27 Only Angela's Husband

Rose snuck a peek at Lyra through the mirror in the bathroom as they changed to get on the tracks. Her friend still had on a stiff expression, looking as if the world had outright offended her.

"Don't tell me you're still mad at Kurt?" the Aussie brushed her arm against the furrow-browed girl who was in the middle of scooping her hair up in a ponytail.

Lyra paused to shoot a steely glare at the birthday girl. "You were awake in the car the whole time, weren't you?" She produced a frown before directing her attention back into the mirror to pull any dangling strings from her hair.

Rose flipped her short side-parted hair to one side before pushing up close to the frowning girl.

"I was awoken by your lively conversation," Rose answered and shrugged before zipping up her red racing jumpsuit. With her confident smile and natural swag, she looked like she was a pro racer herself. There's no wonder who she takes it after. "But don't feel offended, Kurt's just looking out for ya," she said, handing her friend a helmet.

Lyra zipped her black jacket before taking the protector and walking out with Rose into the facilities room.

"Oh really? I didn't notice," she responded, sarcasm oozing from her voice.

As the two girls walked out, they spotted Kurtis chatting with a few of the other motorists and mechanics so they walked out to the waiting room first.

"Trust me," Rose assured, placing a hand on Lyra's shoulder and urging her to take a seat next to her. The staff were still pulling up the cars so she figured they could chill a little longer before heading out. "I remember when I introduced my first boyfriend to him…"

Lyra's eyes grew a little wider, indicating her interest. Rose took note of that and leaned back on the sofa chair and began her story.

"I think I was…like I don't know…thirteen? Fourteen?" she let out a low, but cheery laugh, sounding like those old men sitting on the benches in the parks who would occasionally talk with random strangers and get a kick out of sharing stories about their old glory days.

"I liked this guy who was two grades above mine. He said he liked me because I was smart or some sh*t like that. That didn't make sense because I was a D student at best, but hey, I was stupid back then. My friends thought he was cool and he was a decent dude," Rose said, shaking her head with a knowing smile. "So when Kurt met him, he told me after that we weren't going to last much longer than a few weeks at best."

Rose leisurely walked over to the mini bar at the corner of the waiting room, grabbed a few snacks, and brought back a cold bottle of mocha frap. Uncapping it, she took a large gulp before producing a satisfied sigh and sat back in her comfy position.

"Of course I didn't believe him. What did he know? Not all guys are like him who filters through girls like he does a magazine. So more out of rebellion, I agreed to run away with said first boyfriend. A week later, he dumped me. Apparently, he got close to me to get to Kurt but after finding out that I wasn't directly connected to the Wellingtons, he bailed." Rose let out a winner's laugh. "Thank the heavens!"

Lyra didn't know how to respond without having dated anyone other than Antoine, who was nothing but sweet in her book.

"Still, I don't see why Kurtis would link Antoine with such a negative connotation," Lyra said, crossing her arms and leaning back on the sofa before taking a brief glance at Kurtis who was still busy joking away with his crew. If anything, he was the one who was nice on the outside, but cunning within.

Rose shook her head. "Kurt has been exposed to so many people from different fields and backgrounds than we can even imagine. Though he isn't always correct, you'd be wrong to deny that he has built up some pretty good skills when it comes to reading people."

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.