Chapter Eight #3
“That she’d raised me—all my brothers—to be affectionate.” His gaze darted toward her, then back to the road. “I watched Spencer and Marcus this week when they were with Melody and Charlotte. They touch a lot.”
Jo didn’t like where this was going. “Nice try, but no deal. My conditions aren’t negotiable.”
“I’m not asking you to make out with me on the porch swing.” His brows waggled. “Though say the word, and I’m there.”
“What are you asking for?”
“Holding hands, my arm around you when we stand together, a peck on the cheek, that’s it. Just enough to throw my mom off the scent.”
He wasn’t asking for much, but all those little things led to other, more intimate things. She’d fallen into that trap before. “No.”
He sighed. “Fine, but I’m telling you, she’s smart. She knows me. She’s not going to buy it.”
“I think you’re worrying over nothing.” Jo turned away to watch the passing landscape of pine trees and palms mingling between strip malls and car dealerships.
Memories of the way Chase had felt the need to claim her in front of her family gnawed at her resistance. He’d never done anything more than Avery described. But it was difficult to fight years of self-preservation, and Avery made her feel hot and tingly in a way that Chase never had.
Still, she needed this to work as much as he did, so she’d keep a close eye on his mother, and they’d deal with any signs of suspicion.
Tap, tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap, tap.
She glanced at his drumming fingers. Clearly, he was nervous.
“Tell me about your family,” she said to take his mind off his concerns. “Things you think I should know, other than what I found on the internet.”
“You googled my family?”
“I google all my clients.” Realizing how that sounded, she added, “so I’ll have some insight into their likes and dislikes and have some ideas prepared.
You know, whether they’re going to be into hearts and roses or have a retro vibe?
Whether their family is going to have a heavy influence on their decisions. ”
“So, you googled me?”
That’s all he got out of what I said? “Yeah, when I was working on the engagement party.”
He grunted. “That’s how you knew who I was.”
“Yep.” Before he could dive too deep down that rabbit hole, because it was a big, deep hole, she prompted, “Tell me about Marcus and Charlotte. What’s their story?”
Damn, she should have asked about Kate and Bryce. They were the potential clients she’d meet today. Charlotte and Marcus were going with Giselle, and poaching clients went against the grain. She’d circle back to Kate and Bryce later.
“Theirs was a rough one. They’ve been in love for years but were too stubborn to admit it.
Marcus—all of us, really—only saw the pampered princess of our competitor.
She didn’t seem to care about anything or anyone else but herself.
She partied all the time.” He glanced at Jo.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that. ”
Jo smiled. “I didn’t say there was.”
“Right, well, anyway, Melody convinced the rest of us we were wrong, so we devised a plan to throw them together at last year’s bachelor auction, and the rest is history.”
Sticking with family, she asked, “Spencer and Melody?”
“They almost didn’t make it. When Melody came to work for Preston Enterprises, Marcus and I bet on how long it would take them to hook up.
But then we started losing clients to Charlotte’s father, and when Spence found out Melody and Charlotte were friends, we couldn’t help but suspect Mel of corporate espionage. ”
“I read about that.” Lots of intrigue, but nothing about Melody being a suspect. “What about Nick?”
“He runs the company.”
She waited for him to say more, but he moved on to his parents, telling her how they met at the State Fair in Dallas then again at a famous honky-tonk in Pasadena, so she didn’t press him about his brother’s late wife.
Or how the lack of information about her death was suspicious.
It was all very hush-hush, not a lick of speculation on why she was with another man when it happened, but then money had a way of making unpleasant situations disappear.
“So, did you love him?” Avery asked, out of the blue.
She blinked the landscape back into focus. Pine trees were sparser now, giving way to sturdy oaks and rolling hills with tall green grass that whipped in the wind, making it look like ocean waves. “What?”
“Murdick. Were you in love with him?”
“It’s Murdoch,” she admonished but giggled at the apt distortion of Chase’s name. “You’re so bad.”
A grin stretched across his face. “One of my finer qualities.”
“I’m sure you have better.”
A brow rose above his sunglasses as he glanced at her. “Would you like to find out?”
She rolled her eyes. “My Uncle Harmon’s Bluetick hound has more control than you do.”
His rich seductive chuckle vibrated through her as he took the next exit and headed west. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Why do you want to know?”
He shrugged. “You asked about my brothers and their SO’s, and I imagine you’ve worked a lot of weddings, but you don’t strike me as the romantic type.”
Romance only lasts until the credits roll.
That was Grandma’s philosophy. Jo only knew she’d never felt romantic toward Chase. “No. It was never like that.”
“What was it like?”
“Convenient.” She sighed.
Another grunt, one that sounded a lot like he compared her one attempt at a relationship to his off-the-chart body count. But he was right. Both were devices of avoidance.
And maybe Brooke was right, too. Maybe Avery was the perfect guy to relieve her of her virginity. And to show her what Chase hadn’t. The attraction was there. It was something to consider.
But right now, she had other, more important things to think about. “Tell me about Bryce and Kate.”
Jo’s heart broke a little for Kate and Bryce as Avery revealed their story of teen love and betrayal that tore them apart. It gave her a place to start, but she’d still need to get to know them for who they were now.
He finished with, “Don’t get your hopes up. They’re nowhere near marriage.”
“But your mom said they—”
“Mom doesn’t have the whole story.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because even if things don’t work out with Bryce and Kate, you’re still getting your name out there. You’ll have four women, all of them with substantial influence, on your side.”
Her lips twisted into a frown. “And because you want to convince your mom we’re real, so she’ll pay less attention to your other activities.”
He shrugged and pulled off the highway and through a black wrought iron gate.
She glanced at all the boxes in the back. “I wish you’d told me before. Now, it’s going to look like I’m trying too hard?”
“It’ll be fine.”
“Easy for you to say,” she huffed. He wasn’t the one with a reputation on the line. “I’ll sort out what we need, maybe a couple boxes of petite fours and choux buns. The rest can stay in the truck.”
“Won’t it spoil?”
“It’ll be fine.” Her stomach dipped. The mille-feuille would ruin without refrigeration, but that was the price of being overly ambitious.
They crested a hill that overlooked a valley, and Jo gasped, forgetting everything but the majestic view ahead.
It was like something out of a fucking movie.
Cattle grazed on one side. A lake stretched across the other.
And nestled in a cluster of oaks, atop a small rise, a huge sprawling mansion glistened in the golden sun.
“Holy fuck.” She was totally out of her league. Hell, she wasn’t even in the ballpark.