turn around, Ivy isn’t where I left her. I knew better than to leave her unattended. That woman is slippery and not one you want running around loose.
I spend the next half hour mingling and making small talk as I wander the party looking for her.
At the same time I spot her walking quickly with Emily from the back door of the house, a hand slams down on my shoulder as Shane and Sawyer run past me.
“Come on, Gabe. It’s time.”
My teeth grind, but I run after them. My eyes lock with Mason’s pissed off glare as we take our spots at the front of a pavilion and line up like this is a fucking wedding and not the announcement of an engagement.
The problem is, there are only six of us instead of nine.
Elbowing Sawyer, I lean closer to whisper, “Where are the twins?”
He shrugs but glances quickly at the house.
“They dipped out right after Luca ran away and Tanner chased after her. They didn’t say where they were going.”
In my peripheral vision, I watch Ivy tend to her best friend.
Judging by Emily’s smeared lipstick and the mess of her hair, I sigh and look back toward the house to see the twins walking out, odd grins on their faces.
Around the party, a few people begin clinking their glasses so that a hush falls over the crowd. All eyes are on us as the twins finally step up to fall in line. We’re mirrored by a row of women stretching out on Emily’s side, all of us decked out in only the best clothes and elegant finery.
It’s all a bullshit lie, a younger generation used as pawns in our families’ power trips.
Both Mason and Emily’s fathers step out of the crowd to approach the pavilion, their wives left behind to fawn over the fake picture of happiness that is really a disaster waiting to happen.
I wonder how nobody notices the happy couple are standing as far apart from each other as humanly possible.
“Where the fuck is Tanner?” Shane whisper-hisses.
I catch his stare and shake my head. “Chasing Luca.”
“Asshole,” Shane laughs. “I knew he’d find a way to get out of this. I bet he brought her on purpose.”
We all wanted a way out of this, but here we are. It’s a show of support for Mason and nothing else. Definitely not for the woman he’s marrying or for her group of friends who have been nothing more than a fucking headache through the years.
“I’d like to thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate the engagement of my son, Mason Strom, to the beautiful and talented Emily Donahue.
Snorting at the description he gave of Emily, I glance at the twins and think she must have at least one talent to keep them interested. It’s a fair bet that’s not what Mr. Strom meant by his statement.
While he prattles on about how pleased the families are to know they’ll be united through the marriage of their children, I catch sight of Ivy staring at me, her periwinkle blue eyes rimmed red by tears she’d cried earlier.
Hoping to see more of those, I refuse to look away first. It’s adorable to see the hesitation in her expression. To see helplessness where once there had been a deceptive grin just before she ripped the floor out from under me.
It’s almost too delicious for words.
“Again, thank you all for being here tonight to celebrate the upcoming union of -“
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think. Thanks everybody for being here to watch two people forced together who can’t stand each other.
I mentally rush the asshole along because I have a target in sight that just so happens to be injured at the moment.
Thankfully, he ends the speech, releasing us from hell, but just as I take the first step forward to chase down the woman I’ve been gunning for all night, a crowd of mothers descend like doting hens, surrounding Ivy and Emily before I can get to them.
“Do you believe that shit?”
“Shit doesn’t talk to me, and if it did, I wouldn’t believe it,” I answer, not really interested in Mason at the moment because I have something else in mind.
Glancing at him, I chuckle at how he’s already ripping the tie from his neck and unbuttoning the top of his collar.
Our forced charade is done, and we can return to our regularly scheduled programming, at least until we have to pretend to care again at the wedding.