“Honestly?”
“Well, yeah.”
“She didn’t want Hunter ending up with a Gable.”
I wince because I’m sure my reputation around town didn’t help with that. “She actually told you that?”
Cricket tilts her head from side to side. “Not in so many words, but she’s made it clear that any other family wouldn’t leave her footing the whole bill for the wedding.”
“I shouldn’t say this, but I already don’t like your mother-in-law to be.”
“It can always be worse, right?”
I wonder if she’s thinking of Mrs. Riscoff, because Lincoln’s mother would be the mother-in-law from hell.Why am I even thinking about him, let alone his mother?I force the image of Mrs. Riscoff’s face, pinched in disapproval, from my memory.
“What does Hunter say about it?”
The glowing smile that takes over Cricket’s face is something so pure, I wish I could snap a picture without her noticing.She loves him. Really loves him.
“He doesn’t give a damn. We actually were going to elope until his dad made a big speech about his son getting married in Gable, surrounded by all his friends and family.” Cricket’s glow fades. “So ... I told him we should do it if it mattered to them.”
“Are you sure that’s what you really want?” I hate the thought of my free-spirited cousin feeling like a guest at her own wedding.
“Hunter would tell them all to fuck off if I told him I didn’t want to do it. But I know that his dad doesn’t have a lot of years left, and I actually like the old man, so I’m not going to make waves.”
She drags her finger through the layer of dust on the magazines stacked on the coffee table. “Although, with it being at The Gables, Mrs. Havalin will probably have kittens and want to invite everyone in the known universe to show off that they’re close to the Riscoffs. But ... at least it takes the pressure off me, right? Who will even bother to look at the bride when the heir to a billion-dollar company is standing in the front row.”
I brush Cricket’s brown hair away from her face so I can see her eyes. “Hey. Stop that. It’s your big day. Fuck Lincoln Riscoff.”
Cricket’s lips quirk. “Sorry, Whit. You already did. I don’t like sloppy seconds.”
10
Whitney
The past
My body was buzzingwhen I reached the cabin.
I shouldn’t be here.I knew that as plainly as I knew I shouldn’t gargle Drano or play with gasoline and matches in a barn filled with hay, but I couldn’t stop myself.
Although I reached out to knock, my knuckles never connected with the door. Lincoln whipped it open, his chest rising and falling, before I could make contact.
“I didn’t think you were going to come. I thought I’d have to hunt you down again.”
Lord, he’s way too attractive for his own good.
His hazel eyes raked up and down my body as I stared at the pulse thumping at the base of his throat, trying to talk myself out of licking his skin to remind myself what he tasted like.
Oh my God. Whitney, what the hell is wrong with you?
Lincoln Riscoff. He was what was wrong with me. I hadn’t been able to get him off my mind since the other night. It was like I was broken, and only another night with him could fix it.
“I wasn’t going to come. I talked myself out of it at least a hundred times.”
His nostrils flared.
That should not be sexy.