“Nice to meet you too,” Thea said. “Come meet Mom. She’s made Aperol spritzes as an aperitif. Do you like those?”
“My brother Darien calls them Kool-Aid for grown-ups.”
“He has a point. They are very easy to drink,” Thea said.
“Mom, this is Zac. Zac, this is my mom, Corinne,” Iris said.
“Nice to meet you, Corinne,” Zac said. “These are for you.”
He handed her mom the flowers and the wine, then gave her an air kiss on the cheek, which her mom returned. “Thank you, Zac.”
“You’re welcome. Thank you for inviting me to dinner,” he said.
“I’m sure Hal told you that once he met the guy Iris was seeing, I was curious and wanted to meet you too,” her mom said.
“He did,” Zac admitted.
“No use pretending that we aren’t very curious about you,” Corinne said.
“I’m an open book,” Zac said. “I’m glad to have the chance to meet Iris’s family too.”
Oh, great. Zac was saying all the right things. And doing everything as if she’d handed him a script. She had to remember it was an act or it would be very easy to fall for him.
Six
Iris walked Zac out after drinks and dessert were over. He had enjoyed meeting her family and it was easy to tell that, despite her online presence and social media persona, Iris lived a very normal life behind-the-scenes.
Thea had done her best to try to trip him up but one thing in their favor was the fact that they’d simply just started dating. There weren’t a lot of things a two-day old couple were expected to already know about each other.
“Thea was tough,” he said as he leaned back against his car. The sky was clear, and though the stars weren’t as visible here as they were in the middle of the ocean, it was still a beautiful night.
“She’s a pain in the butt,” Iris said. “But I think this was really good practice. So I know I said we wouldn’t need to be on Nantucket until Thursday but would you mind going over tomorrow? Adler wants to catch up and of course meet you before everything gets started. She’s my bestie so she’s curious.”
“Not at all. Actually, about that—” he said. He probably should mention that Adler was his cousin at this point.
“Good,” Iris interrupted. “I’m going to be bringing some staff with me so we could meet at the hotel in Nantucket or drive down together.”
“Staff?” he asked. “Besides me?”
“Yes. I have a glam squad who makes sure I’m camera-ready. Also my production assistant will be there. Aside from my bridal duties, I’m going to be doing a few on-air interviews as part of the recorded show. You’ll be free to do your own thing during that time.”
“I didn’t realize the wedding was going to be televised,” Zac said. “I can’t drive down with you. I have a meeting with my team tomorrow. I’ll meet you at the hotel.”
“Yes, it’s part of a show that features destination weddings. Adler’s wedding will kick it off. Because my reality TV show is pretty much my life and the events I attend, I’ll be doing some live shoots that will be aired later. I want you in some of them but just to add flavor—that’s the part we spoke about earlier.”
“Of course,” he said, but he really wished he’d paid better attention when they’d negotiated terms because this was sounding more like work than he’d imagined. “Do I need a glam squad?”
She laughed. “No. KT and Stephan will get you camera-ready if need them but I really want to just use shots of the two of us from the weekend in a montage. I don’t want you to feel pressured especially since that isn’t what you signed up for.”
He was beginning to feel like he didn’t know what he’d signed up for. Iris wasn’t what he’d expected. She intrigued him and he wondered if he’d ever really figure her out. It had been easy to see her as the good daughter tonight but she had demonstrated a wicked sense of humor and her family did a lot of gentle teasing. It was very different from the formal meals he was used to when his father was present. Then everyone was polite and traded thinly veiled barbs. The dinner with the Collins family tonight reminded him more of the meals he had when it was just his mom and his siblings.
Hal Collins was a very different man than August Bisset. Where August was domineering and forceful, Hal was...somehow gentler but in no way less shrewd.
“Great. Will they be staying in the same suite as us?”
“No. Definitely not,” she said. “I want us to be able to have some downtime when we can be ourselves.”
“Angel face, I’m never not myself,” he said.
“Is that true? Even when you told my dad that you were a fan of opera?” she asked.
“Well, I mean, I do like The Magic Flute,” Zac said. “But you know how it is when you meet the parents. You don’t insult things they love.”
“Very true,” she said. “It’s a good thing you’ll be in training, otherwise I think he might invite us to join them the next time they go.”
“I wouldn’t mind at all. My mom loves opera as does my gran. On Sundays before brunch, they both would fill the house with music. Sometimes opera, sometimes jazz, and when we got old enough, rock.”
“Sounds like a wonderful tradition,” she said. “I would love to meet your family someday.”
Uh, yeah. “About that.”
“What?”
“I didn’t want you to recognize my last name at first, but I’m actually Adler’s cousin. My mom is Juliette Bisset, her aunt and godmother. You’ll get to meet more of my family than you probably want to,” he said.
“What?” she asked. “Why didn’t you say anything tonight at dinner?”
“I was trying to let your family get to know me. Plus it’s pretentious to introduce myself as August Bisset’s son,” he said.
“I get that, but you should have said something,” she said. “Why do you need my dad to find investors then? Can’t you fund the run yourself?”
She looked angry and hurt and he realized he should have handled this better. “I’m sorry, Iris. I never meant to hurt you.”
“You didn’t. This is a business arrangement. I just like to know all the facts. Does Dad know?”
“Yes, he recognized me and I didn’t deny it.”
“So why play games with me?” she asked.
He tipped his head back, looking up at the evening sky.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I could do it with the help of my father and my brother, Logan, the current CEO of the family business, but the truth is they both put too many strings on the money and I don’t want to answer to them. I started captaining to find my own thing and if I asked them for money...it wouldn’t be mine anymore.”
She folded her arms under her breasts and narrowed her eyes as she studied him. “That makes a certain kind of sense. I felt the same way when I started my own brand. I had Leta’s backing but I knew I wanted to establish myself before I went to Collins Combine for an investment. It was more fulfilling knowing I’d made it on my own.”
“That’s what I want,” he said. “I’m very successful in my field on someone else’s team but I want to be the captain of a winning America’s Cup yacht and the only way I can do that is with your help.”
“Is there anything else you are hiding?” she asked. “I don’t what there to be any more surprises.”
“Well, I’m not faking it when I kiss you.”
“No. Don’t do that. This will only work if we treat it like a temporary thing,” she said. “I bought you for three months.”
“Angel face, I don’t work like that,” he said. “I’m not good at faking it and frankly, I’m better at it than you. You were way too tense at the beginning of the meal, waiting for me to—”
“I know,” she said. “It’s just my business and everything is on the line. I think I made a huge
mistake but there’s no going back.”
Her honesty undid him. He was ready to push her until she admitted that they should sleep together, that the attraction between them was hotter than the sun on a summer’s day. But he saw that she was confused by the attraction and this offer she’d made him, which was out of character for her.
He noticed the blinds shifting in the front room of the house and realized that they had been out here too long. “Someone’s watching us. Want to go someplace and talk? I have a town house that’s not far from here or we could go to a bar.”
She sighed. “Okay. Is the town house an Airbnb?”
“No,” he said. “It’s one my family owns. We have property all over the world and the place in Boston is one my mom uses when she comes up here to visit my gran.”
“There is so much I don’t know about you,” she said.
“That’s fine. We’ve only been dating for two days,” he reminded her. “You okay to follow me?”
“Yes. But text me the address in case we get separated.”
The blinds at the front of the house were still askew so he leaned in, putting his hand on her waist. Then he kissed her gently on the cheek. “Just to allay any suspicions.”
She sighed as her hands curled around his biceps. “I like kissing you too. That’s why I don’t want to do it too often.”
“Let’s talk about it at my place,” he said. “Want to leave your car here? I can bring you back to get it later.”
“No,” she said.
He stepped back, putting his hands up. “Okay. Whatever you want.”
“Let’s go.”
He waited for her to get into her beige BMW and then got into his car. He pulled around her in the large circle drive and she followed him the short distance to the town house. There was ample parking for two cars in the driveway and he led her into the house.
She paused in the entrance hall, looking at the picture of the Bissets on the left wall. It included his extended family and had been taken earlier this year when Mari had announced her engagement to Inigo Velasquez.
“I know your sister,” Iris said. “Not well, but I do consider her a friend. The ripples from this arrangement we have just keep growing.”
Iris shook her head and then walked past him into the house. “Which way to...wherever you want to talk?”
“Second door on the left, wall switch as soon as you enter. I’ll be right behind you,” he said.
She moved down the hall the way she had moved in the boardroom earlier. She was getting back into businesswoman mode and he was the first to admit he preferred her in relaxed mode. But she was in charge. She had concerns and worries that he knew nothing about and frankly, he didn’t need to. They had a deal.
He’d almost forgotten it while they’d been at dinner. Her family had been so warm and welcoming he wanted to be the new boyfriend—for real. He wanted to somehow believe that if he—was what? Someone completely different? He couldn’t fit into that domestic scene in any scenario that wasn’t pretend. He spent most of his life on a yacht and he wasn’t planning to stop anytime soon. His life was on boats.
She’d taken a seat on the leather sofa in the living room. As much as he wanted to sit next to her, he walked to the large chambray-colored armchair and sat down, putting his feet up on the hassock. “So...”
“Zac, I’m sorry that I’ve put you in this situation. And I’m not even sure why you agreed. I know you want investors and I sort of understand wanting to do this without your family’s interference, but you didn’t need to agree to my dating plan in order to make that happen,” she said. “I think because we’re going to be lying to everyone about our relationship, we need to be honest with each other. We need to be clear so that there are no misunderstandings. Does that sound agreeable to you?”
“Yes, it does,” he said. “That’s why I told you I’m hot for you.”
Her eyes widened for the shortest second and then she nodded. “Me too. But that’s a complication I’m not sure I’m ready to handle. To be fair, you should know that I’m not very good at sex.”
He was shocked for a second. Then he shook his head. “I highly doubt you’re not good. Both players share the responsibility for that.”
“Uh, oh...okay,” she said. Then she groaned. “Why did I even say that? Even though my reputation is for saying the right thing and hosting fab events, in my personal life... I’m not as together as all that.”
“I like it. It’s real. I bet your viewers would get it too,” he said. “Have you thought about being yourself?”
She shook her head. “No one wants that. Sure, it would be amusing for a short while as a novelty but everyone wants you to stick to the image they have of you. Everyone.”
She sounded very sure and he wondered who had been disappointed in the real Iris. But that wasn’t a question he needed answered right now.
“What’s next?”
* * *
Next? She had no idea. She needed to get focused and stop thinking about how strong his arms had felt under her fingers. Or how warm his breath had been on her cheek. Or how she’d wanted one more real kiss instead of that brush of his lips earlier.
“Let’s get the wedding details sorted out,” she said. “Then I think we can plan to meet on Nantucket tomorrow.”
“Sounds good. What are the details?” he asked.
“You might already know them,” she said. “Since you’re family-of-the-bride. Let me pull up the schedule Adler sent.” Iris took out her phone and called up her calendar. “So next Thursday is the welcome lunch at her gran’s—your gran’s place, then the sailing competition around the harbor. I guess we should do well at that.”
“We should since I’m captaining one of the yachts. Are you a good sailor?”
“I’m okayish. I really don’t swim well, but I do like being on the water,” she said. No use going into details of how she liked to get below deck with a few drinks to calm her nerves.
“Great. That will be fun,” he said. “We can do some romantic things on the boat.”
She just vaguely nodded. Like what? she wanted to know, but kept that question to herself. “Then there’s the clambake in the evening. That’s a really full day. I think we should just be clear about being a new couple, touchy but not over the top with the PDA. I mean, we want to be cute and romantic, not X-rated.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded his head a few times. “I can do that. Am I staying with you in your suite? Or do I need my own place?”
“I was thinking the suite,” she said. “Unless we should just not be lovers...”
“We’re not lovers,” he reminded her.
“I know that. I mean, will it make me seem too prudish if I don’t have you in my suite? It’s got two rooms so you can stay with me, and we can let anyone who’s inclined to dwell on it, think what they want.”
He started laughing.
“What?”
“Inclined to dwell on it—are you kidding?”
“No. I mean, it was kind of fussy of me, wasn’t it? If people are going to gossip, it’s up to them what they think.”
“I agree. So, what’s on Friday?”
“The golf scramble. Adler is pairing up with her side of the wedding party so we’ll be separated for that. Then we have the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. Saturday is the big event, so I’ll be busy helping Adler get ready and then there’s the sunset ceremony followed by dancing all night. Can you dance?”
“I can. Mom insisted I learn. She said women like dancing and a man who says he won’t is a turnoff.”
“I agree,” Iris said. “All that’s left is brunch on Sunday and then we head home. Where will you go?”
“I’ll stay in Nantucket for a few days unless your father has the investors ready by Monday then I’ll come back to Boston with you,” he said.
“We can see each other frequently until the money is ready and then I’ll have to start putting things in motion.”
“That’s settled then,” she said. “I’ll forward you the schedule. Remember, I’ll be doing some filming as I mentioned. I’ll also probably do some photos for my social accounts so I’ll need you for those, but I’ll use the events we’re at for a backdrop.”
She put her phone back into her bag and looked around the living room. It was very traditional but with sort of homey touches. There was a large landscape painting of Boston Harbor on one wall and candid family photos on the table by the sofa. She couldn’t help smiling at the one of a teenaged Zac standing at the helm of a yacht. “When did you start yachting?”
“When I was nine. It was either that or go with Logan and Darien to the summer internship at Bisset Industries. And...well, Dad and I butt heads a lot so Mom suggested I try sailing lessons, which I loved. She calls me her water baby... I’m a Pisces.”
“I’m an Aries but everyone says I’m not typical of the sign,” she said.
“Uh, whoever says that doesn’t know you at all,” he commented.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “I am a tad bossy.”
“Yeah, that’s one way of putting it,” he said.
She liked him. There was a part of her, the one that still secretly longed for a partner, that wished this was real. But she knew she’d never have talked to him if it hadn’t been for Thea’s suggestion. And he’d never be here if she hadn’t made her offer. It was the only kind of relationship she was good at. It was fun and easy because she knew what she was getting and that it would be ending.
Was that really all she was going to have with him?
It was disappointing but she was glad that she had the chance to know him. Because he was so different from the other men in her life. And he made her feel like she was different...well, not different so much as that she could be herself and that was okay.
She realized that she wasn’t trying to impress him and she’d have never guessed that would be so freeing.
“I guess I’ll be going. Thank you, Zac.”
Her One Night Proposal (One Night Book 4) Page 6