‘Shit-storm’ was too small and petty a term to describe what was happening right now. This was a Category 5 shit-hurricane.

Upon spotting us a moment ago, Mom had immediately waved us over, and we knew we were trapped—we had to approach, because we’d already been seen. After that, everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Libby turned and smiled, only for her blissful expression to vanish, replaced with abject horror. Bobby was much the same. The smile slid right off his face, and his eyes narrowed with cold animosity. “You,” he said.

One word to launch what seemed like ten thousand arguments.

Nate strode up to the table, fury etched in his handsome features. Bobby stood up, nearly matching his brother in height. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.

Nate snorted derisively. “I could say the same to you. Spending all my money on this lavish vacation and wedding, huh? That’s nice.”

“It’s my money. And I’ll ask you again—what the fuck are you doing here? Did you trick poor Georgie into thinking you were interested in her so you could come ruin my wedding?” He cast a pitying look in my direction, and my insides clenched.

Nate’s hands balled into fists by his side. “Of course not. I didn’t even know her sister was marrying you! I was under the impression Libby’s fiancé was actually a nice guy, not some traitorous dickhead.”

I stood and watched the argument unfold, stunned into silence. Mom was doing the same with wide eyes. Libby looked like she was about to faint.

“So I’m supposed to believe this was just a coincidence, huh?” Bobby rolled his eyes. “You weren’t done screwing my life up back home, so you felt the need to come here and fuck up my wedding too. Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful.”

“Oh, spare me. How the hell would I have even known you were getting married? Not like I received an invitation! I didn’t even know you got engaged.”

Bobby held his palms up. “I tried calling you the other week to let you know. Figured maybe we could bury the hatchet for a few days while I got married. But you never picked up your phone. So don’t blame me for that shit! I tried to tell you.”

I knew that part was true. I’d been in Nate’s car when Bobby tried calling during that storm. Of course, I didn’t know who ‘Robert’ was at the time. If I did, all of this could’ve been avoided.

But how could I have known? All Bobby had ever told me about his family in the past was that he had none coming to the wedding. I knew from past conversations with Libby that he had a brother somewhere, but I assumed (correctly, I suppose) from the fact that he wasn’t coming to the wedding that they weren’t on speaking terms. I wasn’t told at any point that his estranged brother was actually the famous Nate Scott. He’d never said a thing about that, and neither had my sister.

Libby had mentioned that Bobby was trying to build an investment startup with the abundance of capital he’d saved and invested in the past. However, I had no idea he was the very same Robert who allegedly took Nate’s money and ran before starting up a competing brokerage.

It all made so much sense now that I had all the puzzle pieces.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I stared at Bobby, trying to convince my brain that this was really happening; that he really was who Nate said he was. He’d always seemed so calm and mild-mannered whenever I spoke to him in the past. Could it be possible that he was actually the thieving, duplicitous snake Nate had painted him as?

As much as I tried, I couldn’t see it. Was Nate wrong, or was I simply too naïve to see the truth about other people’s base natures?

The two brothers kept arguing, and Libby moved around closer to Mom, trembling as a fat tear rolled down her cheek. “Oh my god,” she kept repeating.

“Libby, I’m so sorry,” I said, finally finding my tongue as I slid into a chair. “I had no idea Nate was Bobby’s brother.”

She simply sat there staring at me with her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

As Nate and his brother continued slinging jibes at each other, my mother looked at me and flared her nostrils. “This is disgusting,” she hissed. “Sabotaging your own sister’s wedding, all because you couldn’t handle being single and lonely while she got to be happy. You unbelievably selfish little child.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What?”

She scoffed. “How stupid do you think I am? This is no coincidence!” She waved her hand at Nate and Bobby.

“It is! I had no idea Nate was Bobby’s brother!” I said.

Mom rolled her eyes and snorted. “So let me get this straight. Nate Scott is your new boyfriend, and you had no idea Bobby was his brother? I’m supposed to believe that, am I?”

“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth.

Her lips curled in a disbelieving sneer, and the look in her eyes was icy enough to sink the Titanic. “There’s no way you’d have a boyfriend for almost three months and not know anything about his family.”

“Well, did you know exactly who Bobby’s brother was? Because no one ever told me it was Nate!”

Her face turned pink, and she sniffed. “Well, no, but I’m not in a relationship with him! You knew. You obviously seduced Nate and brought him here just to mess things up! All for attention, because you couldn’t stand someone else stealing what you think should be your thunder.”

I slammed my hand down on the table. “Mom! How dare you? You actually think I’d do something to hurt Libby or sabotage her wedding? What is wrong with you?”

“How else do you explain this, then? I don’t know what happened between those two, but clearly they despise each other.” She waved her hands at the two brothers, who were still trading insults and getting louder by the second. Other restaurant patrons were beginning to turn and stare at our table.

My cheeks burned with anger and shame. I knew this plan to bring a fake boyfriend was a bad idea. I just wish I knew it could be this bad.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s just a terrible coincidence. I’m sorry, but I really didn’t know my boyfriend was related to Bobby.”

Libby finally spoke up. She still looked completely thunderstruck. “How could you not know?” she asked in a small voice. “Didn’t you ever ask him about his family?”

“I did, but I didn’t make the connection,” I began in a halting voice. “I mean, Scott is almost as common a last name as Smith. So when Nate told me had an estranged brother named Robert, I didn’t think twice about it. And I’ve always known Bobby as…well, just Bobby! It didn’t occur to me that he and Robert were one and the same.”

“Oh. Right.”

I hurriedly went on. “I know you vaguely told me about Bobby having a brother a while ago, and I figured they weren’t on speaking terms seeing as he has no family coming to the wedding. But I didn’t know it was Nate. I swear. I just didn’t put two and two together, even though they both seemed to have estranged brothers.”

Libby let out a defeated sigh. “Bobby’s gone through a lot because of his brother these last few months.” She paused and rubbed her temples. “Even when we first met, he and Nate were already arguing a lot and drifting apart. So because they weren’t close and it wasn’t my business to talk about, I never really mentioned him to anyone. And Bobby didn’t want anyone to worry, so he actually asked me not to mention their recent financial issues. So… I get why you didn’t know who he was. That’s actually my fault.” She sighed again and shook her head.

I leaned over and grabbed one of her hands, squeezing it tight. “I know what’s happened between those two, and I would’ve never brought Nate here if I knew he was Bobby’s brother. I swear. You know I’d never, ever hurt you, right?”

She nodded weakly, then turned to Mom. “I believe Georgie. What would she gain from doing this on purpose? She’s not an attention seeker. And she’s right. I never told anyone who Bobby’s brother was, let alone their issues. So how could she know?”

Mom pursed her lips and lifted her chin high. “Hmph. I suppose so,” she muttered in a reluctant tone. Then she turned her attention back to me. “Even if that’s true, how are you dating Nate Scott? I just read this morning that he’s been having an affair with the mayor’s wife. There was even a photo of them together! What’s her name again… oh, Ginny Morell!”

I briefly turned my gaze to Nate as Mom spoke. Ah. So that was Ginny. He’d definitely lied right to my face about not seeing anyone, and it seemed he had a real taste for illicit affairs. San Diego’s resident playboy, indeed.

But that would have to wait. There were more pressing issues at hand right now.

“People spread rumors about Nate in the media all the time,” I said. That was true; he told me all about it on one of our fake dates.

“Right,” Mom said, her eyes still narrowed with suspicion. “So a rich, handsome playboy just decided to date you for no reason?”

I stiffened. “Are you implying I’m not good enough to date someone like him, mother?”

She sniffed again. “No. I just can’t believe it, that’s all. He could get anyone, and from what I’ve read, he does.” She cocked her head to the side. “So maybe Bobby is right. He could’ve targeted you and tricked you into thinking he wanted you, so he could come here and ruin the wedding. Obviously he and Bobby have a colorful history, so he might just want to do that.”

I groaned, not even knowing what to say in response to that. Beside us, the two brothers were still arguing.

“Well?” Mom went on. “Is that possible?”

I rolled my eyes. “No! That’s impossible. I approached him and asked him out in the first place, okay? He didn’t target me.”

“You approached him?” Mom actually looked impressed for a second. “I didn’t think you’d have the guts to do that, not since—”

Christ. I felt like someone was throwing grenades at me from every direction. I held my hands up. “Stop!” I said. Everything came to a screeching halt. Even Mom fell silent. “Just stop, okay? You’re all making a scene! Just sit down and let’s talk about this quietly like adults.”

Nate and Bobby slid into chairs across from each other, still glaring. The atmosphere was like a flickering match in a gasoline-soaked room. Tensions were taut, stretched to their limit, and I knew things would blow up again if anyone said the wrong thing.

I spoke up clearly, making sure all eyes were on me. “This is a coincidence. It’s weird and shocking, but it is. There’s nothing we can do about that. But no one came here with any intention of hurting anyone else. I didn’t know Nate was Bobby’s brother, and Nate didn’t know Libby was marrying him. I can assure you he didn’t. So this wasn’t some grand scheme to wreck the wedding celebrations. Okay?”

There were a few grumbles but everyone nodded their assent.

“Can we just agree that if we’d all been a little more open with each other, this could’ve been avoided?” I said. “I’ll start. I should’ve been clearer about who my boyfriend is. I’m sorry I wasn’t.”

“And I’m sorry I accused you of doing this on purpose. I jumped to conclusions,” Mom said. Despite her apology, her tone was still quite frosty.

Bobby sighed. “You aren’t the only culpable one, Georgie. I tend to keep a lot of things about my family to myself. I could’ve told you all exactly who my brother was, but I didn’t. I apologize for that.”

“Great. Now you’ve gotten that out, we can sit around and sing Kumbaya,” Nate muttered under his breath, glaring at Bobby. I elbowed him and shot him a death stare.

Libby either didn’t hear him or didn’t care. “I never told anyone either,” she added to her fiancé’s last comment. “I knew Bobby didn’t really see eye-to-eye with Nate on a lot of issues, and his reputation was starting to bother him. So he doesn’t tell anyone about him. But if I told Mom and Georgie, at least… well, this could’ve been avoided.” She gestured around the table to drive her point home.

Nate held a hand up and stared at Bobby. “Wait, hold on. Am I getting this right? You don’t tell anyone about me?”

“I told Libby, of course, but no, I haven’t spoken to anyone else about you in a long time. Not unless they already knew us,” Bobby replied. He didn’t meet Nate’s eyes as he spoke.

Nate’s eyes narrowed. “And it’s because of my reputation? What does that even mean?”

“Nate, even before all the money stuff went down between us, I was thinking about breaking away and starting my own company. Let’s face it, you and I haven’t been close in a long time. And I didn’t want people to automatically associate me with you. Everyone loves you, but they also know what a player you are. I wanted to take a more mature approach in my business, so I stopped telling people exactly who my brother was. I would’ve told Margaret and Georgie eventually, of course, especially if you agreed to attend the wedding. But I hadn’t done it yet.”

Nate rolled his eyes. “Right. Because pretending I don’t exist and stealing ten million dollars is such a mature approach.”

Bobby narrowed his eyes. “For the love of Christ… I don’t know how many times I have to say it. I didn’t take your goddamned money!” he said, throwing up his hands. “Do you know how hard it’s been to try and get this startup off the ground these last few months with the feds breathing down my neck? All because you can’t admit that either you or someone else lost that money. It’s a fucking nightmare. They’ve combed through absolutely everything. Every penny I put into the new business has to be accounted for, every move I make is analyzed.”

“Oh, I wonder why?” Nate said sarcastically.

“And you wonder why I haven’t bothered telling anyone exactly who my brother is for so long,” Bobby shot back. “You’re such a fucking prick. They were probably better off not knowing.”

I held my hands up. “You two, please stop before this turns into a massive argument again,” I said sharply. I drew in a deep breath and went on. “Look, what are we going to do? Should we just leave? I really don’t want to, but if that will help matters….” I trailed off, leaving the statement hanging in the air.

Libby’s eyes immediately filled with tears again. “No! I need you here, Georgie. You can’t miss my wedding!”

“Perhaps I should just leave,” Nate said curtly. “Sorry, Libby. I didn’t mean to cause all this trouble for your family, and I can understand why you wouldn’t want me here. I can only imagine what Robert has said about me.”

Libby didn’t reply. She simply put her head down and twisted a white napkin in her hands.

Mom sighed and spoke up in her place. “No. Georgie is right. We need to sort this out like mature adults. Nate, you’ve come all this way to be here with my daughter, and whether or not you and Bobby want to admit it, you’re brothers. You shouldn’t miss this wedding. So could you declare a ceasefire for the next couple of weeks?” She turned to Bobby. “You did say you were planning to extend an olive branch to Nate. You were going to invite him and finally introduce him to us, and the only reason you didn’t was because he didn’t answer his phone. Yes?”

Bobby grunted. “Yes, that’s true.”

She turned to Nate again. “What do you think?”

He nodded slowly. “Fine. For Georgie and Libby’s sake, I’ll pretend the last several months never happened,” he said. “Though I do have to question Libby’s taste in men,” he added under his breath so that only I could hear.

Mom smoothed down her cardigan and nodded with satisfaction. “Thank you.”

Nate took a deep breath, then extended a hand across the table toward my mother. “Margaret, I’m very sorry for how this has played out. I can’t even imagine what you must think of me right now, bursting in here and yelling at Bobby without even introducing myself to you properly. But I suppose you’re well aware of my identity now.”

Mom’s jaw tightened as Nate spoke. She was silent for a moment. Then she gingerly took his hand and shook it. “Under the circumstances, I think I can understand. Obviously you and your brother have quite the history,” she said. She tilted her head and crossed her arms. “But I want you two to promise this won’t happen again. This is my daughter’s wedding, and it seems we’re all about to be family, whether some of us like it or not.”

Nate smiled thinly. “That’s true.”

“I promise I won’t cause any issues as long as we’re all here. You’re right, we’re brothers and should behave accordingly,” Bobby said. He sounded sincere, but I didn’t miss the coldness in his eyes as he stared across the table at Nate.

“Agreed,” Nate said stiffly, catching my eye the next second. I tried to communicate a silent message with my stricken gaze. I’m sorry for bringing you here. He gave me a tight smile and nodded almost imperceptibly.

An awkward silence descended upon the table for a moment. I squirmed in my seat, unsure of what to say next.

“Why don’t you two go to the bar to order us some more drinks? Perhaps it would help if you had a chance to chat in private,” Mom finally suggested, looking at Bobby and Nate in turn.

Bobby stood up. “Fine,” he said, nodding briskly. “Come on. Let’s talk.”

Nate set his jaw and grudgingly headed off with his brother.

I wanted to melt into the floor. I felt awful for dropping him right in the middle of this, but we were here now, and he’d committed to staying, so there wasn’t much we could do other than keep playing our role as a couple.

I looked over at Libby. “Lib, are you sure you’re okay with this? I know how you must feel about Nate.”

She nodded slowly. “It’s fine. I don’t hate him. I’m glad you found someone, even if it’s like this.”

I raised my brows. “Really? I thought you wouldn’t be able to stand him, considering the history between him and Bobby.”

She shook her head. “For the last few months, I’ve thought this whole thing between them was a giant misunderstanding. I still do. Nate’s been an asshole to Bobby, but I can sort of understand where he’s coming from. He lost ten million dollars, and honestly, it looked bad for Bobby at first. He looked guilty as hell. So I get it. I’d be freaking pissed too. But I promise, he didn’t do anything wrong. That money was probably stolen, sure, but it was stolen by someone else.”

Mom cut in. “What exactly happened between them?” she asked. “I gathered the general gist of it from their argument, but I don’t know the details.”

Libby sighed. “Mom, you have to promise you won’t tell anyone about this. I know how you like to gossip, but from what Bobby has told me, he and Nate have tried to keep this as quiet as possible because they didn’t want to jeopardize CryptX. Everyone there had to sign non-disclosure agreements when it was being investigated.”

“My lips are sealed.”

As Libby explained the story to our mother, I furrowed my brows. Something had just occurred to me from what my sister said.

If Bobby was truly out to get Nate, he could’ve refused to sign an NDA and gone to the media to tell everyone about the incident at CryptX. But he didn’t. He kept it quiet despite all the anger leveled at him, and as a result, Nate’s brokerage hadn’t lost any investors. Surely that wasn’t the behavior of someone who wanted to ruin his brother’s life.

I was really beginning to think Nate was wrong. Someone else could’ve taken that money and tried to frame Bobby, as the authorities suspected, and Nate’s anger toward his brother could be completely misplaced. So either I was missing something huge, or there was a lot more to the story.

I turned and looked over at the restaurant bar. The two brothers were standing close together, but they were facing away from us, so I couldn’t tell if they were arguing again or not. They weren’t tearing each other’s throats out, though, so that was a good sign.

“So, Georgie,” Mom said, bringing my attention back to her. She was absentmindedly playing with one of her earrings. I’d never seen the pair on her before, but they were gorgeous—sparkling diamond teardrops, each bigger than a thumbnail.

“Yes?”

“Nate Scott…. I still can’t believe he’s Bobby’s brother.” She briskly shook her head. “Anyway, how’d you manage to nab him? Did you really ask him out?”

I puffed out a shallow, nervous breath. “Yes.” Technically, that was true.

She studied my face carefully. “I have to say, I’m surprised. I didn’t think you would go for the playboy type.”

I smiled weakly. “Neither did I. But we get along well.”

“I read about him nearly every week in the tabloids. It’s crazy what the media will make up, when all along he’s been dating you.”

“Now you know why I hid it from everyone for so long,” I said smoothly. “While it was all still new, I didn’t want the attention.”

“That makes sense,” Libby interjected. “But I really am glad you found someone, even if it caused the storm of the century today.” She sighed, then went on. “I guess we’ll all sit back and laugh about this one day, right?”

“Let’s hope so,” Mom said, raising her perfectly-arched eyebrows. She stood up. “I just need to use the ladies’. Be back in a moment.”

“Ooh, me too,” Libby said.

They both headed toward the restroom. As they went, I happened to notice my mother’s stunning shoes. They were black Valentino Rockstud pumps.

I frowned. How could she afford them? They cost around a thousand dollars, and I knew that for a fact, because I’d handled a fashion shoot for Valentino at Harborview recently. There was no way my mother was out there buying shoes that expensive.

Many years ago, she could’ve done such a thing—when she was working and when she was married to my father. Back in the early eighties, she’d been a programmer during the personal computer revolution and earned quite a pretty penny doing so. Then she gave that up to be a trophy wife to my dad after meeting him at a tech conference.

After divorcing him and taking a bucket-load of cash in the process, she married another two times and subsequently lost most of that fortune. Her second husband was a mooch, and the third turned out to be a white-collar criminal. She spent a lot trying to help him when he was charged with fraud after attempting to embezzle money from the Fortune 500 company he worked at, but it all went to waste. He ended up in prison, and they wound up divorced.

Nowadays, Mom still had enough money left to live on comfortably, but not that comfortably.

She arrived back at the table before Libby, and I nodded toward her shoes. “Nice Rockstuds, Mom.”

Her cheeks turned pink as she sat down. “You don’t think they’re a little young for me?”

“No. The rest of your outfit is pretty neutral, so I think it adds a bit of flair without being gaudy. But how can you afford them?”

Her face pinked up even more. “Bobby bought them for me as a ‘mother of the bride’ gift. Generous, isn’t he? And so sweet. He bought me these earrings as well.” She fingered the diamond teardrops on her earlobes as she spoke.

I nodded. “Hm. He sure is generous.”

I turned my head and glanced back over at Nate and Bobby. They were holding a few glasses of wine between them and heading back over to the table. Neither one was smiling, but they weren’t glaring either, so it seemed they’d reached some sort of mutual understanding during their little chat. At least for the time being.

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Despite the rocky start, things might actually work out on this trip. Nate may have been dishonest with me about a few key things in regard to his shady personal life—like the fact he was probably sleeping with a married woman—but he hadn’t betrayed me earlier. He could have, very easily. As soon as he saw his brother, he could’ve just said, ‘Nope, screw this, I’m out,’ and told everyone he was only my pretend boyfriend. But he didn’t. As much as it clearly bothered him to be near Bobby, he stayed by my side and kept up the act.

So whether I liked him or not anymore, I had to at least respect him for the one positive thing he’d made abundantly clear: his loyalty to any commitments he’d made.

No matter what, we were in this thing together.