Quinley forced herself to focus on Ana, on the moment. “It’s beautiful, Ana. I love it.”
“I knew you would.”
“Thank you. For doing this when…” Her eyes stung, and she swallowed back the lump in her throat. She’d hurt so many people. People she loved and cared about and who didn’t deserve to be caught in the chaos.
“Stop or you’ll make me cry. And don’t say you’re sorry. Not again. I’m just glad you’re here and you’re safe. The rest will sort itself out. Give it time.”
Quinley nodded and then turned back to take a final look at herself in the mirror. The outfit was feminine yet professional. A super sheer blouse with a tiny delicate ruffle landing at the swells of her breasts and gathered on her arms like frothy milk, topped by a fitted teal-colored vest with tiny rose-gold buttons down the front and matching linen pants. Pointy-toed shoes completed the look with the small kitten heel Quinley preferred. There was a jacket to tie it all together, and Ana had even grabbed jewelry. “It’s perfect.”
“I thought of you the moment I saw it. I knew you’d want to armor up to meet with your parents and Rhys.”
How right she was. And even though she should probably wait to see them another day and not after a six-hour drive, she didn’t want to put it off a minute longer. Not when they were the last steps to be taken to close out that part of her life in order to begin the next.
She’d taken great pains to get her makeup just right, but now that she was all put together, and knew she looked as good as she could, nerves kicked in. This was not going to be easy.
“Just tell them,” Ana said softly. “Tell them what you told me. Say it wasn’t right and you had to end it or wind up in divorce. If they refuse to understand that you had to follow your heart, that’s on them.”
“You sound like Elias,” she murmured, her thoughts drifting to him yet again. “That’s what he said, too.”
Ana’s expression took on a curious frown. “You and Elias got along during the week?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t know. He seems…difficult. From what Cole and the others have said, he’s very uptight.”
Quinley wondered if Ana knew about Elias’s allergies. Elias had said his brothers did, but when he’d made the comment, it didn’t seem as though the brothers were as sympathetic as they could have been. Maybe it was time to give Elias a little more sympathy? “I’d call him regimented, not uptight. And he has reason to be with how bad his food allergies are. I teased him unmercifully with my junk food choices, but I commend him on living his best life when the alternative is to be sick all the time.”
Ana’s frown deepened. “They’re that bad?”
“From what he shared with me, yeah, they are. He said he was constantly sick as a kid because his body reacted to the food he ate. That’s why he worked so hard to figure out the issue. To take care of himself and not be sick. It was his way of helping out, you know, after their parents were killed. So he wouldn’t be the weak link and get them split up.”
“Oh, wow,” Ana said, lowering herself to the edge of the bed. “Cole’s mentioned a few things in passing, and at family gatherings, I’ve noted how Elias avoids eating anything except whatever he brings, but—I had no idea. And to feel that way when he was just a kid?”
Quinley nodded, her heart tugging at the emotion flashing over Ana’s face.
She faced the mirror and straightened a pinched ruffle along her chest. “My opinion only,” she clarified, “but I don’t think the brothers realize how hard it is on Elias. I mean, he cooked all week just so he knew what was in the food and that it was safe for him. To keep from risking it. No one does that unless it’s life-and-death important.”
Ana stood and moved to where Quinley was, linking their arms at the elbows as she met Quinley’s gaze in the mirror.
“Some might not think a week is long enough to develop feelings for someone, but it totally is. Areyousure there’s nothing more going on between you and Elias?”
Quinley fixed a button this time, tracing her movements in her reflection and letting out a breath. “My life is a mess. I have too much going on, too much to sort out and do with a new home and business and…life.”
Ana made a small sound that drew Quinley’s gaze back to hers. “What?” Her best friend leaned her head lightly against Quinley’s shoulder.
“Nothing,” she said, tugging Quinley with her toward the bedroom door. “It’s just that wasn’t the question I asked. And yet I think you answered it.”
Thirty minutes later, Axel accompanied Quinley up the elevator to what she’d gathered was Rhys’s brand-new house?
She’d expected to be taken to the penthouse apartment Rhys had lived in for the last year, the oneshehad moved her things into, but instead Axel had driven her here, to a newly constructed home on River Road. A house she’d understood was to be built “someday.”
That didn’t seem to be the case, though. This home looked like the one Rhys had briefly shown her, asked if she’d liked, yet here it was.
The landscaping, concrete and pavers along the driveway were obviously new, and there was still a construction dumpster hidden off to one side of the property, but the exterior of the house was complete. The interior of the garage, too.
Riverfront with a gated drive, the home was three stories and massive. The lower level held a large parking garage, elevator, storage, and private maids’ quarters. She and Axel bypassed the middle level on the way up, but she knew from the memory of her brief glance of the plans it held the living room, kitchen, bath, study, workout room and a glass enclosed sunroom, while the third level held the many bedrooms, another sunroom, as well as a smaller kitchen and an ornate staircase leading to the rooftop deck. The deck had a large bar, outdoor kitchen and every amenity a billionaire heir’s home might need.
Apparently Rhys was on the top-floor deck, and the elevator moved from parking level to the roof far too quickly for her peace of mind as realization dawned with slow, stomach-churning intensity.
