Page 35 of The Forever Rule

“What are you doing here?” I asked, pulling Isabella into a hug.

My best friend hugged me tightly. “I figured you needed your person.”

We rested our heads on each other’s shoulders and stood there, both women in business attire, and with the weight of the world on our shoulders. Even if it didn’t always feel like that.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” She pulled back and looked me up and down. “That’s a good look. You’re going to do great.”

“Are you sure it’s not weird?” I asked, speaking of the giant elephant in the room. Or was it a gorilla?

She cringed but shook her head. “No, it won’t be weird. However, ithasbeen three months.”

I frowned, until everything clicked. Because Isabella wasn’t only my best friend, she happened to be the secret sister of the Cages.

It seemed that Daddy Cage had been busy in his all too short life and had fathered twelve children—over two sets of families. And while apparently Isabella’s motherknew of it, and actually knew Aston’s mother, they hadn’t told their kids until the reading of the will.

That evening my best friend had shown up to my house and raged for a good hour before breaking down into tears. Tears I knew she wouldn’t have shown anyone else in the family.

And that was when I blurted that I had made out with her brother.

Things weren’t awkward at all.

“So you have to have the big family dinner soon then?” I asked, knowing the three-month reprieve was now over.

“I don’t understand how this will is legal, but it is. And I have to have dinner with that side of the family. Once a month. For three years.”

She said each word with such fierceness, that I worried that she was going to have an aneurysm or something.

“But it doesn’t have to be you each time, does it?”

“I’m not going to force my family to do it if I can’t.”

“Are they all that bad though?” I asked, hating myself for even asking.

Isabella scowled at me. “Ford seems fine. He knows Phoebe at least,” she said, speaking of her sister, and apparent brother. It was very confusing.

“I still can’t believe that the Cage I went on a coffee date with happens to be your Cage.”

“I don’t like the fact that our Venn diagram has become a circle. It’s very annoying.”

My lips twitched at that.

Isabella just rolled her eyes. “The Cages, I hear, are decent with business. They’re not going to push you out of the office just because you worked with Howard. In fact, I’m pretty sure they owe you.”

I cringe. “I probably shouldn’t put that on my resume, right?”

“You damn well should. It’s all Aston Cage’s fault.”

My heart did that little twisting motion that I hated so much whenever I heard his name. It wasn’t as if I really knew him. There had just been heat and chemistry and then nothing. Not a single communication. Not even a pigeon to send over a note. I would’ve preferred an owl, or something. But no, there was nothing.

And while I realized he had enough on his plate with his business, the funeral, and apparently this new family, I still felt slighted.

“He should have texted you back. I’m sorry, we all have things to do even though we’re dealing with our father, the evil mess. He should have texted.”

I cringed. “I really shouldn’t have told you about that. It’s going to cast him in a bad light for you.” I didn’t want Isabella to start off on an even worse foot with the people she could now call family. My twinge of regret shouldn’t have a bearing on the family she now had—best friends or not.

“Of course it’s a bad light. He’s egotistical, and growly, and wanted to take over the whole meeting.”

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