1. Quade
June 1
“Fucking idiot.” My fingers clamp around the cold stems in my hand. “Stupid fucking idiot.”
The guy to my left side-eyes me and takes a couple of steps away. Not that I blame him. Obviously my voice wasn’t as low as I intended and who wants to stand next to the crazy guy talking to himself?
Not that I care.
I am a fucking idiot.
And crazy.
I should be yelling how insane I am from the rooftops.
Or maybe checking into a psych ward.
Except I’m not usually crazy.
But desperate times call for desperate measures, and being the last male heir of the Sanderson family unattached is a curse I don’t want to live for the next three months.
It’s bad enough my mother, grandmother, and various aunts and cousins have been shoving eligible women in my face at every family function since the day I left college over a decade ago. I don’t need months of that bullshit.
But the idiot part of this summer isn’t that I’m waiting for a woman—one I have never met and have no real idea about—it’s the fact I advertised for a fake date online.
Actually, that’s not the worst part. The worst part is I didn’t insist on a video call or even a photo before agreeing to this charade.
This madness all started with yet another long phone call with my mother where I was forced to listen to her—not subtle—hints about settling down and passing on the family name, that I stupidly mentioned I’d been seeing someone.
Then I got stupider and told my mother—who’s been openly talking about grandchildren from the day I turned twenty-five—that I’d been seeing this made-up woman for months and things were getting serious.
I figured she’d be satisfied with that. That she would back off if she thought I was moving down the path she and every other female member of the family except my sisters feels I should be on.
But oh no, not Marion Delaney Sanderson. Nope. She wanted every detail under the sun.
You might think I’d be able to make up something about this dream woman of mine but I drew a blank and in the end told her she could find out all she wanted to know when I brought my mystery love to the annual summer get together at the family’s Love Beach estate.
Now I’m standing here, flowers in hand, waiting for a woman I’ve never seen who has agreed to fake it with me for the summer.
Hadley Calla Knowles.
All I know about her looks is she’ll be wearing a rainbow-colored scarf in her hair.
I’m not the only one going into this blind though. I figured telling Hadley to look for the tall guy with a handful of flowers was a good idea.
At six-feet-five I’m usually the tallest person in the room.
Glancing to the right I eye the guy who’s probably only an inch shorter than me. At least he’s not holding a bunch of flowers.
Moving my gaze back to the gate I see the first passengers coming through the door. The terminal isn’t busy this time of year, not like it would be around April. It’s the reason I picked Augusta to fly Hadley into. It’s unlikely I’ll bump into anyone I know, and none of the family would fly through here on their way to Love Beach.
The fact it’s three hours from my home also played into my choice. The more time I have with her without the possibility of seeing anyone I know, the better.
Once she retrieves her luggage we’ll head to Charleston and spend this afternoon and tonight at my place. The chance of seeing anyone before we make the two-hour drive to Love Beach tomorrow is slim. We’ll have over twenty-four hours to get our story straight and get to know each other well enough to be convincing in front of my family or anyone else who happens to see us together.
It’s all I care about. At thirty-five I’m not interested in finding the right woman to have a family with. Sure, I want that.
Eventually.
But right now I’m focused on my career—my business. So focused I can’t recall the last time I went on a date.
Dating has never been easy for me, and not because I’m awkward or ugly or anything like that. It’s the last name and all that comes with it.
I can never be sure a woman is interested in me or if it’s the Sanderson name she has her eye on. I don’t even want to think about the number of times I’ve gone out with a woman only to discover she engineered our meeting and lied about herself to gain my attention.
With Hadley I know her motives. She’s here for the job. For the money. There’s no subterfuge, hidden agendas, or unreal expectations.
We’ll spend the summer together, hopefully have a good time, and convince everyone in my life that I’m moving in the settle-down direction.
Who knows, if we get on well, and this works out, I might ask her to continue as my girlfriend for the rest of the year. Invite her back for Thanksgiving and Christmas when the whole family comes together again.
Just the idea of not having to listen to the women in the family telling me how my life isn’t complete without a wife and kids is worth more than I’m paying Hadley for the summer.
And the best part about the whole thing is neither of us has to worry about real feelings getting in the way.
We both know where we stand and what we need. There’s no chance a few months together will change?—
A flash of color against a black swath of hair grabs my attention. The woman’s head is turned to the side as she listens to the old guy next to her so all I see is her delicate chin and pert nose, the one-sided curve of plump red lips.
My gaze lowers, but I can’t see past the woman carrying a baby over her shoulder who’s in front, and I’m not even sure the woman who’s caught my attention is the one I’m waiting on.
Bringing my eyes back up I find she’s now facing me. Bright blue eyes are on me, her mouth curved in a tentative smile, and for the first time in my life I understand what people mean when they say their heart skipped a beat.
Hadley Calla Knowles is a knockout.
A one-two punch to the stomach and groin.
“Yep,” I mutter. “A fucking idiot.”
Why hadn’t we exchanged pictures?
If we’d done that I could have prepared myself for the gut-punch of lust the sight of this woman delivers.
Never mind being a fucking idiot. I’m fucked in general because one look at Hadley Calla Knowles and I know she’s going to turn my world upside down and inside out.
Hell, with the way my heart is racing, my palms sweating, and the sudden tightness of my pants, she already has.