𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐒𝐲𝐧┃𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐓𝐰𝐨

154. 𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝐹*𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡

Cain

"Relax, she likes you already," I assured Iris. She gave me a disbelieving look and I took her hand from underneath the table. We'd been waiting for Queen and my brother for almost twenty minutes because Iris wanted to be early. If she had listened to me, she wouldn't be here stressing, we would've arrived and they would've been too busy paying the bill to make conversation.

"Did she TELL you that?"

"Well no," I grimaced.

"Fuck," she groaned.

"Why are you so worried?"

"Because your sister is best friends with Mia. She can't like that you're with me instead of her," she admitted.

"My sister only cares that I'm happy," I said sincerely, as I busied myself looking at the menu. "The two of you will get to know each other on the trip and she'll love you, I promise."

"How can you promise that?"

"Because it's pretty hard not to love you," I mumbled. I only noticed what I truly said when I looked at her and saw a smirk on her face. "For other people not to love you—not me...I don't."

"Right," she said slowly as a smile appeared on her face.

After all of my countless mistakes, I was sure Iris knew I loved her, I just didn't know how to just tell her. I wanted to wait until I was sure how she felt. I knew she liked me, but she was a hard person to read.

I was getting ready to change the subject when the door jingled and I looked up to see my brother and sister. They were laughing about something and when they saw us, they walked in our direction. "Hey," Abel said as he slid into the booth across us.

"Hey," I replied. I was excited that he and I would get to know each other better on the trip, but there was still quite a lot of attention because of Mia. She was no longer an issue, but I'm sure if he found out what I did he'd hate me.

Instead of directly sitting down, Queen ruffled my hair and then threw her arms around Iris. "Hi!" She squealed excitedly as she tiny little jumps. Iris seemed tense at first but when she noticed Queen's love for hugs, she loosened up and laughed.

"I'm so excited!" Queen cheered as she moved to sit beside Abel. I wondered just how excited she truly was though. I knew she wanted to travel, but hours ago she was crying on the phone with me over Syn. "Are you guys coming?" She asked hopefully.

I looked at Iris to tell Queen the news, and she turned to Queen and nodded. "We're coming."

"Ahhhhh, this is going to be amazing!" She beamed. "Is your grandfather coming?"

"Yes, is that's okay?"

"Of course," Queen said. "Cain has told me a lot about him and I can't wait to meet him." Iris smiled in my direction and I kissed her on the hand. "Well, the flight is tomorrow. So maybe after dinner, we can talk about the medical steps we need to take for him?"

"I'd appreciate that," Iris spoke.

Queen smiled at her and I cleared my throat. "Abel you're going, correct?"

"If that's alright with everyone..." he said as he looked around the table.

"It won't interfere with your job?"

"No, I can work from wherever I am. I'll just need to fly back from time to time for court."

"Sounds good." I nodded. I didn't know Iris and Queen were watching out interaction until we were done and I cringed in my spot. We were brothers, and we were speaking like business partners.