I really didn’t like that. Who was he to ignore her like that? Who the hell did this guy think he was?
“He’s totally ignoring her,” I said, arms folding over my chest. “What an asshole.”
“She seems to be okay with it,” Ryan pointed out. To punctuate the fact, we all watched as Alta pulled her phone out too, typing away as she waited for him.
I ignored Ryan and focused on the bad. This guy was a tool, and I didn’t think he was right for her. Was this seriously what she blocked off her day for? Was this the “personal” things she found important enough to cancelallher appointments to prioritize?
Was he so special?
Finally, he pocketed his phone, but they didn’t resume walking. Instead, he pointed over his shoulder and started turning them in the direction they’d just come. Only, Alta resisted. Pointing the other way and shaking her head as if she disagreed with him.
“Trouble in paradise?” Jules asked, leaning her chin against her hand as she watched.
“Don’t call it that,” I hissed at her, but I found myself gravitating closer too. Entirely too invested as we stared.
Too angry.
How anyone could deny her when she was being so adamant, I didn’t understand. Or maybe I understood all too well, because I had just done it and was now suffering for it later. It seemed even more egregious coming from him though, making me angry on her behalf.
Angry enough that before I knew it, I was stepping out of the shop door and headed straight toward them.
Chapter Nine
ALTA
“You’re smiling,” Ox said even as he tapped away on his phone while following me down the street. I was taking my sisters’ advice and going for it again. The first step of which was getting my older brother’s approval. If I could just get his attention first.
He was working as he always was, but he’d agreed to meet me out for lunch so I could show him my ventures in person. And that was a start, so I would roll with it.
“I smile a lot, Ox!” I said distractedly. We hadn’t eaten yet because I couldn’t choose where I wanted to take him. And now that we were in the main area I worked, I wondered if I should just show him a few stores first and then stop to get food later.
The possibilities were endless. I couldn’t rememberthe last time I got his attention like this, he was always so busy these days. But I was sure going to take advantage of it and maybe even leave with his support on my projects this time.
So yeah, Iwassmiling pretty big.
“Just an observation since the last time I saw you, you were crying,” he said. I’m not sure how he made one sentence sound like a full interrogation, but he did it well. Somehow pinning me with the expectation to explain myself without demanding it aloud.
A niggling voice in the back of my mind teased that this was the only reason he’d agreed to follow me out, because he knew I’d been about to cry in the office, not because he wanted to listen to my pitch. But I pushed that voice aside and doubled back on Ox.
I expected to see him still tapping away on his phone, but instead I found him watching me. Glaring at me through those black eyes that he shared only with Melissa. The rest of us had lighter browns, Ceci’s bordering another color entirely. But his and the other golden child’s gazes were black.
I swallowed. His glares didn’t scare me. My brotheronlyknew how to glare. The way he was studying me, however, did scare me. Ox was not the‘do whatever you want’type of brother. He was more the‘do what I tell you’type, which for the most part I didn’t mind. But in this sense, his calculating gaze made me nervous because in this sense he still had me wrong like everyone else. And if he didn’t like what I showed him today, I wasn’t sure what I’d do.
“Not sure what you’re talking about,” I lied, walking to him hastily and looping my arm through his. Now that he was done with his phone, I think I would show him some of my businesses along the way.Since we were already here and all.“Anyway, let’s go!”
He grunted, not believing my crap, but followed me anyway, even letting me pull him around. “Where exactly are we going?”
“Did you get my email?” I asked.
“Yes, that’s how we made it here, remember? You invited me to lunch, yet I see no food,” he said.
I worried my lip. “You have time, right?”
He sighed. “Very little, but yes. I’d just like to know what we’re doing.”
“Did you get my other email?” I asked.
“Alta,” he deadpanned.
