Natalie was still engrossed with the other girls, so I slipped to the periphery of the crowd and found the person I had been looking for.
“Rowe,” I said with a nod of my head at my friend.
He dipped his chin in greeting. “Penn. This is my boyfriend, Nicholas Moreno.” He gestured to the man standing next to him.
Nicholas was an inch or two shorter than Rowe with curly brown hair and skin a golden brown. They wore matching tuxedos and were both practically glowing. Rowe’s fair skin was pink at the introduction.
I shook hands with Nicholas. “Nice to meet you. Penn Kensington.”
“It’s a pleasure. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Oh god, I can’t imagine,” I said with a laugh.
“He’s pretty tight-lipped but not about his friends.”
“Why do I find that doubtful?” I had never heard Rowe be particularly loquacious.
“Because you know me,” Rowe deadpanned.
“You two met at a tech summit?” I asked Nicholas.
He nodded. “Who knew that the famous Archibald Rowe was such a sweetheart?”
Rowe nearly choked. “Please. Infamous.”
We all laughed at that.
“Well, it was nice to finally meet you,” Nicholas said. “I’m trying to convince him to let me meet Katherine now.”
“Ah, Ren is hanging out with Camden,” I said, gesturing to the center of the room.
Nicholas wrinkled his nose. “I’ve heard of him, too.”
“Unfortunately, we all have.”
Nicholas wrapped an arm around Rowe’s shoulders. “Come on. We don’t have to hide in the shadows.”
“I like the shadows,” Rowe said, but he obliged him, giving me a quick good-bye.
I was blissfully alone for a whole minute, waiting for Natalie to get away from the crowd of mean girls, when my brother appeared at my side.
Jesus Christ, I’d thought the night was off to a good start before this.
“Hey, little brother,” Court said with a shit-eating grin.
I turned my steely gaze on him. “What do you want?”
“Want? Nothing. I thought I’d say hello.”
“Sure you did.”
Court snickered. “I saw your girlfriend looking all hot.”
“And this conversation is over,” I said, taking a step away.
“Chill. Chill. It’s so easy to rile you up.”
“What do you want?” I repeated.
“I can’t want to talk to you?”
“No. You slept with my ex-girlfriend. We’re not on speaking terms.”
“How many times do I have to say that Emily came on to me?”
I glared at him. “That doesn’t make it okay.”
“Now, you have a new girlfriend.”
“And if you touch her, I’ll kill you,” I spat at him.
He sighed in exasperation. “I’m not interested in Natalie.”
“I don’t like her name in your mouth.”
“Look, I saved her from Camden. And that was when she was fucking your best friend. I’m not the monster here.”
I massaged my temple, wondering why I was even still having this conversation.
“What? Not even a thank you?”
“Thank you,” I said begrudgingly. I hadn’t even been dating Natalie when Camden tried to hit on her while he was high. But I was glad that Court had stopped him. Even if it made us far from even.
“So…you pissed election season is coming up?” Court asked, changing the subject.
I groaned at the thought of my mother campaigning again. It was never a good time to be a Kensington. “Yes. It’s going to be awful.”
“It always is. I wish she’d fucking leave us out of it for once.”
“With Dad dead, she has to parade us around as her poor little children that she had to raise without him. Which is true, except for the part about either of them raising us.”
“Yeah, and we were fucking adults when he passed, and good fucking riddance.”
“Amen,” I muttered.
“I kind of hope she loses, so we don’t have to deal with this again.”
I kept hoping that, but my mother always got what she wanted. A quality she had instilled in both of us apparently. “Wishful thinking.”
“Did we just have a real conversation?” Court asked with raised eyebrows. “Did we actually agree?”
“Who knew it was our mother who would bring us together?”
“Mommy issues,” Court said with a laugh.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed, too. “She’d love to hear this.”
“Uh…is that Natalie running over here?” Court asked.
I turned away from my brother and ignored the confusion in my stomach that said that conversation wasn’t supposed to be possible. He was right. Natalie was practically jogging over to where I stood with Court.
“Looks serious,” Court said and then disappeared to give us privacy.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as soon as Natalie was before me.
“Melanie and Michael are engaged.”
“Isn’t that the jerk who broke up with her?”
“Yeah. For her best friend.”
I furrowed my brow. “And they’re back together? And now engaged?”
“Yes. She asked me to come to her engagement party. We have to stop this from happening.”
“Breathe, Nat. Slow down. When is the engagement party?”
“I don’t know. In a couple of weeks.”
“And you want to go…to break them up?”
She nodded as if that made perfect sense. “Yep.”
“Or you could go there to support your sister and let her make her own decisions. And her own mistakes. Just like you did. It’s not like she’s going to listen to you if she got back together with him.”
“I know,” she grumbled. “But…she can’t marry him, Penn.”
“No, I’m sure it would be a bad choice, but it’s also not your choice.”
She huffed. “Fine. Fine. Be logical about it.”
I cracked a smile again. “That’s what I’m here for.”
“Well, will you go with me?”
“To your sister’s engagement party?”
“Yeah,” she said softly, her cheeks blooming a soft pink. “To Charleston.”
This was something I’d never done before. Go home to my girlfriend’s house and meet the parents. Play the nice guy. All the other girls that I’d dated were from this world. It had been a different thing entirely. With Natalie, this would be important. And I wanted to be there for her.
“You don’t have to,” she said hastily, as if she had overstepped.
“No, I want to go. I’ll go with you.”
“You will?” she said in relief.
“Of course. It’ll be an adventure.”
“A better reason for you to be in Charleston,” she muttered.
I agreed. The last time I’d been there, she’d turned me away.
This time…we’d be together, taking that next step in our relationship.
Chapter 20