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“What you need is to grow up.” Abagail crossed her arms across her chest and continued her glare. She was over this petty, immature behavior. “And I’m tired of waiting for that to happen.”

“Aunt Abagail!”

“No. You shut up and you listen to me.” Abagail shook her head at him, not quite sure what to say or do next. This should be a conversation for Estelle to have with him, but all she’d done over the years was coddle him. Abagail had been nothing more than an enabler along the way, and she was tired of it. “It’s time for you to grow up.”

Warren shook his head and scoffed. “I’m an adult.”

“Yeah, you are! That’s the point.” Abagail pursed her lips. She was going to have a lot of damage control to do when it came to her office that day, and if Warren dared to step foot in her office again, she really would call the police.

“Dad left me that money.”

“No, he didn’t.” Abagail sighed heavily, moving toward her desk to sit down in her chair. She was tired of this, and if no one had told him how this worked, then it was high time she did. Even if it wasn’t her job. “You have a trust from your father, yes, but that’s it. That trust doesn’t provide you with much income. A thousand a month at most.”

“What?” Warren frowned, wrinkles forming in his forehead. “But we’re well off. Mom always said?—”

“The family is, yes. Individually, we’re not rich.” Abagail squinted at him. No one had really explained this to him, had they? “Historically, our family has made good choices when it comes to businesses and finances. That’s how we sustain ourselves. You don’t have to work if you don’t want to, but you need to understand the value of what you’re taking.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That’s the point.” Abagail had never been more frustrated with him, but at least he seemed to be listening this time. Unlike before. “I’m not going to reinstate your income from the family funds until you learn the value of a dollar.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Get a job!” Abagail said loudly. “And you can’t get a job at a company that we’re associated with or own. I want you to actually have to work hard to get it. Interview, keep it, earn an income, pay your own bills for a while.”

“You can’t do this.”

“I can and I have. You’re already cut off.” Abagail gave him a hard stare.

“Chaya left me, you know.”

Abagail’s eye twitched. Was he seriously two engagements down and had nothing to show for it?

“Without the money…” he trailed off.

“She didn’t want you.” Abagail finished for him.

Warren nodded. He seemed genuinely upset by that. But was he upset because it fractured his male ego or because he actually liked Chaya? Maybe even loved her. Is that how Nicola was? Without the money would she even be at Abagail’s house? Perhaps she wasn’t all that different from her nephew. That thought alone churned her stomach.

“I’ve been thinking about Nicola lately,” Warren said, staring down at his shoes.

Abagail wanted to vomit.

“Do you think she’d take me back if I got a job?”

Oh God, she didn’t actually have to answer that, did she? Abagail picked up a pen on her desk and started to flick it between her fingers. Nicola’s smiling face came to mind, the laughter and joy they’d shared a few times in the last few weeks. Nicola had given no indication that she’d want to go backto Warren. In fact, from what she’d seen that wasn’t even a possibility.

Then again, Nicola wasn’t even sure that was a thought in Warren’s head.

So would she?

“Aunt Abagail?”

“I don’t know,” Abagail answered honestly. She couldn’t look at him. She just kept staring at the pen in her fingers. Nicola would be so much better off with someone her age, someone who could keep up with her shenanigans, who would be there when she grew old. Someone who could actually provide a relationship for her.

Because Lord knew Abagail couldn’t do that.

They weren’t compatible at all. Why was Abagail even trying? She shouldn’t be.