“We don’t need him, Lu. So what if he wants to disown us? I’d like to see him fucking try. What would he have left?”
“I can’t believe he told you to annul the marriage, and he’d pay you off. He crossed a line. Oh, I’m so sorry you were in the middle of all that, Quinn,” Lucy tried to comfort my wife, who was unnaturally quiet beside me at the table.
She barely said a word to me since leaving the office. Though all this was supposedly fake, something about us felt so real, and maybe she felt it too.
Quinn was tough. Her mother was tough. They weren’t ladies from high society like my mother, but they were more genuine than anybody I’d ever known. I wanted what they had. And I couldn’t help but feel that bringing them here into the chaos of my family might have been the greatest mistake.
Quinn forced a smile for Lucy and ate her pasta silently.
Maybe she thought this was a mistake too. If Dominic Myles ruined my chances with the best thing to ever happen to me, I swear he’d have more than just his damn company to lose.
“Are we the idiots for staying?” Lucy continued. “Do you know how many job offers I’ve had over the years? But no, I was loyal to our name and what we were building. It’s all bullshit.”
Quinn sighed.
“What are you thinking?” I asked her in a whisper while Lucy continued to vent.
“It’s just that—I grew up with a family business too. It was small, but it wasours. We never let money become such an issue between us. My mother, my grandmother. We worked together to grow what we have. And it’s not some multi-billion-dollar empire, but it’s ours. We love it because we got to do it together.” She pushed the food around her plate.
“I hear you, bunny. Money has always driven my family. The lack of it. The need for it. The want for more of it. It’s not worth losing the people closest to us over it.”
I reached for the wine bottle the chef had put in front of us before realizing the girls technically couldn’t have any. I let it go.
“Don’t give up wine on our account,” said Lucy popping another roll into her mouth.
“Nah, that wouldn’t be fair,” I said.
“Since when do you care what other people think?” Lucy asked, scrunching her nose.
I looked at Quinn, who bit her lip and went back to pushing around her food.
“Ah, I see it. You’ve got it bad, brother.” She laughed.
“Where’s Jax?” Drayven had been just as quiet as Quinn until then.
“He’s keeping an eye on Muriel to make sure Tom doesn’t do anything funny,” I teased.
Quinn smirked.
Finally, I thought I’d never get her to react to something.
“Well, I say we leave him to his mess,” Lucy continued the earlier conversation.
I put my fork down. I’d had enough of Dominic Myles for one day.
“Listen, how about we get out of here?” I suggested. “It’s still early. Let’s get our minds off all this shit.”
“Like a double date?” Lucy suggested.
“What did you have in mind?” Quinn asked raising an eyebrow.
* * *
“Are you fucking crazy?”Quinn exclaimed when we pulled up.
There were two giant rainbow-colored balloons ready for liftoff. The sight of them was magical.
Lucy clapped with excitement. “I’ve always wanted to get on a hot air balloon! I hope I don’t throw up while we’re up there. That would suck for the people on the ground.”