Page 80 of My Brother's Billionaire Best Friends
“She’ll gloat. Quietly. Pretend she had nothing to do with Vanessa being at the gala. Claim she warned me, that I didn’t listen.”
“Is it true?”
“That she warned me?”
“That you didn’t listen.”
I smile faintly. “I listened. I just didn’tobey.”
Her eyes narrow. “Do you always phrase it like that?”
“Only when I want to sound interesting.”
Jack arrives with a bottle of water and two fresh towels from somewhere. He hands Parker one and drops the other over the back of his neck like he just walked out of a gym instead of a five-star event.
“She still on the property?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “She left with the ambulance.”
Jack grunts. “Good.”
Harrison joins us next. He’s on his phone, still reading something, a deep frown lining his brow.
“You good?” I ask him.
“Getting there.”
Parker glances at him. “You look tense.”
“I’m always tense.”
“You’re brooding.”
“Also true.” He puts the phone away, finally, and leans against a column across from us. His eyes go to Parker, and there’s something softer behind the usual steel. “You okay?”
She nods.
“You did great.”
Parker shrugs. “I just…didn’t want her to win.”
“She didn’t.”
“And if she tries again?”
Jack leans forward, elbows on knees. “Then we remind her why it didn’t work the first time.”
There’s a quiet that settles between us then. Not uncomfortable. Just thick. Like the adrenaline hasn’t worn off yet but the crash is coming. I don’t usually crash. But tonight, I feel close. Too close. So I speak. To keep myself from thinking too hard. “Honestly?” I say, “I’ve never been more relieved to watch a disaster unfold.”
Jack glances at me. “You were smiling when she hit the floor.”
“I was. Just a little.”
“She looked like a pelican falling out of a tree,” Parker mutters.
Harrison snorts.
“Icon PR’s new slogan,” Jack says. “‘Graceful as falling teeth.’”
