The Grand Pact (The Grand Men #1)(2)

“You’ve barely spoken to me all night,” I counter. “You didn’t even come to say hello.” I pop a brow accusingly, although I’m really not mad at all. She seems to slash away at my annoyance without even trying to. “Also, why are you with him?”

“No. No, no, no, no.” She stops walking and turns on me. “You don’t get to do that. You won the bid and get to take me on a date—I don’t find anything you do weird anymore; you’ll have a reason for it, I’m sure.”

“I do—”

“Which is fine by me. But you’re my friend, Ell. You should be here for me when I need it, not coming at me and telling me I shouldn’t be with Miller.”

Her eyes start to well, and she dips her head, hiding from me.

I realise she’s upset.

“Luce–”

“Just go enjoy your night. I’m good, okay.”

She turns and walks towards the bar, and I contemplate following her, but I know she needs the space.

I also know she isn’t okay.

“Luce.”

“Elliot!” she drags it out as if she’s annoyed, but how could she be?

It’s me.

“I said, walk with me. I wanna know what’s up.”

“Let me grab a drink real quick.” She sighs, relenting easily before she peers over at Miller and then brings her gaze back to me. A lazy smile dances across her face, and I can’t help the grin I flash her.

“You don’t need it.”

I take her wrist without breaking eye contact, then lead her from the tent. I wrap her arm through mine and stand up straight. “Elliot Montgomery at your service, Miss Morgan. Now how can I be of assistance?”

Her snort could wake the dead. “Shut up, you dork.”

I smile at my feet as she pushes me away, but I quickly draw her back to me by the neck. Her hand slips around my waist, and we fall into a comfortable walk.

“Talk to me.”

She inhales heavily through her nose, drawing in the fresh country air. Lowerwick Estate belongs to the Lowells—well, what’s left of them. Scarlet and Mason are brother and sister and as good as family to me. We grew up out here on our family’s estates, but when Mason and I took over our fathers’ real estate company, we had to move into the city.

“What the hell am I doing, Ell?”

“You actually want me to answer that?”

She gives me a pointed look, and I shift my gaze out to the countryside, not being able to stick the look on her face. She will be a ballbuster of a wife for some fortunate prick one day.

“I don’t know what I want—”

“With Miller?”

She shrugs, defeated. “With life.” Rolling her lips, she pulls her arm from mine and steps away from me, using her hands to articulate her words. “I’m thirty. I’m in a relationship that’s….”

“Fucking dead.”

Her head drops to her shoulder. “That’s not true or fair.”

“Isn’t it?” I ask. “Luce, I bid on you tonight, and he didn’t do shit. He let it go for me to take you on a date.”

“Miller can’t afford that kind of money.”

“It’s dead,” I reiterate. She knows it too. “If it were my girlfriend on that stage, I’d bullshit my way to a date with her, money or no money. And what’s that crap before with him just strolling off when you tell him to?” I scrub my face, trying to dispel my frustration. “Come on, Luce, you deserve better.”

“I don’t think I have time. It’s not like I can just leave him and then find someone and settle down. What if I don’t meet someone else now? It takes time. I’ve put the work in with Miller.”

“It’s been a couple months. And there isn’t a cutoff point here. You go on and on about it like you’re old.”

“I am. Or I’m getting older. I want kids, Elliot.”

I sigh and come to a stop, sliding my hands into my trouser pockets. I’ve heard this a million times over the two years I’ve known her. “I know you do.”

“You don’t understand because you don’t have the same life goals as I do, and that’s okay; I get it. But it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to convince me to throw away a relationship because it’s lacking a little spark.”

“A little spark?”

“Yes! It’s not like me and Miller don’t have anything going on. We are just fine.”

“Is fine going to be enough for you though, princess? When you’re curled up in your bed late at night, and you’re still dreaming of the life that could’ve been, you going to be fine then?”

“What do you want from me? To leave him?” Her eyes search mine, hungry for an answer I don’t fully understand.

“I want you to be happy. To be confident in your life choices. Make them for you; the girl stood in front of me now, not the girl you might be in five-or ten-years’ time.”

“That’s easy for you to say!” She shakes her head. “You don’t get it. You don’t want kids, so you don’t have the goals or the guy you’ll be in five years’ time pushing you to make choices. I want to work towards something in life.”