Over the Edge (Bridge #3)(20)

Darren straightened from checking on the food in the stove and exchanged a look with Cameron. “What’s going on?”

“Never mind. Come on, let’s go sit.” Maya waved him off and pulled me toward the dining room area where Vanessa was already sitting at the long table with her wine.

While Darren and Cameron stayed busy in the kitchen, I was essentially sandwiched between my brothers’ wives. Two new sisters in the space of a year. Our family was growing faster than I could keep up with. A week didn’t go by without one of us hosting a family dinner, a ritual that kept our close family even closer. Except none to date had included our parents, a fact that I regretted.

We were a stubborn family. My brothers had broken out on their own not long after college, defying our parents’ wishes for their futures, and nothing had been the same after that. Long periods of silence, awkward dinners, tense holidays, and words that couldn’t be unspoken. Sometimes I felt like I was the only one keeping that line open between the two broken halves of our family, but I wondered if I’d always be able to do that.

“So what happened last night?” Maya’s voice was hushed.

I glanced back to the kitchen, worried that we were still within earshot of my brothers.

“Did you meet someone?” Vanessa’s light-green eyes brightened.

“Um…” How did I respond to that? “Sort of.” Technically I’d met Will. The rest fell into a very weird category that I wasn’t sure I could really talk about.

Vanessa smiled broadly and leaned in. “Who is it?” She clasped her wineglass, and her diamond shone brilliantly in the light.

Maya quickly answered for me. “Will Donovan. He’s the investor for the new gym.”

“Oh, wow.” She blinked. “Wait, that’s Bill’s son, right?”

I nodded, and her excitement dimmed. Her days at Reilly Donovan Capital had been short-lived, but I knew from Maya that she carried a lot of resentment toward her ex-boss, David Reilly. Thankfully, she’d landed a much better position at the Youth Arts Initiative, the very one that Will’s father had defrauded. Still, I wasn’t ready to hold anything against Will. From what I could tell, their business dealings were very separate, and the few words he’d shared on the matter seemed weighty with disappointment.

“So you still haven’t really answered my question. What happened? Did you stay over?”

I glanced back at my brothers, who weren’t saying anything but weren’t making eye contact with me either. I wanted to give Maya the benefit of the doubt and assume that the pregnancy hormones were altering her better judgment. She was all but throwing me to the wolves with this line of questioning.

“We had drinks and talked. We’re getting to know each other better,” I said, aiming for the most diplomatic answer I could. It beat admitting that the man had spent half the night dedicated to pulling multiple orgasms from me.

“Sounds promising. When are you seeing him again?”

I shrugged. “I let him know I had plans tonight, so I’m not sure.”

Maya clapped her hands. “Oh, we should have him over for dinner one night. That would be perfect.”

Cameron approached the table, serving dishes in hand. “Probably not the best idea to mix business with…family.”

Maya frowned. “Ironic, don’t you think? Since we’re all family and half of us work for the family business.”

“That’s different,” he answered tightly before sitting down beside her.

“How?”

The way Maya was glaring in his direction told me Cameron wasn’t going to win this argument tonight. His lips formed a thin line, and he plated up his food. The rest of us followed suit, and I was grateful for the moment to have something to do with my mouth other than discuss Will.

Darren dropped down into the seat beside Vanessa. He leaned toward her and kissed her square on the mouth. She smiled under the kiss.

When she returned to her food, he whispered in her ear, “Beautiful.”

Her cheeks colored a lovely shade of pink, and she nudged him back with her elbow. We ate in silence for a few minutes before Vanessa spoke up.

“Liv, are we all set for the shower next weekend? Do you need me to do anything?”

“No, I think I have it covered,” I said.

We both glanced to Maya, who shot us a smile. She knew we’d been arranging a baby shower for her, but other than the date, everything else would be a surprise.

“Boys invited?” Darren asked between bites.

Vanessa nudged him again, harder this time. “No. Girls only.”

“Ah, that’s too bad.” He shot her a wicked grin, like he was pretending to be disappointed.

I’d almost welcome the comic relief he’d bring. He had a way of softening my mother. She loved her sons, and even though I knew she got under Darren’s skin too, he seemed to absorb the blows better than the rest of us did.

“Speaking of celebrating,” Maya said playfully. “Now that you two skipped out on the usual wedding drama, we can expect some baby news soon, right?”

I widened my eyes, anticipating Darren’s discomfort on the subject, but he seemed unaffected. Maya was on a roll tonight, but I was glad the focus had shifted away from me for the time being.

Darren pointed his fork in Vanessa’s direction. “Talk to her. I keep trying to knock her up, but she wants to wait until she has a year in at Youth Arts.”