The Grand Pact (The Grand Men #1)(115)

I push back my chair and go to get another drink, Mason’s eyes burning into my back with every step I take.





We’re halfway through dessert, and I can confirm that if Ellis wasn’t sitting by my side, I’d have left an hour ago.

I’m not sure what was expected tonight, but with everything that happened out on the water, you’d think it would be obvious.

Lucy won’t look at me, and I refuse to look at her. I feel like a kid in school again, pretending my crush doesn’t exist because I don’t want the whole school to know she was the reason I got a hard-on in drama class.

There’s energy in the room, and it’s going to blow up any minute now. I can feel it.

“So…” Nina announces, and I drag my eyes up. She looks to Mason, and he beams down at her. My heart rate seems to pick up, and I can sense the mood in the room shifting—my own mood shifting.

“Oh my god,” Lucy mutters, dropping her fork down.

“We have some news.”

“Oh, guys!” Megan cries, covering her mouth.

Nina laughs. “You don’t even know what it is yet!”

“You’re having a baby,” both girls say in unison, looking between each other before they both stand and go to Nina.

“Fuck,” I mutter, not being able to keep the smile off my face.

“Uncle Elliot!”

I look down at Ellis as everyone crowds around Nina and Mase. “Sorry, buddy.”

He looks back at me and smiles so wide, his little eyes water when in reality, I’m not even sure he knows what it all means.

I sit him on my lap and whisper into his ear, “You’ll be a great big brother, champ! Congratulations.” I hold out my fist, and he bumps it with his.

Everyone sits back down, and I place Ellis in his seat, clasping Mason on his back and nodding with a wide smile at Nina. They know how happy I am for them.

“You’ve been drinking!” Megan gasps.

“I know. I stopped last night when we worked out my dates. It’s why we left early.” She laughs, but I can see the worry on her face. “I had no idea! It’s the first month I said screw it and stopped tracking everything.”

“We’re over the moon for you, guys,” Charlie tells them.

Scarlet stands and swipes at the corner of her eye. I’m guessing she knew judging on the way she reacted so calmly compared to the other two girls.

“Thank you all so much for being here with us this weekend,” she says to us all. “Nina and Mase, you’ve brought us so much happiness tonight, and on a day that always hurts so hard.”

I watch as Mason looks to the table and clears his throat. He nods at his sister and gives her a tight smile.

My mind races, trying to figure out what I’ve missed.

“Mum and Dad would have been overjoyed to see us out here, especially with you girls.” She looks at Lucy and Megan, giving them a warm look. “And to think they are watching down, seeing this news being shared among us all, it makes me think they’d be super happy and proud. And I know I moved the Antlis ball to an entirely different date and season due to our terrible British weather always screwing us up, but I couldn’t not celebrate what would be the third anniversary of something we all started together.”

The ball.

My gaze shifts to find her staring straight back.

“Two incredible years, three insanely successful events with over ten million pounds raised for a charity so dear to our hearts. I can’t thank you all enough for your support over the years.”

Two years.

That’s all I hear.

Lucy’s eyes snap away, her chest working as she reaches blindly at her neck for something that’s no longer there.

I look at my drink.

“So, if we could all raise our glasses. I’d like to make a toast.” Scarlet lifts her champagne flute, and we all follow, my arm lifting on autopilot. “To Mum and Dad, and,” She dips her head in Nina and Mase’s direction. “To Mum and Dad to be.”

Everyone chuckles, but I fail at putting on a facade.

Something feral has my eyes locking back on Lucy’s. She tries in vain to avoid it, but there’s nothing stopping the energy settling between us.

“Luce, I wanna see you live your life.”

“I am.”

“Leave him.”

“No.”

“Keep looking.”

“Elliot!”

“And if in two years you haven’t found him—No. Fuck him, actually. If in two years you haven’t found her, if you’re not settled and well on your way to ‘five-year Luce’ I’ll give you the kids.”

Is she happy? Well on her way to where she needs to be?

Fuck, no.

She might have a fancy job and live in a different country, but if the last three days have been anything to go by, she’s still the same Lucy who left four months ago.

She excuses herself from the table, and Nina instantly stands. I put my hand up and tell her without words that I’ve got it.

Because I have got it.

It’s the one thing I’ve always promised her.

I walk down the hall to the bedrooms, presuming that’s where I’ll find her. Her room is at the farthest end of the lodge, and I walk right in without knocking.