Kendall didn’t recall talking about Decker, but maybe she had asked a few questions, as intrigued as she had been by him. “What does Mom think about this...arrangement?”
“She doesn’t like it.”
“But you came here anyway?”
“I talked her into it,” he replied in a low, even tone. “I promised I wouldn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do.”
She wouldn’t let him anyway. Her mother probably knew that and it was the only reason she let him come and talk to her.
Kendall considered her father a while. He loved her; she had no doubt about that. But he too often used her as leverage to advance the company. This had to be the worst he’d ever done—agreeing to try to marry her off to a stranger.
Well, Decker wasn’t a complete stranger, but she didn’t really know him.
“I’ll think about it,” she said. She just wanted to be alone.
“Russ invited us over for dinner tomorrow night.”
Shock jolted through her. He had made dinner plans without talking to her first? Why? Did her father plan on reintroducing them? Did he hope they’d be attracted? More likely he hoped her teenage crush would reignite.
“You’re making me feel used,” she said tightly.
He put his hand over hers and gave her a squeeze. “I would never do that, honey. You’re my daughter. You’re the most important thing in my life.”
Yeah, and sometimes the most valuable asset.
Though she’d never admit it to her dad, the notion of seeing Decker again did rather intrigue her. She wasn’t the shy girl in high school anymore. And from all she’d heard about Decker, The Lodge was his one and only true love. She wondered how a company could steal a man’s heart that way. Didn’t he want to find happiness with a woman? Have a family? And if not, why? Curiosity got the better of her then.
“All right.” She’d like to see for herself how Decker Colton had turned out. Just because she had dinner with him didn’t mean she’d marry him to save her family’s business, however.
Her dad smiled, more from relief than excitement over having dinner with the pompous Russ and Mara Colton. At least, Kendall had always considered them that way. Maybe she had listened to talk around town, that Russ and Marion held themselves far above the less fortunate.
After her father left, Kendall skipped her bath and spent the next thirty minutes searching for her high school yearbooks. She found them in the basement in a box with other items she had held dear in those days. Taking the whole thing upstairs to her bedroom, she turned on a family movie channel and began spreading out a journal and other items she had saved for future reminiscence. Ticket stubs to amusement parks, museums, concerts and movies brought back a lot of fond memories. She had planned to put them into a scrapbook but hadn’t gotten around to it. She had also kept little trinkets her friends had given her over the years. She still stayed in touch with the four women who had been her closest friends since the seventh grade. Picking up some colorful wristbands, she smiled with the memory. They had all decided to exchange wristbands for Easter and these four were the ones she’d received.
She’d kept a close-knit group of friends all through school. She hadn’t been into cliques and hadn’t understood the importance placed on popularity. Life was so much bigger than that. She’d gone into forestry because she loved nature. She also loved the alone time.
Maybe being an only child had made her somewhat of a loner. Never much for social gatherings, she’d preferred to spend her time reading novels and bird-watching.
Setting the wristbands aside, her curiosity nudged her to move on to the yearbooks. “Well, Mr. Colton,” she said, “let’s have a recap and then see how you turned out.”
She opened her sophomore yearbook and passed over some of the notes signed on the pages until she reached a page with Decker standing up as class president. He was a junior that year. She flipped to the page containing his photograph and stared. She wondered if he still had those boyish dark good looks. He’d been tall and lean. Maybe he’d filled out some more since then. She remembered passing him in the halls every once in a while. Sometimes he noticed her. She could still feel the jolt of excitement over the way his eyes connected with hers. Had she imagined his interest? Back then she’d fantasized about going to the prom with him, making all the girls envious. It seemed so silly now.
She moved on to her junior yearbook. Brushing photos and other memorabilia aside, she rolled onto her stomach, lifted her calves and wiggled her toes as she drew the book front and center.
There were several pictures of him that year. How many times had she turned to them just to look at his cute face?
As the warm, familiar tingles of attraction enveloped, her phone rang.
Abandoning her comfy pose, she scooted to her side and stretched for the phone. “Hi, Mom.”
“How did it go?”
“As usual.”
“Moving the company forward?”
Kendall loved her mother’s understated wit. “Yes.” She lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. Not much to look at but she didn’t need a painting. She still saw Decker’s face.
“He didn’t offer you up like some fourteenth-century daughter of a king, did he?”
“No. He gave me the option of meeting him first.”
Her mother laughed, a deep, genuine sound that filled Kendall with a surge of love. Then she quieted and sobered. “Sweetheart—”
“Don’t, Mom.” Kendall knew what her mother would say.
“What if you enter into this and he...”
“Only wants me for the business deal?”
Her mom let out a short, tense breath. “Yes.” Then she perked right back up to the pistol Kendall had grown up with. “I’ve been going over and over how Decker would respond to his greedy father telling him he had to marry you and I’m just...worried.”
“Don’t be.”
“Well, what if he would do it just to please his father?”
Kendall had been away at college and worked another job before coming home at her father’s request. She didn’t know much about Decker, the man he’d become.
“Maybe he’s not like his father. He’s successful. That might be their only similarity.”
“You always were an optimist. But why would you go through with it? Even the dinner?” her mother asked, sounding concerned.
“I’m...” She wasn’t sure how honest she wanted to be right now. “Curious.” That was honest.
“Satisfying a high school crush?” her mother asked.
“Yes.” And maybe secretly linking in with her young heart, wondering if they’d work out and if it would be as great as she imagined.
“Please be careful, sweetie. If he’s half as much of a shark as his father, he’s incapable of loving anyone.”
She felt a moment of doubt. Maybe dinner was a foolish idea. She could argue she was doing this for her father, but that wasn’t entirely true. Then again, how would she ever know if Decker was worthy of her—even in an arranged marriage—if she didn’t at least see him face to face?
“I’ll know after the dinner.”
“I wonder if he’s still as good-looking,” her mother mused.
“That would be a bonus,” Kendall quipped.
“Or a problem.”
Copyright © 2019 by Harlequin Books S.A.
ISBN-13: 9781488041228
Tempted by the Badge
Copyright © 2019 by Deborah Fletcher Mello
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