Page 46

“No,” she begrudgingly said. “And that...”—she pointed to his smile—“doesn’t work on me, so you might want to save yourself the time and give up now.”
He took a few steps closer, and both of their phones chimed. She rolled her eyes.
“Someone thinks we’re a perfect match?”
“A stupid algorithm says that. And my mother told me to never trust an algorithm with sketchy intentions. They’ll always disappoint in the end.”
“I don’t disappoint, love. I can give you a list of references if you’d like.” She ignored this and went back to studying her phone. “You might think that it’s a stupid algorithm, but I noticed you have yet to delete the app.”
“Neither have you.”
“I just like to see the way your face scrunches every time it goes off. But if it offends you so much, here.”
He reached for her phone and she clutched it to her chest. Whatever was on her screen, she didn’t want him to see. Which made it all the more interesting. “What’s wrong, love? Were you looking at my profile?”
She scoffed.
“Then what?” He reached for it again, and again she dodged. “Stalking me online?” This time when he reached for it, he snatched it. They struggled for a moment, then he wrestled it from her hands.
He looked at the screen and froze. What the actual fuck? She was cyber-stalking someone. Just not him. “Why do you have Randy’s Instagram page up?”
“None of your business.” She snatched it back and then sat on it.
Like hell it wasn’t his business. They’d just played tonsil hockey earlier that night. Had she been thinking about his brother? “Why are you scrolling through Randy’s stuff?”
“Not that I owe you any explanation, but I can see where your mind if going and it’s a hard no. I’m stalking him for Autumn.”
“Why would Autumn ask you to look into my brother?” he asked and her cheeks went red. She didn’t answer. “Summer?”
“I was trying to find out what kind of man buys a house for someone they’ve known for a month.”
Wes had been thinking the same thing all night, but he didn’t want her to know that. “Maybe a man in love?”
“Or a serial proposer. That’s who. Did you know your brother has been engaged before?”
“Yes.”
“Twice?”
“Well, it seems like Autumn might be in it because he’s also the kind of guy who buys a woman a house a month after knowing her. So if anyone should hire a PI, it should be me.”
“My sister would never marry for money!”
He laughed. Summer lived with her head in a book and thought the best of everyone. Except, of course, if their surname was Kingston. “Everyone has their price.”
“So the second fiancée was a gold digger too? How convenient to blame the women when the common dominator is a man.”
Wes didn’t know what to say because he’d never known there was another fiancée. What did that say about him? That he didn’t even know his kid brother had been a breath away from marriagetwice. With an ocean between them, and only summers and DNA connecting them, they’d never been all that close, but he’d thought their relationship had been worthy of a call about something as important as marriage. That the engagement hadn’t lasted wasn’t the point. He’d been left out of a huge moment. He wasn’t sure why he was so surprised—that pretty much summed up his childhood—but a rusty and forgotten pinch started in his chest.
He tried to bury his disappointment but, intuitive as ever, Summer picked up on his emotions.
“You didn’t know?” she said softly.
“Like I said before, Randy and I are getting to know each other properly. We’ve been in touch over the years. Birthday calls and such, but not close. It wasn’t a possibility when my father was alive but with him out of the picture...” He lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “Who knows?”
“So you really want to stay for him?”
“Yes.” That was part of the reason. The other part was looking at him with tangled bedhead, glasses perched on her nose, and so much compassion on her face it was hard to maintain eye contact.