27 Only Angelas Husband (2/2)

Rose popped a peanut in her mouth, munching away without a care as she listened to Lyra vent.

”Antoine isn't a bad guy. Kurtis is definitely wrong on this one.”

The angered girlfriend looked like she was still fuming when she refused a peanut that her happy friend offered, only fueling Rose's amusement.

”He probably is!”

”Yes he is,” Lyra affirmed.

”But he's just looking out for ya,” Rose repeated. ”He did that for me too—for boyfriend number one, two, three, and so forth,” she said, counting her fingers and then concluding that the list could go on.

Lyra looked at Rose with slight pity. ”How inconvenient…”

Rose let out a laugh. ”Yep. He was more strict with me than my biological mother and his own mother, my aunt who took me in. I'm somewhat like a daughter to him though we're only like seven years apart. But now that I'm older, he treats me like a little sister. And I guess in exchange for his love, I have to put up with his occasional nagging,” the grateful cousin said light-heartedly.

”It would make sense that he nags you, but why is he bothering me?” Lyra questioned, still not quite sitting well with Kurtis's indirect attack on her and her boyfriend.

”You're his sister-in-law. He treats you like he would a sister, same as me. Don't be too sensitive, Ly. He called my boyfriends a bunch of random names too. I brought home a girl once and even then he had something to say.” Rose's indifferent mood was trivializing the matter at hand. Had she not felt offended for her lovers?

”Ly. Kurt is just curt sometimes. He doesn't like sugar-coating things when it comes to people he actually cares about. I mean, he's only that way towards those he truly cares about. However, to all outsiders, he's always the cool Kurtis Wellington—minding his own business,” Rose lifts a finger to point at a smiling Kurtis surrounded by an excited crowd. ”They love him, but he's just very well-trained to get them to.”

The Aussie's cousin-in-law wasn't too pleased with where the conversation was going. It seemed like no matter what, whether he was present or not, Kurtis Wellington had every reason to act like he did then and now.

”Kurtis might mean well, but I don't think I need him sticking his nose into my life any more than he already has. If he can be so dead-set on boundaries with other people, then he should have no problem minding his own business for me too,” Lyra asserted, standing halfway in her statement to empathize how strongly she felt about it.

”Besides, who does he think he is? To the world he may be pro racer and sole heir to a multi-billionaire empire. He may think he has everything and knows everything. But to me, he's only Angela's husband.”

Seeing the passion Lyra held for the topic made Rose grin, but that look was suddenly replaced with a cringed expression when she spouted her last sentence.

Lyra took hint and scrunched her face up for a brief second, something she did whenever she knew she messed up, before regaining her best composure and slowly turning around to the man standing by the doorway.