Chapter Eight
Zachary
Dinners in the LeBlanc-Broussard mansion were always crazy. Granted, every time we got together here at the house, it was loud and insane, but for some reason, evenings were even more so. The entire gang was gathered at the huge table in the living room.
Even though I hadn’t grown up in this house, when I thought of home, this was the first place that came to mind—not even my own house. My parents and both sets of grandparents lived here. We all thought they were going to kill one another when our parents first came up with the idea, but it worked surprisingly well. It helped that the place was huge, so everyone had their own wing. They met mostly for meals. Mom was still at the gallery every day. The grandmothers were at their fragrance shop, and my grandfathers went fishing every chance they got. Dad was living his best life since he retired from running the company.
“Zachary, darling,” Isabeau said. “I’ve been meaning to call but forgot. Did you move forward with your idea with the ranch?”
“I went to see it.”
“What was your impression?”
“It’s run-down and needs a big investment, but they’re doing a good thing. I have several ideas for the place.”
Xander stared at me. He was sitting closest to me at the table. “I still don’t get it. Why don’t you just write them a check and be done with it?”
Bailey, his fiancée, laughed. “Oh, Xander. It’s not always about the money.”
“I know that, but these people have been running that place forever. Clearly they know what they’re doing. Why would you even need to get involved?”
“I want to,” I told him.
“Is Grace Deveraux still interested?” Celine inquired.
“Yes. I met her, too, when I was there.” And twice more, but I left out that detail.
“After you mentioned her, I did a bit more asking around,” Isabeau said.
I gritted my teeth. “I would rather you stop doing that,” I replied, just managing to keep my voice level.
“Why? What harm could it do?”
I didn’t want to get into the whole issue with Marcel, so all I said was “It’s not necessary.”
Even though Grace and I were at odds, I could understand her point of view. I’d be furious, too, if someone called a potential business partner to insinuate that I wasn’t a trustworthy party.
Isabeau turned to Georgie, Julian’s fiancée. “Darling, I hope it’s okay that we’re talking about the Deverauxes.”
Georgie had dated Kyle at one point, and he’d been a complete jackass to her. He constantly put her down and ended up cheating on her.
“Yes, yes. Don’t worry. I’ve actually never met Grace. Kyle only mentioned her a few times to say that she’d gotten married, and...” She frowned. “I didn’t like the way he spoke about her. Almost as though he didn’t like his own sister.”
“I don’t know why those boys turned out like they did. Their parents are good people,” Dad said.
“Anyway, people are saying that Grace is actually quite charitable and a good person. She just had a rough few years with the divorce and then the whole scandal with her brothers,” Isabeau went on. “What was your impression?”
That she’s smoking hot and a spitfire . “I didn’t interact enough with her to form an opinion,” I said.
“Want me to look into her financials?” Xander asked.
“No,” I said a bit too forcefully.
He frowned.
Anthony chuckled.
Beckett was grinning. “Careful, guys. We’re pissing off our brother, and I’m not even sure why.”
“I know you all want to help, but no one needs to look into anything, okay?” I insisted. “This is just going to be a passion project. If I get to do it, fine. If Grace ends up partnering with them, I won’t sweat over it.”
That wasn’t strictly true. I really wanted to invest in this, though I couldn’t explain why.
Although, after our kiss, everything changed. I couldn’t understand what the hell had been going through my mind, and I wasn’t going to try any longer. But I was starting to accept the fact that there was no denying my attraction to Grace Deveraux. It had started off as something purely physical—especially since I’d pegged her so wrong in the beginning. But she’d simply had her guard up because we’d started off on the wrong foot.
“I personally think that this would be a great side project for you,” Mom said. I tilted forward so I could see her. “You’ve always had different interests than the rest of us, and I think this is a very nice investment.”
Sometimes I thought Mom secretly wished I’d have become an EMT or a doctor so she wouldn’t be the only one who wasn’t involved in the Orleans Conglomerate. But she never told me that to my face.
“We’ll see how it goes,” I said, then looked at my grandfathers. “So, how’s fishing going?”
“Fantastic. We found this great spot. I don’t know why the fish congregate there,” Grandpa Felix said.
Grandpa David nodded. “It’s our new favorite spot. Let’s hope others don’t find it.”
I was feeling a bit guilty that I didn’t go out with them as much lately, but Dad was on it.
“I’m going to join you this weekend,” Anthony told them.
“Me too,” Beckett replied.
Those two were always a duo. But I supposed that was to be expected. They’d been very tight growing up too.
“Sure. The more, the merrier,” Felix said. “We can even make a little competition, see who gets the most fish.”
“We’re always up for that,” Anthony said lazily.
Beckett groaned. “No, I always get my ass beaten. It’s an unfair competition. You two”—he pointed to our grandfathers—“spend half your time out on the bayou.”
David laughed. “You boys can always join us.”
The competitive streak was strong in the family. But that made for great conversation, and it shifted the focus off me and Grace.
Once I left the house, though, my mind was back on her. Fucking hell, the more I tried to forget about the way she tasted, the more details I recalled. I was barely fighting the temptation to contact her. I didn’t have her phone number, but I had my ways of obtaining it. And yet I knew it was a bad idea.
When I got into the car, I decided to call Gaston. My new phone was more sophisticated than the one I’d lost in the Mississippi, and I was still getting used to it, but I liked it. Thankfully, all my contacts and other information had been backed up to the cloud, so I was able to transfer everything over as soon as I’d purchased it.
I hadn’t heard from Gaston in a while, and I wanted to know what was going on. He and Felicia had both made a great impression on me, but I had a feeling that they weren’t handling all this like a business. He answered after a few rings.
“Good evening, Zachary,” he said.
“Hi, Gaston.”
“It’s great that you’re calling me. I’ve been meaning to get in touch with you, but Felicia and I were busy this week. We bought a new horse, Starlight.”
“Congrats,” I said. “How come? You aren’t opening this year.”
“No, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
I needed to take a really good look at their cash flow. I couldn’t imagine it did them any favors to buy a horse in a year with no income. I didn’t plan to run this as a profitable operation or anything, but still, I didn’t want to run it in the red. It was just a passion project, but I wanted it to be able to finance itself so it wouldn’t always need cash infusions.
“How about you drive out to the ranch to check him out sometime next week?”
I didn’t say anything for a moment, then asked, “Is that necessary?”
“Yes. It’s good for you to meet the horses, and we can discuss some more about the investment with Grace as well.”
Well, that piqued my interest. “She’s coming too?”
“I haven’t spoken to her yet, but she seemed to really like the horses, so I’m assuming she’ll be thrilled.”
“Then count me in,” I said without hesitation—which was when I realized exactly how deep in trouble I was.