Free Forever Bound by Ella Ardent Page B

said.
    Ryan’s
parents exchanged a furious glance.
    “Oh
look! It’s downloading!” Aislinn crowed.
    His
parents scowled in unison. “I’d think a bride’s dream would involve spending
her life with the man she loved,” Ryan’s father said. “No matter how and where
they were married.”
    “I’d
think my eldest son would be
enough of a dream for any woman,” his mother huffed, and Ryan knew it would be
a very long day.
    “And
I’d think that supporting my bride and wife-to-be would be exactly what you’d
expect of me,” Ryan said firmly. “You always said that your spouse comes first
and I believe that.”
    “You
wouldn’t be marrying her otherwise,” Moira said with a smile.
    “Right,”
Ryan agreed. “We’re partners. Helping to make her business a success comes with
the territory, just the way she waits up for me when I get called in.”
    He
looked hard at his parents and they averted their gazes.
    “Come
on, let me show you around,” he said with false cheer. “I thought we could all
go to the restaurant on the point for lunch today. They say it’s really pretty,
overlooking the water, and that the food is good.”
    “Oh,
my God,” Sheila breathed, her mouth falling open as she stared at the display on
her phone. Quinn and Patrick looked over her shoulder and Quinn started to
laugh.
    “What’s
Ryan doing?” Patrick, the baby of the family, asked.
    “He’s
wrecking everything!” Sheila said.
    Ryan
had a very very bad feeling.
    When
Sheila passed him the phone, that feeling only got worse.
    He
had to talk to Jess before she saw this.
     
    * * *
     
     
    Mark
was pretty sure this had been the worst vacation of his life. He hadn’t gotten
lucky even once, which had to be some kind of a record. He’d thought he might
score with Fiona, but she’d gotten it on with Kade—of all people. The
pretty maid of honor had avoided him. The waitresses treated him like he had
the plague. And he’d completely failed to convince Jess that Ryan had been
unfaithful. The happy days of bachelorhood were coming to a grinding halt, and
Mark didn’t like it one bit.
    The
way he saw it, he might as well start drinking early. It wasn’t like he was
going to need to be able to get it up, not in this place.
    “So,
the big plan failed,” a woman said from close beside him and he started. “Score
one for the good guys.”
    It
was the waitress, the outspoken one.
    Laura.
    It
was a curse that he remembered the names of women, even when they weren’t
interested in him.
    “I
don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Your
big plan to only share a fraction of the money.” Laura rolled her eyes at his
sidelong glance. “That’s serious rat asshole stuff.”
    Rat
asshole?
    “How
did you know anything about that?”
    “I
have ears,” she said flatly.
    “But...”
    “Oh,
please. Don’t imagine you can paint yourself in a good light here. You’re of a
type that comes through those doors by the dozen. You come here, you fuck
whoever will have you because it makes you feel like a man. You don’t think
about consequences. You think you’re so hot that the rules don’t apply to you.
Great life. Very admirable.”
    “I
don’t remember asking for your opinion.”
    “So,
you got it for free. Good for you.”
    He
watched her, hearing the bitterness in her tone. “Seems like it’s personal.”
    “Maybe
once upon a time, it was.” She flicked him a look. “Now it’s just a question of
principle.”
    Wait
a minute. Laura knew .
    She’d
done something to jinx his chances with Alanna.
    “Wait
a minute,” Mark said. “You were there, when we were talking about the bet.”
    Laura
nodded. “When you showed yourselves to be a group of fine gentlemen.” She
rolled her eyes and stacked glasses on her tray.
    “That
waitress, the curvy one...”
    “Alanna.
Her name is Alanna. Oh, I guess that wasn’t important, was it?”
    “Alanna
was interested in me until then, then she started ducking