He followed me to the kitchen, where I got another glass and the wine out of the refrigerator.
"So, how did your date go last night?" he asked, leaning against the counter.
I stilled mid-pour of the wine. "Why? What did you hear?" God. Had I made a fool of myself during the forgotten part of the night?
When he didn't say anything, I glanced over my shoulder, my panic rising.
His head tilted to the side and his eyes narrowed in question. "That sounds bad. What did you do that you think I heard about your date?"
Okay, so maybe he didn't hear anything. I finished pouring his wine and handed him the glass. "It was fine. I just thought maybe Dad told you something." I hoped he bought that excuse.
"Why would he say anything?"
I shrugged, unable to come up with a good answer to that.
"Besides, Dad went out of town last night."
"Where to?" I always liked it when my dad was out of town because I felt like I could move through life not wondering if he was one step behind me.
"Who the hell knows? You know how he is. He's off with his cronies, gambling or carousing or whatever."
God, I hoped he hadn’t gone to Atlantic City. That was way too close to New York City for my comfort.
"I think he went with Georgie, so they’re probably on some yacht off the coast of Catalina or something.” James sipped his wine.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. I hoped that was true. “Let’s sit in the living room.” I led the way.
My brother joined me, making himself comfortable on my couch. I sat in the wingback chair across from him.
"So. Tell me about the date,” he said.
"Why are you so interested in my love life all of a sudden?” I wanted to talk about anything else but my date with Max.
"Hmm, so it's love?"
I growled in frustration. "No, it's not."
He grinned. "You doth protest too much."
I took a long gulp of my wine, resisting the urge to throw my glass at him. I had to believe he was just teasing me like big brothers did and that he didn't know anything specific.
Then again, I wished he did know something. Maybe he would've been able to fill in the blanks from last night.
"You're not one of those dumb shmucks who accidentally ended up married, are you?" He laughed.
I finished the rest of my wine, hoping my face didn't give away the truth. At the same time, I wished I could tell him. I trusted James and knew he would help me, but I swore to Max that I wouldn’t say anything, so I kept mum.
"What did you do last night?" I asked, hoping to change the subject or at least take the spotlight off me.
"Nothing as interesting as you, I bet. Come on, what did you guys do?"
"He took me to the Roarke, and then we had a nice tour of the city." All that was true. Technically, I wasn't leaving anything out because I didn't remember getting a marriage license or getting married.
"The Roarke is nice, isn't it? I took Kaley there once."
Kaley was his latest love interest who had apparently stolen from him.
He shrugged, his jovial expression falling. "The food was good, so there was at least that."