The Key to Fear - Kristin Cast Page 0,77

and only too.”

A warm smile played around Blair’s lips like a bee around a bloom. “Well.” She sucked in a breath and it was gone so quickly it might not have been there at all. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find some munchies that won’t make me bloat. I’m famished, but there’s not an inch of extra room in this dress.” Blair waved goodbye, her fingers twitching like spider’s legs.

Elodie felt Aiden’s gaze pressing against her, but she couldn’t stop staring at the empty space the formidable Scott women had left in their wake.

He cleared his throat. “That’s what I was about to tell you.”

And if he had, maybe Elodie would have had the wherewithal to ask the Scott women her questions, instead of standing there like lawn furniture.

Aiden shifted uncomfortably. “What can I say? I have a successful family.” He forced a chuckle and shoved his hands into his pant pockets.

“Anything else you think you should share?” Elodie threw out.

“El!” The familiar voice smacked against her back.

She stiffened. She’d completely forgotten to look for Rhett.

“There you are.” Her fiancé’s golden eyes beamed down at her, so much less hollow against the bright navy of his suit. “I was looking all over for you before the service, and then I ran into some of the guys, and your mom, and …” He trailed off, his steady gaze flicking to Aiden. “Who’s this?”

Aiden’s lips pursed. “Aiden. Aiden Scott.” Had he taken a step closer to Elodie?

Rhett rocked onto the balls of his feet. “Scott? Like, Blair Scott’s little brother?”

Aiden’s chin tilted toward the sky. “Exactly like.” If only he’d been so forthcoming with Elodie …

Another bot whizzed by. Elodie wished she could grab on and ride away from these men and this service and her unanswered questions—away from Westfall. “But Aiden was just leaving,” she said, “so—”

“I’m Major Rhett Owens.” He rocked to his heels and back to the balls of his feet. “Elodie’s fiancé.”

Elodie’s teeth dug into her bottom lip. If she was lucky, the subduction-zone earthquake the Pacific Northwest had been waiting for would happen right at this moment and the ground would split and swallow her whole.

Aiden let out a strangled sort of grunt. “Fiancé ?” His brows arched toward his mohawk. “Huh.”

Rhett slipped on his most smug grin. “Actually, El, Gwendolyn was talking about showing you some flowers she saw during the procession. Something about table settings …”

Oh, great. Her mother and Rhett were now on a Gwendolyn basis, the name her mother reserved for special relationships. Whatever that meant.

Rhett shrugged dramatically. “It’s best to leave all that decorating nonsense to the ladies. Am I right?” He waggled a brow in Aiden’s direction.

Elodie could have puked all over her new shoes.

Aiden went rigid. “I didn’t realize you were engaged.”

She clamped her chattering teeth as she searched for an explanation.

Luckily, Elodie didn’t need her voice when Major Owens was around. “The Key came to me with the suggested match,” he began, rubbing his hands together. “I thought about it, and, at the time, said to myself, ‘Rhett, you’re nineteen, she’s almost sixteen. Good genetics, okay connections. She can’t marry until her eighteenth birthday, but you should lock it down. Can’t let her turn into an old maid.’”

Aiden’s lips twisted and he glanced down at her, wide eyed, before turning his attention back to Rhett. “An old maid? Oh, gosh, no. Wouldn’t want that.”

Elodie tamped her hysteria with a sharp clap of her hands. “Rhett, I am really thirsty. Would you mind getting me a drink?”

Rhett aimed and fired a pair of finger guns in her direction. “You got it, babe.” He bobbed his wide chin in Aiden’s direction before heading off to find a drink, and, if Elodie was lucky, a different group to entertain.

“So, El,” Aiden said, as he mimicked Rhett’s rocking motion. “Anything else you think you should share?”

There was nothing to share about Rhett and her. Elodie grimaced. Just thinking of them together was awkward. She couldn’t talk about this with Aiden. She could barely talk about it with Astrid. She needed an out.

“The fair started today,” she blurted.

Aiden stopped rocking and tilted his head.

Elodie seized the moment of his confused silence. “To celebrate the Key and their success against Cerberus.” She waved a hand toward the mass of people still meandering about the Holbrook estate. “Nearly everyone is here, so the lines should be short.”

Aiden’s brow twisted. “What does that have to do with the fact that you’re engaged and didn’t tell me?”

Elodie’s