Accidental Fiancé (Unintentionally Yours #5)

20. Julian

Chapter 20

Julian

W hat the fuck is Chloe Foster doing here with Marcus?

It was hard not to ask the question aloud. But I had cocktails to order. “Two whiskey and cokes. Thanks.” The bartender hustled for our drinks and they were perfect. They were always perfect here. Mom had a thing about hiring good help, and when the family came over, she pulled out all the stops.

Yaya’s birthday was the biggest family occasion of the year. Bigger than Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. Mom believed people deserved to be celebrated more than traditions. Even though Yaya wanted her to be more traditional, she wasn’t about to turn down celebrating with family.

Ever since coming to the states, Yaya was adamant that she see the family as often as possible. Our Greek relatives weren’t able to visit often, so we stepped up to the plate whenever we could. When I was growing up, Sunday dinners were always a big deal. But as me and my cousins got older and created lives of our own, we weren’t as available. Eventually, things boiled down to a week to celebrate Yaya, and we were basically off the hook for the rest of the year.

Which begged the question: Why was Chloe here?

This event was for family. Not casual acquaintances, tenuous significant others, or buddies. The only people who brought friends were the kids, and that was rare. So anyone who made it into the house was important, and that could mean only one thing—Chloe Foster’s relationship with my cousin Marcus was serious.

I could not let that stand.

But more importantly, I couldn’t leave Maggie alone anywhere. Normally, Yaya’s birthday week included a variety of events, and that included a spa day for the ladies of the family. I had to figure out how to keep Maggie out of that.

Watching her as I crossed the room with the drinks, I could tell she was doing her level best to keep from staring at Chloe. Not that the bully noticed. She was too busy hamming it up, ensuring that she was the center of attention, laughing her fake laugh and overdramatically tossing her head back. It was like watching a comedic imitation of an overreaction to a joke, and it rang so false that I worried about Marcus.

Maybe all those high school football concussions caused permanent mental damage.

When I passed her cocktail to her, Maggie downed half of it in one go. “Are you drinking yours?”

“I had planned to, but…” I held mine out to her.

“You’re a saint.” She reached out for it then paused, her hand falling back to her side. “On second thought, I’m going to need my brain fully functioning to figure this out.”

As she bit down on her lower lip, I studied her. Maggie looked great, but no matter how much I reassured her this morning before we left, she still struggled to believe she looked good enough. She was a fantasy come to life, and yet, she stressed over every detail. The right gold bracelet, the best gold and pearl earrings. She asked if her lipstick was too dark, even though it was just a shade darker than her own pink, pouty lips.

The only way she could have been more beautiful was if she were naked.

“Jules?”

I blinked away from my thoughts. “Yes?”

Maggie subtly nodded her head toward my cousin, both wearing expectant smiles. “Can you introduce us?”

“Ah, yes. Sorry, lost in thought. Maggie Bryant, this is Apollo Black.”

He laughed, eyes wide. “This is Maggie? The high school crush?”

She giggled and heat filled the tips of my ears.

No one in the world could grind my gears like Apollo, largely because he had been like an older brother to me when I was a boy. I grew up seeking his approval. He was the cool cousin, the one who gave me my first hit on a joint. The one who drove the hot cars and dated models.

Apollo knew about my crush on Maggie from the moment I mentioned her. He encouraged me to make a move on her and gave me advice on how to get her to be my girlfriend. I tried it all and failed. None of it worked because Maggie had little in common with the type of girls he dated. It took hindsight and maturity to realize why his advice hadn’t worked.

I gave him a tight smile. “She was my friend, thank you very much.”

As he shook her hand, he threw his other arm around my shoulder, pulling me off-balance. “Julian’s a terrible guy. Undateable. Run while you still can. I’ll hold him for you.”

Maggie laughed as I shoved him back, Apollo laughing as well. She teased, “Nah. I think I’ll keep him out of the dating pool to protect the single women out there.”

I shook my head, defeated. “Fantastic. Now I get it from both sides?”

They grinned at me. Apollo’s smile was a little lopsided, which was his only physical flaw. His jet-black hair had a tight curl, and he let it grow shaggy like a rugby player. Fitting, considering he had a build like one. If it weren’t for that crooked smile of his, he would have been close to perfect.

He taunted, “Admit it, Fool-ian, you missed me.”

“Fool-ian?” Maggie asked with an amused grin. “He tells me you’re an attorney general, Apollo. Surely, you can do better than that.”

“Of course, but when I was a kid, Fool-ian was the height of mockery. Thought I’d bring it back. Gotta keep the most successful person in the family in his place.” Trademark Apollo, using insults to talk me up to the woman I was dating. He was a good guy, even if he was a dick about it. That way, he could hide in plain sight.

“Speak of the devil,” Marcus said behind me. He yanked me into a bear hug that teetered on the border of pain, then held my shoulders at arm’s length, grinning. “Long time, no see.”

I had a thousand questions I wanted to ask, most of them revolving around Chloe, but she stood next to him, carefully observing every word and expression.

“Indeed, it has been a long time.” I introduced him to Maggie, and right after they shook hands, Chloe leaned to his ear and whispered something I couldn’t catch over the din of the crowd. While she spoke, her eyes darted to Maggie. It was obvious she was talking about her but there was no polite way for me to interrupt so I simply said, “Chloe, dear, why don’t you share with the rest of the class?”

Her blue eyes sparkled with feigned innocence. “What do you mean, Julian?”

“What were you whispering about?”

“That’s between us,” Marcus said. The gloating smile on Chloe’s face was enough to turn my stomach. With three words, my cousin confirmed everything I hoped wasn’t true.

Not only was he dating Chloe, but he was under her spell.

It hurt me to see that. As a kid, he had been my other role model. Where Apollo was bold and gregarious, Marcus was more measured and reserved. Unlike Apollo, Marcus kept his brown hair cut short, his green eyes wary and watchful. He had the body of a former football player. Muscular, though he was getting a little soft around the middle.

Apollo teased, “It’s not nice to keep secrets, especially among friends.”

My cousins knew exactly who Chloe Foster had been to me in high school. They were there for me the day after I got into the worst fist fight of my life—Apollo stitched me up himself. Marcus had continuously murmured, “We are in so much trouble,” while Apollo worked on my brow and I tried not to squirm. That was why my eyebrow healed so badly. My fault, however, not Apollo’s. He was only trying to help.

Just as it was my fault that Maggie was in the line of fire now.

“Well, you kids have fun,” I said, sharply avoiding whatever was coming next. “We’re going to find Piper and tend to whatever mischief she’s up to.” I slung my arm around Maggie to get her out of there.

“Oh, but you’ve only just arrived,” Chloe chided.

“That’s the funny thing about parenthood, Chloe—you don’t always get to decide how you spend your time.” I escorted Maggie into the hallway, where we had evidently been keeping all of our air. Filling my lungs greedily, I asked her, “Are you alright?”

Maggie shook her head, a stark expression on her face like she’d seen a ghost. “I?I don’t know if I can do this.”

Shit . “She’s awful, I know. I had no idea Marcus was dating her. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

“Didn’t you say he runs some historical preservation company?”

“A charity, yeah.”

She blew out a breath. “Chloe told me at the reunion that she’d been volunteering at a historical society. Maybe that’s how they bonded.”

A sinking feeling took over deep inside of me. I took her hand and led her down a narrow hallway that the staff used. Near the end of that hall was a storage closet I used to hide in when I was a kid, and sure enough, it was still used for storage now. Shelves lined three walls of the small space, each full of cleaning products. I led her inside and closed the door behind us, shoving a mop handle between the knob and one of the shelving units as a makeshift lock.

“She set him up,” I rasped, too angry to think clearly.

“What?”

“She set all of this up,” I explained as I paced. “Chloe volunteering? What, out of the goodness of her heart? No way. She went to his charity on purpose.”

“You think she hunted Marcus down?”

My throat went dry. “Without a doubt. We live in a major metro area with millions of people, and I don’t believe in coincidences. This was a calculated plan on her part.”

“But why?” Maggie asked.

I wasn’t sure. “Money?”

“He runs a charity. How much money could he have?”

I huffed a laugh. “Charities make more money than you think, but more importantly, he’s a Black. He has access to the family funds just as much as any of us do.”

“You think it’s an embezzlement scam?”

“No, that takes too much work. I think she’s a gold-digger.”

We fell silent for a beat before Maggie quietly asked, “Do you think she was whispering the truth about us to Marcus?”

“How would she know?”

“I’m not sure. But she’s always acted like she knows everything about everyone so it’s hard not to believe that.” Maggie hugged herself, then turned away, her lower lip trembling.

I brushed her curls from her face, pinning them behind her ear. I let my palm linger on her cheek to savor the soft warmth. But then I felt her shake, and it crushed me. When she peered up to meet my gaze, my breath stuck in my chest. My voice scratched out, “Maggie, I won’t let her get away with this. Not here, not now, not ever. Say the word, and we leave.”

“It’s just…” She lost her voice as she pressed herself against me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She whispered, “Just hold me.”

When I closed my arms around her trembling body, I vowed two things: One, I would destroy Chloe Foster, and two, I would do whatever it took to prevent Maggie from feeling me harden up while we hugged.

We were friends. Nothing more. No matter how much my heart cracked every time, I forced myself to believe it.