CHAPTER 005: AN ARRANGEMENT

The front door slammed shut downstairs, and I jerked up before I’d even decided to.

My hand left Luca’s eyebrow I’d been tracing without permission— his eyes were still closed, but his breathing had changed, caught somewhere between sleep and almost-awake.

He’d begged me to stay the night because he couldn’t stand sleeping in the same house with his brother alone.

So again, for him—I did. And lay awake half the night with his arm around my waist and his brother’s words on my chest.

This was what I got, the unconscious version of him—the one who wasn’t choosing anyone, so it was easy to pretend he chose me.

I lifted my back off the bed slightly, putting my weight on one arm the moment I heard voices and a laughter that could only belong to one person.

Their mother—Catherine Leister.

I eased out from under Luca’s arm slow enough that he didn’t stir, his hand slid off my hip and rested against the sheets. I grabbed his sweater off the floor, pulled it over my head and went down.

Catherine turned, spotting me on the stairs and her face lit up like freaking Christmas lights.

“Noah!” She crossed the foyer in heels that clicked against the marble sharply, throwing her arms open.

“Oh, my darling. I’ve missed you quite a lot.”

“You haven’t aged a day, Mrs Leister.” I chuckled, separating from the hug.

“You little flatterer. I’ve told you to call me Catherine.” She pinched my cheek with her red nails softly, the way she’d been doing since I was nineteen and terrified of her.

I gave her a small smile, my eyes drifted past her shoulder to her husband, setting a garment bag over the back of a chair.

“Hi, Nicholas.”

“Noah.” He smiled politely, turning his attention towards me. “Good to see you again. I already half expected Luca to be trailing behind you like a lost puppy”

Right. Because we’d been so joined at the hip that even his dad could tell.

“He’s still in bed.”

Catherine opened her mouth to say something else—and then her eyes lifted past my shoulder, up the staircase, and every ounce of playfulness dropped out of her voice at once.

“Kade?”

I turned to follow her gaze.

He stood at the top of the stairs, one hand loose on the railing, a black tank top doing very little to contain the width of him underneath it—same ink I’d caught a glimpse of last night now fully visible, climbing one shoulder in dark lines.

He dragged a hand along his jaw, stubble rasping under his palm and his eyes flickered once toward Nicholas before settling back on his mother.

“Hello, mother.” He said dryly, coming down the rest of the stairs unhurried and stopped beside me, close enough that I stepped down onto the next stair just to put air between us.

“You came.” Catherine’s hands lifted toward his face, like she needed to touch him to confirm he was really standing there.

“Y-You actually came.”

He caught her wrist before she touched him, stopping halfway but gently. A boundary he’d drawn so smoothly it barely looked like one.

“You can be quite persuasive, Mother.”

His gaze slid to Nicholas, giving him one long look, his jaw grinding silently before he tore his eyes away from him.

What the fuck just happened?

Silence settled over the foyer, thick enough that someone was going to have to say something soon or it would start to suffocate all of us.

Luckily, Luca broke it, jogging down the stairs with his hair still a mess from sleep.

“Mom? Dad?”

“Luca, my boy.” Nicholas’s whole face opened up.

Luca crossed the floor fast, nudging past Kade on purpose to reach their mother first, pressing a kiss to her cheek. I watched Kade smirk to himself, like he’d expected that.

“I didn’t think your flight from Italy left this early.”

“We took the Henderson’s jet.” Catherine waved a hand, already drifting toward the living room. “And I needed to be here as soon as possible. I’m hosting the rehearsal dinner tomorrow, there’s so much to do.” Her eyes swept the room, landing on all three of us, like we were precious.

“And look at this. My boys, finally back under one roof again. You too, Noah. This is exactly how it should be.”

My gaze moved between them—Kade still at the base of the stairs, Luca standing close to his mother now, both of them holding themselves like the air in the room cost something to breathe.

What actually happened between these two?

“Kade, darling, you’ll help with the planning, won’t you?” She gave a gentle smile, holding him with love in her eyes. “We could use another pair of hands, and it would make me happy if you were involved.”

“We don’t need him.” Luca said flatly.

“I wasn’t asking you.” Catherine’s tone stayed sweet. “Kade?”

He dragged his eyes down to his feet, then back up.

“Fine.”

Luca groaned and dropped into the nearest chair like the conversation had physically cost him something.

“Wonderful!” Catherine clapped once, already moving on.

“Noah, sweetheart, I need someone at the florist this morning—the peonies, the ribbon samples, all of it. Kade can go with you.”

“Erm—“ My eyes flicked to him. His were already glinting with something close to mischief. “Can’t I—“

“I’ll go with her.” Luca cut in, “Kade can do whatever he wants. Noah stays with me.”

“Actually, son.” Nicholas cut in, pocketing his hands. “I need you for something first.”

Luca looked between his father and brother like he was being outmaneuvered from both directions at once and didn’t have a single move left.

Kade pushed off the wall he’d been leaning against and came to stand beside me, drawing closer like he had all the time in the world.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, Covey.”

I glared at him

“Should be fun.” He added. “If you don’t throw yourself out my window first.”

After an hour, we stepped out. His car was nothing like the fleet parked in his father’s garage. A matte-black ’69 Camaro idled low at the curb, top down despite the cold.

He walked around to the driver’s side and pulled the door open.

“Well?”

I frowned.

“Are you getting in, Covey, or are you waiting for me to open your side of the door?”

“I’m deciding whether walking is the safer option.”

A corner of his mouth lifted. “Smart woman.”

The drive started in complete silence. He didn’t touch the radio. Or even try to make a conversation.

The only sound was the rumble of the engine and the wind whipping through the open roof.

He drove one handed, wrist resting loose on the wheel, like the car obeyed him out of respect.

I kept my eyes on the window, folding my arms tighter.

“Do you always drive in silence?”

“Only with people who clearly don’t want to talk to me.

I scoffed. “ Good. Keep driving, then.”

“See?” He glanced at me briefly. “You’re talking already.”

I rolled my eyes towards him. “What exactly is wrong with you?”

“It’s a long list, sweetheart.”

I stole a glance at him again, returning my gaze back to the window. Another silence settled between us.

“So…” he said eventually. “Have you met the bride?”

My whole chest tightened at the question.

“No.”

I hadn’t let myself picture the wedding properly yet. I couldn’t. Rosalind at the end of an aisle in white, the same face that used to corner me by the lockers now wearing a veil, everyone I loved standing up to watch her get the one person I’d spent my life orbiting around.

“You don’t look happy about that.”

“Because I’m not discussing Luca with you.” I snapped.

“You’re quite Interesting.”

I shot him a glare. “Can you stop acting like you know me?”

Because he was doing it again—that thing he did yesterday.

How he could read through me like I was printed in a language only he understood. I still didn’t know how he got my surname. I ran through it again—My i*******m? Luca’s?

“If my brother had one functioning brain cell,” Kade drummed his fingers lazily against the steering wheel.

“He would have told his precious pet the wedding is arranged.”

I snapped my head toward him angrily.

“STOP CALLING ME H—“ I stopped. “Wait. What?”

He threw me a small non chalant glance.

“The wedding.” He snorted.

“It’s arranged, Noah.”