Page 93 of Idaho

"What's new?" he asked with a shrug. He was right. He worked almost as much as I did, but I paid him well and he was more than happy to be here with me. "What do you need me to do?"

I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit a contact. I answered while it rang. "I need you to go find a shop that sells tuxes and suits."

His brows rose. "Okay."

"Once you're there, call me and I'll get you the sizes we need."

He hurried out of the office and I began devising the plan. Krier. The duke. They were both going to regret fucking with me.

CHAPTER 31

Eva

Iwatched in the mirror as Amelia meticulously piled the curls of my hair on top of my head into a fashionable updo. Ketti and Olivia were chasing my nieces and nephews. Charles was sitting next to me, watching as Amelia finished up my hair. All of us had yet to change into our gowns, but we were running out of time. We needed to leave in the next ten minutes. Thankfully, we were leaving the children behind—except Charles—with a babysitter and guards. There wouldn't have been enough time to get them all dressed and out the door.

The whole family flew back here to America a few days ago so Father and I could speak with Harold Wayworth. We all came because Harold was going to be throwing a party. Father liked to have us all attend these kinds of events to show that he wasn't only a duke, or a businessman, but a family man as well.

Wayworth Industries was planning to build manufacturing plants in the U.S. In doing so, a lot of the steel that Luxembourg exported and relied on would end up being sold in the United States and our country would lose one of its top money makers. The meeting with Harold hadn't gone well. Father thought he could brow-beat the man into staying in the current arrangement.

I wasn't sure who Harold was planning on working with, but he kept mentioning a new American investor. Father had come home yesterday angry and out of sorts. I could only guess that Harold had decided to take the investor up on his offer.

Father was hoping that by showing at the dinner, it would be an act of goodwill. And since I'd worked with Harold in the past to negotiate tariffs and such, he was hoping that by me being there I could convince Harold to, at the very least, slow the rate at which he would build new American factories.

"Quit fidgeting," Amelia ordered. She followed the demand up with a kiss on my cheek.

Ketti managed to snag her daughter in the impromptu game of tag they began a few minutes ago and came to sit on the other side of me. The other children were running and giggling, but Jeanie needed to have her hair brushed out before bedtime and her mother was the only one she allowed to do so. Ketti began brushing it out, shooting me worried looks.

"What?" I asked with a sigh. They all had been keeping a close eye on me for the last two weeks. It was different from what my father and mother were doing. My sisters cared about me and were worried.

"I've only seen you smile a handful of times since you've been home," Ketti told me, sharing a knowing look with Amelia.

"You've hardly told us anything about your time here in America," Amelia added.

"I can't," I told them. "It hurts too much."

"I knew it!" Olivia crowed. She stopped chasing the children long enough to say the words, but she was panting as she did, ruining some of the effect.

"You met a man," Amelia prompted. It wasn't a question.

I met her gaze in the mirror, then shifted my eyes away. "It was more than that." Two weeks away from Idaho had reinforced what I knew deep down. I loved him. That was the real reason I gave him my innocence.

"What do you mean?" Ketti asked, pausing in the act of brushing out Jeanie's hair.

"I think I'm in love with him."

Amelia's eyes widened and Ketti's jaw dropped open. Olivia squealed with joy and began dancing around the room with the children. She was the youngest of us sisters, only twenty-two and a hopeless romantic. She'd been dreaming of knights on white horses for the majority of her life. She and I were the only two sisters not married.

"Wait," Ketti said, shaking her head. "How is that possible? You just met him."

I shrugged. "I know. But I am. I'm in love with Idaho."

"What kind of name is that?" Amelia asked, jabbing a pin into my curls.

I winced as she scraped it along my scalp. Letting her do your hair was an exercise in torture most days, but she did it the best. Father didn't like bringing in hair stylists and make-up artists because it allowed more people into our personal space. That opened us up to more danger and at the very least, gossip. The gossip magazines always managed to get little tidbits about our lives and ran with them until wild accusations ended up published at least once a month. Last month Amelia was supposedly cheating on her husband. Anyone who knew her would realize the lies for what they were. Amelia was head over heels for William.

"It's a nickname," I told her. "His name is Levi."

Amelia shooed Charles off the chair and sat next to me, taking my hand into hers. "You're sure?"