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Her eyes widen, and her mouth drops open.
“Oh my gosh, I did, didn’t I?”
Shit, so she really did forget.
“I’m sorry. I was so distracted with emails and these photos that I forgot.”
“Okay, well, that’s no—”
“This is a joke, right?” a voice says from the doorway.
Grace’s oldest brother, Dutton, struts in and closes the door, but it only remains closed for about five seconds before Gavin walks in, also closing it behind him.
“I told you, I already talked to her,” he says, catching his breath. “Fuck, he was basically running through the lobby,” he says to us.
“I wasn’t running,” Dutton says, crossing his arms and widening his stance to glare at us. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“The post already—”
“I want it from you,” he snaps at Grace, his voice rising.
“Watch it,” I say and move closer to his sister.
She’s clearly worried that this entire plan is going to make things worse. I need to assure her that it won’t. Starting here. If we can convince our families, we can convince the world.
“This is Grace’s office, and while you may be her brother, she is my fiancée, and no one speaks to her that way.”
“I—” His head snaps back as if I slapped him. “Fuck, you’re right.” He sighs. “I’m sorry. I just can’t wrap my head around this, and she’s my sister, and I’m worried, and I feel like I need to, I don’t know, be here to fix something.”
“Oh.” Grace stands and walks over to hug her brother. Then she joins me at my side, lacing her hand with mine.
I’ve never been a fan of public displays of affection, but I won’t lie: I don’t hate this small gesture.
“You don’t have to worry about me anymore, Dutton,” Grace announces and then looks up to me with a big smile. “I’m Preston’s problem now.”
She’s not going to make this easy for me.
“A happy one.”
“So happy,” she replies.
“I’m here to help solve all your problems.”
“And you’re just so great at it.”
“The best.”
“You’re—”
“Going to be sick if I have to stand here and keep listening to you? Yep,” Gavin adds and then pats Dutton’s shoulder. “Let’s leave them to their work.”
I pull Grace closer to my side and rest my arm around her shoulders.
Then I give her brother my best smile.
“I still want to talk later—I have a list of questions for both of you. Let me know when you two are free later this week for dinner or something,” Dutton says before he follows his brother out the door.
“Well, that went well,” Grace says, sarcastically, and goes back to work.
