She blinked, brightening up. But she still looked a little shifty too, and the sight set my hackles at attention.
“What’s with everybody today?” I asked. “How come Ivy’s out front? Where’s Jett? Kash asked me to come in, but I was under the impression we were talking about a missing shipment of succulents. Was I wrong?”
She squirmed. “Ah, they’re in the greenhouse,” she dodged. “You should go back there.”
I stepped closer, smelling fish. “How come, Tess? What’s going on?”
Her face was crimson, her lips pursed. “Nothing.”
“Tess.”
“I said, nothing!” she said with brusque finality, turning back to her bouquet. “I am not a Bennet, and this is a Bennet thing.”
My eyes narrowed. “What’s a—”
The look she cut in my direction stopped me, and I put up my hands.
“All right, all right. Don’t shoot.”
She pointed her shears at me and flicked them toward the door.
I decided then that someday Tess would make an excellent mother.
To the back I went, through the doors to the greenhouse and into the damp. But the only person I found was Kash, and he practically jumped out of his skin when I opened the swinging doors.
My brows stitched together. “Please tell me you’ve got something good to spill because everybody’s acting like—”
“Mom’s about to find out,” he hissed, pointing me toward the basement.
My feet stopped, and I nearly fell over. When I’d caught myself, I picked up my pace.
Kash cranked up the radio before following, presumably for noise pollution to deter our mother should she come snooping.
The basement was dark but for the few lights in the center, one of which shone over a work table. And standing around it like the board of directors from hell were my siblings.
I came to a stop at the head of the table, and Kash took the other end. For a moment, we were silent. Luke scratched his neck. Jett cleared his throat. Laney looked at me like a traitor, and Kash mostly looked annoyed.
“I knew you couldn’t keep your trap shut,” I shot at Luke.
And that was all it took.
Everyone started talking at once. Kash went on about how he’d told me so. Luke promised it had been an accident. Jett was annoyed I hadn’t told him myself, and Laney was just pissed.
“I mean, really, Marcus,” she snapped. “A Bower. A freaking Bower. Mom is going to die. You are literally going to give her a heart attack, and I’m gonna put Marcus Did This on her headstone.”
“I don’t suppose Luke told you Maisie’s helping us, did he?”
“Oh, he did.” She folded her arms. “I just don’t think that’s enough reason to pretend like this is a good idea.”
“Well, lucky for me, I don’t need your permission.”
Laney scowled, but her cheeks flushed, and I thought I caught a glimmer of angry tears in her eyes. “Marcus … of all the women you could have chosen—”
“I chose her. Do you think I’d have chosen her if she wasn’t worthy?”
Her mouth clicked closed, and she frowned furiously at me. “No,” she fired, “but it’s still fucking messed up.”
Kash wore a magnificent frown of his own. “That’s not why we’re here, is it, Laney?”
“No, we’re here because we have to figure out how to tell Mom without giving her a coronary,” she said. “This girl had better be awesome, Marcus. She’d better be the best goddamn everything in the whole world.”
“She is,” I said simply.
Something in the way I’d said it softened her eyes, her jaw, but her arms remained locked across her chest in defiance.
Jett started, “I think you should sit Mom down. Break it to her easy.”
“We definitely can’t keep it a secret much longer,” Kash said. “Look at Luke. He’s gonna pop like a piñata, except instead of candy, he’s spilling secrets.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “I’m not that bad.”
We all pinned a look on him.
“Hey, you try getting cornered by her. When she does that thing with her eyes,” he said, making a pitiful face. “And she asks you with that voice?”
“You’re the only one still a sucker for that,” Laney answered. “It’s the same trick you pull on her when you want something.”
“Well, why wouldn’t I use it if it works?” he asked.
“Exactly,” Jett said on a laugh.
Kash shook his head and wrangled us in. “You could tell her yourself, or we could be there with you. Maybe if we’re a unified front, she’ll have a harder time arguing.”
This time, we all pinned him with a look.
“I have a crazy idea,” Luke said.
“No, you?” Laney answered on a laugh.
He made a face at her but continued, “What if you bring Maisie here?”
Once again, the room erupted in noise, me included.
Luke held up his hands. “Hear me out,” he said over the din, waiting for us to simmer down.
Laney had the last word, and it was unrepeatable.
“Listen,” Luke said, “if Maisie is right there in front of her, she’s not going to sling all the hateful things about the Bowers around—”
Kash frowned. “You sure about that?”
“Think about it. Remember after that first deposition? Mom was singing Maisie’s praises. Mom likes her, thinks she’s nothing like her mother, right? Don’t you think she’d have, I don’t know … sympathy?”
Now Jett was frowning too, the expression identical to Kash’s. “Just because Mom doesn’t hate Maisie doesn’t mean she wants Marcus dating her.”
I scrubbed a hand over my mouth. “I’ve been thinking about this ever since you assholes found out, but I’ve really been thinking about it since Mom nearly walked in on us last week.”
They gaped at me like a quartet of trout.
I ignored them. “Telling Mom one-on-one would give her the freedom to completely lose her marbles. If we’re all there, it’d be easier, but she’d still just call us all traitors and storm out in the end. But if Maisie’s there to defend herself, to declare herself, don’t you think Mom would understand?”
They were quiet.
“She’s gonna be upset any way we look at it. At least this way, she can look Maisie in the eye and know the truth.”
“And what’s that?” Laney asked.
“That Maisie is on our side.”
No one argued, which I took as a good sign.
“She has constantly put herself at risk for us. For me. She stuck up for us when it mattered, and she’s been feeding us information on this lawsuit that has the power to sink us. Maisie nearly walked away from everything she’s ever known because she’s through with her mother. If that doesn’t prove she’s with us, I don’t know how else to convince you aside from this—I trust her absolutely and without question.”
The room went soft with understanding, even Laney, who perhaps wore the most emotional expression of us all. “Well, if you tell Mom like that, I don’t know how she can argue,” she said softly. “I certainly can’t.”