Page 103 of Forking the Billionaire

It meant I was the father of her baby.

And I had no idea what to do with that, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to sleep tonight.

TWENTY-SIX

ESME

Gabe stepped in front of the living room mirror and slightly adjusted his bowtie for the umpteenth time. It had looked perfectly centered already, and it looked perfectly centered still.

He was always a sentinel of perfection, even more so today in his tux. He’d spent a lifetime surgically removing any imperfections from himself, from the way he used to slouch to excising lazy weekend mornings from his routine. And this hyper focused nitpicking he was doing now, that was his usual on steroids.

“Nervous?” I asked.

“Buzzing,” he said.

It was very much not a Gabe answer. It wasn’t precise. It wasn’t calculated. It was just…honest.

“You’ve found your person,” I said. “I don’t think most people get to have that. Layana balances you and softens your rough edges. You two have something really special.”

Almost like I thought Jasper and I had. Kind of. Maybe.

It felt like this too-good-to-be-true thing, which apparently it was. Because when I’d invited him to stay last night, he got weird and pulled away from me. Maybe the spell just brokeand he realized that we had completely different lives. We were completely different people.

Maybe he wanted to rip the bandage off now so it wouldn’t hurt so bad when he left tomorrow.

Me? It already hurt.

It was totally fine for him to decide against having sex, but Jasper’s turn from hot to cold had given my whiplash. It came out of nowhere. So now I was stuck agonizing about what I’d done wrong last night when I should have been completely focused on my brother and his special day.

Why not enjoy one more day together while we had the chance?

Instead, Jasper lingered out on the beach under the guise of collecting more seashells for the ceremony. We’d gotten plenty of shells already this morning. He was clearly avoiding me.

“I’m not nervous about being married to Layana,” Gabe said.

I flicked my gaze up to meet his in the mirror as he adjusted his bowtie. Again.

“It’s getting to that part. The speaking. The ceremony. I want to make sure everything is right, so she’s not disappointed.”

That was the freaking sweetest thing I’d ever heard.

I grabbed my brother by the arm. He twisted to look me in the eye.

“You, Gabriel Stryker, are enough. Layana will not be disappointed even if everything blows up and the cave floods and your tie is crooked, because she’s marrying you. And she loves you just as much as you love her.”

A softness touched his mochaccino eyes. I thought he might even smile.

But then he said, “You said the water never rises high enough to flood.”

“Ohmygrrrrr.” I sighed. “It’s going to be great.”

“I’m getting married.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“To the woman I love.”

“Yes.”

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