He leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the table as he stared at me imploringly. “Because I trust you.” Any argument I might have had died on my tongue at that declaration. “Believe it or not, with the way I was raised, I have a few trust issues.”
I let out a snort and rolled my eyes. “You don’t say. With parents like yours, I’m surprised you’re a functioning member of society and not a creepy shut-in. Or a sociopath.”
He laughed and reached across the table to take my hand, sending sparks shooting from my fingertips throughout my whole body. “So you understand how big it is that I actually trust someone. What’s more, I like you. You’re sweet and funny. So damn funny, Flower. You’re easy to talk to. You’re genuine, and that’s something you don’t see a lot in my world, believe me. If I have to do this, I’d rather do it with someone I consider a friend, someone I genuinely enjoy being around. Anyone else, and I’d be absolutely miserable for however long this has to last. That’s why you, and that’s why I’m most certainly the one that’s getting the better deal.”
“Jase, I want to help you, I really do, but how is this supposed to work? I live here, and you’re in Connecticut. That’s not exactly an easy commute. Is this supposed to be like a long-distance, weekend-visits kind of thing?”
For some reason, that made him smile full-on, complete with straight white teeth and a sexy glint in his eyes. “You don’t have to worry about that. Hyland Steel is opening a branch in Nashville. I’ll be moving down here as soon as possible.”
He’d thought of everything, hadn’t he? “Well, I guess a forty-five-minute commute is a lot better than a fifteen-hour one,” I muttered, still trying to wrap my head around everything that had happened in the past ten minutes.
If I was being honest with myself, I hadn’t really given marriage that much thought, at least not after my last disastrous relationship. Sure, I didn’t hate the institution the way Jase did, but after watching my mother struggle to raise me on her own after my dad bailed, and after Cory left me shattered, I’d decided I was never going to risk putting my all into another man.
But that wasn’t what this was . . . right?
Like Jase said, this was a business proposition. And didn’t that take the romance out of the situation.
“So, if we do this—if,” I stressed when his face began to brighten, “when is it supposed to happen?”
He tried to cover his grimace before I could catch it, but he hadn’t been fast enough. “I have a month.”
“A month?” I shrieked.
He squeezed my hand tighter, his features twisted with desperate anticipation. “I know it’s asking a lot, and it’s not what most women dream of, and but I swear, I won’t make you regret this, Poppy. It might not be a real marriage in every sense of the word, but I’ll still do everything I can to take care of you and make sure you’re happy.”
“And what about Farah and Bennett? What about all my friends down here? What are we supposed to tell them?”
His face split in a smile so big it was nearly blinding, and damn if it didn’t make my chest flutter. “So is that a yes?”
I arched a brow and gave him a dry look. “Answer my question first.”
That earned me another chuckle, and I found I was quickly becoming consumed with the need to make him smile and laugh as much as humanly possible. “I’ll handle telling Farah, I don’t want you to worry about that. I’ll tell her everything. As far as your friends and family go, if you think they’re trustworthy, they can know the truth. I don’t want you to have to lie to the people you care about most.”
At least there was that . . . not that I had the first clue how the people I cared about most would even handle something like this.
“So . . .” he dragged out before repeating, “is that a yes?”
* * *
Jase
She said yes.
Thank fuck she said yes.
Jesus, I can’t believe she said yes.
That had been the most resounding thought running through my head the entire drive to my sister’s place.
The biggest, most intricate part of the whole thing had finally been taken care of, but the hardest and most important part was still left to complete.
As I pulled onto the long gravel drive that led to Farah and Cannon’s place, my gut twisted into knots.
I didn’t know how she would handle everything, and I thought I’d prepared myself for any and every reaction from worry and disappointment, like Bennett’s, to relief that the old bastard would never be a problem for her ever again.
However, I’d been sadly mistaken, because I hadn’t prepared myself for white-hot, fiery anger.
“I can’t believe you did that!” she shrieked once I finished recounting the whole story. Her face had turned an unnatural shade of red, the likes of which I’d only seen when we were kids and I thought it would be funny to hack all the hair off her favorite doll’s head. “What the hell were you thinking? Have you completely lost your mind?”
I glanced around the room to see if Bennett or Cannon would be any help, and saw them both sitting, quiet and stone-faced as my little sister lost her shit.
I was well and good on my own here.
“Sweet pea—”
“Oh no! Don’t you sweet pea, me, Jase. You know what that man’s capable of, you know. How could you do something so stupid? And all by yourself, no less!”
“It’ll be fine, Farah, you’ll see. The asshole doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He can’t do anything to us. Not anymore.”
She shook her head, a look of disappointment so strong that I felt it down to my bones. “If you really believe that, you aren’t as smart as I’ve spent my whole life thinking you were. That man is more dangerous now than he’s ever been, all because of what you’ve done. If you think he won’t come after you, guns blazing, you’re dead wrong, bub. Did you ever take me into consideration when you were pulling this shit? Did you think of me at all?”
“I did it for you,” I countered sharply, my defenses rising. “I’d never let anything happen to you, and you know that.”
“I never asked you to do that!” she shouted back. “Damn it, Jase! I don’t need you to protect me anymore!”
Having her plunge a rusty, serrated blade into my stomach couldn’t possibly have hurt worse than hearing those words from her mouth, and judging by Cannon’s rumbled, “Hummingbird, that’s enough,” I hadn’t done well in hiding my reaction.
For twenty-seven years I’d watched over her, rescuing her whenever she needed it and keeping her safe from any and all harm. When she’d been attacked and nearly killed, I felt like I’d failed her in the worst possible way. I’d struggled with that failure, and it wasn’t until recently that I managed to get over it enough to look myself in the mirror again. Only, she didn’t need me anymore. I didn’t have the first fucking clue who I was if I wasn’t her guardian, her protector.
“I’m not worried about me, Jase. I’m worried about you!” She jabbed her finger into my chest. “What the hell am I supposed to do if something happens to you, huh?”
Stepping closer, I took her by the shoulders and gentled my expression. “Nothing’s going to happen to me, sweet pea. I promise.”
Her shoulders slumped and the sadness that filtered across her pretty face as one tear slipped down her cheek, then another, hurt worse than any kind of physical pain. “That’s not a promise you can keep.”
“Yes it is, honey.” I did my best to smile as I pulled her into a hug. “When have I ever broken a promise to you?”
She sniffled and took a step back, batting the dampness off her cheeks as she scowled at me, but the fire that had been flaring in her eyes was now just embers. “I’m still really mad at you,” she grumbled, giving me a weak punch to the arm.
“I know,” I said softly.
Her forehead pinched in concern as she looked up at me, chewing on her bottom lip nervously. “Just promise me it’s over, that you’re done.”
“I promise.”
“And that you’ll never keep something like this from me ever again. I mean it, bub. Any more secrets like this, and I’ll never speak to you again.”
“You have my word, little sis.”
On that promise, she moved, walking into me with such force, I let out an oof while rocking back on a foot and reaching around to return her embrace.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she spoke, her words garbled from her face being smooshed against my chest. “It’s going to take me forever to process everything you dumped on me today. My big brother staged a coup, and now he’s getting married . . . to one of my best friends!”
At the excitement in her voice on those last few words, I grabbed her arms and shifted her back so she could see my stern expression. “Head out of the clouds, sweet pea. I already told you, this thing between Poppy and me is strictly a business arrangement. Don’t go getting any ideas.”
Her face drooped into a frown. “You’re no fun at all.”
“So you’ve told me a million times,” I said with a chuckle.
Her chest heaved on a weighty exhale. “Well, I guess there’s a silver lining in all of this. It’s gotten you to finally move down here. I can’t be too upset if that’s the outcome.”
After the original drama, I was relieved as hell to hear her say that. “So, are we good now? As much as I’d love to stick around so you can keep giving me shit, I have a million things to do, and not a lot of time to do them.”
She fought back a grin as she smacked me in the chest. “Fine, go. But don’t think you’re done paying for this. And once you’re all moved, there’ll be no escaping me.”
I pulled her back into me, giving her a squeeze and placing a kiss on her forehead. I gave Cannon a handshake and a pat on the back before moving toward Bennett. “You still mad at me?”
His weathered face had been carved deeply with concern the entire time I laid everything out for Farah. But now it looked like some of the tension had finally melted away. “Was never mad at you, son. I was worried. But can’t say I’m not glad you’ll be close after all of this.”
“Glad I’ll be close too,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder before pulling him into a quick embrace.
Feeling like a weight had fallen from my chest, I climbed into my car and started back for the inn, feeling, for the first time, that maybe this was all going to work out after all.
Chapter Six
Poppy
“I still can’t believe this is happening,” Shane declared, throwing herself onto the bed I’d just made, stretching long and crossing her ankles like she was settling in for a nice catnap. “Our sweet little Poppy is getting married to that tall, sexy drink of water for money.” She looked over at me and winked. “I’m shocked and impressed. It’s so Pretty Woman.”
I shot her a withering glare that had absolutely no effect. “You mean besides the fact that I’m not a prostitute?”
“Well, yeah. Besides that, of course. But that’s not to say you shouldn’t try your best to get that luscious hunk of man into bed as fast as humanly possible.”
“Oh, gross!” Farah made a retching sound from across the room. “Come on, Shane. That’s my brother you’re talking about.”
“You can gag all you want, but I speak the truth, sister. That brother of yours is fine as hell, whether you’re willing to admit it or not.”
I smacked her with the pillow I’d been stuffing into its case. “Remind me why you’re here again? Other than to annoy the hell out of me, of course.”
Hopping off the bed, she took the pillow from me and tossed it against the headboard haphazardly. “Because Jase is coming back today, and you asked us to come over to help you get the house in order,” she stated, using finger quotes around the last few words.
It had been a week since Jase’s proposition, and in that time, things felt like they’d been moving at warp speed. He’d left the day after, heading back to Connecticut so he could take care of everything he needed in order to make the move, but now that was all done, and he was on his way back . . . for good.
And I was freaking the hell out.
“And you’ve been no damn help at all,” I groused, snatching the pillow back up and giving it a fluff before placing it down with much more care than she’d used.
“Babe, you need to relax,” she said. “Your OCD is showing. There’s nothing to help with. You’ve spent a week scrubbing and rescrubbing every damn inch of this place to the point you could perform surgery on the floors.”
“I can’t relax,” I grumbled as I arranged the rest of the pillows across the top of the bed. I might have gone a teensy bit overboard on my run to the home goods store earlier that week. Eight decorative pillows seemed a little much, but what was done was done. If Jase didn’t like them, he didn’t have to use them. “If I stop moving, I’ll have time to think, and if I start thinking about everything that’s going on, I’ll lose my shit in a very big way.”
“All right, that’s enough,” Farah came up beside me and snatched away the Euro pillow I was currently karate chopping like mad, trying to create that perfect divot at the top. “Honey, just take a second and breathe before your head and this poor pillow explode all over the damn room.” I stopped what I was doing and turned to face her, inhaling and exhaling, slow and steady. “There. Better now?”
I nodded in response.
“Okay, how about we take a little break, yeah?”
There wasn’t much more I could do in Jase’s room, so I hesitantly agreed, and the three of us headed downstairs to the kitchen. Shane and I sat at the island as Farah went about filling my kettle with water and putting it on to boil as she rummaged through my vast selection of teas. She prepared a nice cup of soothing jasmine and mint, sliding it in front of me before arching a single blonde brow. “All right, so you feel like telling us what that mini-breakdown was all about? Are you starting to have second thoughts?”
“No, it’s not that.” I plopped down on the edge of the bed and blew a puff of air past my lips. “It’s all just happening so fast. A week ago I was a single woman, running this place on my own, without a single prospect in sight. Now I’m getting married in less than a month. It’s all a little much.”
Farah rested her hands on the counter and leaned in. “You know, you don’t have to do this. I love my brother, but if you aren’t comfortable, you can call this off at any time.”
That was where she was wrong. If I called it off, the money for the repairs to the inn went up in a puff of smoke, and I’d be living on dry Ramen and SpaghettiOs, sleeping in a cardboard box somewhere.
Okay, so that was more than a little dramatic, but you get the point.
And besides, I didn’t want to back out.
“No, I want to do this. I want to help Jase. If I back out, the job goes to your cousin Titus.”
Farah’s top lip curled up in disgust. “Ugh. Titus is just the worst.”
Shane spoke up then, pulling me from my musings, “You know, not that it counts for much, but if it helps put things in perspective, I’d gladly change places with you any day of the week.”
Looking over at my sweet friend, I was suddenly flooded with guilt. There I was, whining about things that weren’t all that bad, and she was currently dealing with her ex’s sudden reappearance. After abandoning her with a newborn baby almost five years ago without so much as a word, Jensen Rose had shown up, out of the blue a few months back, wanting to be a part of her son’s life. It didn’t help matters much that, while she hated his guts, she was still completely and totally in love with him.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, twisting to face her and grabbing her hand with both of mine. “I wasn’t thinking. I shouldn’t be complaining when you’re—”
She quickly waved me off before I could continue. “Please. What are friends for if not to bitch and complain to? Besides, your little situation has been a much-needed escape from my current reality.”
“So
I take it things between you and Jensen haven’t gotten any better?” Farah asked, her face awash with sympathy.
Shane let out a weary sigh, running her hand through her long, glossy brown hair. “Other than the times he comes to pick up Brantley, I try my hardest to ignore him all together. The main problem is Stone.”
Gavin “Stone” Hendrix was Shane’s older brother. He’d been living in San Francisco for years, but when word reached him that the man who’d broken his little sister’s heart and walked out on his newborn son was back in town, he’d packed up and rushed back to Redemption to have her back.
“Has he said yet when he plans to go back home?”
“No,” Shane grumbled sourly. “And as much as I love him and miss him, I wish he’d just get on with it already. At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about either of them murdering the other every time they cross paths.”
My lips pulled into a wince. “That bad, huh?”
“I swear to God, if he doesn’t go back to Cali soon, the streets will be filled with blood. Between Jensen and his buds, and Stone, Uncle Scooter, and their whole crew, there’s gonna be a battle that would rival anything you’ve seen on Game of Thrones.”
The sound of tires crunching on gravel cut through the heaviness of our conversation. Shane and Farah instantly perked up, their heads swinging toward the front of the house as my heart began beating a staccato against my ribs.
Shane’s melancholy was suddenly gone, and she began hopping in her seat. “Ooh, looks like future hubby’s finally home,” she singsonged. “Ow! Jeez” she yelped, rubbing at her arm where I’d just punched her, her evil grin turning into a dramatic pout. “I was only kidding.”
“Come on, you big baby,” Farah said with a laugh. “Time for us to go.” She looked at me and winked as the three of us started out of the kitchen. “Let the lovebirds have some privacy.”
“I have no friends,” I called out loudly, stopping at the front door as they descended the front porch steps, throwing waves at me over their shoulders. Shane hopped into her car and took off, while Farah paused briefly at Jase’s shiny black Audi, lifting up on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek. A minute later, she climbed into her Jeep Compass and bailed out, leaving me alone with the man I was going to marry in only a few short weeks.
Crazy Beautiful: a Redemption novel Page 5