“Latford.” A hearty, heavy hand slapped him on the back.

Benedict turned away from watching his wife to find his friend, the Viscount Melvin.

“Didn’t expect to see you here,” Melvin said.

“Why?”

“Your last appearance among the ton left quite an impression.”

Benedict didn’t want to think about that. He’d thrown his wife to the wolves and naively thought she was strong enough to fight them off with sheer will alone.

“I daresay you’re making an entirely new impression tonight,” Melvin mused.

“Why’s that?” His eyes strayed once again to Irena.

“It has not gone unnoticed that you have all the appearances of a man completely besotted with his wife.”

“I am.” A strange giddiness that felt entirely unmanly but completely freeing lifted his chest. “I am a happily married man, my friend.”

“And I am glad to hear it. Just be careful, Latford. Not everyone is forgiving.” He nodded toward the group of women where his wife had been standing.

Just in time to see Irena dash away.

Benedict followed in the direction he’d seen his wife disappear. To the outside world, she would have appeared fine. But he knew her better, and something was wrong. It was in the tight line of her lips, the way she clutched her hands to her stomach, the quick steps in slippers she despised.

He found her in the library.

Of course.

He closed the heavy door behind him. The click of the latch was the only sound in the room save a soft, uneven breath.

“Irena?”

He found her sitting on a straight-backed chair facing the massive hearth on the other side of the room. She looked small against the imposing velvet piece. But not just in stature. She looked defeated. “Are you unwell?”

He crouched before her and covered her hands with his. They were ice cold. As was her gaze.

“Irena, what is it?”

“What could possibly make a man and wife despise each other to the point that they abandon their own child just to avoid being in the same house?”

A twinge of alarm shot through him. Benedict sat back on his haunches. “What are you talking about?”

“You said your parents were particularly unhappy people, but that never seemed an adequate explanation.”

“Why are we talking about this?” A cold alarm swept through him. “What did those women say to you?”

“Don’t put this on them. Tell me the truth.”

Benedict rose slowly. “I have no idea what we’re talking about.” But he did. And he was a fool for thinking he could keep this from her, for believing it wouldn’t reach her ears eventually.

Her eyes followed him as he stood. “The ton never forgets a scandal. Haven’t you learned that by now, my lord?”

The use of his title created a churning sensation in his stomach. “Irena, listen to me—”

“Tell me the truth.”

“What happened with my mother and father has nothing to do with us.”

An ugly scoff emerged from her delicate lips. “It has everything to do with us. Say it. Say the words. Tell me what happened.”

“She trapped him.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“Yay! Aunt Livvie’s here!”

The Thursday after the team party, Thea saw her sister’s Jeep pull into the driveway at the same time that Amelia shouted. Liv hadn’t returned a single call or text since the night of their fight.

“Did she tell you she was coming over?” Gavin asked. He had just set his suitcase by the front door and had to leave soon for a photo shoot in New York. He would only be gone for the weekend, but Thea dreaded his absence. She never wanted him to leave again. Baseball season was going to be hell.

“No,” Thea said, watching her sister through the kitchen window.

Gavin stood beside her with his hand on her back. “Do you want me to take the girls somewhere so you two can talk?”

She smiled up at him. “No. Thank you, but no. She probably just wants to get some of her things.” Secretly, though, Thea hoped Liv had simply gotten over her snit, grown tired of sleeping on her friend’s couch, and was ready to come home. And it was her home. Even Gavin had missed her.

Thea opened the front door and let Butter out. He paused to lift a leg on a bush and then ran to Liv. Thea met her on the porch.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Liv said. “I came to get my stuff.”

“Liv, you don’t have to do that.”

Her sister ignored her and disappeared into the house. Thea followed her to the basement. Liv opened her dresser and began yanking out clothes.

“I wish you’d stay,” Thea said, coming up behind her.

Liv shoved a stack of T-shirts in a duffel bag.

“Where’s your husband?”

“Upstairs. He wants you to stay too.”

Liv wadded up a sweater and shoved it in her duffel bag. “I take it he’s out of the guest room?”

“Liv, can you stop that for a minute?”

“I have to work this afternoon, so no.”

“Yes, he’s out of the guest room. Which means you are more than welcome to move back in there for as long as you want.”

Liv zipped the bag and stood up. “You guys need some time together without me getting in the way.”

“You’re not in the way. The girls want you here. I want you here.”

“Look,” Liv said, facing her for the first time. “I know how this works, okay? You and Gavin are this bright, shiny thing again. The OTP. I’ll just be in the way.”

“Is that what this is about? You’re worried I won’t have time for you if Gavin and I are back together?”

Liv snorted, the sound more sad than sarcastic. “Don’t worry. I’d never make you choose. I’ve never come out on the winning end of that choice in my life.”

The big sister in her wanted to drag Liv into a protective hug against the ugly pain revealed in that single sentence. But they weren’t children anymore. “This isn’t the same thing. I’m not our parents, and I’m not rejecting you by taking Gavin back.”

Liv rolled her eyes, a classic Liv deflection move that she’d been pulling since childhood. “God, please. A few days of good sex, and she’s a therapist.”

Thea had to breathe in and out several times not to react. Instead, she tried another tactic. “So where are you going? Back to the farmhouse?” Before Liv moved in, she’d lived in a garage apartment on a co-op farm outside the city.

Liv hoisted the strap of her duffel bag over her shoulder. “Don’t know yet. I’m hanging out at Alexis’s place for now.”

“I still have work to do on the mural, so I’m sure I’ll see you at the café,” Thea tried.

Liv lugged her things toward the stairs but stopped at the bottom. “Thea, I take no joy in what I’m about to say. I hope you know that.”

Oh, boy. Thea crossed her arms.

“Men who like to win will do whatever they have to to get what they want.”

Thea let out a frustrated noise and shook her head. “Gavin has a lot of faults, but this Machiavellian picture you paint of him isn’t true.”

“Then go look at what he’s hiding in the guest room closet.”

A twinge of alarm raced through her. That was an oddly specific thing to say. “What are you talking about?”

Liv stormed up the stairs. Thea followed, anger and alarm fueling every step. “Liv, you can’t just say something like that and leave.”

Liv’s duffel thumped, thumped, thumped up the stairs as she dragged it behind her. “Liv!” Thea snapped.

Her sister ignored her.

Gavin appeared at the top of the stairs. “Everything okay?”

Liv told him to move, and he did.

The wheels of Liv’s duffel bag were loud against the hardwood floor and caught the attention of the girls. Amelia ran over to her but stopped with a skid. “Where are you going?”

Liv dropped her duffel, crouched down, and opened her arms to both girls. She kept her voice light and funny, and Thea knew she was doing it for their benefit. “I am going on an adventure!” she said. “I’m off to ride elephants and search for unicorns and—”

“And rhinos!” Amelia giggled.

“And wild hedgehogs,” Liv said. But then her voice faded.

Thea watched as Liv kissed each cheek and stood. “Actually, girls, I’m just going to live somewhere else. Because now that Daddy’s baseball is all done for a while, you guys don’t need me anymore.”

Ava hugged her legs. “No! We need you, Aunt Livvie.”

Gavin approached. “Liv, you don’t have to go.”

He picked up her duffel bag. Liv yanked it away.

“Let her go, Gavin,” Thea said softly. Once her sister had made up her mind, there was no changing it.

Liv grabbed her things and walked out the door without so much as a wave goodbye.

It’s not like she was going anywhere. She worked in Nashville, would still live in Nashville. But Thea felt her departure like the snap of a tether.

And she heard her words like a song stuck on repeat in her head.

“Gavin?” she asked.

He looked down, the tone of her voice bringing a pinch to his brow. “What?”

“What’s in the guest room closet?”

Courting the Countess

Say the words, Benedict. Tell me what happened.”

“She trapped him.”

Irena’s bottom lip wavered before she caught it with her teeth. “Well that explains a lot, doesn’t it?”

Benedict dragged his hands over his hair. “No, it doesn’t. I know what you’re thinking, but don’t. Their relationship has nothing to do with—” He cut himself off, immediately disproving his own denial.

“With your immediate assumption that I was guilty?” she charged. “With your fervent willingness to believe the worst of me?”