am I right?” I grinned, sending a wink to my girl. She had been swooning all through callbacks over the guy she was certain would get the role opposite her.
She fell into a seat beside me, rolling her eyes. “He got Cosmo. Can you believe it?” She crossed her arms, tipping the glass back and finishing the mimosa in a swig.
Harrison eyed me as he drank his champagne. Reagan went on and on about her audition and their first reading, but all the while Harrison watched me.
My face burned as I tried to ignore his scrutiny. I know that we hadn’t all gotten off to a perfect start—him, me, and Tate. But was that any reason to award me with the glare from hell? I shivered, despite Charleston’s morning warmth, and pushed off the couch. I needed to escape that icy stare. Those eyes that knew me better than I knew myself sometimes. “How are those omelets coming? Want me to start the pancakes?”
I turned my back on Harrison, pouring the pancake mix into a bowl, but I knew his attention was still on me, picking apart every tiny bit of movement. My hands shook as I smoothed my bangs over my scar, and I froze midmotion. Dammit. Harrison, my brother from another mother, knew every tic I had. He knew the second my shaky hand moved for my hair how nervous I was. I stirred the milk into the pancake mix, and I cursed my nerves as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
Dropping the wooden spoon onto the counter, I spun to face Harrison. I don’t know where this sudden surge of anger sprouted from. All I knew was that it had taken root and was spreading into a towering tree. “What?” I said. “What is it? You’re clearly thinking something.”
Harrison’s smirk was infuriating, and he simply shrugged, flipping the omelet. “I didn’t say anything.”
I huffed a sigh and Reagan poured a second mimosa for all of us, cautiously setting the flutes between us. “You didn’t have to,” I grumbled, whipping at the batter once more.
“All I did was ask if you liked him,” Harrison said again.
“But you don’t, right?” I asked.
Reagan leaned in, carefully taking the pancake batter from me before I slopped half of it onto the floor. “You’re ending it, though, Shelby,” she offered carefully.
“No, I don’t like him,” Harrison said, interrupting Reagan. The utter calmness in his voice provoked me. It annoyed the hell out of me how composed Harrison managed to remain, even in the face of frustration. “But what does that matter?”
It mattered. He knew it mattered. Reagan and Harrison were my only family left in this world. Harrison was almost as close to my mom as I was. He was my brother, even if we weren’t related by blood. And if he didn’t like Tate—didn’t like the only guy who’d ever made my body heat and my heart ache—maybe my mom wouldn’t have liked him, either.
If that was the case, there was no hope for Tate. No one came between me and my family…alive or dead.
Chapter Sixteen
SHELBY
The elevator groaned to life, heading up to the penthouse. I wasn’t sure if it was because of my nerves or the sudden movement in the elevator, but my stomach dropped to my toes.
Maybe I should call this whole thing off? The red stop button in the elevator tempted me, echoing for me to press it. One quick push and I could be off this elevator and back downstairs in my cotton pajamas. As I moved to lift my hand, my sleeve was lined with lead. Heavy. And by the time I had my finger shakily hovering over the button, the doors opened, revealing Tate standing there with a big grin and an even bigger box of Mellow Mushroom pizza. That smile of his was like an instant sedative, calming my frayed nerves.
Was this normal? This level of power Tate had over me? Most guys barely got me to their driveway, let alone inside their bedroom. But maybe it was time to let go. To free myself from the past and to try again, letting my body follow in kind. As much as I wanted to, I was pretty sure that wasn’t how this shit worked. Otherwise, why would people spend years of time and millions of dollars on intensive therapy?
“Hi,” he said, breaking through my thoughts and right into my gut, where a nest of butterflies had taken up permanent