Page 171 of Mad Love

But Brookfield… It was a veritable goldmine, and a lot of people knew it.

The funeral had been relatively short. Ryan had insisted that Grandpa wouldn’t have wanted some long, drawn-out thing with endless eulogies and hymns. Even still, the cathedral where it was held was packed, and the procession to the burial plot seemed to never end.

I stayed between Ryan and Corinne all day, the others creating a buffer around us to keep people from getting too close. The only additional person I’d truly wanted to see was Bex, who had shown up for the funeral but had needed to leave immediately after for her flight to Paris.

Sighing, I set my now-empty glass of wine on the tray of a passing waiter and excused myself from an old woman who reeked of mothballs and was telling me why the 1979 cabernet had been the worst wine Brookfield had ever produced.

I didn’t have to look far for Ryan; he was surrounded by men telling stories of his grandfather. I arched a brow, wondering if he needed a save, but he gave a small shake of his head.

Okay, seriously, maybe I could regroup in the kitchen for a few minutes and breathe.

“It’s a lot isn’t it?” Ash murmured as he came up to stand beside me.

I nodded and contemplated reaching for another glass of alcohol.

Ash sipped a tumbler of bourbon. “A few more hours and it’ll all be over.”

“Hours?” I wanted to groan. My feet were aching in these heels.

Ash shrugged a shoulder. “Never underestimate the need for people to get all the gossip at the expense of others’ pain, Maddie.”

I scowled. “Those people better stay the hell away from Ryan, or I’ll give them some pain of their own to deal with.”

He chuckled. “Down girl. Ryan can handle himself.” He glanced across the room where Linc was surrounded by a flock of older women, charming them with ease. “What do you wanna bet he fucks one of them before this is over?”

My jaw dropped. “No way. They’re all old enough to be his mother.”

Ash sucked a breath through his teeth. “Thousand bucks says he picks up the Karen to the left.”

I looked at the woman—short, bleached blonde hair, a smile that was ten shades too white to be natural, a tan that bordered on orange, and a black minidress—before wrinkling my nose. The woman looked more than interested in the guy more than a decade her junior, despite the rock glittering on her left hand. “Ew.”

Ash leaned in. “Three.”

Linc turned and faced the woman and winked. I swore I watched her panties dissolve from here.

“Two.”

She giggled and laid a hand against his chest, pushing her tits out and licking her lips while Linc set his empty glass down on the buffet table.

Ash laughed. “One.”

Linc stepped back and gave the woman a subtle come here nod with his head and turned to leave.

“Motherfucker,” I swore. “He is not screwing some woman in the powder room.”

“It’s your house now, Maddie.” He grinned at me and lifted his cup in their direction. “Go stop him.”

Rolling my eyes, I chased them across the room and into the hallway, where I heard high-pitched giggles. When I rounded the corner where the bathroom was, the woman had Linc pressed against the wall, her lips suctioned to his neck as she shoved a hand down his pants.

“Lincoln,” I snapped. “A word?”

The woman startled and turned to me with a sneer. “Who’s this bitch?”

Linc shook his head and removed her hand from his pants. “Now you’ve gotta leave, Brenda.”

She gaped at him. “It’s Bristol.”

“Totally what I said,” Linc muttered.

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