Page 88 of Her Billionaire Boss
The money.I knew it.I knew she would balk at the thought of giving up all her luxuries to be with my brother.Which meant she didn’t deserve him.Which was something I would have told him if he’d bothered to ask for my advice.
I was smart enough to keep those thoughts to myself.
Matt was not.“Let me guess.She’s not willing to sacrifice the bank account.”
“She’s leaving her husband and dividing up custody of her children, I think she’s giving up enough!”Scott snapped.
“Whoa, whoa.”I held out my hands as if I were keeping the guys apart more than geography was.“Matt, I need to talk to my brother.Alone.”
I expected him to argue.Instead, he gave me a chastened nod and said, “Okay.Look, Scott.We’ll talk later.”
“Yeah.”That was the harshest way my brother ever ended a conversation.This was a serious rift.
Matt left the room, which was nice but unnecessary, considering I’d taken the call off speaker.I watchedhim move painfully to the door and bit my bottom lip to physically stop myself from telling him to sit down and rest.
“Catherine is really leaving her husband for you?”It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Elizabeth.She’d been convincingly hysterical.But I needed to hear it from my brother.
“Seems that way,” he said, his feathers still ruffled.
“You’re talking to me now, not your bullshit macho guy friend,” I reminded him.
“You’re dating that bullshit macho guy friend.”
“No, I’m dating my awesome, caring boyfriend.He’s a bullshit macho guy when he gets around his bullshit macho friends,” I snapped.“I appreciate the situation you’re in, but I don’t appreciate the way you were so fucking judgmental of Matt and I, and then you do this.”
“Ihaven’t done anything.Except pick up Catherine from her lawyer’s office.”He swore under his breath.
But it was too late.“You’re in New York?”I checked over my shoulder, hoping my shriek didn’t bring Matt back.“Elizabeth has been panicked about her daughter going missing and you’ve been in New York the entire time?”
“She’s not panicked about her daughter going missing,” Scott corrected me.“She’s panicked about her daughter making her look bad.”
Okay, that was accurate.No argument required.
“What does it matter if Elizabeth is angry with me?How does that affect you negatively?”Scott demanded.“Have you suddenly started caring about impressing the Connecticut snob set?”
“Of course, I care!”As much as I wished I didn’t, there wasn’t much of a choice.“I have to care.This is Matt’s family, Matt’s world… I have to be able to fit into it for the sake of our future.And I didn’t see you rolling into Elizabeth’s garden party with copies of the Communist Manifesto.You were eating those little caviar appetizers right alongside everybody else.”
“Yeah, I came to the party.Because I was trying to reconnect with the woman I love.”His voice dripped with contempt.“I wasn’t there trying to become one of them.”
“I’m not trying to become one of them, either,” I protested.“Matt’s been trying not to be one of them for years.He’s just super bad at it.”
“They don’t change,” Scott argued.“Deep down, no matter how nice Elizabeth is to your face, no matter how much Matt might brag about living in the dorms right alongside the commoners, they’re all the same rich asshole underneath.”
“Except for Catherine, right?”I snapped.
“Catherine’s the one leaving!”
“And I’m sure she’s going to be eating beans under a bridge when that alimony settlement check clears!”I’d raised my voice too much, and the house had ears.“I don’t want to fight with you.I don’t appreciate being blindsided.Matt is your best friend.I’m your sister.Fuck, Catherine is Matt’s sister.Why didn’t you guys give us a heads up?”
“Because what happens between us is between us, Charlotte.”The fight went completely out of Scott.He sounded tired in a way I’d never heard before.“Catherine and Matt don’t have a great relationship.They’re not the kind of siblings who call each other up when the shit hits the fan.”
“But we’re that kind.”There was something plaintive and childish in my voice.“We were, before.”
“We still are,” he promised.“I’m not dumping you as my sister.I’m putting Catherine first.The way a person is supposed to, when they’re in love.”
Once again, thewhy, though?!of it all raged to the front of my brain, and I struggled against the urge to voice it.Scott was never going to be able to explain why the fuck he loved Catherine, at least, never in a way that wouldn’t sound like science fiction.
“I’ll keep you in the loop, but not about Catherine’s private life, okay?”he said finally.
