Page 113 of Wedlocked

A glass of bubbly appeared under my nose. “If we missed it, I’ll just tell them to send us around again.”

It was the perfect night. The most perfect proposal.

I was a lucky girl.

19

Prism

Arsen is mad.At me.

The thought was like a merry-go-round inside my brain. Round and round it went, up and down like those horses with the saddles. Never still, and even though it made a circle, it was still uneven.

You know something weird about an overstimulated and busy mind? The busier it got, the more vacant I became. It’s hard to explain. Like I got lost inside the swirling thoughts as everything competed, and I just got so overwhelmed that I became this shell that disassociated from literally everything. Empty yet congested at the same time.

It made no sense, but it was where I currently was.

Physically, I was at the airport. It was loud and bustling. People scattered everywhere like ants.

Probably another reason I was shutting down.

But mostly because Arsen was mad at me.

He said he wasn’t. He was currently holding my hand. Not like in that loose, half-hearted way either. Our fingers were interlaced, his grip firm. Our palms fit together.

Still, I couldn’t shake the worry. He’d been…offsince Kruger had brought up the whole name thing. The idea that I would accept the offer and take my brother’s last name seemed to be a dealbreaker for him.

I think it was the first dealbreaker of Arsen’s I’d ever met.

What a shitty introduction.

Except the exclusive thing, of course. But that wasn’t a dealbreaker—not to me—because I’d never want anyone else anyway.

Oh.

Was that connected to this? Did Arsen think that if I took Kruger’s last name, it would somehow take away our exclusivity?

My nose wrinkled.It wouldn’t, though. Ben was my brother. That wasn’t the same as boyfriend.

But he’s mad.

It made me feel as if I’d done something wrong. Something really bad. And on top of that, my brother was getting married, jetting off to Hawaii… talking about having kids.

We were all at a chalet—a very nice place but an unfamiliar place all the same.

And now Arsen’s parents were coming here. They would be staying under the same roof as us. Over the past few months, I’d seen Bennett and Christina Andrews several times. We had a couple dinners. I visited the house where Arsen grew up, and Christina showed me her library. They were very accepting of me and welcoming. They treated me more like a son than my own parents ever had, but I was still getting used to it.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about them being here, but I wouldn’t say that out loud because this was for Jess and Kruger. I was gladSenator Andrews could marry them. I knew he’d make sure it was good and official, which was exactly what Ben needed.

He didn’t want to admit it, but this wedding was extremely important to him. Since the summer went by without a wedding as they’d originally planned, my brother became restless and worried. It was something I wasn’t used to and something he tried to hide. I couldn’t blame him for wanting everything to be official. He waited a long time for Jess. Did a lot to try and be “worthy” of her.

Men needed happy endings too, you know.

So here I was, spending winter break at a ski chalet and trying to hold it all together while standing in an airport, waiting for Gram to disembark her flight. To be honest? I wasn’t great at holding everything together.

Okay, maybe I was when I deployed certain coping mechanisms, but I’d gotten used to Arsen helping hold me together.

He’s mad. At me.

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