“I don’t get it. I don’t get why you think you’re not good enough,” he fired off in challenge. “It can’t be money—you have that just as much as the rest of us. It can’t be your job because you fucking love your job, and don’t lie to me and say you don’t. And you don’t live with your mother because you can’t take care of yourself. You live with your mother because she can’t take care of herself. There’s a big difference, and anybody who doesn’t see that is an asshole.”

“Guess I have a thing for assholes,” I fired back in defense.

“Man, you assume a whole lot, considering.”

“Considering what?”

“Considering you think you’re so dumb.”

I opened my mouth to argue when Marcus busted into the workroom with Jett and Laney in his wake.

“We have a problem,” he said, his face dark as a storm cloud. And the pressure in the room changed to match.

The five of us gathered around one of the tables, Marcus at the head, looking grim.

“We’re being sued by Bower.”

Luke and I were too stunned to speak. Marcus didn’t require a response.

“They’ve requested immediate turnover of the financial statements, which aren’t ready. But we’re easily over the noncompete limitations. If we comply, Longbourne won’t open its doors tomorrow.”

“But our contracts,” I started, thinking immediately of Lila, the risk she’d taken on us, the events we had lined up. “What about our contracts?”

Marcus shook his head. “I said, if we comply.”

“What do you mean, if?” Laney asked.

“Ben and I have been trying to build a case that the clause is unconscionable. If we can, it would mean the contract won’t stand in court. In fact, we could get the whole thing thrown out before it goes far. Theoretically. With enough money and weight to throw around, anyone can take a case like this all the way to the end.”

“And Bower won’t back down,” Jett noted darkly.

“There’s another thing to consider. If Bower makes all the right moves, the cost of litigation alone would bankrupt us.”

The room fell silent.

“What do we do?” I asked.

Marcus paused, scrubbing his hand over his mouth as he thought. “My instinct is to tear up the contract and throw it in the fire. I don’t think they can prove that Longbourne’s success would in any way threaten their own. And I don’t believe they can win.”

“Of all the Bennets’ gut feelings, yours is the one we’d follow without question,” I said to a chorus of nods. “But is there any danger for Lila? Will her contracts be caught in the crossfire?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, offering nothing more.