Page 116 of I Choose You

He scoffed, stretching out in the passenger seat. We both still wore our suits from the office, but he somehow managed to look more rumpled.

“Why? Why keep up the charade?”

“Because Dad wants us to have dates.”

He laughed and shook his head. “So what? He couldn’t have been serious when he said that.”

“I think he was.” I shrugged. “Besides, Brooke has already made an impression on him and the others.”

“And you?”

I turned onto the highway. “What about me?”

“She’s made an impression on you?”

She’d done more than that. She’d burrowed under my skin and possessed my thoughts.

“You’ve been kind of mad. So I wondered…”

“What did you expect?” I glanced at him again, finding him staring out the window.

“I don’t know. To be happy? I would have been grateful to escape a scorned woman like that.” He swatted his hand at my arm without looking. “You’re welcome, by the way, for having your back.”

I chewed on my lip, wishing I could laugh. He had my back? Was that really the way he saw it?

“Now you’re free to pick up someone at the wedding.”

“I just told you. I’m bringing Brooke. We’ve already gotten this far. It’d be more awkward to explain why she wasn’t there if I didn’t go along with it now.”

“Sucks to be you.”

I glowered as I stared out the windshield. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. But only because I missed her so damn much. Rejection was a bitch.

When we arrived at the manor, I didn’t see Dad’s car.

“Oh, that’s great,” Kody said, looking at his phone.

I’d had mine charging on the drive and hadn’t noticed I’d received a text. Dad had contacted us both, saying something came up.

After his confession about the wedding planning details reminding him of when he married Mom, I wondered if he was staying away because of that. If he was, fine. I was already ninety-nine percent certain the wedding would be here.

“Hey,” I told Kody as we headed out to find Colette. “You’re okay with Dad marrying Margaux, right?”

He shot me a side-eye. “Little late to be asking that.”

“Have you talked to him about it?”

He smirked. “You’re better with all that emotional shit.” He lifted his shoulders and let them drop, then waved when he spotted Tristan and Colette walking toward us. “What does it matter to me? It’s his life to live. If she makes him happy, whatever.”

That was what I said, give or take. It reassured me to know Kody would still have our father’s best interests in mind.

“Has he given you a hard time about not having a date?”

He glowered at me. “Daily. You’ve always gotta be the ‘good’ one. Kissing up and being the obedient one.”

I smirked. “Sure. Because I’m only paying a woman to pretend to be my date. A woman who wanted to use the wedding as a chance to tell everyone how much of an asshole I am.”

“Yeah, that is kind of fucked up.”