Written in Stone (Heart of Stone: Book 3)

Chapter 8: Ed

Chapter 8: Ed

Mains arrived but tension still sat among us. It started to eat away at me. Soph wanted us all to get along. It was important to her. The more that played on my mind, the more Mac irritated me. Not even directly, either. It was like my brain short-circuited every time I looked at his styled blonde hair or bespoke navy suit.

Why had I left my jacket behind? Soph loved suits.

He was another obstacle in the way of a perfect relationship. A friend I just couldn't gel with. A friend who clearly did not want to gel with me, either.

That was my fault ultimately. It all led back to that stupid blowjob and even stupider song. Completely unrelated except in the way they helped to form his opinion of me.

"You okay, Teddy?"

I looked up at Gabby and smiled. "I'm good. Just enjoying the food."

"More than the company," Mac said.

"That's not true."

It was only a tiny lie. Soph and Gabby were great company.

"Oh." Gabby's mouth scrunched. "I guess you're used to it being just the two of you."

I clenched my cutlery and resisted the temptation to glare at Mac for putting the idea in Gabby's head.

"Don't stress, Gab." Mac nudged her with his elbow. "It's my company he's not enjoying. You're as lovely as ever."

"Can you blame him?" Soph said. "You're being a fucking dick. It's pissing even me off, and normally I have a high tolerance for your bullshit."

"Chill, Palmer." Mac held up his hands in surrender. "Your boyfriend can handle himself, I'm sure."

Except I obviously couldn't. Not in public when I needed to be on my best behaviour. He knew that.

"I hope you realise—you both realise," she said, cutting a glance across to me as well, not sure why, "that the longer it takes you to find common ground, the longer we'll all have to sit through these awkward meals?"

"We've already got common ground," Mac said. "That's the problem."

The insinuation lingered in the air around us. Gabby, bless her, didn't pick up on it.

"What's the problem?" Her eyes darted between all of us.

Mac leaned back in his chair and heaved out a dramatic sigh. "Golden Boy doesn't like that I've seen his girlfriend naked. Twice."

A fresh wave of anger rolled through me, and this time I didn't bother to tone down my external response. How could anyone expect me to after that? It wasn't even about him and Soph.

Okay, it partly was, but the bulk of my resentment stemmed from last year's settlement with Veronica. He'd liked my brand then, hadn't he? Enough to see how much money I'd be willing to part with to protect it.

"Oh." Gabby shrugged, then turned to me. "That was ages ago, and plenty of other people have seen her naked, too, so Mac's nothing special."

For a heavy second, silence engulfed us. Gabby's signature lack of tact had her eyes widening in mortification as her words caught up with her.

"And Mac's a massive slut," she quickly added. "I mean, his number is at least ten times higher than Soph's, so it really meant nothing to either of them."

"Yet I'm still not the biggest slut at the table." Mac chuckled and popped a cube of lamb between his lips. He lifted an eyebrow at me as he chewed, as if to say, Your turn.