Heirly Ever After, Vernon, Magan [best thriller novels to read .txt] 📗

Mom shook her head. “Up until a few days ago, I thought you were living with Chris and planning your lives together when you both graduated next fall. Now you’ve shown up with a man I’ve never met who also happens to be the groom’s cousin. I just want to make sure that everything is really okay, honey.”

Graduating.

Mom really had no idea.

My stomach twisted in knots.

I’d put it off for so long just to not have this feeling, and now everything had come to a head.

“It’s fine, Mom. Jacob is…” I met his eyes across the table. I had no idea when he had started staring at me or how long he had had that smile on his face. Lady Elizabeth looked in my direction, too, before patting his arm then whispering in his ear as he nodded, his smile widening. What the hell was he talking about with her?

Maybe if I kept Mom talking about him, we wouldn’t need to talk about Chris and school.

“He’s…um…”

“So, how did you two meet if it wasn’t just a train rendezvous?” Natalie asked aloud, breaking the awkward tension of everyone’s individual, hushed conversations.

“It was back in Charlotte,” I blurted, the words coming out almost too fast. I had no idea where that came from, but I’d been stretching the truth for so long now, I just had to hope Jacob played along.

“Charlotte?” Lady Elizabeth asked, tilting her head.

“Natalie and her sister are from the American South, North Carolina,” Gavin said, his face still unmoving. Like a goddamn statue. Did this guy ever smile?

“Oh, how lovely. Tell me, what were you doing in Charlotte, Lachlan? I mean Jacob. Yes, Jacob.” She patted his hand.

How easy could the lies slip off his tongue? Or would he be backed into a corner now?

But if he was backed into a corner, then so was I.

Shit.

I hoped he was more prepared than me.

“Vacation. I needed a break from Scotland and wanted to visit somewhere that wasn’t overly crowded like some of the other big cities. And I was graced with the Southern charm of Madison,” he said as cool as a damn cucumber.

“Right, but he wasn’t the charmer at first,” I said, watching the slightest quirk of his eyebrows in challenge.

“Ah, no, I believe we did get into an argument our first meeting and she accused me of trying to get into her knickers.”

Lady Elizabeth covered her mouth to stifle a giggle, and I even spotted the hint of a smile cross Gavin’s face.

“Technically you were,” I challenged.

“Madison,” my mother chided.

I almost forgot she was next to me.

When Jacob talked to me, giving me that damn smile, sometimes it was like we were the only two in the room.

But of course we weren’t, and things were getting awkward real quick.

“I won’t admit to or deny that statement. But as you know, I’m a gentleman and knew you needed a distraction after leaving that American boy.”

Natalie coughed, pounding her chest before she fluttered her lashes and let out a haggard breath. “You broke up with Chris? Finally? For real this time? Not just like that breakup last Christmas when he got drunk and broke the toilet seat?”

Okay, yeah, maybe he did do that.

Among other things.

Yet I still stayed in bed, crying for days over the guy.

Who now had a new girlfriend.

And a cat.

What did I have?

A fake date and the fear to admit to my mom and sister that I dropped out of school because of said ex.

Jacob nodded in response to Natalie’s questions. “She dumped him the day I met her, and I have to say, your brilliant and beautiful sister is better off without him.”

Okay, way to answer, Jacob. You get that point.

“That seems like such a long time ago, though. And we don’t need to hear all about Jacob and me. We’re here for your wedding,” I threw out, hoping the attention would go off us.

“Ah, yes, for my English cousin, Lord Gavin. May you and Lady Natalie’s final days before your courtship go as smooth as this earl grey,” Jacob said, raising his glass.

“Hear, hear,” Lady Elizabeth said, raising her glass as everyone followed.

We all took a sip, but I noticed Gavin’s watchful eyes stayed on my date. Was the break between the families as bad as Jacob told me? There was something big going on here, and I probably needed to figure it out.

Along with my own problems.

I cleared my throat as soon as I set my teacup down. “Excuse me, Jacob, can we talk in the hallway?”

Before he could respond, I stood in a flash and hoped I didn’t rattle the china on the table too much. Mom and Natalie said something, but I ignored both of them, moving toward the doors as fast as I could in wedge sandals and praying that Jacob was following.

As soon as I stepped out into the hallway, I turned around to see the doors shutting behind me and Jacob standing there with one hand in the pocket of his pants and the other on the closing door.

“Everything all right? The tea not to your liking?”

“I thought we had a deal,” I whispered, narrowing my eyes so he could see how pissed I was.

He nodded, looking down, and the damn guy even had the nerve to smile. “I know. I just didn’t expect to see Lady Elizabeth. We’d never even met before, but there was something familiar about her. I don’t know. It was a strange magnetic pull, and I couldn’t lie to her. I’m sorry.”

I sighed, my chest tightening as I tried to come up with the right words. “Well, now we’re screwed.”

He snapped his head up, arching a brow. “How do you figure? I think the family seems happy we’re here, and Gavin even said he was the one to send my great-grandfather the invitation.”

“Yeah, but now they totally think we’re in some weird cahoots to get you here as my date so you could infiltrate the wedding or something.” I crossed my arms over