Page 40 of Finding the One (River Rain #7)

That evening, Dair and Rix were in some room clearly designed for men to smoke cigars, drink port and scratch their balls. It was so masculine, even Dair felt overpowered by it.

They were there alone because, at first, Blake and Alex had some sister date they’d arranged that was just for the two of them. Not too long ago, though, they’d come and collected Ned to be a part of this date.

Leaving Dair and Rix.

“At first,” Rix replied to his question.

“That’s how Alex and me began. And heads up, Chloe is a matchmaker.

Judge told me, after our wedding, she’d shifted into ultrasonic gear, conniving with Nora and Mika on ways to get you two together.

She said it was going to be her ultimate challenge, considering you both live in different countries.

She was bummed when she found out you were already together before she could meddle. ”

Dair chuckled.

“So, naturally, she’s shifted focus,” Rix continued. “That’s why she’s been shoving JT and Laird in your or Blake’s arms every chance she got.”

Dair chuckled at that as well, though this time, he spoke through it.

“Didnae miss that.”

“Yeah,” Rix said on a smile. “So back then, Chloe got wind that Alex told Blake that she and I were together, and I’d be coming as her plus one to her wedding because?—”

Abruptly, he stopped speaking.

“Because?” Dair prompted.

Rix cleared his throat and shifted his lounging position in the battered leather armchair that was such high quality when it was made, the battered part only made it more comfortable, the leather was like butter, and it smelled vaguely of cigar smoke, though Dair thought that added to its charm.

But Dair was confused.

“Rix?”

“You’ve known Blake all her life, right?”

Dair nodded.

“So you know she wasn’t…who she is today?”

Dair relaxed. “Aye, I ken.”

“She was a total bitch to Alex.”

Dair tensed again.

That, he didn’t know.

“That mean girl comment yesterday?” Rix asked.

Dair jerked up his chin, indicating he remembered.

“Well, Blake took the cake when it came to mean girls,” Rix told him. “Alex lied about me coming to the wedding as her plus one just so Blake would have one less thing to be shitty to her about.”

Dair felt an unnerving sensation scratching at the back of his throat.

“There’s more,” Rix kept talking. “Alex didn’t even know she was in the wedding until a few weeks before.

She wasn’t invited to the shower or the bachelorette party.

She was expected to lay out a bunch of cash for her dress and shit, all at the last minute.

Not like my woman isn’t loaded, but she doesn’t spend her money on crap like that. ”

Dair turned his attention to his tumbler of whisky, fighting that feeling that hadn’t left his throat.

“Saw her throw a tantrum myself, and it wasn’t pretty,” Rix muttered and took a sip of his own whisky. “Night and day, who she is now and who she was then.”

Dair said nothing.

“Anyway,” Rix carried on, “Chloe got wind of Alex sharing that with Blake, and in the end, my woman was going to make excuses for me not attending, but Chloe stepped in and suddenly, I was Alex’s fake fiancé.”

“Right,” Dair forced out.

“Safe to say, I was into her, I just didn’t know it. Not sure even for a friend I’d do something like that. We got deep. I got lost. I almost lost her. I figured my shit out and”—he lifted his glass—“here we are.”

“Here ye are, married with a wife who’s up the duff,” Dair said quietly.

Rix smiled big. “Yup.”

Dair smiled back, but it wasn’t big, before he swirled his scotch and took a drink.

He knew the situation with Chad had sparked change in Blake.

But fucking hell, not telling her sister she was in the wedding party, and if he read between the lines, a sister giving her sister shite for not having a man?

He also knew Blake had been careening down the path of becoming Helena, before she stopped herself.

But that shite had Helena written all over it.

It was ugly.

And even cruel.

“Not sure Chloe has to work hard on the whole get-married-have-babies thing she had going on with you two,” Rix remarked. “Seems you guys are tight. And seems you’re good for her. Never seen her this chill since I’ve known her.”

Dair didn’t have a response to that, though he didn’t like it. He was all in to look after his woman. He was not all in for her to lean on him to be her moral compass, or worse, her acting like she didn’t have one.

So he grunted.

“Here you are,” he heard Blake say from behind him.

He twisted to see she and Alex were entering the room.

Night and day, those two. Blake classically beautiful, slim, chic and outgoing, Alex with her abundance of red-brown curls, curves, no-nonsense attitude and quiet demeanor.

Alex was the perfect woman for Rix, as he was the perfect man for her.

Until just minutes ago, he would have felt sure in saying the same thing about he and Blake.

“God, you can still smell the smoke even if neither of them smoking,” Alex said.

Blake sat on the arm of his chair and smiled down at him. “I need to buy you some cigars.”

“Have some at home, lassie,” he told her.

That made her smile bigger.

“How was your date?” he asked.

But it was Alex who answered. “It took us a while, and we had a goal of five, and could only come up with four memories of Mum that were good without any bad attached.”

“We had to call Dad in to figure out number four,” Blake added. “But even with him there, we could only add that one.”

Four unblemished memories in a lifetime of mother and daughters?

Not good.

But Blake seemed lighter, so whatever worked.

“And heads up,” Alex announced. “Marlo is flying to London tomorrow. We’re meeting her for dinner.”

Dair studied Blake’s face.

No anxiety, she just looked excited.

The men finished their whiskies as they all chatted.

They then all went to bed.

The fuck he shared with Blake before they turned the lights out and settled in was no less intense and satisfying.

But even as his woman drifted right to sleep draped down his side, Dair stayed awake staring at the dark ceiling.

He’d read Signe wrong. The woman he fell in love with was nothing like the woman he found himself married to.

But if given a choice of only those two, he would take being married to a fame-hungry, gold-digging woman to being tied to another version of Helena Coddington-Sharp.

He’d make that choice every time.

He wanted nothing to do with a mean girl.

God damn.

Fuck.