Page 56 of Booked for Kidnapping

“She really will inflict pain and suffering on him, Bradley.” My stomach chose that moment to inform me it needed another salad—and maybe some meat as a starter course. “I’ll take a steak and salad, Mr. Hampton. Please.”

“Do you want your salad loaded with every topping I can get on it?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll also get you the kind made of vegetables, too, so your doctor doesn’t hang me out to dry.”

“That seems fair,” I conceded.

“And you, Bradley?”

“I’ll take the steak and skip the salads.”

“You’re getting the vegetable kind of salad, and I expect you to eat it.”

“Cheese, Dad. No salad is worth eating if there’s no cheese.”

“It’s not like you’re leaving the hotel room today. You can indulge, suffer for a while, and pass out afterwards. Nobody cares, and you could use the extra sleep. That’ll give Janette some peace and quiet. She might even like babying you.”

“Nobody wants to babysit him while he’s dying from his bad choices. They have vegan cheese,” I stated, pointing at the menu. “He can tell us if it’s any good. I’ll even join the cause and have vegan cheese on my vegetable-based salad. But he may not have any of my proper salad.”

Bradley’s father laughed and headed for the hotel phone, calling for room service and placing a ridiculous order, making certain Bradley escaped from being subjected to dairy. Once he got off the phone, he said, “The women in our lives are upset I let you both sleep through breakfast. I had to get your doctor to defend me, Janette.”

“Sleep is important?” I guessed.

“Fortunately for me, Dr. Mansfield stated sleep was important, and Bradley had basically wrapped himself around you, and you’d done your share of keeping a hold on him. My first attempt involved trying to get you to let go of his arm. I failed.”

Excellent. I smiled, and I shrugged. “He’s warm.”

“I went for the blanket next, but you both fought me in your sleep, which I recorded with some help from Dr. Mansfield, because it was rather hilarious. I finally got Bradley to wake up, but he refused to leave you, which eventually got you out of bed.”

“I’m not seeing the problem, Mr. Hampton.”

“Me, neither,” Bradley added.

“You missed breakfast, and your mothers have me on notice. If you miss lunch, I’ll be murdered by two angry mothers.”

My mother would, too. At the minimum, she’d pick a switch and give it to Mrs. Hampton so the problem would cease being a problem. “If she starts talking about getting new knives, that’s when you worry. If she isn’t discussing how best to cook you, as she hates waste, she probably didn’t mean it. Probably,” I teased.

Bradley snickered, and he freed himself from my clutches. “I’m going to take a quick shower, so if you need to use the bathroom, do so before I claim it as my territory.”

I bolted for the bathroom before it was taken over; unless he’d changed his stripes, Bradley lacked the capability of taking a quick shower, and he’d be ruling over the bathroom for an hour before letting anyone else have a turn. To show him how it was done, I finished my morning routine in five minutes flat, including giving my hair the quickest wash of my life.

“That is how you take a quick shower,” I informed him on my way out to play with my laptop, which waited for me at the desk. “I emailed you while you were sleeping last night.”

“Maybe I’ll just skip the shower and lure you into the tub with a book later.”

I kept my gaze focused on my laptop, sat down, and unlocked my system. “Please go get your own room, Mr. Hampton. I have a very important meeting scheduled for later, and it involves being lured into a tub with a book. I no longer wish to have adult supervision. I don’t wish supervision of any sort. Please tell my doctors I have been miraculously cured of all ailments.”

“And that’s my cue to see if there’s another available room in this hotel after we have lunch,” Bradley’s father announced. “The birth control is in your purse, and if you run out of condoms, text me, and I’ll go to the pharmacy. If there is insufficient birth control in the purse, there are two doctors in the hotel I can rope into taking care of that sort of thing. And if you opt against birth control, there would be two very happy mothers, and my lifespan would be greatly extended.”

I raised a brow, refusing to look away from my email, which had new messages from family and friends, most of them asking numerous questions about my current status. My mother led the charge on the hunt for grandchildren, although her inquiry on if I needed handcuffs might scar me for years to come. “My mother emailed me asking if I want handcuffs, Mr. Hampton.”

“Your mother is a menace,” he muttered, soft enough I suspected he hadn’t meant for me to hear him.

“Yes, she is. A grandchild-seeking menace. Just because I agreed to an engagement doesn’t mean I plan to have children right away.”

“I can verify the birth control was my mother’s contribution to your purse. She is of the opinion any children should be discussed, planned for, and wanted without reservation,” Bradley said, laughing and heading into the bathroom. “Don’t scare her off, Dad.”