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He stares at me when I straighten up, shoes dangling over my shoulder. “What?”
“Most women just—” He gestures at my feet. “Suck it up.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t feel like sucking it up.” I glare at him and wiggle my toes in the grass. “Besides, this feels nice.”
He pauses for a long moment before he walks over to an empty bench, puts his glass down, and takes off his shoes.
I’m honestly shocked by the gesture. When he’s done, he sits there, bare feet in the grass, and takes a long drink from his wine. His smile is cheeky like he knows he’s doing something wrong, but he’s loving it anyway. “Don’t let the staff see this. I bet they’d throw us out.”
“That’s the problem with places like the Oak, it’s all so stupidly proper.” I walk over and sit next to him but make sure I leave some room between us. There’s nobody nearby, and it feels like we’re completely alone in some magical, idyllic British garden, like if I keep walking around the bushes, I’ll come across some ruins that’ll lead into a fairy world.
“It’s a way to enforce conformity, and conformity guarantees good behavior. Mostly, anyway. You’d have a hard time making my friend Evander behave.”
“That’s the big Greek guy, right? I’ve seen him here before.”
“That’s right. He’s up in Chicago right now but he comes down here as often as he can. We all like to get together, my friends and I.”
“That must be nice, having a circle of friends.” I sip my drink and watch him carefully. “It’s hard to have friends as an adult.”
His gaze grows distant as he looks across at the flowers. “At a certain point, people stop caring about relationships and start caring about power. You’re no longer a person to them but a means to an end. Fortunately, I met my friends before that mattered, and it helps that we have a complicated history.”
“Complicated how?”
“You’ll have to marry me to hear that story.” He looks at me and he’s smiling again. “I hoped this would make you a little more comfortable. Are you too cold?”
“No, I’m okay,” I say and it’s true. The Texas night is humid, but there’s lots of lighting around, a dull glow coming around the club walls and the built-in fixtures set discreetly around the paths.
“Let me ask you something and be honest. What made you change your mind?”
I tug at my hair nervously. “It’s complicated.”
“Everything’s complicated. If we’re going to do this, let’s try to do it for real.”
I clear my throat and open my mouth, but how can I make him understand? I’ve been an outsider in my own family for my entire life and treated like scum by practically everyone around me, especially my cousins, and especially by Sara Lynn. I don’t look exactly like everyone else which means I’m somehowdifferentfrom them. And different is very bad in the Stockton world.
“How much do you know… about me?” I ask feeling all sorts of awkward. “I mean, about my parents.”
“Your father isn’t around and your mother is an addict.”
The way he says it makes me sit up straighter. “You don’t think that’s—I don’t know, bad?”
“I’m not sure how it’s your fault that your father didn’t stick around, and you definitely didn’t get your mother addicted to drugs.”
“My mom’s been in and out of rehabs for years at this point. Everyone pretty much knows about it, and Grandfather’s getting sick of supporting her. He thinks she’s embarrassing and worthless, and I’m afraid—” I stop myself and take a breath. “They look down on me already, and I guess I figure it can’t get any worse.”
He accepts that wordlessly. His head tilts to the side as he considers me and I try to stare at the flowers instead of at him, but every time I look over, I feel a leap in my stomach and throat. This man can’t seriously have any interest in me, and if he does, it’s only because he wants to use me for his own purposes. He said it himself—at a certain point we’re all playing games.
And that’s okay. I don’t need to like him and he doesn’t need to like me.
So long as he can help.
“You want to hurt them,” he says finally. “Is that it? You want to marry me out of revenge?”
“Something like that. I’ll admit, the look on Sara Lynn’s face when she finds out is going to be worth it.” I tap my glass and look at him. “But the biggest question is why do you want to marryme?”
“I told you before, my grandfather wants me to get married. If I’m going to take over my family, I need a wife, and you’re very conveniently looking for a husband. And like you, I also want to hurt my family for my own reasons.”
“I find it hard to believe that you don’t have a perfect life.”
