“She won’t even notice if I’m not there.”
Still holding her hand, he stepped forward and pushed the doorbell. “Something tells me she will.” And if he was going to be in Briar’s life, then he needed to meet this sister and try to win her over.
“Fine,” she grumbled and started to say something else but the door suddenly opened.
“Briar!” The woman he had noticed in pictures at Briar’s place leaned forward to hug her. She sent him a suspicious look as she pulled back. “Who’s this?”
“This is my . . . friend. Knox. Knox, this is Laurel.”
They shook hands. “You didn’t mention you were bringing a friend.” Laurel shot a pointed look at Briar that told him all he needed to know. She wasn’t happy he was here. She glanced down at their clasped hands and frowned. Yeah, she definitely wasn’t happy. There’d be no winning her over today.
“Well, come in. Everyone’s out back.” She plucked the bag of cookies from Knox and tugged her sister inside, effectively breaking their linked hands.
Briar shot him an apologetic look over her shoulder as her sister dragged her ahead of him into the house.
He shut the front door and followed at a sedate pace.
Yeah. This was going to be fun.
TWENTY-THREE
LAUREL WASTED NO time hauling Briar into her bedroom and shutting the door, cutting them off from the rest of the party so she could get to the bottom of Briar bringing a guy to the barbecue. “Who is he?”
Briar shrugged and glanced around Laurel’s bedroom. She ran a hand over the bed, pretending to admire her sister’s new comforter. “Is this Pottery Barn?”
“Don’t try to change the subject on me. Who is that guy? He looks a little . . .” Briar’s eyes snapped to her sister, something tight and defensive brewing inside her. “. . . rough,” Laurel finished, arching both eyebrows, daring Briar to deny that description.
“Knox and I are friends.”
“He was holding your hand.”
“We’re good friends,” she amended.
Laurel’s eyes widened and she shot a quick glance at the door before hissing, “Oh my God! You’re sleeping with him!”
A flush crept up Briar’s face. Was she that transparent?
“This is serious and you haven’t even mentioned him to me,” Laurel accused. “You haven’t slept with anyone since Beau.”
Briar rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m kind of aware of my sexual history.” Limited as it was.
Laurel cocked her head to the side and propped a hand to her hip. “Are you also ‘aware,’ or did it slip your mind, that I have a date for you here today?”
“What?” She dropped her hands to her hips, dread pooling in her stomach. “I didn’t ask you to set me up—-”
“I told you Martin Ford was going to be here weeks ago. He’s been asking when you’re going to get here. I invited him for you! What am I supposed to do now that you’ve shown up with a date?”
“Tell the truth. I started seeing someone and you didn’t know.” She shrugged. “Sorry,” she added, even though she wasn’t. Laurel had created this situation. Briar refused to let it be her problem.
“Who is he?” Laurel crossed her arms over her chest and leveled Briar with one of her parent death--stares. “Where did you meet? What does he do?’
Briar sucked in a deep breath. She knew these questions were coming, but that didn’t mean she was ready to answer any of them. She edged toward the door. “Shouldn’t we get back to your guests?”
“Briar . . .” her sister said in that warning voice she used when dealing with her children.
“He doesn’t know anyone here. It’s rude to just leave him alone out there.”
“He’s a big boy. Now answer me, damn it.”
She closed her eyes in a tight blink and then focused on her sister’s face. “I met him at Devil’s Rock prison.”
Her sister paused, processing this. “He works there?” she asked with a slight flare of her nostrils, and Briar remembered that this Martin guy was an accountant. That was the type of man her sister wanted her to go out with. “What is he? One of the corrections officers?” Her top lip curled faintly, clearly thinking Briar could do better than that.
“No.”
Her sister stared at her. “Did he work in the clinic with—-”
“He was an inmate, Laurel.”
Laurel staggered back a step, her arms dropping to her sides. Revulsion rippled over her face. “No.”
Briar nodded. “He served his time and he’s out now—-”
“Oh my God.” She clutched her chest. “You’re just like Mom—-”
“No,” Briar bit out. “He’s a good man who made a mistake and served out his sentence for his crime.”
“Are you even listening to yourself?” She nodded her head doggedly. “He went to prison! What did he do?” Laurel’s eyes burned laser--hot into her.
Briar shook her head once and looked down at her feet, unwilling to say it, knowing how it sounded. She’d thought that way at first, before she knew Knox. Before he’d saved her life and Dr. Walker and Josiah.