In the Arms of the Elite (Rich Boys of Burberry Prep #4) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,35

baby that Jennifer's carrying, are pushed aside in favor of keeping the peace.

That … or maybe I just don't want to know the answers to those questions?

“What do you want to do for your birthday?” Dad asks, and I get mad déjà vu, sitting on the back porch with him and Windsor. Last year, we had the surprise party at the bowling alley. This year … seems so much more severe, so much more important somehow. “Your mother wanted to take you and your sister to dinner.”

“That's pretty much the last thing I'd want to do on my birthday,” I tell him as Wind stays quiet, sipping his lemonade from a metal straw tucked into the corner of his mouth. I exhale and look out across the lawn. It's a little too long, the grass waving in the warm breeze, but it's dotted with wildflowers and I find the sight soothing somehow. “Maybe we could all go to the lake and have a barbeque?”

“This is your birthday, Marnye-bear, not mine.” Dad reaches over and gives my hand a squeeze, but there’s no strength left in it. Birds chirp, and butterflies flitter by, but I feel like I’m being sucked down a dark, black hole in that moment.

I want to scream at the world, maybe throw something, but that won’t help. Instead, I take a long, deep breath and force a smile. It hurts, that smile, like a knife cutting across the bottom of my face, but I do it anyway. Because really, it’s the opposite of what Dad just said: this is for him, not for me.

“It’s your eighteenth,” Charlie insists, looking over at me with a mischievous smile. “You’re supposed to get into trouble. It’s a rite of passage.” I already got into some good trouble at the Afterglow concert, I think, feeling a small shiver run through me. I cannot get Zayd’s inked hands out of my head, or the way the piercing in his shaft made me finish with such a violent, overwhelming surge of pleasure.

Not … exactly the conversation I want to be having while Dad’s touching my hand. I almost grimace but manage to keep the expression off my face.

“Barbeque and fishing at the lake,” I say firmly, exhaling. “I know I’ve been kinda strict about the vegan and vegetarian thing, so we’ll grab some big, fat steaks, some ribs, some chicken—”

“I will grab some big, fat steaks, and whatever else you want,” Windsor says, setting his lemonade aside. “Just make me a list, and your wish is granted.”

I give him a look.

“No more extravagant gifts this time. It’s not a competition.” But my mouth curves into a smile anyway because he knows how much I love my car.

“It’s a deal, Your Majesty,” he says, without a hint of irony. “Just the basics. Do you want a cake? Candles? A crown?”

I smile and Dad chuckles, reaching over to ruffle my hair.

“She’s been wearing a crown since she was born, my little princess …” His voice trails off, and the way he looks at me … I know he thinks he’s dying. Really and truly believes it. I squeeze Grandma June’s charm bracelet in my hand and keep eye contact with him.

“Any normal party stuff is fine …” I start, and then as if Windsor can sense we need it, he stands up and leaves me and dad alone in the sunshine.

My eighteenth birthday rolls up just days before school starts. The weather is perfect, a balmy seventy degrees with just enough shade to keep us cool, but plenty of sunshine gleaming on the surface of the lake. Using some of my gambling money, I bought Dad and me new fishing rods, seriously freaking fancy ones. That, and a new bait box and plenty of supplies to go in it. I even bought him a new hat, and a small metal boat that cuts across the water like a dream.

“This is not my birthday,” he insists, but he accepts the items anyway, and we spend a good portion of the morning in silence on the water, bringing in several fish but keeping only a couple to cook for lunch. By the time the boys arrive, rolling up in Zayd’s Jaguar, Zack’s McLaren, and a Mercedes sedan that Miranda got for her eighteenth birthday, we’re bringing the boat in and getting coals prepped on the small barbeque.

Windsor sets up streamers and ties a ridiculously huge cluster of balloons to a tree while Zack takes over the grill.