Page 18 of Forking the Billionaire

“Ever since the plane.” Gabriel steepled his fingers and frowned at me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m good,” I said. “Just thinking.”

They both stared at me, waiting for me to elaborate. Neither of them was a talker. That was always my role, and usually it was easy for me.

“Really, everything is good,” I said.

Oscar’s mismatched eyes flicked back to where Morgan ran at the edge of the water. “Jules seems nice.”

“Mm-hmm,” I agreed. Jules was nice. But I didn’t really want to talk about her, or even think about her. The easiest way to get Oscar talking about something else was to change the subject to Morgan. “Did I catch Morgan mentioning adopting a second weasel?”

At the mention of his fiancée’s name, fondness softened Oscar’s features. “Rumor spread through the cast about peopleseeing something they thought was a weasel hiding backstage at the theater. It was a cat.”

“So no second weasel,” I said.

“One is plenty.”

“You keep a weasel as a pet?” Gabriel asked.

From the corner of my eye, I caught movement and a swish of long red hair. The air felt suddenly thicker, causing my breaths to become short and stifled. I focused on some imaginary interesting thing out in the distance.

Esme slipped right into the chair beside me. I caught the movement of her hand waving in the periphery. I could hear the smile in her words as she said softly, “Don’t let me interrupt.”

Every muscle in my body tensed.

“A strange man dumped the weasel on Morgan. She can’t say no to a stray,” Oscar said. “She has a big heart.”

“Not a ferret?” Gabriel asked.

“Weasel,” Oscar said.

“Interesting,” Gabriel said. He turned his attention to his sister. “How was your doctor’s visit?”

“It was totally fine,” she said, her voice slightly tighter than it had been a moment before.

“Did the doctor determine the cause of your dietary intolerance?” Gabriel asked.

She cleared her throat. “Yeah, just a local spice, which sucks because I’m a sucker for ribs with that tangy Polynesian jerk infusion BBQ sauce they have here.”

“I’m glad you got your answer,” Gabriel said.

“I’m glad you decided to have your dinner here so I could take part,” she said. “If only somewhat. Sorry I had to work. I’ll definitely have off for the ceremony, I promise. And I got someone to cover shifts so I should be able to do most of the other…whatever stuff you want to do while you’re here.”

“I’m glad,” Gabriel said.

She smiled at him.

Then she stared off at the beach, and I could swear something about this entire exchange was off. She was off.

Maybe it was our interaction inside that had left her off-kilter, or maybe it was something else. But there was definitely something wrong.

As soon as I glimpsed that hidden something, and actually looked at her to confirm my suspicion, she shielded herself back up, elbowed me in the arm, and smiled. “I’m going to go play with the ladies. You guys should join.”

As she ran off, I wondered if I’d imagined what I saw. I looked at Gabriel to see if he’d noticed something, too. He just rose from his seat, smiled in Layana’s direction, and headed onto the sand. It must have just been my imagination.

SEVEN

ESME

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