Page 58 of Done with You

Rayma shrugged. “Depends on the judge doing the sentencing. I don’t make the rules.” She brought down two wine glasses with stems, then cast Oona another pleading look. Aiden’s gaze burned into the side of her face. She didn’t need to look at him to feel him watching her with intense curiosity, and ready-to-pounce judgment.

She had a drink last night.

And it wasn’t like he was the alcohol police. He wasn’t police of any kind right now.

She turned to face him, gave him a challenging, smug smile, then nodded at her sister. “Sure, pour me a glass. Throw in some ice, though. I like my white wine really cold.”

“I can do you one better. I have frozen grapes,” Rayma said with enthusiasm, opening up the freezer and pulling out a Zip-loc bag of frozen green grapes. “They won’t dilute the wine like ice cubes will.”

Aiden cleared his throat, and Oona pivoted to face him. She could tell he had something snarky sitting on the tip of his tongue. He had a look on his face like he’d just bit into a lemon.

She knew he didn’t drink, and that was fine. She also knew he had zero tolerance for drunk drivers, but did that intolerance also stem to people who drank in general? Because neither Oona nor Rayma had plans to get behind the wheel at all tonight.

Surely, he wasn’t that much of a hard ass?

Rayma finished pouring Oona’s glass over a handful of green grapes, then handed it to Oona, bringing her glass, as well, and clinking it playfully against Oona’s. “To men in the kitchen and women enjoying a toddy after work. I like it!”

Oona smiled at her sister and took a sip of her wine, casting a cursory glance at Aiden, who was busy slathering what looked to be clarified butter on sliced ciabatta buns.

“Now, if only we could train him to bring us our slippers and a cigar, then we’d be sitting pretty.” Rayma wandered into the living room with her drink and Oona followed. “Do you do a lot of cooking, Aiden?” Rayma called to her brother in-law to be.

Aiden nodded. “Yeah.”

“On your days off?”

“Yeah.”

Oona startled and glanced quickly between Rayma and Aiden. Aiden’s gaze turned hotter than ever—but not in the way that said he wanted to burn off all her clothes with his secret laser vision—more in a way that said, “Say anything and I’ll burn a hole in the center of your forehead.”

Did Rayma and Jordan not know that Aiden was suspended? Had he not told them?

The harsh warning glare from the man in the cherry-covered apron said his brother and his betrothed were in the dark.

Shit.

Another secret that Oona now had to keep from her sisters.

She hated having secrets.

She kept so many of them when it came to her patients, that she tried to live her non-professional life transparent and open. Granted, her sisters had no idea about Russell, but other than that, Oona was an open book. Not having anything to hide made life easier. It helped her sleep, and helped her keep her work and personal lives separate. Because if she were forced to keep a million secrets in her own life, in addition to all the confidential stuff she was told by patients, her brain would explode.

“Mmmm, this is a good Riesling,” Rayma hummed. “Jordan chose it. What do you think?”

Oona took a sip and nodded. “Yeah, very nice.”

“I’m more of a red wine drinker, usually. But sometimes we like to spice it up with a fancy white we find on sale at the liquor store." Her smile was cheeky. “So, what kind of fuckery are we up to tomorrow night? Sublime fuckery I hope.” Rayma bobbed her thick brows. “I want to be hungover on Sunday, please and thank you.”

Aiden glanced up at Oona and his gaze hardened and narrowed.

Oona glared back at him and mouthed the words, “Fuck off,” which caused his eyes to widen and his mouth to open with indignation and shock.

If he muttered so much as a fucking word to Rayma about drinking or wanting to enjoy her bachelorette with a little lubrication, Oona would be on him like a mama bear on a group of hikers who tried to pet her cubs. She would gut him with her claws.

They were all very protective of Rayma. Even though she’d been a wild teenager, what their parents did to her—giving up on her and shipping her off to Pasha—was beyond reproach and unforgivable. The girls had never been particularly close with their parents, and all of them left home as soon as they could, but abandoning Rayma just drove the wedge even deeper. However, it also helped the sisters grow closer. They banded together as a united front against their parents and their judgmental ways, and protected Rayma from their comments. Because even though Rayma had turned her life around and was a successful social worker now, they still threw out way too many barbs of disapproval that had the ability to send Oona’s baby sister into a spiral.

Rayma had seriously debated even inviting their parents to the wedding, which was something they all supported. But in the end, she relented and sent them the invitation. But as the wedding drew closer, Oona—in fact, all of them—could tell that Rayma was having second thoughts about inviting their parents, and was probably secretly praying for a freak snowstorm in Baltimore that prevented them from flying out.

A key slid into the front door and it opened a moment later to reveal Jordan, his hair damp from the rain that had started again around three that afternoon, his green eyes bright, and cheeks rosy. “Wow, that smells amazing,” he said, ditching his shoes and coming into the living room to kiss Rayma hello.