by Elyse Riggs
“I like it. And we should be drinking champagne. Let them know that we’re celebrating the offer on the house, like they caught us in a private moment.”
“Nice touch,” he laughs. “I’ll get a hold of the concierge.”
My work here feels like it’s done. For now. I lay back again in the lounge chair and let him take care of the details.
Chapter Forty-Two
Kaylee
After showering off the summer sun, I rifle through the wardrobe I dragged over to Chase’s suite. As I look over my clothes, I wonder what outfit says casually drinking champagne and celebrating cute beachfront property when rudely interrupted by a virtual impromptu board meeting?
I grab the red dress. When in doubt, always choose the red dress. It’s understated enough to be believable for dine in or take out, but dressy enough to be celebrating. It’s perfect, since in addition to all of its other charms, it also happens to be really comfortable.
“Almost ready?” Chase calls. There’s a hint of nerves in his voice.
“In a second,” I call back.
“You said that ten minutes ago,” He complains.
“Stop rushing me. We’ve got plenty of time.”
“What if Liam and Ashley come early?”
“What about the food and champagne?” I inquire as innocently as I can, trying to redirect his attention onto something else.
“The food came fifteen minutes ago,” he answers.
My stomach growls and I decide that I am indeed ready. I walk dramatically out of his bedroom and into the living area. “Ta-da.”
Chase is already sitting on the couch facing the beach. There’s a beautiful spread of lobster and steak and lots of mouthwatering side dishes on either side of the table. In the middle of the table, open folders of real estate documents, pictures, and furniture catalogues form an impressive display.
He holds up a glass of champagne for me. “This is for you, my darling.”
I accept the glass. Then we toast, clinking our glasses together.
“You look wonderful, Kaylee. Thanks for your help today.”
Now that I’m here, he looks confident and relaxed. Almost like he’s preparing for a victory lap. I think it’s kind of premature, but the cockiness looks good on him.
“I will admit I doubted your plan at first, but it worked beautifully.”
“Of course my plan worked. So, now what? We sit here and eat and pretend to look at the pictures?” I get comfortable on the couch and eye the food. My mouth waters, especially when I check out the lobster. It all smells delicious.
“Now we can eat and actually look at the pictures,” he counters. “It’s a big decision, real estate. That’s why it should help us turn the tide.”
“Sounds good,” I say, cutting into my steak. I chew for a moment and savor. The food is fantastic. There’s also a salad and baked potato. Yum.
I check my watch. It’s ten after eight. “They’re late. Think they got cold feet?” Not that I mind, the food and champagne are fantastic, and I feel like I can handle anything in this dress.
“No way,” he says in between mouthfuls of food. “Trust me, the sharks on the board of directors don’t get cold feet when they’re going in for the kill.”
I try not to roll my eyes while I down another sip or two of champagne and prepare myself for the coming drama. “It’s all delicious, Chase. Thank you.”
I hear a faint knock on the door. Chase gets up to answer it. I suck in a deep breath and practice my surprised to see you face.
Then Liam and Ashley pour into the room, serious looks on their faces.
“Hey, Liam, come in,” Chase says, preferring decorum to my surprised face. Lame.
Liam, thinking he really has surprised us, makes no effort at all to hide his business-like manner. “Hello, brother.”
“I’d offer you some food,” Chase says, “but it’s dinner for two.” Then he narrows his eyes at Liam and makes a very convincing grumpy surprised face. Bravo.
“I didn’t buy dinner for extra people. What brings you here? Without bothering to call or text?”
“Well,” Liam starts. He clears his throat, obviously waiting to be invited to sit.
Chase rolls his eyes at him and points to the dining room chair, keeping the interrupters of our evening in the kitchen and away from me. I’m fine with it. Not my monkeys and all. I’m just here for the moral support. And the food.
Ashley isn’t paying attention. She’s lurking in the entryway and giggling at something on her phone.
I wish they would just get to it, though. I can feel the tension in the room. Liam sits awkwardly, holding a plain manilla folder in his hand. He squirms in his chair before opening the folder. He clears his throat. “I’m afraid this isn’t a social call, brother.”
“I figured that part out,” Chase answers. “Go ahead and come out with it, Liam.”
“Okay, that sounds fair. The board has some additional questions regarding recent facts that have come to light. And they’d like you to address those facts. Now. In a virtual board meeting.”
“Now?” Chase asks. “In the middle of dinner?” If I didn’t know any better, even I would believe that he’s surprised.
“Yes,” Liam answers, pulling out his phone and a little stand. “I’m afraid now means now. He hits a button on his phone while he fiddles with the stand. “And we’re live,” he says.
Chase clears his throat at the phone and nods, but his face is a frown. “I’d like it to be noted that I’m literally in the middle of dinner. May I?” He asks Liam for the phone and Liam hands it over.
Chase picks up the phone and aims it over at me. Of course, I’m right in the middle of a bite at the moment. I awkwardly chew and swallow, all the while waving cheerfully at the suit-clad people on the phone screen.
When I’m finished with the bite, I finally take a breath. “Hi there, board members. I can, in fact, testify beyond any reasonable doubt that Chase and I were in the middle of dinner.” I can’t help but smirk.
Chase gives the phone back to Liam so that he can continue. “It’s come to the board’s attention through their own investigation into the matter that your lovely fiancé is actually a local.” Liam pauses and nods politely at me. I smile back and hold up my drink, indicating that I have no hard feelings. He continues, “and that the two of you, in fact, only met this weekend.”
Liam’s face is as grave and dour as the rest of the board members. I have to agree with Chase on this one, it’s going to be worth it in the end to see it all come crashing down around them. As long as they don’t have anything else up their sleeve, I get the feeling we might just be okay.
Ashley gives me a mischievous smile and a wink, then starts wandering around the suite. I watch with interest as she starts in the kitchen, poking around in random drawers. Then she starts nosying around the rest of the place.
Liam and Chase are busy, and she’s clearly taking advantage. Smart. I’ll have to keep an eye on her.
Ashley pulled my attention momentarily away from the situation at hand until I hear Chase cut to the chase in the conversation with the board. I chuckle at my own joke, only nobody’s around to hear.
“Okay, fine.” Chase says, raising his hands in a playful and relaxed manner. He’s playing the board like a violin at this point. “You got me. I flew in early for a much-needed vacation and met Kaylee. I don’t know what to tell you guys, sometimes you just know that a relationship is meant to be. I have to admit that I’m as surprised, pleasantly, as you guys are.”
I hear the surprised murmurs of the board. They seem both stirred up and intrigued by Chase’s response. Liam looks surprised too. With all of the board of directors’ drama going on, I realize that I lost track of Ashley. But not for long.
“Holy shit, Chase,” she says from somewhere across the kitchen, “where did you find these chocolates? They’re amazing.”
My eyes dart from Chase and Liam to Ashley, who has a handful of the chocolat
es I gave Chase as well as one in her mouth.
Chase, clearly proud of himself, chooses this moment to take a sip of his champagne. Which he then nearly spits out. “Hey! Those aren’t yours.” He glares at her in the true animus that exists only in brother-sister relationships. He turns his rage to Liam. “Why did you bring her with you if she’s just going to ransack the place while we’re in a meeting?”
The board members inside Liam’s phone must feel neglected because they start banging on the long wooden conference table they’re sitting at and loudly clearing their throats to bring the conversation back to the engagement of Chase and I while Ashley continues to steal chocolate.
“Those are mine,” I tell her proudly, although it could totally be the champagne talking. “That’s me. I’m the Scrumptious in Scrumptious Chocolate.”
Ashley is only partially paying attention to me because the chocolate has all of her attention at the moment.
She moans loudly. “I’m having a chocolate orgasm over here, everybody look away.” She’s enjoying the attention too much and is probably trying to get back at Chase for the earlier crack about ransacking the suite, although that’s exactly what she’s doing.
All of a sudden, there’s way too much going on in the room for me to keep track of.
Chase shoots me a look like I’m supposed to do something about his sister. Then he attempts to get the whole thing back on track. “Is that a problem? I mean, I know that the engagement is kind of sudden, but sometimes these things just happen.”
“No way,” one of the board members says, his tone rising. I’m guessing that must be Mark, the ringleader and turncoat. “You got caught, Chase. The game’s over.”
Chase frowns. “What game? Despite how it looks, Kaylee and I are in love.”
“What are those documents on the coffee table?” Liam asks as he leans forward.
Chase hits his forehead in a corny display. He’s really hamming it up now. I’d be drunkenly shouting give him the Oscar under different circumstances. “I’m sorry, Liam, would you like some champagne? Kaylee and I are celebrating.”
Liam shakes his head. “No, thank you. But might I inquire as to what exactly you two are celebrating?”
“We put an offer on a property. You’re right, Kaylee lives here. She’s a business owner who also contributes to local charities, you see. And so, we’re buying property here. Since she has strong ties to the community.”
There’s a long pause. Then a sputtering. I privately wonder if that’s Mark spitting out whatever beverage he happens to be drinking.
For his part, Liam is more than intrigued. His whole face lights up. The excitement for real estate must run in the family. “Property, you say? I do love real estate.”
I smile, scoop up the papers from the coffee table, and bring them to Liam. “Would you like to see? It’s a lovely little beachfront cottage,” I say.
“Oh yes, please.” Liam dives into the pictures, remarking on leeway and egress and structure as he holds up the pictures and documents toward the screen for the board of directors to see. Before long, he and Chase are in a friendly, animated conversation. And they’re not alone, members of the board are chiming in with requests to zoom in on certain papers. They’re like nerds at a comic con.
Now that the situation with the board looks like it’s under control, it feels like something’s missing. Oh yeah, Ashley. Where is she, anyway?
She’s not in the kitchen anymore. I look down the hallway and across the main living area and don’t see her anywhere. Then I get suspicious. I excuse myself and ninja walk over to where Chase’s suite door is partially open. That’s bad because I’m sure I closed that door before those two came over.
I very slowly crack the door more open so I can slip in unnoticed, and then I catch her going through Chase’s nightstand. “What are you doing?” I ask with the smug satisfaction of having caught her red handed.
She looks up at me and smiles, expressing exactly zero remorse. “Snooping. Obviously. Duh.”
I just stare at this woman unashamedly going through Chase’s things. Of course, I had done the same thing like, yesterday, but that was different. I’m fake engaged to him. And I would have been horrified to have been caught at it. “Well then, are you done?”
She shrugs at me. “Not by a long shot. It beats hanging around out there listening to them talk corporate bullshit. Ugh. So boring.”
She has me there. But I can’t just let her get away with it. “So you amuse yourself by snooping on your brother?”
“Yes, we already established that.” She raises an eyebrow at me. “Care to join me? I mean it’s out there now that your relationship is pretty new, let’s snoop together while I try to think of embarrassing stories to tell about Chase. We’re practically sisters now, right?”
On one hand all of this feels weird, like I’ve entered an alternate dimension and I don’t exactly know what’s going on. On the other hand, snooping is really fun and it’s definitely a bonding experience. Besides, it’ll probably be a while before the guys are done with whatever the hell they’re doing.
“Cute cottage, by the way,” she says with a weird knowing smirk, giving me a slight side-eye. “That’s when I knew.”
That’s when she knew what? I panic slightly, take a breath, and then narrow my eyes at her. “Knew what, exactly?”
“That you and Chase are for real.” She closes the drawer she’s ransacking, which happens to be the top dresser. Then she opens the bottom one to continue rifling through his stuff.
“For real?” I ask.
“If you were an upward climbing socialite, a gold digger, or just generally greedy person, you could have chosen a property worth two or three times what that little cottage cost. And would have also insisted on one of the more exclusive neighborhoods.”
She shuts that drawer in frustration and moves on to my nightstand. “Boring, doesn’t Chase ever do anything fun?”
“Hey, that one’s mine,” I object.
“Good to know.” It doesn’t slow her down. “Now, if I had gone searching for real estate, I would also have gone for smaller and unassuming. We have similar tastes, you and I.”
I seriously doubt that. Now that I’m paying attention to her up close, I notice her ridiculously over the top designer clothes and four-inch heels. In fact, I’m quite certain that the outfit she’s wearing right now costs more than my car.
Her long dark hair has gorgeous ringlets on the ends, and her makeup is perfect, even in the low light here in the bedroom with the curtains closed.
How the hell is that possible? It’s clear that she’s beautiful and rich and doesn’t really care what other people think about her. I wonder what that’s like.
Then I feel a pang of guilt, bonding with her like this. It feels like I am leading her on. After tomorrow, we’ll never see each other again.
She looks up at me, out of the blue. Studying me, like I studied her. Then she closes the drawer and sits on the bed, patting the spot next to her. “Come, sit. I’m bored of snooping, both of you are boring.”
The words are droll, but her expression says she’s messing with me. In a way, it’s kind of sweet.
“Other than both of you being boring, can I ask what you see in him?”
My brain spins into panic mode, something that’s happening a lot lately. Don’t say something stupid, Kaylee. “He’s really sweet.”
She laughs out loud, slapping the bed. “No, he’s not. Try again.”
I sit back and sigh. “Well, believe it or not, he does have a sweet side. You know, the one where he’s kind to the wait staff and, um, patronizes local chocolate companies.”
“Well, that part’s only common sense. Those chocolates are amazing.”
“Thank you.”
“You sure he’s not just marrying you for your chocolate?”
It’s my turn to laugh out loud. “Well, he does have a serious sweet tooth,” I answer.
“Well, I admit I don’t k
now what you see in my dorky brother, but I do know what he sees in you.”
Another round of panic hits me. “What?”
“Smart, sexy, confident.”
At the moment, I feel none of those things, but I’m not
about to argue. “I’m sure his other girlfriends were great too.” I say it, and I’m sure it’s true. A billionaire can afford to be picky.
“Ha! No,” she says, “Chase played the field, but trust me, there weren’t a lot of winners. And none of them were willing to stick around when things got real. You’re different.”
I wonder if Ashley would still be this nice to me if she knew I was poor and not the wealthy entrepreneur philanthropist chocolate mogul that Chase made me out to be.
I swallow and find myself at a loss for words. I don’t know that I’m any different than those other girls he dated. Well, other than me striking a verbal monetary arrangement with him. And truth be told, I am starting to care about him. That’s bad for me. Hell, I’m starting to care about his sister, too. I must be hopeless.
She looks up at me and blinks, like she’s breaking out of a trance. I wonder if the conversation has freaked her out as much as it has freaked me out. We both chuckle nervously.
She speaks first. “I say we get back to your chocolate. What did you say it’s called?”
“Scrumptious.”
She jumps up and shakes her head on her way to the door. I shrug and follow. I guess eating chocolate is better than the awkward conversation we’re having right now.
She throws the bedroom door open and we both stride through. “Well, your chocolate is amazing. I want some more. Care to join me?”
I follow her out into the main room of the suite and then glance over at where Chase and Liam are deep in conversation still. And still about real estate specifics, by the sound of it. Only the tone of the conversation is now interested, engaged, and conversational instead of confrontational and hostile. It sounds like a win to me.