Ruined (A Barnes Brothers novel) Read Online Free Page B

from time to time, but the last visit had been a month ago and Sebastien suspected he was about to give up, too. Abby already had. He’d let them both know that he’d be joining them on all those excellent VH-1 has-been shows sooner rather than later.
    Abby had rolled her eyes but Zach had been pissed.
    Zane and Keelie didn’t rub him the wrong way, but he had a feeling Keelie might knock his teeth down his throat if he pushed her too hard. And Zane would applaud. Travis might, too.
    His father had called him a few days before Mother’s Day, and although Sebastien hadn’t answered the phone, he’d listened to the message.
I know you’re going through a rough time, son. We’re trying to be here for you, but it’s hard when you don’t want us. It’s . . . It’s getting hard on your mom, her seeing you like this. If you don’t come see her on Mother’s Day, we won’t be back up there for a while. You decide when you’re ready for us to be a family again, son. We’re here for you, as soon as you decide you’re ready
.
    That had been three months ago.
    Just two days ago, Zane had texted him and told him that he and Keelie had decided to tie the knot—in Vegas—before heading out to Virginia for Ressa and Trey’s wedding.
    From there, they’d leave for their honeymoon in Italy, while Trey and Ressa were headed to Australia.
    Zane expected him to be at both weddings. Zane’s unexpected one in two days, and Trey’s planned one in four.
    He had little doubt as to why Marin was there.
    ***
    “I’ve already booked two tickets. First class. We leave for Vegas in the morning and then after that, we head out to Virginia.” Marin tried to pretend she wasn’t nervous as she poured sweet tea from a thermos into a glass for Sebastien, then poured some for herself.
    It was damn hard not to be nervous, though.
    She’d told Zane she’d get Sebastien there.
    Come hell or high water, she was going to do just that.
    This breach he had put between himself and his family was eating away at him and it wasn’t like he didn’t have enough shit doing that already.
    Sebastien squinted at the glass and then at her. “What’s this?”
    “Sweet tea.” She smiled as she pushed the plate she’d prepared over to him. She was in between projects—actually, she had absolutely
nothing
planned for the rest of the year. The other movie she’d thought she’d be doing this summer folded after the director was found in bed with a teenager—and her mom. Marin honestly didn’t even want to touch the project now, and it didn’t sound like anybody else did, either. The fact that it had been a kid’s movie was probably part of the reason she was so squicked out. The son of a bitch had been sleeping with the teenager who was the star of the movie.
    Marin would have been playing her mother on the show, and part of her wanted to spank the girl and beat her mom.
    The fall project had been pushed to the following year. Things were always getting shifted and rearranged in Hollywood, but she rarely had several months free at once and she planned to enjoy them to the absolute fullest. Come winter, she had to hit the ground running.
    But while she was enjoying her downtime, she was being lazy and enjoying some good old-fashioned comfort food—and so was Sebastien. Even if she had to force it down his throat.
    He made a face as he took a sip. “It would taste better with a little less sweet, a lot more tea, and maybe a few shots of vodka.”
    “No vodka,” she said firmly. She pointed a fork at him. “Eat.”
    He picked up the piece of fried chicken and eyed her narrowly. The left eye was no longer the pristine blue-green it had once been. It was slightly foggy and she knew the vision had been affected by the injury. There was an intensity to his gaze now that hadn’t been there a year ago, and combined with the overall sensuality—
that
hadn’t faded—Sebastien’s stare could almost be considered a deadly weapon.
    “You realize