Always With You (The Connor Family 6)

Once we were at the table, the conversation circled to Jace and Brooke’s wedding, of course.

“The seating chart is still killing us,” Brooke said. “Oh, Reid, I’ve been meaning to ask you, are you free that weekend?”

“I don’t know.” He turned to me, taunting with a cocky smile. “Am I invited?”

I tapped my chin, as if I had to think hard about it. “Hmm... you’d save me from the embarrassment of being the only single Connor, so I’d say you’ve earned a spot.”

He laughed, kissing my temple. “It’s a date.”

I caught my sisters’ and my brothers’ better halves exchanging conspiratorial looks and smiles.

“What’s that?” I pointed between them.

“The girls made a bet,” Jace informed me.

I set my fork down. “Wait a second. The girl team made a bet and I wasn’t involved?”

Val glared at Jace. “You just had to give us away, didn’t you?”

“What did you bet on?” I asked curiously.

“That you’d have a date at our wedding,” Brooke said.

“Well, technically, we said at the next Connor wedding,” Val went on. “But since Carter’s and mine happened sooner than anticipated, it didn’t count.”

Wow. The girls had even more confidence in me than I did.

“So this is the first wedding where you’re going with a handsome date, huh?” Reid asked. I blushed.

“Yes, it is. Welcome to the Connor clan, Reid,” Jace said. “We’ll be making bets about you soon enough, don’t worry.”

I peeked at Reid out of the corner of my eye. He was chuckling.

“Don’t make this awkward,” I warned Jace.

“What are younger brothers for?”

I shook my head, laughing, then steered the conversation toward another subject before Reid could find out too many embarrassing details about me on his second dinner. I tried to suss out if anyone was in trouble or needed my PR skills, but so far, no one was in hot water.

“My phone’s almost out of battery. Do you have a charger?” Reid asked after we finished the main course.

“Oh, Val has the same phone. Her charger’s in the kitchen. I’ll do it for you.”

I headed to the kitchen with Reid’s phone, plugging it into the charger. The second it connected, the screen lit up briefly, and I froze.

A preview of an email flashed. The sender’s name was a certain Mr. Lawson. I had no idea who he was but the first words caught my attention.

Your meeting with Marion...

The screen faded back to black, with a small charging battery symbol in the right corner. I was rooted to the spot, feeling as if all my blood had suddenly pooled into my feet.

I set the phone on the counter. My heart was beating fast, the pulse reverberating in my eardrums. What was going on?

I couldn’t block out Marion’s words, her smug expression. I pressed my fingers to my temples, drawing in a deep breath.

I was overthinking this. I just had to ask Reid. I was sure there was a perfectly logical explanation for why the hell he’d met with his ex and why he’d kept it from me. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but I wasn’t sure how to stop that from happening.

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