Page 22 of In a Bind

Chapter Seventeen

Raini

Mindy glancedup from her task of making sure each yellow rose was in precisely the right position in the glazed white vase. The dining room had been transformed into a yellow and white confection with white linens and pastel yellow plates. Towers of red berries had been placed intermittently between the vases of roses.

"Everything looks beautiful, Mindy."

I caught the flash of annoyance before she returned to her task. "No thanks to you," she muttered. "Where were you?"

I badly wanted to just silence her by telling her exactly where I was and what I'd been doing, but I wasn't in the mood to get into an argument with her. We had never gotten along much growing up. We were always too different, and those differences had grown even more apparent in adulthood. "I'm here now. What do you need me to do? Just give me a task."

She placed her hands on her hips and stared down at my boots. "The only thing you need to do is get out of the dining room. You smell like the barn. Get changed. The guests will be coming in for brunch any second."

"Yes, sir," I said with a salute. I turned to leave.

"I saw you walk out of the barn with Zane Bostwick," she blurted before I could leave the room. I stopped and looked back at her.

"Yes, I took him on a horseback ride. A lot of the guests have taken horseback rides."

"Right." She set to work unfolding and folding napkins that were already perfectly folded.

"I'm sorry, Mindy. I never saw one exchange between you two that made it seem you were even the least bit interested in him. I know that was the plan—"

"There was no plan." She shook her head. "He's not my type. He's new to money and he's still crude in his mannerisms. "

"Yes, people who aren't born into money are such brutes."

"I guess that's why you're attracted to him and why he finds you interesting." My sister had the blueblood snob act down to an art.

"Not completely sure of the hidden meaning in that last part, but you are in an especially horrid mood this morning, so I'm going up to change."

A glass slipped and fell to the floor behind me.

Mindy kicked at the shards. "That's your fault. You've been a pain in the ass since the day you were born."

"It's not my fault. It's you obsessing over the table like you obsess over everything. Leave the fucking place settings alone. I'll go get a broom."

"No, just go. It would have been better if you just hadn't shown up this weekend. You bring the family name down. The way you act, the way you dress, the way you sneak off with complete strangers to do who knows what."

If there was one person who was expert at hurting my feelings and making me feel childish and insignificant it was my big sister. She had worked hard at it her whole life. I had no idea why I had always been the target of her attacks, but it seemed I still had the big red bullseye on my forehead. Only this morning, I wasn't going to let her get to me.

I shrugged. "We fucked. There. Now you don't have to use your tiny little imagination to figure it out." I spun around on my boots and stomped out of the room, thankful that the party was coming to an end.

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