Devious Wingman: A Cocky Hero Club Novel

by Hagen, Casey

  “You’re getting that look on your face,” Soraya said, nudging me with her elbow.

  “What look?”

  “Inspiration. You’ve already got plans brewing,” Soraya said, pushing up next to me to peek out the windows.

  “So many plans,” I said, smiling and biting my lip. “I need my sketchbook.”

  “Schmoozing first. Have to make those connections,” Graham said with a laugh from the seat behind them.

  “I can multitask,” I said, the worry plaguing me the entire plane ride slowly easing away as I shifted into business mode. An undercurrent of anger rippled in the depths, but I buried it, knowing what I needed to do.

  Falcon had a hell of a lot of nerve being a hard-ass when he was the one who took off…and I had every intention of telling him so while we were here, if the opportunity presented itself.

  I wouldn’t make a scene; I wouldn’t be chasing him down like the night in Rigby’s. He’d made his point loud and clear. One night and he was out.

  Didn’t mean I couldn’t have a whole slew of issues with how the coward left. But those issues could wait. This connection in the wedding world could not. I respected my friends way too much to let an opportunity they secured slide on by without putting in my all, and I respected myself way too much to let some old, stupid, dead-end feelings color the impression I made on the owners and staff of The Hideaway on Sunflower Hill.

  Falcon had never been someone I could count on day in and day out, but this job, making dreams come true, that I could immerse myself in. There was always another couple, another wedding on the horizon, another set of unique challenges handling a new family dynamic.

  I almost felt bad for Falcon. So far, in this adult life, he’d only seen me at my very worst, although he didn’t know it. Well, now the man was going to see what I looked like when I shined. He could damn well stew in the knowledge he’d had an opportunity there and he blew it.

  The driver rolled to a stop, and a young, college-aged man with a quick smile opened the door.

  “Welcome to The Hideaway on Sunflower Hill. My name is Bryce. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to ask. And your name?” he asked, reaching out to take my hand.

  “Nice to meet you, Bryce. I’m Emory, and these are my best friends and business partners, Soraya and Graham.”

  Bryce stood tall and straight with not a single wrinkle in his polo shirt or khakis. He smiled as much with his mouth revealing straight, white teeth as he did with his eyes, good positive energy rolling off him in waves.

  I adored him immediately.

  Bryce took Soraya’s hand and shook Graham’s as he closed the door to the car. “You’re the party from New York City…we were expecting five.”

  “Our pilots, yes, they’ll be arriving separately,” Graham said with a glance at his phone.

  “Ahh, okay, we’ll be on the lookout for them. In the meantime, we’re honored to have you here for the first glimpse at The Hideaway,” he said, offering me his arm.

  Nice touch. Very nice touch. The gesture wasn’t something seen very much anymore, at least not beyond a formal event setting. But something about this felt like it was ingrained in him and not for show. As though the gesture were automatic for him, just an extension of solid manners. I gladly took his arm, feeling a little like a girl being led into her prom.

  If they were going to roll out the red carpet of customer service, I planned to enjoy. Every detail told the story of what I could expect if I swayed clientele here. I needed to not only see for myself, but I needed to feel it. I wouldn’t risk a wedding day on a business I didn’t absolutely believe in one hundred percent.

  Not again.

  “If you’ll follow us,” Bryce said, casting a glance back at Soraya and Graham, “I’ll take you into our traditional banquet hall where everyone is gathering for happy hour and appetizers.”

  He escorted us along the textured flagstone walkway, the creases filled in with grout even with the edges of the stone giving both traction and preventing anyone wearing heels from going ass over elbows on their way in.

  They thought of the little things here. Brick pavers were beautiful in their various colors and designs, but for a bride wearing heels or an entire wedding party, they spelled disaster.

  “Bryce, you’re awfully polite for your age. I appreciate that,” I said, patting his arm.

  He laughed. “I have parents who would have my hide if I dared act any other way.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “They’re also my employers.”

  I laughed and nudged him lightly with my elbow. “Ahh, they’ve got you right by the paycheck.”

  “Maybe a bit, but I’m proud of what they’ve done here so it’s no hardship. My grandparents would have loved to see what they made of this place when it probably would have been a whole lot easier to put it on the market.”

  “So why did they do it the hard way?” I asked.

  He glanced out on the land, squinting against the sun. “My grandpa told me, ‘Love is never easy. It’s a battle. It hurts. It strips you bare in your weakest moments. You rail against it. But if you’re smart, you stretch yourself to the breaking point to become something new and better.’ I think his philosophy had a lot to do with it,” he said quietly. “My family loves this land, where two vastly different parts of Arizona meet and unite. It’s a reminder two different worlds can come together. And how magic can happen when they do.”

  Young, but so wise beyond his years, he called me out. I snuck a glance at him, and he slid me a knowing look from the corner of his eye.

  My breath caught and my step faltered. It’s like he could read souls or something.

  “I’m not sure what to make of you, Bryce, but I’m pretty sure you’re your parents’ secret weapon. How old are you anyway?”

  “Nineteen.”

  “So young,” I murmured.

  Not that I was much older in the grand scheme of things. I had seven years on him, but a lot of life lived in those seven years. Transitions into adulthood and pain I hoped he never had to experience.

  “You sound like you aren’t just repeating what your grandfather told you. You know it in your heart,” I said as we crossed through the double doors and stepped into the cool lobby.

  “Yes, I’m young,” he said with a quiet laugh. “But then, the heart doesn’t care about age, does it?” he asked, his voice quiet, his gaze darting away and catching a young redhead’s eye.

  The young woman, dressed in the same polo and khakis as Bryce, stumbled, and her mouth fell open for a beat before she snapped it shut and clutched an empty hors d'oeuvre tray to her chest.

  She’d pulled her hair back in a low ponytail, but strawberry-blond tendrils broke free around her temples. Freckles dotted her makeup-free skin along her cheeks and nose. I could still see the girl in her, but the longing look in her eye and the way her gaze locked on Bryce had grown-up written all over it.

  “What’s her name?” I asked, leaning into him and giving her a reassuring smile.

  “Katie,” he said, his throat thick, color staining his high cheekbones.

  “Does Katie know you’re in love with her?”

  He sighed. “She knows.”

  “And?”

  “She’s stubborn,” he said, a note of frustration threading through his voice.

  I threw my head back and laughed. “That’s a good quality to have; don’t touch that one.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  I gave Katie a small smile. “So what happened?”

  He watched as Katie ducked away, his arm flexing under my fingers. “She’s mad I gave up a scholarship to Arizona State to stay here and go to community college near her.”

  “And did you give it up for her?”

  “Ultimately, no. I wouldn’t disrespect her wishes like that. And she’d skewer me if I had. When we were eight, I put a lizard in her desk, and she stabbed me with the sharp end of a paperclip.”

  I hadn’t even spoken a
word to Katie, but I liked her already.

  “I really thought I wanted to go. When it was over, I would have come right back home to her, but none of it was clicking. I started to question why I was taking scholarship money when it should go to someone who truly loved the school and everything it stood for.”

  “You might want to tell her what you just told me,” I said as he walked us past a riverstone water feature trickling into a koi pond.

  “I did. She didn’t believe me.”

  “Are you going to let that stop you?”

  “Not a chance,” he said with a laugh.

  We stepped into a large reception hall with floor-to-ceiling windows along two sides and dark beams crisscrossing the arched ceiling. I gave his arm a squeeze and smiled up at him. “It’s going to be okay. I firmly believe that. Don’t give up. If you really love her, she’s worth it.”

  The words weren’t new. Sage advice passed on for hundreds, likely thousands of years, and here they were, only in this moment, clicking in my head and heart just right.

  Was that what I was doing? Giving up on Falcon? Sure I called it self-preservation. I called it moving on. I called it a lot of things, but what I didn’t think about, not once, was how it might feel to him. To the man hardened by all the people around him who’d given up.

  His mother gave up on fidelity. She gave up on sobriety. She gave up protecting her son.

  His father, well, from the whispers around town, fidelity had never been something he embraced. Sobriety? He’d never even tried for that either.

  The only thing Falcon’s dad had embraced with enthusiasm? Taking each and every opportunity to show Falcon what a burden he was and how much he resented him.

  And Falcon had never really gotten past it. No matter how much time he’d spent with people who welcomed him, who loved him—he’d never quite let their soothing words and actions drown out every bit of torture his father doled out.

  He was one step forward, two steps back in every relationship that crept close to the bruised and beaten heart in his chest.

  I told him to stay away from my parents. To leave them alone if he only planned to disappear again, but had I ever really given him the chance, with how new this all was, to not disappear? To prove maybe he could stick this time?

  No. I hadn’t.

  And all of a sudden, I wondered how much of his sneaking out was because I’d been one more person to throw my low expectations of him in his face.

  Maybe he would have stayed. Maybe he would have changed his mind about keeping this to one night if I’d trusted him.

  But God, it was so damn hard to trust him.

  Not when I had no idea how to break through. Not when there was a very real possibility I could hand my heart and soul to him and still never find a way through the wall of pain he’d erected around himself.

  I slid a business card from my pocket and handed it to Bryce. “I want to know how it turns out. Keep in touch.”

  “I’ll do that.” He tucked the card in his pocket. “Come on, I’ll introduce you all to my parents.”

  He led us to a couple leaning into one another where they stood next to a stone fireplace. The man, an older and even taller version of Bryce, smiled down at his wife and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  “Emory, Soraya, and Graham…meet Dustin and Sierra Jacobs,” he said, taking a step back as his parents turned their attention on us.

  “Our wedding planner from New York City,” Sierra said, a bubble of excitement coloring her soft, yet strong voice. She reached out and clasped my hand in both of hers. “We’re so glad you could make it.”

  Dustin leaned in and shook our hands before finally taking Graham’s. “It’s good to finally meet you, Morgan. I owe you huge,” Dustin said.

  “Not at all, we’re even now,” Graham said, shaking off Dustin’s gratitude.

  “So that’s how you snagged the invite,” Soraya said. “You know each other.”

  Dustin’s wary gaze snapped to Bryce, and he sighed. “It’s a long story, but a couple years ago some investors moved in and tried to get us to sell the property. They did some pretty underhanded things,” Dustin began.

  “I never heard about this,” Bryce said, stiffening next to me.

  “Because worrying you over it wasn’t necessary. We weren’t selling,” Dustin said.

  I stood tight against Bryce, my arm pressed to his as frustration thrummed through him.

  Sierra took her son’s hand. “We stretched to the breaking point, and with Graham’s help we became something new, like your grandfather would have wanted,” she said with steely resolve.

  Bryce’s shoulders relaxed and he swallowed hard with his mother’s words.

  “They wanted me to invest,” Graham said, sliding his hands into his pockets, “but I put them through their paces with my investigators and found out about their tactics. So not only did I refuse, I made damn sure they left Dustin and Sierra alone, permanently. They weren’t very bright and left one hell of a messy paper trail.”

  “It was a horrible time for us. We’d just lost my mom and dad in the six months prior. But Graham was merciless. I owe you,” Dustin said, his voice rough with grief.

  I’d love to reassure the man that the pain from loss would go away, but I’d be lying. It morphed, it softened around the edges, but it also laid in wait ready to gut you when you were at your absolute lowest.

  “Imagine my surprise when I found out the wedding planner who’d put on this stunning wedding I’d attended complete with a ceiling of white wisteria and fairy lights in Albany happened to go into business with none other than Graham’s wife,” Sierra said.

  “You were at the Twilight wedding?”

  “I was. Cousin of the bride,” she said with both palms up. “So don’t hold the crazy against me.”

  I opened my mouth and closed it again, shaking my head. Some things you just didn’t say out loud.

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything, we know.”

  A laugh bubbled over. “Good.”

  “Getting Jason’s horrid grandmothers to be the flower girls was brilliant by the way. You completely transformed the dynamic. How did you get them to agree?”

  “Are you kidding? I just played on their need to be the center of attention. Sold them on the idea of being trailblazers for all weddings to come. They ate it up. From that moment on, they knew they had a job to do. They stayed in character for the entire event. I’m sure they spun all kinds of stories for their friends about how they made the wedding, how they saved it from the brink of destruction. As long as they spun those stories after the event and away from my bride and groom, I was okay with that.”

  “You’re the kind of creative energy we need around here,” Sierra said.

  “Thank you…let’s make sure you take your time and still feel the same come Friday.” I pulled my shoulders back and looked Sierra and Dustin both in the eye. “Graham set up this opportunity and I love him for it, but I want to earn a spot as one of your preferred vendors on my own merit.”

  “Done,” Dustin said with a slight bow of his head.

  “Please, help yourself to drinks and food. Bryce will show you to your table,” Sierra said as a small group of women moved in behind us escorted by another Hideaway employee.

  Bryce leaned in. “My mom hasn’t stopped talking about that wedding. I thought you should know.”

  “A lot of people haven’t stopped talking about that wedding,” I said with a laugh.

  “Her cousin told her half of the cake was all but destroyed, but none of them had a clue.”

  “She’s right. I ripped a fair amount of wisteria out of the ceiling and cascaded it down the back of the cake. No one knew the difference.”

  “Slick. Wisteria isn’t too popular around here.”

  “Don’t underestimate me. I can shove a cactus in a cake too if I have to.”

  Bryce threw his head back and laughed. “You’re good. I don’t know how you do it, but a
lot of the people here, it’s like they’re here for the free food and drinks. But with you…in a matter of minutes, it’s like you’re family.”

  “This is more than a job, it’s my life. I stick.” My words echoed in my head and took me right back to my dilemma with Falcon, and I struggled not to wince.

  I had held back. I didn’t stick for Falcon. I did more for a total stranger than the man I—I took a cleansing breath and smiled.

  I was the asshole.

  Oh, that hurt.

  I owed him an apology. Right after the one he owed me.

  Well hell.

  My eyes darted to Katie as she made her way through the room with a full tray, her longing gaze landing right on Bryce.

  Aww, honey, do yourself a favor and grab on to this young man. He’s waiting.

  The last thing they wanted was to let a bunch of years slide by they could never get back.

  “I’m assuming those are your pilots?” Bryce said with a nod toward the door.

  Falcon slid his shades over the buttons of his shirt. His gaze found mine almost immediately, and the turbulent look he shot my way had me sucking in a breath.

  Every damn emotion played over his face: anger, hunger, hurt, and something I didn’t want to name.

  Bryce clucked his tongue. “Well, well, well,” he murmured only for me to hear. “Have you reached the breaking point yet?”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  “Oh yeah,” Bryce murmured, gesturing to the table and the chair he’d pulled out.

  I laid my hand on Bryce’s arm and waited for him to look at me. “Do yourself a favor…don’t waste the amount of years he and I have. The longer you spend apart, the harder it is to find a way back.”

  18

  I didn’t look at Falcon. Couldn’t look at him.

  His hostile sneer became a living, breathing beast occupying the one empty seat at the table…a combustible force everyone else seemed oblivious to.