weddings that turns some women into raging lunatics?”
Everyone laughed sympathetically.
“Don’t be so hard on your mother,” Hunter said, smiling. “You’re the first of her six children to get married. Of course she’s excited.”
“This is beyond excited. This is borderline fanatical.” Viggo shook his head grimly. “I’m starting to see why Scarlett hates weddings so much. She keeps talking about eloping—”
“Don’t do it, bro,” Reid warned. “Your mothers would never forgive you.”
“I know, I know. It would totally break their hearts.” Viggo lifted his head off the couch with a wry smile. “I can’t say I haven’t been tempted by the idea. I mean, the thought of not having to deal with all this wedding madness definitely sounds appealing.” He sighed. “But I think Scarlett would eventually regret choosing elopement over a traditional ceremony. So I’m giving my baby the fairy-tale wedding she deserves.” He paused before adding darkly, “I just hope I don’t end up strangling my mother in the fucking process.”
Laughter erupted around the terrace.
When the waitresses returned with their meals and another round of drinks, they moved to the table to eat.
Halfway through dinner, Logan’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and grinned when he saw Jupiter’s picture on the screen. He excused himself from the table and walked to the other end of the terrace as he answered the phone. “Hey, Jup—”
“Logan Francisco Matías Brassard!” she screeched so loudly he had to hold the phone away from his ear. “Did you put twenty thousand dollars in my PayPal account?”
He grinned as he brought the phone back to his ear. “I told you I would take care of your expenses for the Vegas trip.”
“But twenty thousand dollars?” she yelled in disbelief. “Are you out of your mind? I can’t accept that kind of money from you! And twenty grand is way too much money to spend in four and a half days!”
“No, it’s not. Vegas is expensive—”
“You think I don’t know that? I’m from Vegas too, remember?”
“Then you should know how expensive it is.” His grin widened. “You can transfer the money to your bank account—”
“I’ll do no such thing!” she shrieked. “Take it back!”
“Nope. Can’t do that.”
“Why the hell not?”
“It’s already been added to my monthly expenditures. If I put the money back it’ll throw everything off, and my accountant won’t like that. He’s very anal.”
“I don’t care! I’m sending the money back to you!”
“Don’t bother,” Logan drawled. “I’m just gonna refuse the payment. If you try to resend it, we’ll keep going back and forth until you either accept the funds or one of us gets our account deactivated.”
Jupiter screeched in frustration. Her normally smoky voice was reaching octaves he didn’t know it could. It was both amusing and fascinating. And kinda hot.
He tried to reason with her. “Even if you don’t spend all the money in Vegas—”
“I’m not!”
“—you can use whatever’s left to tide you over until you get your first paycheck, which probably won’t be for at least three more weeks—”
“How did you even get my PayPal email?” she cut him off.
“I have my ways.”
“Did Bianca give it to you?”
“No.” Yes. “Look, just take the money, Jupe. I want you to have a good time on the trip, and you’re doing me a huge favor by coming to our last game. Your presence will really mean a lot to me.”
She was quiet.