Page 105 of The Spare

Bas shrugs. “It was. At least I never saw anything in writing proving it existed. But Pop all but confirmed it. He and Lexi’s grandpa apparently got drunk taste-testing the newest reserve blend that first fall break when I came home from college. They didn’t know what had happened between the two of you. So they hatched this hair-brained idea. If Pop died, he’d leave the vineyard to you along with access to a large portion of the trust he established. But only if you married. Deep down, they both knew there was only one woman for that job.”

What the⁠—?

I nearly break my jaw as it hits the floor. “Are you shitting me right now?”

“Nope.” Slurp.

Peering over to the door, I find Gavin and Austin watching with rapt attention, each taking turns shoveling handfuls of popcorn out of a big bowl Austin has returned with.

I shake my head, wondering what alternate universe I stumbled into here. Then I remember I still need to locate my wife. “Okay, you’re missing the point. Alexis thinks I orchestrated the entire night as part of a ruse. The dinner, the music, the proposal to stay… All so I could cash in another paycheck.”

“A paycheck is something you get when you work,” Austin says around a mouthful of popcorn kernels.

“You’re exactly right, son,” Sebastian praises.

“Oh, shut it. I work. I work hard,” I grumble, completely annoyed.

“Is marriage hard work?” Austin asks.

“Yes!” Bella blurts with more force than I think Sebastian was expecting. His forehead suddenly creasing as if he’s utterly offended.

I groan. “Will someone please⁠—”

“Which is why,” Sebastian says, uncapping a dry-erase marker with a loud click and stepping up to the whiteboard, “we are holding this intervention. You need a strategy worthy of winning your wife back. And left to your own devices, you’ll probably just throw another bouquet of wildflowers at her, dance like a lunatic, and hope for the best.”

The memory of our first dance at our reception comes to mind until his words hit me like another punch in the face. “Hey, I don’t dance like a lunatic.”

A cacophony of, “Yes, you do,” comes out as if they’d all been practicing for this moment.

For the next forty-five minutes, the office devolves into pure chaos.

“Okay, option one,” Gavin says, tapping a marker against the board where he’s written GRAND GESTURE. “You hire a skywriter over the hospital. ‘Alexis, I Love You, My Mom Is A Snake, You Can Keep The Fifty Mil’.”

“Wow. You’d really let her keep the fifty million?” Austin asks, continuing to chew.

“That is a lot of dough.” Gavin scratches his chin. “Maybe we should scratch that part in case she doesn’t realize it was a joke.”

“That is wildly tacky,” Cassidy snaps, rolling her eyes. “Option two, you find a vintage boom box, show up at her house at three in the morning, and recreate the scene from Say Anything.”

“Oh, I love that movie,” Bella gushes.

“Me too.” Cassidy giggles.

I stare at them deadpan.

“No, no, hear me out,” Gavin chimes in again. He steps forward with conviction. “Option three is that I fake a minor medical emergency at the hospital. Something dramatic, like a broken leg from saving a stray puppy. You show up as my emergency contact, she has to treat me, and boom—you’re in the same room. Locked in.”

“Gavin, she’s a urologist,” I growl, rubbing my face in my hands. “You’d have to break your dick for her to get called in.”

Gavin takes a theatrical step back, covering his junk. “I love you, Dad. But I draw the line right there.”

The room is suddenly silent. You could hear a pin drop.

My eyes flick over to Sebastian’s, looking for confirmation that I didn’t just imagine it. My big brother peers back at me with a look of fatherly pride.

Without missing a beat, I walk forward, wrap my arms around Gavin, and give him a few affectionate slaps on the back.

“All right, all right.” Gavin chuckles.