Page 81 of Alive At Night

“Julian?”

“You two were looking good up there earlier,” I said, closing the distance to pull Nessa and Gray in for a hug before returning to Juniper’s side. My hand found its place on the small of her back again.

“What are you doing here?”

Nessa sounded like she’d had the wind knocked out of her.

“Sofia is Juniper’s sister.”

“Half sister,” Juniper corrected.

“Wow, really?” Grayson’s brows lifted, his eyes moving slyly from me to my arm around Juniper. “It seems Julian and I have some catching up to do.”

“Oh, I think it’s pretty obvious without any catching up, Gray,” Nessa said with a laugh before I could correct Grayson’s assumptions. “It’s been obvious since that party our sophomore year. When she came to visit. I mean, come on.”

Goddamnit, I should have cut Nessa off. Obvious? What the hell did she mean by that? I remember being pissed beyond reason that Juniper crashed one of my last college parties.

Nessa turned to Juni, whose eyes were wide. “I’m sure you don’t remember meeting me,” she said, “but I’m—”

“Nessa,” Juniper finished, looking a little awestruck. Which I found adorable and funny all at once. “It’s so lovely seeing you again. Your performance during the ceremony was amazing.”

Nessa’s cheeks grew rosy. “Thank you. That’s so sweet of you.”

Juni’s whole face was glowing. She was downright radiant now that her nerves seemed to have slid away. I squeezed her side, and she tipped her head back to meet my gaze. Those sparkling eyes nearly took me out. Dusk had settled outside, meaning that the natural lighting in the atrium was dimming, and ropes of string lights lit up the ceiling instead.

I raised a brow.See, Daisy? This wasn’t so bad.

She shrugged before breaking our eye contact to take a sip of her drink.

“The four of us should go on a double date sometime,” Nessa added cheerily, and I knew I needed to set the record straight before Nessa got too carried away.

“We should.” Grayson nodded as he put one arm around Nessa’s shoulders while the other went to protectively palm her stomach. She was showing, although barely. “I owe you dinner, Jules. It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done to help me with Gabe’s legal case.”

Juni tensed in my arms, and I could tell it wasn’t a good tense.

It was the kind of tense that told me I had some fucking explaining to do.

Shit.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

juniper

THIS WEDDING WAS A roller coaster. It kept hitting me with twist after twist that I didn’t expect, and for some reason, it still felt like we were gearing up for a big drop.

The clients of Julian’s case were hisfriends?

Julian continued chatting with Grayson about Gabriel, the little boy I had read so much about through his endless medical reports. And the more they talked, the more my perspective began to morph.

From the outside looking in, Nessa and Grayson were a powerhouse celebrity couple. But at their core, they were concerned, loving parents who had clearly been through a lot. It didn’t escape me that Gabriel being Grayson’s son meant the star football player had also suffered a congenital heart defect his entire life. And what an impressive story that was, considering where he was now.

“Where’s the little man tonight?” Julian asked Grayson, his thumb still moving in circles on my lower back. If he seemed bothered that his friends thought we were dating, he clearly didn’t show it. He hadn’t made any attempts to let the truth be known.

“He’s with Uncle Beau,” Grayson said with a little roll of his eyes. “Getting spoiled for the weekend.”

Julian chuckled. “At least Collins can be the voice of reason, right?”

“True,” Grayson agreed without hesitation, making me think Cameron’s sister, Collins, was a lot like him. He was always our voice of reason at work, too.

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