“I’ll try if he’ll try. Georgie practically asked me to give him a hard time. And can anyone say no to her?”
“I cannot imagine they do.”
We walked in silence for a moment.
“I’m sorry you can’t ask her out.”
“Me too. But maybe it’s for the best.”
I made a face. “Ew, Jett. Ew. It is not for the best that the first decent—no, spectacular—girl you’ve come across can’t date you. Frankly, that’s bullshit, and I’m offended you’re so calm about it.”
“Why get upset when you’re mad enough for the both of us?”
With a huff, I punched him in the arm. He didn’t even flinch—just laughed as we trotted up the stairs of the Bennet family stoop.
The brownstone had been in the family since it’d been built in the 1800s, one in a strip of homes on Bleecker, owned by the first set of Bennets to set foot on American soil. We’d sold all but the one we still occupied and the house next door, which housed our flower shop, Longbourne. In the courtyard out back stood our greenhouse, with another on the roof that my brother Kash used to breed rare flowers. Of course, we weren’t big enough to grow to our demand, but with supplements from farms in Long Island, we could get just about anything we needed within a few hours’ notice. We’d grown up in that greenhouse, running around barefoot with dirt under our nails. And when Jett opened the front door to the house, that familiar feeling of home slipped over us and drew us inside.
The Bennet house was chaos, as it ever was. In part, it was that so many of us were typically here at one time, and none of us other than Marcus were tidy people. We were too like our mother—strong-willed and with far more important things on our minds than putting away our shoes. Although unlike our mother, we usually remembered where we’d left them.
Laughter and conversation drifted into the grand foyer from the kitchen, and it sounded like everyone was there. It had been a long year since we’d all come home, the fate of Longbourne and our legacy up in the air after a string of detrimental business decisions, courtesy of Mom. But somehow, we’d managed to save it all, thanks to my brothers. All I did was work on our social and try to get the word out. They were the ones who put in all the elbow grease. But I didn’t think anyone was surprised.
It had always been this way.
As the only female Bennet child, I was the expected heir of Longbourne. When I was a little girl, Mom would cart me around the greenhouse, teaching me everything she knew. But I didn’t want to grow flowers—I wanted to draw them. She never understood. For generations, the legacy had been passed down the female line, but that stopped with me. And she didn’t let me forget it.
The pressure was off now that my brothers—other than Jett—had found their matches, and those potential female Bennets gave her hope for everything, including the grandchildren she was so desperate for. Marcus’s wife, Maisie, had slid right into my empty spot at the company, shouldering the day-to-day corporate management of Longbourne with Marcus. Mom’s partnership with Maisie was everything Mom had ever wanted from me, but from a willing participant.
Every once in a while, I caught wind of the sentiment that I’d rejected what she wanted strictly because she wanted it of me, which was silly. Granted, I did not like being told what to do, and I had no small problem with authority. But even as a little girl, it wasn’t what I’d wanted. And closer to the heart—I was never given a choice.
Either way, we all seemed content. Mom had gotten her Bennet heir and the potential for three sets of grandchildren. And Jett and I escaped to the Upper West, where she couldn’t keep trying to matchmake us with every able-bodied human of our preferred gender.
Didn’t stop her from giving us shit about it anyway.
The kitchen was packed with people waiting for dinner, which Maisie had put in the oven, judging by the apron she wore over her burgeoning belly and her position with Marcus next to the stove. She’d taken on Jett’s role around the house, since she and Marcus lived a few houses down. Honestly, I didn’t think Jett would have left if not for Maisie’s insistence that she’d take care of Mom and my insistence that we had to get out of this house and put enough blocks between us that she’d quit making me go on dates with zeroes.
I did miss Dad, though.
He sat at the head of the table behind a newspaper, pretending not to listen to everyone talking. His snowy-white hair was visible over the top of the news, which lowered just enough to catch the spark of his blue eyes when they met mine.
We were greeted with heys and hugs and made our way around the kitchen, starting with Marcus and Maisie. Then Luke and Tess at the table with Kash and Lila. I kissed Mom’s cheek, and she cupped my jaw, inspecting me proudly when I backed up.
“Oh, Elaine. Sometimes I forget how beautiful you are. Memories pale next to the real thing.”
I smiled down at her. “Are you hinting that I should come home more often?”
She shrugged, but mischief was in her smiling eyes. “Well, it wouldn’t hurt. How’s work?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Jett cut me off.
“Laney met a guy.”
Our faces swiveled in his direction. I should have kicked him in the shin the second I saw his smug smile.
“Really?” Mom nearly gasped. “Come sit down, Julius, and tell me about him.”
“Well,” he started as he sat, “he’s got more money than the Rockefellers—”
“Jett met a girl too,” I interrupted, taking the seat on the other side of her.
She turned back to me with her face as bright as Christmas morning. “Both of you? I must be dreaming.”
“Luke didn’t tell you?” I asked, glancing at him. He shrugged. “Should have taken that bet with Jett after all. She’s so pretty, Mom,” I baited, all moony. “Your grandbabies are going to be straight out of a Gerber commercial.”
Jett scowled. “He’s an ad executive. Liam Darcy. Have you heard of him?”
Mom’s jaw unhinged, and she swiveled once again back to my stupid brother. “Liam Darcy? He’s worth eighteen million a year in interest alone.”
I steamed like a teakettle.
“I’m not even going to ask how you know that, Mother,” Jett said. “But yes, that Liam Darcy.”
“However in the world—”
I interrupted again. “Jett met his sister, Georgiana. They danced all night last night. Don’t let him fool you—Darcy wouldn’t even speak to me. But Georgie, on the other hand … well, when she came to Wasted Words for an ad meeting this morning, I could have sworn she swooned when she saw him.”
That was all it took. Mom officially forgot I existed as she took one deep breath and began machine-gunning questions at him.
If someone could blow someone else up with their minds, Jett would have done it right then. I gave him a mocking smile and turned to Dad.
He’d folded his paper and set it on the table, watching us spar with quiet amusement.
“Hi, Daddy.”
“Hello, daughter.” He flicked his chin at Mom with a smile on his face. “It’s cruel, the way you two tease her.”
“Well, she’s already settled three out of five of her children. I really did think she’d let up, not realizing she’d just have that much more energy to expend on us.”