The Playboy’s Most Unexpected Baby (Inherited Hearts)

1. Charlie

CHAPTER 1

CHARLIE

“F ashionably late as usual, Charlie?”

His sister Caitlin smirked up at him from her seat at the conference room table. Charlie couldn’t help noticing that she was surrounded by her three children — apparently she had seen fit to bring her whole family to the reading of Aunt Marge’s will. As the oldest of the siblings, he knew she was probably counting on receiving Aunt Marge’s coastal estate in Old Prescott, Massachusetts. Hell, she’d probably already started planning her redecorations.

Cait drove Charlie crazy. He glanced at his phone. “I’m not even late,” he pointed out. “This was supposed to start at four thirty. It’s four twenty-eight.”

“Well, we all got here early so we could look over the list of Aunt Marge’s assets,” Cait said. “Scott and John knew enough to show up on time without my having to tell them.”

Charlie glanced at his brothers, who were also sitting at the conference room table. They, at least, had had the sense not to bring their kids along, although both of them had wives who didn’t work, so that had probably been easier for them than it would have been for Cait.

“Do I get to sit down?” he asked, pushing his untidy blond hair back out of his eyes.

“Seats are taken,” Scott pointed out, a smirk on his face. “If you wanted one, you should have gotten here earlier.”

“Surely the kids can play on the floor,” Charlie said to his sister. Anna, Freddie and Vance, ages seven, five and four, had spread building blocks over the table in front of them and hadn’t bothered to look up or greet Charlie when he’d come into the room.

“They’re all set up,” Cait said. “I’m not going to move them now.”

Charlie sighed and leaned back against the wall, folding his arms across his chest. “Whatever.”

He wished he didn’t have to be here. He had come out of respect for his aunt, and in hopes of keeping things polite and civil. He fully expected his three siblings to behave like jackals as her will was read. Aunt Marge had never had children, so they all knew that the three of them would be inheriting everything. It was just a matter of how it was all going to be divided up.

This meeting could have been an email , he thought unhappily as the executor walked into the room and took the one remaining empty seat at the head of the table, a chair that had obviously been reserved for him by the folders set in front of it.

“Thank you all for coming in today,” he said. “My name is Carl Rogan. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

No one said anything. Charlie could practically hear what his siblings were thinking — Get to the will .

His hands tightened into fists. The sooner he was able to get out of here, the better.

“All right,” Rogan said. “As you know, your aunt had a sizable collection of assets, and you four are the only ones who have been named in the will. Now, to begin with, there’s a stipulation here that anything overlooked should be relegated to Scott, and that he should take responsibility for distributing it fairly. Are you able to take on that responsibility?”

“It should be me doing that,” Cait said with a frown. “I’m the oldest.”

“Legally, we need to go by what it says in the will, although Scott is more than welcome to seek assistance from anyone he chooses,” Rogan said.

“I’ll help you figure things out,” Cait said authoritatively.

Scott didn’t answer. He was the third born of the family and had always had a good instinct for staying out of drama. Charlie suspected that was why he’d been chosen to mediate things that had been overlooked by the will. He thought Aunt Marge had probably made a good choice. Scott would be fair. Cait would have been domineering if she’d been put in charge of the project.

“Your aunt’s monetary assets are to be split up between the four of you,” Rogan said.

“Not split equally, surely?” John said. “I have four children to take care of.”

“It’s not a twenty-five percent split, no,” Rogan said. “The exact ratio is in the folders here.”

“Let me see that,” Cait said.

Rogan opened one of the folders, pulled out a piece of paper, and passed it to Cait. She looked at it, then nodded. “This seems fair.” She handed the paper to Scott.

He looked it over. “Twenty percent for each of us, and then the remaining twenty is divided up among the kids and allocated to the parents,” he said. “Yeah, that seems all right to me.”

It meant that Charlie would receive the least, since he was the only one who didn’t have children, but that didn’t bother him. He actually thought it was pretty fair too. “Is that all?”

“No,” Rogan said. “There’s a car — that’s been left to John.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Scott objected.

“That car’s worth a lot!” Cait chimed in. “We should sell it and split the money.”

“Oh, stop it,” Charlie groaned. “John always loved that car. He should be able to keep it. He’s probably not going to sell it.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s fair,” Scott grumbled.

Cait waved a hand in his direction. “Never mind the car,” she said. “What does it say about the estate? I assume we’ll be able to sell that, at least.”

Charlie frowned. “You really want to sell the estate?” he said. “We practically grew up there.”

“We’ll never have time to get out to Old Prescott now that we all have lives and families,” Cait said. “It’s totally impractical.”

“Cait’s right,” John said. “Driving the car is one thing, but I’d much rather have the money than that old house, even if Scott’s the one who manages the actual sale.”

“Well, no, Scott can’t manage the sale of the house,” Cait said firmly. “We’re going to have to have some sort of mutual agreement when it comes to that. But it’s all right. Aunt Marge wouldn’t have forgotten to mention the estate in her will. I’m sure it will say something about the estate — doesn’t it, Mr. Rogan?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, it does.” Rogan cleared his throat. “The Old Prescott estate has been left to Charlie.”

The room was silent for a moment as the words sank in.

Charlie’s head spun. She had left the estate to him ?

He had never expected this. He knew his relationship with Aunt Marge had been a good one, of course — he would probably miss her more than any of his siblings would. But even so, he was the youngest. He wasn’t used to this sort of thing falling in his favor.

Cait found her voice first. “Well, this has to be a mistake,” she said.

“It’s not a mistake,” Rogan said.

“He can’t just have the estate! It belongs to all of us!”

“It doesn’t, legally,” Rogan said. “Not as long as Charlie meets the terms of the will, that is.”

“There are terms?” John looked at Charlie, his eyes narrowed. “That’s not usual, is it?”

Rogan shrugged. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen something like this.”

“Well, what are the terms?”

“Your aunt requires that Charlie be married in order to inherit.”

The room fell silent again.

This time it was Scott who recovered first — he burst out laughing. “Married?” he repeated. “She’s pranking us. Charlie doesn’t even have a girlfriend.”

“Yeah, this is a joke,” Cait agreed. “She’s having her last laugh, Mr. Rogan, that’s all it is. What happens to the estate since Charlie isn’t married?”

“If he doesn’t meet the terms, the estate is to be sold and the profits split between the four of you?—”

“That’s more like it.”

“But don’t be too hasty. He has some time.”

“How long?”

“If Charlie can provide a valid marriage license within the next thirty days, he’ll inherit.”

“Well, it’s like Scott just said. He doesn’t even have a girlfriend,” John said. “And even if he did, Charlie can’t even commit to breakfast. There’s no way he’s going to be married in a month. This is ridiculous.”

“Nevertheless, the will legally provides him with a month to make himself a marriage,” Rogan said. “No one else will come into possession of the estate before then.”

“So we have to wait a month,” Scott said. “No big deal.”

Cait narrowed her eyes. “What’s to stop him from finding some girl to marry so he can inherit the house without it being real? He could sell the place and pay her off.”

Now, that’s an idea, Charlie thought.

“The will stipulates that Charlie and the woman he marries — if in fact he does marry — will be required to attend monthly meetings with me, so that I can assess the validity of the relationship to ensure that it’s not just an arrangement of convenience to get the house,” Rogan said.

Cait laughed bitterly. “Oh, please,” she said. “This is so stupid. It’s all Aunt Marge’s way of giving Charlie a hard time. She always wished he would settle down and get married. I mean, we all know that’s never going to happen. Charlie’s not that type. But I guess she never gave up hope, right to the very end.”

“Or else she’s just trying to give him grief about it one last time,” John said. “It could be that.”

“Either way, this is obnoxious,” Cait said. “You’re telling me that we have to wait a whole month to deal with the estate because Aunt Marge had to have her little prank.”

“I guess there’s another option,” Rogan said. “If Charlie is willing to say right now that he has no plans to marry, he can sign the legal rights over.”

“I’m not doing that,” Charlie said.

“For God’s sake, Charlie,” John said. “You know Cait’s going to be insufferable about this.”

“Hey!” Cait objected.

John ignored her. “Just sign it over and let’s get this over with. You know you’re not going to get married in thirty days.”

“Maybe I am. You don’t know.” It was impossible to imagine that he would, but Charlie wasn’t feeling much like making things easier on his siblings at the moment. They always treated him like he didn’t matter in this family, like he was the least important of all of them. Well, that was fine. Now they were all going to be inconvenienced by him. Maybe they would actually learn a lesson — though he doubted it.

“Are we done here?” Scott asked. He was already rising to his feet, not waiting for the answer to be given. “I’d like to get home in time for dinner.”

“We need to establish what’s going to happen with the estate,” Cait objected.

“Don’t be silly, Cait. Charlie already said he isn’t going to sign it over — well, I could have told you that. Of course he isn’t. He’s always been way too stubborn. He’ll make us wait out the thirty days. And then, when he isn’t married at the end of that time, we’ll be able to move on to whatever comes next. Easy as that,” Scott said.

Cait glowered at Charlie. “You always have to make everything difficult, don’t you?”

“I’m not trying to,” Charlie objected. “This isn’t my fault, you know. I’m not the one who set such a wild condition on the inheritance. It was Aunt Marge who came up with this idea, not me. I’d be just as happy if she had left me the place outright.”

Cait rolled her eyes and stood up. “I suppose we’ll have to meet back here in thirty days, then, to figure out what comes next,” she said.

“That’s right,” Rogan agreed. “Charlie, you’ll need to bring your wife if you do marry before then, and your marriage certificate.” He smiled, clearly thinking himself in on the joke. “If there’s nothing more, I’ll see you all next month.”

“Sounds fine,” John said.

“Come on, kids,” Cait said. “Pack up your toys. It’s time to go.”

Charlie turned and left the room, not wanting to stay here with people who were so clearly in bad moods with him.

What had Aunt Marge been thinking?

He knew she had always wanted him to marry — but she couldn’t possibly think this idea would actually work ?

The others must be right. It had been her idea of a last joke at his expense, nothing more.

Well played, Aunt Marge. You got the last laugh.