Chapter 0167

It gets a little awkward in the close quarters of the limousine, but Jesse does a good job of breaking the awkwardness by pouring more champagne – god, mom really made sure we were stocked – and pointing out all of the landmarks that we pass on the way to the palace to Ben and Daphne,

keeping us all laughing with his commentary.

Rafe, when we got in the car, sat me deliberately on his right with Daphne on my other side, very carefully ensuring that I wasn’t sitting next to either of my mates, I think trying to be fair to both of them. But as we draw close to the palace, Rafe turns to Jackson on his left and raises an eyebrow. “You ready for this?” he murmurs, smirking a little.

“Absolutely not,” Jackson returns, deadpan. But then he smiles at my brother, and moves his eyes to me, and his smile deepens. “But we’ll get through it, right?”

“That’s the spirit,” Rafe says, laughing and clinking his glass against. Jackson’s before taking a sip.

Jackson just glances down at his champagne with distaste.

“What,” I say, leaning further over Rafe with a grin, unable to help it. “You don’t like it?”

“What is it?” he asks, baffled, holding his glass up to stare at the pale

bubbly liquid.

I say,

what that means, which makes me laugh more. Jesse, having caught the conversation, laughs as well

stocked back here.

peering over my head with surprise and a little delight

him a draft and handing it down the line.

and I turn my head to him with surprise to see

it into his own half- full flute. “No sense in wasting five–hundred–dollar champagne,” he murmurs, lifting his glass to me in a toast with a

dropping his glass of whiskey

steadying hand under Jackson’s glass. “Listen, if you’re that shocked about the champagne, don’t even ask about the whiskey – just…be

after a moment he smiles too, shaking his head and taking it in stride. I lift a hand to my cheek, which aches a bit from smiling so much, because this is…this is working, isn’t

least right now it is.

my other side, Daphne’s leg

whisper, resting my hand on her knee.

know,” she says, her voice high and too breezy. “Just…about to meet the king and the queen. Just a

And then I tap the bottom

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