My brother opens his mouth and then closes it. He tries again while I stare at him and finally, he drops his head to the steering wheel and bangs it a few times. “How are you even in our family? Savannah would kill you if she knew you were stalking someone.”
“I’m not stalking someone. I’m looking out for my future wife.”
“By burning down her home,” Cullen states with disbelief.
He doesn’t understand because he hasn’t met the right woman. He’s coasting through life thinking that there’s no one out there that can affect him at the base level. He’s wrong. Someone will come along and knock his feet out from under him.
“I was just reviewing my options.” I’ll have to see if the home means something to Luna. If it does have deep meaning, I would, of course, never do such a thing. Further, I would remove all of the belongings inside first so that none of her precious artifacts nor any of her sister’s were touched.
“Maybe you should hook up with the Mad Chef. You two would be good together.”
“I’m already in love with the sister, but, please, feel free to pursue Mad Chef yourself. She would be good for you. After all, you actually have burned water.”
“It’s impossible to burn water. I burned the pan, dammit. I forgot the burner was on once—”
“I think it was around a half dozen times,” I interject mildly.
“Maybe twice and you guys never let me forget it.”
“We all had to move to the Mark Hotel for three weeks while the brownstone was being renovated from the fire you started.”
“Fuck off. You and Savannah loved staying at the Mark. Everyone babied the two of you, bringing goddamned ice cream in the middle of the night.”
“Room service was quite good,” I acknowledge. I lift the binoculars again. I wonder what flavor of ice cream Luna likes. I’ll have to ask Grant. Speaking of Grant, I wonder when the dossier on June Franklin will be coming. I opt to call.
“I’m putting it together right now,” he says into the phone. His voice is harried. “But the important details are this. June Franklin and you sat on the National Arboretum and Garden Society board last year.”
“I don’t remember her.” I sit on too many boards, frankly. It’s one of the things that I plan to eliminate after I get married. I won’t have time for those tasks anymore. Hopefully, Luna and I can start a family straight away. I’ve finally found something that brought me back to life. The days of working to kill time are over for me.
“Clearly. Anyway, according to her police statement, you promised to have lunch with her and didn’t follow through.”
“And for that I’m being stalked?”
“I guess she built up in her mind that you and she had something and when you didn’t take her to lunch, she was convinced you were cheating on her. She hired Luna to spy on you and get evidence of your affair that June could then use to blackmail you into marriage.”
“Blackmail me into what?”
“Look, I’m not the one writing this script. I’m reading to you from the police report, which cost me a lot of money and several favors to acquire. Why couldn’t you ask your brother?”
“Because Cullen is very much a law and order type and I am not.”
Cullen makes a face.
“What will happen to June?”
“She pled guilty, or rather, she yelled at the police that of course she was following you because that’s what you do when you’re in love with someone and that she shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions when slapped in the face with your infidelity.”
I barely hear the last part because the first part hits too close to home, because isn’t that the excuse I just gave to Cullen? I lower the binoculars I’m still holding with my other hand. “Let’s pay June’s fine and ask the police not to prosecute. Set up a meeting with her.”
“I’ll get it done.”
“Perfect.” Grant hangs up first. I hold the phone to my ear even after the annoying beeping starts up.
“What is it?”
“You’re correct. We shouldn’t be stalking Luna.” I end the call and tuck my phone into my suit pocket.
Cullen gives me a grim smile. “I’ll drive you home.”
“No.” I put out my hand. “I can’t leave her but sitting outside her home without her knowledge wouldn’t be appropriate either.” I reach for the door handle.
Cullen leans over the console to yell at me. “So what are you going to do?”
“I’m going inside.” I told Luna we were getting married, but I never explained why. I never explained that I loved her from the first moment I caught her spying on me. That my life used to be about numbers and acquisitions and the never-ending pursuit of the next deal until she appeared. That I want to take her hand, put the biggest fucking diamond that she can carry on it, and make love to her a million times a day until our orgasms literally threaten to end us. That I will love her until I take my very last breath. I need to say those things and she needs to hear them. If, after all of that, she opts not to marry me, I will throw myself into the river.