small item bounced off the hard surface crossing his palm and arced toward Layla to land in her lap. A jeweler’s box. Slowly, she picked it up and passed it to the man seated beside her.
He looked at it for a long moment, then flipped open the lid. A diamond solitaire winked in the sunlight. Elegant and classy, it suited a woman like Blythe. The lack of expression on Vance’s face confirmed it had been hers.
“She’s been wanting to return it to you,” Fitz said. “Last night she had it with her, but you didn’t stick around long enough for her to give it back.”
The ring box shut with a snap and Vance looked at his brother. “She can keep it,” he said, holding it out.
The other man shook his head. “No, she can’t.” There was another long hesitation. “Because as of early this morning, she’s wearing my ring.”
Oh, no. Layla froze, remembering the last confrontation between the two on this deck. There’d been bloodshed and bruises in the offing, she’d smelled it like brimstone on the breeze as she’d stood on the sand eavesdropping. And now that Blythe wasn’t just Fitz’s girlfriend, but his full-fledged fiancée...? She slid a cautious look at Vance.
He didn’t move a muscle. “Congratulations,” he finally said, his voice carefully neutral.
Fitz frowned. Clearly he hadn’t been expecting felicitations. “Uh...” His gaze darted to Layla.
“I hope you’ll be very happy,” she said, suppressing her sigh. No matter what Vance’s attitude appeared to be, this couldn’t be happy news to him.
Fitz cleared his throat, shoved his hands in his pockets, withdrew them. At his obvious discomfort she felt another spurt of sympathy. This wouldn’t bring the brothers any closer to the reconciliation that the older of the two so clearly desired.
His hands ran through his hair. “Look, Vance...”
An awkward silence welled up. Layla tried breathing through it, tried appearing as impassive as the man seated beside her, but one of her legs started moving, the knee bouncing up and down. She stole another glance at Vance, thinking of his earlier sunny mood. He wasn’t tearing his brother limb from limb, so maybe it was still there, just waiting behind his stony expression. Just waiting for Fitz to be on his way.
“Well,” she finally said, unable to bear the tension—and eager for the confrontation to end without bloodshed. “You’ve made your delivery. We don’t want to keep you any longer.” Her knee was pumping now, like a telegraph key under the fingers of an experienced operator.
Vance reached over and pressed the twitchy joint, stilling the movement. “I don’t think Fitz is finished.”
“V.T....” His brother started, stopped again.
“Just spit it out,” Vance said. “Layla’s right. We have things we want to get to.” He turned his head to nuzzle her cheek.
The touch of his lips on her skin, his breath on the shell of her ear made her blood run hot again. But Fitz was standing there, watching, so she managed not to melt into the floorboards. Instead, she covered the fingers Vance had on her knee with hers.
His brother cleared his throat once more. “I know...of course, I know about that letter she wrote you. Blythe’s letter.”
“The one breaking our engagement?”
“I’m talking about the second letter,” Fitz said. “After you two were over. In it she said we had begun dating, though it was nothing serious.”
“What?” Vance still sounded calm. “You thought I didn’t guess it was more than that?”
“I...” Shrugging, his brother let the word drift off.
“Fitz, I know you. You’re always serious. It didn’t fool me for a second.” Then he turned his head to press another kiss on Layla’s cheek. “So, if you’ve finally gotten everything off your chest...”
Implying—and she wasn’t sure if it was solely for his brother’s benefit or not—that there were some scary-wondrous sexy times in the offing. Layla squirmed a little on her wooden seat, having mixed feelings about that now. Was she still just a prop to disguise his wounded feelings? Now that something real had happened between them, that didn’t sit so well any longer.
Vance caught her chin and turned her face toward him, his gaze searching hers as if he sensed her new disquiet. “Go away, Fitz.”
“Just one more thing.”
Vance’s sigh was warm against her face. “What?” he said, glancing toward his brother.
“Mom wants you at the engagement party. A brunch deal.”
Vance stilled. “I don’t think—”
“Please. We have to do this right for the family. You need to be there.”