I tensed, something green and ugly slithering through my veins at the way my sister eyed him.
Beside her, Bentley stiffened and placed a possessive hand on Georgia’s hip. She ignored him, her eyes sliding to Xavier’s arm around my waist.
“You’re dating Sloane?” Her question swam with disbelief. “Yep,” he drawled. “I chased her for months, but she finally agreed to go out with me.” He dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “Sorry that took so long, babe. Parking was a nightmare, and the front desk initially refused to let me up because I’m not family. How’s Pen?”
“A bit banged up, but she’ll be okay.” I leaned into him, playing up the girlfriend act. We technically weren’t lying; we were dating, albeit more casually than Xavier made it seem. “Thank you for coming here with me.”
That was a hundred percent honest. “Anytime, Luna. I’ll always be here for you.”
I glanced up, my heart stilling for a split second at the sincerity in his eyes. It surprised me no matter how many times I saw it, and it scared the hell out of me.
I knew how to deal with fake people. I interacted with dozens of them every day. But genuine people were rare, and they slipped past my defenses in a way that could be disastrous.
Then again, it might be too late where Xavier was concerned.
He—
Bentley cleared his throat, derailing my train of thought and dragging our attention back his way.
“Aren’t you his publicist?” he asked, earning a sharp glance from Georgia. My client list wasn’t a secret, but it was interesting that he was so familiar with it.
“Seems like a violation of professional ethics to date a client.” We stared at him.
Shit.
Bentley wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t going to explain the nuances of our situation to him. To be honest, I feared that, once I went down that road and passed all my justifications, I’d find no good reason for dating Xavier other than I wanted to. He was the kryptonite to my logic, my inhibitions, my rationality, and everything else I relied on to keep me out of quagmires like this one.
Similarly, I’d gotten so caught up in wiping the smug look off Georgia’s face that I forgot we were supposed to be keeping our relationship low-key in public. We weren’t hiding it, but we didn’t flaunt it either. We didn’t want to give the city’s gossip network any fodder.
“Who I date or how I run my business is none of your concern,” I said coolly. “I’d tell you to mind yours, but you don’t have a business of your own, do you?” A small tilt of my head. “It’s sad that your family can’t buy you deals the way they bought your admission into Princeton.”
Flags of color burned high on Bentley’s cheekbones. He worked in private equity like his father, but he’d gotten the job mostly because of his connections. He also hated reminders about being wait-listed at Princeton. The only reason he’d gotten off the list was because his family donated a building.
“This is absurd,” Georgia said. Without our father or my relationship status to use against me, she’d clearly lost interest in the conversation. “We won’t stand here and let you insult us. Come on, Bentley, let’s go. We have dinner reservations at Le Boudoir.” They didn’t say a word about Pen before they left. That was my family in a nutshell. Great at surface-level sentiments like showing up; shitty at actual sentiments like following through.
Honestly, I was surprised Georgia had showed up at all. She and Pen tolerated each other at best and rarely spent time together. Georgia didn’t care for children (which was concerning, since she was pregnant), and Pen thought she was “too narcissistic.” I didn’t know where she’d learned the word narcissistic, but she wasn’t wrong.
“You have such a wonderful family,” Xavier said after Georgia and Bentley were out of earshot. “I can’t imagine why you don’t want to talk to them.”
I huffed a small laugh. “Yeah, me neither.”
Now that my family was gone, the string of defiance that’d kept me upright collapsed. My shoulders sagged as adrenaline leaked from my pores, leaving me heavy and exhausted.
I stepped out of Xavier’s embrace and sank into one of the chairs lining the hall outside Pen’s room. I stared blankly at the opposite wall, my emotions a wreck after the surprise encounter with my family.
Sometimes, I wished I were the type of person who could forgive and forget. If I swallowed my hurt and anger and pretended I was happy for Georgia, that might actually be true one day. Fake it till you make it and all that.
If my sister had been a good sister, and her betrayal with Bentley were a one-off, I could be tempted to consider that route, but Georgia had never been a model sibling. She was used to being the center of attention and getting whatever she wanted. Often, what she wanted was what she couldn’t have—the one-of-a-kind porcelain doll my grandmother had gifted me for my birthday, our mother’s vintage dress for her debutante ball, and, of course, my fiancé.
She’d put up such a fuss about the doll and dress that my father “redistributed” them to her. As for Bentley, he bore a fair share of the blame. I believed in greater accountability for the cheater than the person they cheated with, but in their case, they could both jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.
I heard a small rustle of clothing as Xavier sat next to me. He’d let me process silently, which I was grateful for, but I couldn’t stay catatonic forever.
“Thank you.” I turned my head to face him. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” He lounged in his seat, the position reassuringly familiar against the impersonal hospital walls. “I merely told the truth like I always do.”
“Right. What did you tell the front desk to get them to let you up?”
“Nothing.” Xavier’s grin twinkled with mischief. “I let Benjamin do the talking. Five Benjamins, to be exact. I may have also told them I was your fiancé.”
“That has to be illegal, and you have to stop walking around with so much cash. It’s unsafe.”
“Unsafe?” He shifted, his knee grazing mine. “Don’t tell me you’re starting to care, Luna.”
“Starting, no.” I’d passed starting weeks ago; I just hadn’t known it at the time.
A rush of anxiety shot through me. Admitting I cared was akin to getting my teeth pulled out with pliers, but he’d been honest with me about his feelings. I should be honest with him (to an extent).
Xavier’s grin dimmed as the implication of my reply hit. Surprise flashed through his eyes, followed by a slow, molten warmth.
“Then we’re on the same page,” he said softly. Some of my anxiety abated. “I guess we are.”
We sat in silence for a while, watching nurses rush past and strangers come and go. Hospitals bled tears, but it was comforting, in a way. It reminded us that we weren’t alone in our grief and that the universe wasn’t targeting us. Shitty things happened to everyone.
It was a strange comfort, but it was a comfort nonetheless. “Is Pen really okay?” Xavier asked.
“Yes. I got to see her for a bit before she crashed and I ran into my family.” I picked a piece of lint off my pants. “My father and stepmother were here. They left before you came.”
