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“The one where you said you’d be out of town for a while? Yeah. Thanks. That was hugely comforting.”
I bit my lip, cringing again. Allegra wasn’t sarcastic. She didn’t sling barbs like the rest of our fucked-up family.
“I didn’t have my phone. It was the best I could do from the hotel.”
“And how was I supposed to know that was actuallyyou? What if that was someone pretending to be you? What if you were really in the hospital again? Or worse?!”
Ah, fuck. Didn’t even think about that. “Allegra,” I sighed, searching for the right words.
“No! You don’t get to talk your way out of this! I am mad at you, Bennett. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Don’t start! You’re lucky I didn’t tell her.Again, I might add! I hate keeping secrets.”
“It’s not a secret. She just doesn’t need to know.”
“She’s still your mother.”
Insert eye roll here. At least I managed to keep my sigh to myself. “How can I make it up to you?”
“Come to Barcelona.”
Groaning, I smashed the heel of my hand into my eye. She didn’t hesitate at all before throwing out that particular demand, which meant it had clearly been brewing in the back of her head for a while. I knew going to Venice for Christmas was a bad idea. Now I had no excusenotto go to Barcelona and meet her stupid boyfriend. “I just got home. And now you want me to fly across the Atlantic?”
“Not now, you jerk. For my birthday.” I opened my mouth to answer, but she cut me off abruptly. “And don’t even think about coming up with some excuse why you can’t! You have plenty of time to make whatever arrangements you need to make.”
“Fine. I’ll make sure Leander doesn’t have anything important scheduled that week.”
“Leander?” In the blink of an eye, the storm clouds parted and I could feel her practically beaming from across the pond.“You’re talking again? Since when?”
Automatically, my gaze slid down the couch, taking in his profile. He had a half-smile on his face, listening intently to whoever was on the other line. As if he knew the moment I looked at him, he turned toward me, his smile widening. God, he was breathtaking.
“Yeah,” I answered distractedly.
“Good. Bring him with you if that means you’ll actually come.”
“You mean bring him with so you’l have an ally for whatever lecture you have planned?”
“No, I mean bring him with so you don’t kill Sergio.”
“How do you know he won’t help me?”
“Very funny.”
I wasn’t exactly kidding, but I decided to drop it. She was the one person in the world who absolutely didnotneed to know about my particular way of handling problems. “I have to go. I’ll email you the reservations when I have them.”
“You better.”
Rolling my eyes, I smiled nonetheless as I hung up. She was getting feisty the older she got. It made me so proud.
Gavin was next on the list of phone calls. Unlike Allegra, he didn’t let the whole thing go. Instead, he proceeded to read me the Riot Act for the nexthour. An hour of my life I would literally never get back.
As the keeper of my finances, he was smart enough to track my credit card purchases, which meant he a) knew I wasn’t dead and b) had a month to stew about the fact I didn’t inform him of my impromptu vacation, as if it was on some secret agenda of mine. Given the fact he managed my personalandprofessional calendars, I don’t know where he got the idea I’d plan anything on my own. That was literally part of his job.
“I had to clear our yourentireschedule,” Gavin ranted. “Do you know how many fucking people I had to reschedule? I pushed everyone out until September because I didn’t know when the hell you were coming home!”
My head hit the back of the couch and I closed my eyes, rubbing away the budding headache with my thumb and forefinger. “Speaking of September, can you book two flights to Barcelona for Allegra’s birthday?”
