Page 35 of Forking the Billionaire

The immediate urge to correct Esme struck me. Jules wasnotmy girlfriend. I bit the inside of my cheek.

I waited for Jules to say something, but she seemed completely engaged in conversation with Chester.

“Arson would be extreme,” Gabriel frowned at Esme. “Why would you think that?”

Oscar raised a brow and cast me a questioning glance. “It would also leave some pretty damning evidence.”

“There are no burn marks in the room,” I said, as if this ridiculous conversation deserved a response.

“Hey, Jules, did you throw Jasper’s clothes out the window?” Esme asked.

Jules still didn’t acknowledge what was being said. Her back was completely turned to me. She nodded and laughed at something one of Layana’s sisters said.

Esme twisted her lips and looked at me with a smirk that implied Jules’s head nod was an admission of guilt.

“My clothes would be scattered in the trees and on the ground if that were the case,” I said. “They aren’t.”

“You should report that your luggage is missing,” Gabriel said. “Have staff help in the search.”

“I did,” I said. I hoped they’d find it.

Esme scribbled on a napkin with a crayon, like a five-year-old who couldn’t sit through a meal without something to do with her hands. Where did she even get the crayon? Knowing her, she was drawing a little stick figure giving the middle finger that she’d flash at me later.

Layana grinned at Gabriel. “Remember when you didn’t bring a bag for our ski trip?”

“It wasn’t supposed to be an overnight,” Gabriel said.

“And then there was only one bed,” Layana said. “And you taught me how to ski.”

He kissed her on the nose.

She’d clearly taught him a thing or two as well, like how to enjoy his life for a change. Their cheesy and sweet interactions made my chest feel lighter.

Speaking of cheesy, Esme’s musician friend entered the dining room and headed straight for Esme. There was something off about him, and it wasn’t just the fact that he was far too old for Esme. I wasn’t sure what that something was though. It was a feeling, and my muscles tensed every time he came near.

The musician whistled, sharp and melodic, almost like a bird call.

Esme set down her crayon and twisted in her seat, just in time to catch a small object I hadn’t seen him toss.

Her eyes lit up as she looked at the tiny something cradled in her hands. She waved at him. “Thank you, Z!”

He threw a lopsided grin back at her and winked.

What was Z short for? Why was Esme so pleased that he’d whistled at her like a dog? Certainly Gabriel shared the same questions…or he would have, had he not been making out with his future wife.

“What did he throw at you?” I asked Esme.

Her smile faded as she met my gaze. “Why do you care?”

I shrugged. I shot a glance at the two sets of lovebirds, then another at Jules, who still had her back completely turned to me. “What else am I supposed to do?”

Esme said, “All right then. It’s a caramel.”

“The musician throws caramels at you often enough for you to know that’s what he’s going to do?”

“He tossed it gentlytome, and yes, because they’re my favorite.”

I didn’t know she liked caramel. It seemed the kind of thing I should know. We’d known each other for forever, and this guy had hardly known her any time at all. He wasn’t supposed to know what her favorite anything was, let alone something I didn’t.

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