Page 11 of Endless Love: Novella

“Fuck off,” I replied, laughing as I shoved him out of my way so I could grab something quick to eat from the counter.

“Sorry to have missed the festivities,” Spencer announced, jogging down the stairs as we entered the foyer. “I had a fewcalls to make. Thursday is still a workday for a lot of people,” he pointed out with a sigh. I happened to look his way in time to notice the troubled glance he exchanged with Miles. Like there was something unspoken between them. Come to think of it, they had been doing a lot of that since last night. I’d forgotten about it since the fire happened.

After that, I couldn’t help but pay closer attention to Miles as I went through the motions of participating once we were on the yacht, baiting my hook and busting balls with everybody else the way we normally did.

The whole time, though, I noticed how quiet Miles was. Nerves? Cold feet? Maybe, but why would Spencer have anything to do with it? Unless Miles had confided in him, which he might’ve done, seeing as how they weren’t as close as he was with the rest of us. Sometimes, it was easier to unload on a warm acquaintance rather than on a close friend.

After an hour of observing his strange, standoffish attitude, there was no staying quiet. “Are you okay?” I asked him as we settled in with our rods, the yacht bobbing peacefully on the gentle ripples. The sun beat down on us, but it was pleasant rather than harsh, and the presence of a fully stocked bar had everybody in a good mood.

Everybody but him, it seemed. “Everything’s going to be all right,” I offered, in case that was what was on his mind. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I didn’t want to think he was holding something back from us.

“Sure it will be,” he replied, and I had the feeling the words came out without any forethought. He wasn’t really listening, just like he didn’t see anything in front of him as he sat with his fishing rod in hand, staring over the water.

I decided to join in on busting Noah’s balls for a while instead, laughing at his story of almost dropping the ring in LakeMichigan when he proposed. Even Spencer laughed with us, though Miles barely chuckled.

Leaning in and lowering my voice, I asked, “What’s going on?” With a glance toward everybody else to make sure they were occupied, I muttered, “It’s obvious there’s a problem.”

“Of course there is.” Miles lifted a shoulder, wearing a smirk. “We were all there last night. We saw what happened. Aria is devastated, and there’s not much I can do about it, but I hope she finds a new dress she loves enough to make her happy.”

“I’m not talking about the fire.”

He arched an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

“Come on,” I urged. “I know you and I haven’t known each other as long as the rest of us have, but it’s been a couple of years now. I’m not blind. I know what it looks like when you’re not yourself.”

He followed the direction my attention shifted to, and we both watched as Spencer poured himself a drink at the bar rather than waiting for one of the staff. For the first time, it hit me that any stranger could look at us and imagine Miles and Spencer were related, with their dirty blond hair and light-colored eyes so unlike the dark looks I shared with my cousin and friends. “Is everything going okay with this patent you two are working on? Because every time you guys are talking, it looks like you’re ready to rip each other’s heads off or throw up. Either way.”

“We’re fine. Really.” Everything about his body language screamed the opposite. His hunched shoulders, the way he clenched his jaw, the jerky way he reeled in his line.

After another few moments, he sighed, angled himself toward me and turned away from the group. The stony, blank mask dropped away. His brows knitted together over the frame of his sunglasses. “I was going to approach you about this later. Tonight, maybe.”

I glanced over his shoulder to where the guys were now talking about baseball. Spencer was a Dodgers fan, which, of course, earned nothing but scorn from a bunch of diehard Yankees fans. “We can still talk later,” I offered. “After we get back if you want. We don’t have to wait.”

“That would be good.” Some of the tension drained from his shoulders, which now lowered to a more normal position. “And for now… keep it between us, would you?”

“Of course. Don’t worry about it.”

He nodded firmly and turned around. A change came over him when he did. It reminded me of how he had convinced us that he was nothing but a good guy with good intentions when we first met him. Over the course of two years, the rest of the story had eventually come to light. As it turned out, he had entered our lives with the intention of destroying Magnus, Evelyn, and the twins after being fed lies virtually since birth. It had taken falling in love with Aria and learning the truth behind his late mother’s lies to turn him around.

He had proven from the beginning that he was able to compartmentalize in a way that probably helped a lot when it came to business. He had to be cold as ice, able to conceal his thoughts under an expressionless façade at the drop of a hat.

Me, on the other hand? I wasn’t nearly as skilled. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon wondering what the hell he was hiding and whether whatever it was would end up biting Aria in the ass. I hadn’t known about his intentions when he first came to town from London, so there hadn’t been a reason for me to feel protective of one of the girls I had grown up with.

Now? Knowing what he was capable of and he was due to marry Aria in a couple of days made me look at him through new eyes. I must’ve managed to play off my concerns well enough since nobody seemed to notice.

It was lunchtime by the time we docked and disembarked in the boathouse at the rear of the Goldsmith estate. We crossed the beach, and voices floated our way from high up on the terrace. One in particular left me in a hurry to get up there.

How fortunate was I that I could recognize the woman I loved just by hearing her laugh? She did so much of it that I would know the sound anywhere.

“Laughter is a good sign,” Colton pointed out as we walked up the long flight of stairs leading from the beach. “I didn’t get any emergency texts, so I’m hoping that means everything went well.”

“Either way, I plan on telling Valentina she looks incredible in whatever Ari was able to dig up. Not that she wouldn’t,” Evan added. “She could wear a shower curtain for all I care. She would look just as good.”

“Wow…” Noah snickered behind us. “I don’t know if I can handle all this romance in the air. You better be careful, or I might just want your cock soon too.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Evan fired back over his shoulder. “You know what I mean.”

I knew I did. We were halfway up the steps when I blurted it out. “I’m proposing to Ivy when I take her to Europe next month. In Paris, specifically.”

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