Simply Irresistible

by Deborah Cooke

  “And you were how old?”

  “Fourteen.” Ty knew his surprise showed because Amy laughed at him. “My dad believed that a good book was a good book, regardless of genre.”

  “He was right.”

  “Would you?”

  “I’d be honored,” Ty said and meant it.

  “Well, you can’t see it until it’s done.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “So, back to my family,” she said and he sensed her relief. “My dad’s parents weren’t pleased with his choice, I gather, and they were less pleased when he met my mom. She’d just arrived from Italy and he taught a class at the school for people learning English as a second language.” Amy smiled. “He always said it only took one look for him to fall hard.”

  Ty understood that well enough.

  “And your mom?”

  “She called it colpo di fulmine.” Ty knew he looked blank. Amy smiled. “Love at first sight.”

  “It sounds better in Italian.”

  “Most things about love and romance do.”

  “So, she taught you Italian?”

  Amy nodded. “But I haven’t spoken it since she died. Those actually were the first Italian words I’ve said in years.” She looked a little sad but took a steadying breath and smiled at Ty. “I always thought I’d speak it again when I fell in love.”

  “And teach your kids.”

  She nodded and he pretended not to have noticed that she swept away a tear.

  “What about your mom’s family?”

  “She didn’t have any left. Her brother had been killed in an accident and her dad died of grief. Her mom didn’t survive long afterward. My mom decided to start fresh in a new place and moved here by herself.”

  “That’s a bold move.”

  “I know.” He watched pride fill Amy’s expression and his chest tightened. “She was fearless. I can’t even imagine getting on a plane with five hundred dollars, the clothes on my back and my wits, but she did it.”

  “And you said she was a dressmaker?”

  “She did beautiful work and she understood how to make people look their best. My dad was so proud of how quickly she built up a business.”

  “And she married him.”

  Amy shook a finger at him. “Not so quickly as that! Her mom had been completely reliant upon her husband for everything, and as much as she loved them, my mom said a woman had to have her own resources, her own skills, and her own money. She wanted to be independent, even though she loved my dad from the first, too.”

  “She wanted to establish her own financial footing.”

  Amy nodded, then she sighed. “They’d known each other seven years by the time they got married. I wonder if they’d have married sooner if they’d known what was ahead of them.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. It sounds as if they were a couple even before they were married.” Ty shrugged. “Sometimes a marriage certificate is just a piece of paper.”

  Amy gave him a considering look. “I thought you’d be all for tradition.”

  “I’m all for true love conquering all obstacles. The legal details are less important than the love and trust of two people being together who are right for each other.”

  “I think you might be right.” Her smile turned mischievous. “My mother was pregnant at the wedding.”

  “With you?”

  “With me. At any rate, I understand there was a big fight when they got married and no one from my dad’s family attended. They were complete strangers to me until about a year ago.”

  Ty thought it was pretty harsh that her father’s family hadn’t even reconciled with him before his death, never mind that they’d never helped Amy with the burden of care, but she had become quiet and he wanted to coax her smile.

  There was no point in dwelling on the past. “So, walk me through the family tree. Your dad was oldest and the only boy.”

  “Right. He has three younger sisters: Pauline, who is divorced from Craig, Natalie, who is married to Tom who runs the family business now, and Sara, married to Daniel.”

  “The bride-to-be, Brittany, is Natalie and Tom’s oldest?”

  “She’s their only child, and just between you and me, she’s a bit spoiled.”

  “I would never have guessed,” Ty murmured and Amy smiled.

  “Pauline has a daughter and two sons, all of whom are married with children. Rachel married Duane, who works for Tom, Jake married Kirsten, and Mike married Marie most recently. I can’t keep the kids straight, although I have it all written down. Sara had two boys: Andrew and Thomas are just a little younger than me. Andrew just got his certification as an electrician and Thomas is still serving his apprenticeship.”

  “Everyone into the family business.”

  “Seems like it.”

  “And the groom?”

  “Nick. His dad’s a real estate developer.”

  “Sounds like a corporate merger.”

  “My aunt and uncle are pleased with the marriage.” Amy shrugged. “I get the impression that Nick’s parents aren’t so thrilled.”

  “Why?”

  Amy lifted her hands. “The seating plans were a nightmare. Aunt Natalie and Nick’s mom had all these lists of who should sit with whom.”

  “And a lot of the choices were mutually exclusive?”

  Amy nodded wearily. “I was trying to negotiate compromises, then they both started to call the venue independently to force their changes.”

  “You had to go and sort it out, I’ll guess.” Ty felt that simmer begin, the one he felt whenever Amy talked about her family.

  “I had to go and keep the venue from chucking their deposit money back at them. One wedding isn’t supposed to be a full-time job for their catering manager.” She took a deep breath. “To be honest, I’m kind of expecting someone to explode at the wedding.”

  Ty was glad he’d be there. Amy might need a defender. He’d guess that if anything went wrong, they’d blame her. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure you did a great job organizing it all.”

  “And they’ll undo it,” she said, proving that their expectations were shared. “Just watch.”

  “But, we will have a fabulous garden party on Sunday, in your mom’s tradition,” Ty said, raising a finger.

  Amy’s smile was brilliant and immediate. “We will!”

  “Let me call Derek and Paige. You have more than enough to do.”

  “Thank you.” She reached out quickly and touched his hand. “I’ll see you Sunday.”

  “Heartless,” he murmured with a shake of his head. “Here I was planning on a great dinner tonight with the best company, and I’ll be eating alone.”

  “I’ll make it up to you on Sunday,” Amy promised.

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” Ty vowed, and she laughed before she hurried back to work.

  She thought he was just teasing, but Ty was serious. He was disappointed about dinner, and he was even more disappointed that he wouldn’t see Amy again until Sunday. Who would have thought that she would have such a hold on him in such a short time?

  It must be love.

  He could have been glad about that, if it hadn’t been for Matteo.

  What was he going to do about that loser?

  * * *

  Kyle leaned against the wall in his office as his mom scolded him yet again. It was Friday night at F5 and he had a party in the club to heat up.

  Instead, he’d been caught by his mother, whose calls he’d been ducking on his cell phone. She knew him well enough to know where to find him on Friday night.

  And Cassie was merciless. She hadn’t covered for him at all.

  This was what friends were for.

  “Your brother is five years younger than you, but he’s married with a son and another baby on the way,” his mom said for the hundredth time that month. “My younger sisters have three grandchildren each. Kyle, I want to have grandchildren while I can enjoy them.”

  “Enjoy Dave’s kids.”

&nb
sp; “I do! But it’s not just about me. It’s about you, honey. You need to have someone in your life…”

  “Mom, I’ll let you know when I meet the right woman.”

  “I know, honey, but I’m not at all sure that you’re doing anything about meeting women. Every time I talk to you, you’re at work…”

  “It’s a gym, Mom. It’s full of women.” Kyle admired a woman walking past him on her way to yoga class. She cast him a flirtatious smile and he smiled back at her, enjoying the view until she was out of sight.

  “But maybe the right kind of women aren’t interested in a fitness instructor. Maybe you need a better job, honey. I mean, this was all fine when you were younger, but women might not find it enticing. I don’t want to insult you, Kyle, but women have to be practical. If they’re going to have children and stay home with them, they need a man who can provide for them…”

  “Mom, there are so many assumptions tied up in that sentence, that I don’t even know where to start.”

  “Assumptions?”

  Kyle winced at his mom’s tone.

  Now he’d done it.

  “How is it an assumption that the woman you love and marry will want to have children, or that you’ll have lots of children, or that she would naturally want to spend their formative years with them?”

  “Well, there’s three assumptions right there, Mom.”

  “If you mean that fertility might become an issue when a woman is over thirty, then you’re right, honey, and that’s all the more reason to get serious about finding a wife and partner…”

  “Mom, I’ve got to go and teach a class.”

  “Liar,” Cassie mouthed as she passed his office door.

  Kyle made a face at her and she grinned.

  “Well, think about it, Kyle. I picked up some brochures at the local college about skills improvement that I think might be interesting to you…”

  “I make enough money, Mom.”

  “Enough money for you is not the same as enough money to support a family, Kyle. Trust me. I know!”

  His mother had no idea how much money Kyle made and he wasn’t going to tell her. California wasn’t nearly so far away that she couldn’t inflict herself on him with short notice and try to fix his social life.

  “Class, Mom. Gotta go.”

  “And that’s another thing. You really need to start thinking about your own health, honey. All this exercise seems excessive at your age…”

  “Bye, Mom!”

  Kyle ended the call, feeling just as annoyed as he had after every single phone call he’d had with his mother in the past ten years. He exhaled steadily and slowly, using some of the Tantric breathing exercises he taught to calm himself down.

  “When are you getting married, honey?” Cassie taunted, interrupting his thoughts with her perfect imitation of his mother. She put a new flyer design on his desk for consideration. “You’re not getting any younger.”

  “That’s what I hear,” Kyle said. “She thinks I need to make more money to improve my appeal to women.”

  Cassie laughed so hard that a tear worked its way free. “Poor Kyle. Slumming in the big city for minimum wage when you could retrain to be a”—she cast around for a suitable occupation for him—“a licensed plumber!”

  “Did you see the bills from the trades? Don’t under-estimate their earning power.”

  “I just can’t imagine you getting mucky. It might mess up your hair.”

  Kyle laughed despite himself. “She never gives it up.”

  “She probably wants grandchildren. Mine does.”

  “She has grandchildren. Dave is working that angle.”

  “Mine doesn’t,” Cassie said with a sigh.

  Kyle remembered that Cassie was an only child and felt bad for complaining. “What do you tell her anyway?”

  “About what?”

  “Your job.”

  “I work in a private gym, teaching exercise classes for executives.”

  “Well, that’s kind of true. It’s pretty much what I say, but she acts like I’m still teaching summer lifeguard classes at the Y.”

  “I’m guessing you didn’t do that for the money.”

  “I would have paid them.” Kyle put a fist over his heart. “Teaching mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dozen cute girls at a time. Those were the days.”

  Cassie laughed again. “Funny how things don’t change, isn’t it?”

  Damon paused in the hall and glanced into Kyle’s office. He was bare-chested with a towel slung around his neck. “Is the joke good enough to share?”

  “We’re whining about our mothers,” Cassie said and Damon’s mouth tightened. “What do you tell yours?”

  “About what?” Damon was always hard to read, but he seemed a particularly wary to Kyle.

  “About love and romance, marriage, and grandbabies,” he said, turning it into a joke.

  “I told her years ago that I was gay.”

  Kyle was astonished.

  “No!” Cassie protested in shock. “Who would believe that?”

  “My mom, evidently,” Damon said.

  “Seriously?” Kyle asked. “You let even your mom think that?”

  “Well, she was halfway there. She had some magazine with an article ‘is your son gay?’ and she’d left it out on the coffee table. The quiet type with few friends in school was one of the possibilities.” Damon shrugged. “I just went with it. It seemed easiest.”

  Kyle shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t think it’s worth it. I don’t think I could tell anyone that I was gay.”

  Cassie rolled her eyes at that.

  “She doesn’t ask about grandbabies anymore,” Damon said. “And nobody in my family fixes me up.”

  “Not without advantages,” Cassie said. “The people they pick when they fix me up.” She shook her head. “It’s scary sometimes.”

  “Deeply scary,” Damon agreed. “I was motivated to find another solution.”

  If Kyle went home at Christmas without bringing a date, they’d all move into action. “What was the name of that magazine again?” he asked, already thinking of working through the holidays.

  Cassie and Damon cracked up.

  “You’d better get to the club,” Cassie said to Kyle. “The music isn’t nearly loud enough yet.”

  “Are you coming?” Kyle asked Damon, who shook his head. “You never come to the club on Fridays. What’s the deal?”

  “I’ve got a date,” Damon said, his manner secretive.

  “Who would date you?” Kyle said, razzing him the way he always did. “You always say you have a date on Friday night and I think it’s crap. You’re just leaving all the work to me.”

  “All the work you want,” Cassie noted.

  “Jealous?” Damon teased.

  “No, skeptical. You probably just say that because it gets you out of working a weekend shift, leaving more for me to do.”

  “You are jealous,” Damon replied, then taunted Kyle. “Her name’s Natasha and she’s a dancer. She has legs…”

  “That’s why you know endearments in Russian!” Cassie said.

  “You’re going to have to tell your mom about Natasha, though, right?” Kyle asked. “Isn’t that going to blow your perfect cover story?”

  His partner turned away. “Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see.”

  “I’m surprised Damon has to explain to you that it’s not always about marriage,” Cassie said.

  “Well, it isn’t for me. I thought Damon played by different rules, though.”

  “Just proves you can’t know all of anyone’s secrets,” Cassie said lightly and left Kyle wondering what his buddy wasn’t telling him. He’d bet good money that there was something unusual about this Natasha story.

  Kyle was headed to the club when he passed Ty, who was coming home. Ty was slinging a briefcase and looked a bit defeated. His tie was even loosened. Kyle stopped to look, interested in the change, and Ty pointed a finger at him.

  “You. Owe.
Me.” He bit off the words one at a time.

  Kyle grinned. “Did you finally get caught about Giselle?”

  “Not in the way you think. But now there’s the fake date with Amy that I want to be real, and there’s Matteo.” Ty winced and Kyle laughed out loud at his expression. “It’s what my parents always said. One lie leads to another. It’s a great big slippery slope leading to nowhere good…”

  Kyle tapped his buddy on the chest, interrupting him. “Tell her the truth.”

  “She’ll hate me.”

  “Maybe for a while.” Kyle winked. “Maybe not if you beg for mercy.”

  Ty seemed to be considering that possibility. “I should never have listened to you in the first place.”

  “It was the tequila.”

  “Also a bad idea, and also, as I remember, your idea.” Ty made a sound of frustration that sounded like a growl. “The only mercy is that you stayed away from my sisters.”

  Kyle left that one alone. “But you did listen, and now the truth is the only thing that can save you.”

  “Which again, would be advice from you.” Ty shoved a hand through his hair and Kyle knew his friend had it badly.

  Of course, he’d known that in the Saturday class.

  No, he’d known it when Ty had gotten all hot under the collar about this Amy taking the Saturday class, so bothered that he’d actually agreed to participate. Kyle had always thought that when Ty wanted something, he was fierce in its pursuit, and he’d seen that Ty wanted Amy in spades.

  The pair of them had nearly melted the yoga mats.

  “Beg for mercy,” Kyle said, patting Ty on the shoulder. “Trust me. She won’t be able to resist you.”

  Ty gave him a searing look, just as he anticipated. “I should be so lucky.”

  “You might.” Kyle left Ty standing there, and whistled I Miss the Rain in Africa on his way to the club. He heard Ty growl in frustration and laughed, his good mood restored again.

  Marriage. As if. His mother had been the one to teach him that “forever” didn’t last and Kyle had taken the lesson to heart.

  Chapter Eleven

  For one precious evening, Amy almost forgot about Brittany’s wedding.