Page 36

Eden

I was dragged out of the room and tugged along the hallway. The woman—Tallulah—had my hand in a firm grip and wasn’t listening to my protests that I should stay with Bishop. I had a moment of panic when I lost sight of him, but then a tall blonde woman stepped out of a side door and the woman holding onto me stopped.

“T, what are you doing?” Her blue eyes shifted to me. “I don’t think we’ve met before.”

“No, I—”

“This is Eden. She’s with Bishop,” Tallulah spoke over me. “Dana, Bishop got married!”

The blonde’s lips parted, but she recovered quickly, and her gaze returned to me. “ Bishop? ”

“Why does everyone say it like that?” I couldn’t help but burst out. Magdalena had reacted in a similar way.

“Because Bishop can barely tolerate people. I’m not even sure he’s human. Maybe a robot.” She held out a hand. “I’m Dana.”

“Crosby’s fiancée.”

She smiled, and I took her hand in mine in a quick handshake. “That’s right.” She glanced at Tallulah. “Where are you dragging her to?”

“They didn’t have any kind of celebration after they got married. I thought we could throw together a small gathering this evening, before your main event tomorrow.”

Dana turned to me. “Are you okay with that?”

“I don’t ... I mean … If Bishop wants to … I just …” I didn’t want to offend either woman, and I wasn’t sure how to get across how I felt without upsetting them. My babbling trailed off.

Dana sighed. “Tallulah, you didn’t even ask her, did you?” She gave me a smile. “My soon-to-be mother-in-law loves celebrating everything for her boys, of which Bishop is one. She gets carried away.”

“I never thought Bishop would ever settle down,” Tallulah said.

“That’s because he’s not human, like I told you. Did you find a magic key to turn on his emotions?”

I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, so I said nothing.

“I’m sorry, that was rude of me. I like Bishop. It’s just a surprise to have him not only bring a date, but a wife .” She touched my arm. “I bet you haven’t even been here long. Did Tallulah drag you away before you had a chance to unpack?”

The older woman’s cheeks turned pink. “You must think I’m awful. I was just so excited about Bishop finally meeting someone. That boy deserves to be happy.”

Dana laughed. “Bishop is no more a boy than Crosby is.”

Tallulah tutted. “They’ll both always be boys to me.”

“And that’s why we all love you so much.” Dana reached out to kiss her cheek, then hooked her arms through both of ours. “Come along. We’ll show Eden to her room, then find the boys and have lunch.”

Voices reached us when we stepped onto the upstairs landing.

“Crosby must have brought Bishop up,” Dana said.

She moved ahead, leading the way to a door on the right. The two men stood just inside. When Dana walked in, they stopped talking.

“Darling.” Crosby wrapped his arm around Dana’s waist and pulled her close so he could kiss her. “I see you found Bishop’s surprise.”

“Hardly a surprise. I told you I was bringing a plus one.” Bishop’s voice was dry.

“A plus one, Bishop. Not a wife.”

“What difference does it make?”

“Apparently none to you .”

“Boys, stop bickering,” Tallulah cut in. “Bishop, we’ll be serving lunch on the terrace in thirty minutes. Eden, we’ll chat about a small get together this evening for a small celebration over lunch, okay?”

I wanted to beg Bishop for help, but he had turned away and was looking out of the window. Instead, I nodded.

“Okay.” What else could I say? I was pretty sure Crosby’s mom was a force of nature and nothing was going to stop her from doing what she wanted, anyway.

Dana patted my arm. “Trust me, it’s easier not to argue. Why do you think we’re having a party tomorrow night when we’ve been engaged for a month and have already set a wedding date?”

“Don’t pretend you’re not looking forward to the party.” There was nothing but affection in Tallulah’s voice.

“Of course, I am. I love parties. It’s why you’re the perfect mother-in-law, and I’m going to make the perfect daughter.” Dana laughed. “Anyway, let’s leave them to get settled. I’m starving. If you don’t let me eat food soon, I’m not going to be responsible for my tantrum.”

“Heaven forbid.” Crosby gave a mock shudder. “We’ll see you downstairs, Bishop.”

Bishop lifted a hand but didn’t turn. Less than thirty seconds later, the door to the bedroom closed and we were alone.

“Your bag is on the bed.”

My eyes jerked to the bed. I’d been avoiding looking at it, but at his words I couldn’t look anywhere else. It was large, taking up the center of the room, and made from dark wood. A dozen or so pillows of different sizes covered the top end of the mattress. The overnight bag with my clothes in was at the opposite end.

I unzipped it and flipped it open. “Is it worth unpacking or …”

“No point in living out of the case. Take whatever space you need. There’s a bathroom through that door.” He turned and jerked his chin to the wall on the left. His gaze swept over me. “You look a little shell shocked.”

I straightened and took a breath. “You didn’t warn me they’d be so … so …” I shrugged.

“I didn’t want to scare you. You were already panicking about whether we could pull this off. Telling you what the family is like would have made it worse. This way your surprise at Tallulah’s behavior was natural.”

“It could have gone horribly wrong.”

His lips curved up. “Wasn’t going to happen. You’re everything Tallulah would want in a woman for me.”

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m going to take a quick shower and change before lunch.” He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it onto the bed. “You might want to do the same. Lunch can last a few hours, and usually comes with an abundance of alcohol.”

And with that, he left me and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.