Page 102 of Bitter Prince

“I sent your birthday present to your apartment,” Grandma grumbled. “It would have been nice to know you weren’t going to be there.”

My shoulders slumped. “Sorry, Grandma. I didn’t know either.”

“Has your birthday been good so far?” she questioned, her tone lightening already.

My eyes found Amon’s and I smiled softly. “Yes, thank you.”

“Happy birthday, Reina.”

“Thank you.”

“Your mamma would be so proud.” Her voice lowered as if she were scared it would crack and all her emotions would pour out. The first and last time I saw her cry was when Mamma died. “You know that, right?”

I swallowed, my chest tightening. “Yeah.”

“Here, Grandpa Glasgow wants to talk to you. So do Livy and Alexander. Love you, baby.”

“Love you too.”

For the next twenty minutes I got a round of happy birthdays, Livy’s teasing, the triplets screaming, and Alexander’s gruffness.

“If you girls need a place to stay in southern France, I can have a car take you to ours,” Alexander offered. He was a successful and extremely loaded businessman. Grandma let it slip once that Alexander dismantled the publishing company that had belonged to Livy’s mother. Needless to say, their start was rocky.

“Thank you, Alexander, but I don’t want to accidentally touch a surface you and Livy have had sex on. So we’re good.”

He let out a chuckle, a rare sound from him. “A teenager shouldn’t have such thoughts.”

I scoffed. “I bet you didn’t have them at my age. Besides, I’m legally an adult now.” His silence was answer enough. “Okay, I’m done with birthday wishes. Save me from Grandma and tell everyone we got disconnected. Just tell her I’ll see her at the end of the summer. Okay?”

“Yes, leave me to the dragon,” he grumbled.

“You can handle her. Bye.” I ended the call and slid the phone across the table to Phoenix. “Not too painful.”

She rolled her eyes. “When she learns we were arrested, it will be.”

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes.” Hopefully never, if what the boys said was true and they had it wiped.

Dante braced his elbows on the table, his head following Phoenix’s and my interaction. My sister must have noticed too because she glared at him. “What are you staring at?”

He didn’t respond, just smiled. He seemed more relaxed today than other days I’d seen him. Although the staring had to stop. Phoenix had always hated attention, it set her on edge.

“Don’t stare,” I muttered under my breath, warning him. “She hates that. Frankly, most of the girls do.” Dante’s gaze lazily turned to me as if to say “so what?” and something about it just rubbed me the wrong way. “Don’t cry to me when she pushes you off the boat.”

Dante’s lips tugged into a smile. “That’s a good idea,” he said lazily. “We can all go swimming. I’ll have our captain put the slide out.”

I translated what he said to Phoenix, then reached for my orange juice. “What does he mean about a slide?” she asked. I shrugged as I took a sip of my drink. “Hopefully not his dick.”

I almost choked on my orange juice. Damn, that was funny. Phoenix was generally a peaceful person until you pissed her off. It made me wonder what Dante had done.

“What did she say?” Dante asked curiously, his eyes darting between us.

My lips pressed into a thin line. There was no chance I’d comment on his dick. Of course, it was Raven who was happy to be the translator when it came to anything inappropriate.

“She said that if by slide you mean dick, she’ll chop it off.” Then, all casual, she threw a strawberry into her mouth.

A round of snickers followed and I shot an apologetic look at Amon. He and Dante were close.

“Sorry,” I murmured. “She’s joking, of course.”