Austin

When Lily was out of earshot, I rounded on my cousin. "What message, Cass?"

"I don't know what I walked in on Austin Cooper, but there's no need to spaz at me," she said, folding her arms as she stared at me.

I raked a hand through my hair and sighed. "What message?"

"From Petal."

"Oh good, and what does my future bride want?" I asked, venom in my veins as I thought about my aunt's stupid plans.

"She was wondering when we're heading back to school. She was thinking she might come over before we go?"

I looked in the direction Lily had gone, frustration eating at me. I'd received an email from Aunt Celia just before everything had turned to shit. Or, rather, the email from Aunt Celia was the reason it all turned to shit.

That, and my ability to forget myself around her.

"Oz, are you even listening?"

"What?" I didn't look at her.

"What the hell did I walk in on anyway?"

I sighed and leant back against the counter top. "Aunt Celia's friend apparently overheard some conversation between Daniel Brewer and Linda Macklin."

Cass wrinkled her nose, knowing just from my words that no good was going to come of that. "That good, huh?"

"According to Aunt Celia, they were tittering – she even used the word tittering – about how their children were well on the way to landing themselves some nice Rosings boys. They didn't name names, but Lily confirmed she talked with him about his one-track mind this morning."

Cass sighed. "That sucks, man, it does. But, we knew they were like that."

"Lily and Anne seemed different."

"Yeah…" she said slowly. "But you'll do best with one of your own. Someone who sees past your money since they have plenty of their own."

I scoffed. "Like who?"

"Well, there's always Petal." She laughed, but there was something in her eye I didn't like. "Speaking of, what shall I tell her?"

"Oh, I don't know!"

"Is your aunt coming home while you're here? I'm going to assume not since you never got that hair cut?"

I mumbled to myself.

She laughed. "What?"

"Aunt Celia tolerates my hair because Fleur likes it. If I keep it long, Fleur wins, if I cut it, Aunt Celia wins. I have no options where I win."

Cass shrugged. "Dye it something outrageous and get dreadlocks. Oh, God, no Oz…" She'd obviously seen the gears working in my mind. "Oz, I wasn't being serious. School will have a fit if you do that and then you'll have to see Celia all the time. Just get another tattoo."

I looked at her in exasperation. "That was Jax's suggestion. Do I only have one avenue for self-expression?"

"'Do I only have one avenue…'" she mocked me. "Do whatever the hell you want, dude. See if I care. Now, what to tell Petal?"

"Tell her we're leaving tomorrow."

"I take it you don't want to see her?"

"You take it right."

"Oz, you can't just avoid her-"

"I thought I could do whatever the hell I want…dude?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'll tell her now's not a good time. You should see her, actually have a conversation with her."

"Why do you care all of a sudden? You've always hated Fleur's obsession with marrying me."

Cass shrugged. "I dunno, just figure you've never really given it a chance. And, now you're moping all over Lily when you clearly dislike it. Just thought I'd give you options, distractions?"

"If I wanted distractions, I'd visit the Longbourn dorm. That's all they're good for, after all," I said, glaring at her.

"You can stop with that, thank you. It's not my fault you've got a crush on a girl you don't want to have a crush on."

"I do not have a crush on anyone!" I said, my tone rising.

"Whatever, Austin, I've got things to do. You can tell Petal yourself." She flounced out and I growled.

Why the hell did I have to fight with every person in my life right now?

I thought about calling Amanda, but she was on some humanitarian mission or something overseas and I had no idea where she was or what time zone she was in; she did so many things, I could never keep up with who she was helping when.

I sat on the barstool in the kitchen, flicking through my tablet again and trying to rid myself of the foul cloud that seemed to be following me lately. Even Jax was avoiding me since I'd snapped at him so many times already that morning.

After dinner, Lily came back downstairs, saying that Anne was feeling much better and they were going to head back to school the day after tomorrow.

I, however, barely registered her words, as I was fixated on her body. Cass had given her a dress to wear and, even though it wasn't anything special, she looked amazing to me.

When she looked at me, she gave me a small, apologetic smile and I returned it. I didn't have time to actually say anything, as Cass threw on some music and dragged me to my feet.

"Come on, Oz, let's dance," she giggled.

"You're such a weirdo." I smiled.

She whipped me around the floor and I saw that Jax was chatting with Lily.

Lily smiled and laughed at whatever he said with such readiness that her words earlier hit me with more force than they had when she'd uttered them. Did she really like Jax better than me? Even when he was quite clearly enamoured with someone else? Oh, who was I kidding? Of course she did. I'd given her very little reason to like me.

And, you have no reason to give her reason, I reminded myself.

"You're very preoccupied tonight," Cass said. "I'll forgive your terrible mood if you'll tell me what's up."

"Nothing Cass, I'm just thinking about school."

"You most certainly are not. You're thinking about Lily, again. Why don't you ask her to dance if you're so very interested in her?" I looked at her and she was smiling; so, not as putout as her tone suggested.

"I don't think she'll dance with me." Although, I would have very much liked her to.

"You'll never know unless you ask."

I sighed. "Will you leave me be if I ask her? And not laugh if she says no?"

Cass laughed. "If she says no, she's a better woman than I."

I nodded. "Fine."

Cass pulled us towards Jax and Lily, letting go of my hand and throwing herself on the couch.

"Uh, do you want to dance?" I asked.

I saw her pause and smile, but she said nothing.

"Lily? I don't suppose you'd like to dance with me?"

She turned on me with a pleasant smile. "Someone as proud as you will want me to say yes, but I'm going to have to pass on that one, Austin. I'm a terrible dancer and expect I'll only step on your feet. Instead of have you hate me for a broken foot, you will have to hate me for refusing you."

"I don't think I could do either," I said softly.

I could tell by her face she was trying hard to tease me but not insult me, not this time. She looked at me with such openness in her eyes, her smile sincere, apologetic and humoured all at once.

I couldn't hate her for anything in the world. I could despise her family all I liked, but her… Never. I reminded myself heavily of Gemma and Kate, and of Aunt Celia's email, for the rest of the night as we all talked.

Cass gave me strange looks over the course of the night, but I wasn't sure what she saw on my face. She spent a lot of time looking between Lily and me, frowning at me every now and then, then laughing much too loudly at something Lily had said.

Perhaps she, like me, saw that, if I forgot who her family were, I had the capacity to entirely forget myself and be in a serious way to be very much falling in love with her.

Lily was upstairs with Anne and I sat in the kitchen with Jax and Cass while we ate breakfast.

"So, I saw you making eyes at Lily last night, brother." Jax smiled.

I looked at him over the rim of my coffee cup. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I do," Cass said. Like the day before, though she smiled, her eyes were… There was a hardness to them I hadn't been able to identify.

"Well, you two can form some sort of club and discuss these fictional 'eyes' then," I replied.

"I can think of the first topic for discussion."

"And, what's that, Cassandra?" Jax teased.

"The advantage of being able to tell Daniel Brewer to shut up when Oz and Lily are married," she giggled, taking a bite of food. "You've surely got money enough for the lot of them, so you can hopefully convince Gemma and Kate to be less outrageous flirts."

I glared at her. "My God, you're hilarious. Anything else I should be doing once I'm Mister Brewer?"

Cass tapped a finger against her chin. "You could temper your wife's wit somewhat. It's all very well to have this insulting back and forth in your courtship, but surely you'll tire of it after you've dealt with it every day for the rest of your life."

"Cass, you are wicked," Jax laughed. "Lily is a perfectly nice girl. It won't hurt Oz to have a wife who won't just smile and simper to him, but who matches him in intelligence and argument."

"I'm sorry, brother, are you in on this, too?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as I put my cup down. "First, there is no way I'm not going to marry Fleur, and now I'm already married to Lily? Bloody hell, I should hurry up and convert to Mormonism, lest I not be able to marry Fleur when the time comes."

"Oh, come on, mate. Everyone but Aunt Celia and Fleur know you're not actually going to marry her. You could do worse than Lily Brewer." Jax smiled.

"Could I, though?" I asked.

At the same time, Cass said, "wait, what?"

I looked at her. "What, what?"

Jax looked at her with as much confusion. "You didn't think Oz had ever seriously thought about marrying Fleur?"

Cass looked between us, her face the only answer we needed. But, she answered, "I…I just didn't realise you'd ruled it out so completely… I mean, she's in love with you."

"She's seventeen, Cass, she doesn't know what love is," I replied, smiling.

"Hang on, Oz. I don't think I can agree with you on that one," Jax said.

I rolled my eyes. "Jackson, don't tell me you think you know what love is?"

He looked at me in the way he did when he got stubborn. It was the look I'd seen when he insisted he jump off the roof like Mary Poppins when we were six. It was the look I'd seen when he said he was going to take breakdance lessons when we were eleven. It was the look I'd seen when he befriended that weird kid Aunt Celia hated when we were fifteen. It was also the look I'd seen when he'd told me he was getting a tattoo the day I got my first one… Until he'd seen the blood and decided perhaps he was better off not getting a tattoo after all.

I sighed and looked at him. I knew well that, when he got like this, he was the only one who could change his mind. But, I knew the look was over Anne, a girl he'd known all of a month. I ignored any comparison my brain tried to draw with Lily.

"Jax, just wait and see how everything goes, yeah? Don't go leaping before you look," I said slowly.

"One day, Austin Cooper, you'll fall in love. Heaven help the poor girl you fall for, because you will no doubt be as unwavering and intense in your love for her as you are in your belief that no one's good enough for us," Jax grumbled, got up and left the room.

I heard him mutter, "hi Lily," as he left and I threw Cass a look to keep her quiet.

Lily stumbled in, looking still half-asleep. "Point me in the direction of the coffee God, yeah?" She smiled and it nearly melted the icy cage I'd thrown around my heart.

"I'll make it for you. Sit down and have something to eat."

She yawned and stretched, the bottom of her t-shirt rising to show off her stomach. I looked to Cassandra and saw I wasn't the only one checking Lily out.

I cleared my throat and made Lily's coffee.

"Here," Cass said, pushing a plate towards her.

"Thanks, I'm not really good at food in the morning. Plus, I want to go back up and check on Anne. I think she's a lot better. We should be more than fine to get back to school before first lesson." She chuckled wryly.

I dropped more than placed the coffee cup in front of her. "Oh, good. Well, just let us know when she's ready and we'll get you a taxi. Can't have Anne catching the bus back."

Lily stood, picking up the cup, and gave me a strange look. "No, no we couldn't have that." She smiled.

She watched me as she took a sip, then licked her lips. I was starting to think she very much knew what that did to me.