“No, love.” Lo tilts my chin up so I meet his swirling amber eyes. “This is real.”
Epilogue
2 years : 05 months
January
LILY CALLOWAY
“House meeting is in order,” Rose announces. I think she wishes that she had a gavel to bang on the table, but she has to settle for the less dramatic route. Silence.
She sits poised on a Queen Anne chair in front of the fireplace. With Connor in the adjacent chair beside her, they look like royalty presiding over us common folk. I think they know that, which is why they both seem a little too excited.
“Did you guys have house meetings back in Princeton?” Daisy asks Lo and me. Even though we all roomed together in the townhouse during Princesses of Philly, this is different. That situation was temporary and our setting was strict and guided by production. Here we have more freedoms, and that means learning to deal with each other on a new level.
Daisy curls up with Ryke on the suede couch, adjacent to the one Lo and I sit on.
“Yeah, but King Connor and Queen Rose never had their own throne,” Lo says, his arm around my waist and fingers tucked in the band of my leggings. At least I wasn’t the only one thinking they looked like royalty.
Rose narrows her yellow-green eyes. “When you detail everyone’s complaints and suggestions and announcements, then you can sit in my chair,” she says, waving a piece of printer paper, signifying all the work she’s done.
“Or you can just sit on my lap, darling,” Connor offers to Lo, the corners of his lips curving in a grin.
Lo laughs, “Tempting.”
“Can we just f**king start?” Ryke asks, running a hand through his damp hair from his shower. Daisy’s is equally as wet, tangled in a messy bun on her head.
All three guys went to the gym this morning, and Daisy joined them at Ryke’s request. My little sister and Lo’s older brother are flying out to Costa Rica tomorrow, and Ryke needed to assess her skill level at the gym wall. She told me with a mischievous smile that he wanted to “bust her ass on real rock” which sounded so dirty in my mind, and I’m still slightly unsure whether that was a hidden innuendo for anal sex.
I should have just asked because it’s been plaguing me every time I see them together. Like dirty pop-ups. Right now, I keep my focus on Rose and her supreme posture.
“First, and most importantly,” she says, “there’s the issue about cleanliness.”
Oh yeah, I knew Ryke would be burned by Rose for the mess he leaves around. And by the disarray of Daisy’s room during the reality show—clothes everywhere—I know she prefers living in disorderly chaos too.
“Daisy and Ryke,” Rose says. “You both need to wash your dishes or put them in the dishwasher. The sink is not a trashcan. Neither is the coffee table or the garage or the den.”
“Fucking A,” Ryke groans and leans back into the couch like he can’t believe this. “We’re not twelve, Rose.”
I can feel Lo’s grin behind me, and I elbow him to wipe it clean. But Ryke catches sight of it. “What’s so f**king funny?”
“I’ve had to live with Rose for almost three years. It’s nice to see someone else suffering under her reign.”
Daisy chimes in, “Rose, I like being able to have this kind of freedom. Mom always got onto me about my room—”
“I will not be manipulated about this. Nice try,” she says, “but no.”
Connor looks impressed by Rose outsmarting Daisy, which really is a higher compliment to my little sister.
Daisy shrugs like had to give it a shot.
Rose snaps her fingers, regaining everyone’s attention. “It’s not a hard concept. If we’re living together, clean up after yourself.”
“What if I don’t f**king want to,” Ryke refutes.
“What?” Rose glares like he’s offering another choice to a true and false test.
He kicks his feet up on the table to further infuriate her. Connor says something in Italian, and since Rose only knows French, I realize quickly that he’s secretly speaking to Ryke.
“Whoa!” I hold up my hands. The room silences on impact, all eyes turning to me. Wow, that worked better than I thought. “Can I make a rule about no secrets in foreign languages?”
“Learn the foreign language and there won’t be any secrets,” Connor says swiftly.
Easier said than done. But I see the power in Rose’s eyes, like she’s accepting a new breed of challenge.
Ryke nods to my older sister. “Let Daisy and I hire a maid like we wanted.”
“No,” Lo and I say together.
Ryke groans again. Lo and I have already voiced our opinions on servers and staff, maids and butlers. We grew up with them, and this house, humongous as it is, already reminds us of the places we were raised.
Neither of us wants to return to that. To walk through the hallways, reminded of times that were darker and more sinister. Fresh starts and new beginnings mean changes, and I want to change how I live. Plus, we’ve been backstabbed and screwed over far too many times. I can’t imagine trusting someone enough to allow them free rule of our house.
“You have a warning,” Rose tells him before moving on. “Second order of business. The hot tub is not a place to f**k.” Crudeness, but she barely even falters or blushes.
And then the realness of that accusation sinks in. “Who had sex in the hot tub?” I didn’t.
“Well it wasn’t us,” Lo starts, raising his eyes at me, and he’s having a hard time looking at the adjacent couch.
Oh. Ohhhhh. I grimace as a pop-up image of Ryke and Daisy screwing in the bubbly hot waters fills my brain. Erase! Delete! Ahhhhh.
Daisy’s eyes are giant saucers, and I’m more aware that she’s much younger than all of us. She’s probably feeling that age gap right about now too. Something about us knowing that she’s ha**ng s*x with Ryke makes a layer of awkwardness sweep the room. Or at least, it’s sweeping big fat gusts towards me, completely missing Rose and Connor.
Maybe their throne-like chairs have magical, immunity properties.
“Is this meeting just a way to bust my balls?” Ryke asks angrily, his hand on Daisy’s head as she slouches. His fingers are lost in her hair, and I wonder if he’s giving her a head massage or something.
“You’re not broken in yet,” Connor says. “It’ll take you a couple of months, or a year since you always refuse to be trained.”
“Fantastic,” Ryke replies.
“Not f**king fantastic?” Daisy whispers to him with a bright smile.
He actually smiles back, and his eyes graze her intimately, reserved for bedrooms and foreplay.
Connor clears his throat. “The last thing…” His eyes land on Lo, but Connor’s deep blues are filled with only seriousness. All the humor and banter dies right there. I don’t think this is about dirty dishes and screwing in hot tubs anymore. “It’s something that affects the four of you.” He scoots to the edge of his chair so that he’s a little closer to us. My heart skips a beat. “As you know, the Calloway’s publicist is revealing Lily’s pregnancy to the media tomorrow.”
All day, I’ve been bracing myself for the firestorm. If the reaction is anything like my parent’s, I’ll be facing discontent and disapproval. Lo and I aren’t married. He relapsed only a few months ago. We’re not the bright and shining couple like Rose and Connor.