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He nodded, sliding his coffee aside. He glanced out the window and watched pedestrians walking down the sidewalk.

“Fine. If she’s been telling you about our family, then she must trust you.”

I snorted. “Obviously, not enough.”

His head snapped in my direction. “Don’t do that. You’re not entitled to every part of her because you think you’re in love with her. It takes more than ten weeks to earn this level of trust.”

I raised a hand. “I get it. I’m sorry. It’s just… shocking.”

“Then be shocked, but don’t get stupid.”

“I hear you.”

“Good.” He leaned back in his chair, analyzing me as he decided what to divulge. He was right. I wasn’t entitled to Vera’s identity. Still, it felt like shit that I had to get the info secondhand, especially from someone who despised me and recently rocked my shit in front of a strip of high-end boutique stores. “So, what has she told you?”

I spent the next few minutes giving him the rundown.

“Okay. She gave you the sanitized version.”

Of course she did.

“Everyone in our family is musically gifted. Well, I wouldn’t say gifted because that shit was drilled into us, but you get the message. Every summer, the kids in the Gray family were shipped to the estate for music boot camp—no exceptions. If you were old enough to identify a treble clef, then your ass was on the estate.

“Vera started particularly early. By three, she was playing piano, and by six she had her own kit. Our grandfather knew Vera was different from the rest of us and we could tell he wanted her to be his protégé.”

“How did your parents feel about that?”

He shook his head. “They weren’t thrilled, but by the time they wanted to intervene and insist that Vera should focus on just being a kid, it was too late.”

My brows creased. “Too late?”

“By then, Vera was writing lyrics, composing, and laying down tracks. She could do it all; sing, dance, write, and play any instrument she could get her hands on. She was—is a beast, and the more our parents tried to pull her back, the more she pushed forward; with our grandfather’s support, of course.”

“So she’s always been this stubborn?”

“You met her. You think that just happened out of nowhere?”

“Fair point.”

“Anyway, Vera and the triplets were always tight. When you saw the triplets, Vera was always tagging along like she shared the womb with them despite the four-year age difference.”

Snoh paused, a sudden thought coming to him. “How old are you again?”

Here we fucking go.

“I’ll be 29 in a few months.”

“Hell nah,” Snoh protested, disgust taking over his face. “You are too damn old for her!”

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. “It’s only seven years.”

“Eight,” he corrected.

I opened my eyes and settled my gaze on him. “Look, it could be worse, and Vera is—”

“I swear to God, if you say she’s mature for her age, I will drag you through this coffee shop.”

“I hadn’t planned on saying that. I was saying that Vera is old enough to make decisions about who she dates.”