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“Not once,” she said pointedly to her children. “In fact, when I found out who he was, the first thing I said was that I wasn’t interested. He didn’t even ask. And you three are being petulant and mannerless. Merrick is a guest in our home, and you have behaved abominably. I’m ashamed, and you should be too.” She stood, throwing her napkin onto the table with a slap. “Now you three will clear this table and clean the kitchen while we go sit outside for a drink. I expect you out there with an apology before he leaves. Am I understood?”
The Blum women—grown women—glanced into their laps, muttering, Yes, ma’am.
“I’m so sorry, Merrick. Forgive them. They’re suspicious by nature, but this is an all-new low.” Her smiling face swiveled to her daughters, her eyes narrowing in disapproval. “I’ll go make us drinks. Why don’t y’all go on outside, and I’ll be right behind you. Scotch?”
“That’d be lovely,” Dad said, smiling that alien smile.
“And for you?”
It took a moment to realize she was talking to me. “Oh—I’ll have the same. Thank you.”
With a few parting words, Dottie left the dining room for the wet bar in the living room, and Dad stood, pushing in his chair before heading outside with a nod in the scowling girls’ direction.
I picked up a few plates and followed them to the sink. Daisy took up a post there, Poppy went back for more dishes, and Jo got out glass containers for the leftovers. Once I’d unloaded my haul, I moved to her side as she scooped potatoes into the container with a splat.
“You okay?” I asked quietly, my hand resting in the small of her back.
“This is weird,” she whispered. “I don’t like it, and I don’t believe his motivations are pure.”
“You didn’t think mine were either.”
“Still on the fence about that one.”
I frowned. “Ouch.”
She met my eyes with a look on her face.
“Come on. Do you really believe that this—me and you—is about the contract?”
For a second, she considered, spooning violent loads of mashed potatoes into its container. “Only like…twenty percent.”
I chuckled, leaning in to press a kiss to her hair. “Listen—I’m a great actor, but I’m not that good.” Having earned a smile, I told her, “I’ll find out what his angle is. Occupy your mom for a minute.”
She sighed, clicking the top of the container on. “Easy. All I have to do is call her in here, and she’ll be dressing us down for at least ten minutes.”
“Look at you, taking one for the team,” I said with a sideways smile.
“Yeah, well, you’re going to be taking one for the team later when you have to spend an hour with your face between my legs to make up for it.”
“I can’t find the punishment in that sentence.”
She chuckled, rolled her eyes, leaned into me for a second. Then nudged me. “Go on. Go figure out what the self-proclaimed snake wants in the hen house. Tell him his rooster costume sucks.”
“Huh. I’ve always thought he was the biggest cock.”
Another laugh, this one hearty, but she elbowed me. “Go.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I headed in the direction my father had gone, figuring he’d wandered to the courtyard garden the house was built around. I hadn’t seen a house quite like this, built in a big square around a large garden with seating in the middle. Two sides of the square were floor-to-ceiling windows that accordioned open to make a massive breezeway.
My father stood at the edge of the central patio with his hands in his pockets, looking into a patch of bird-of-paradise that stood taller than we were.
I stopped at his elbow, folded my arms. “So this was your plan?”
He shrugged. “Why not? It was yours too. Wonder which of us will close the deal first?”
A wave of disgust rolled through me. “Leave Dottie alone.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t need to fuck her to get what I want. Unlike you.”
“That isn’t why I—”
“Don’t be sanctimonious, Grant. You and I both know what’s at stake here. And if you’d been on your game, it’d already be done. I don’t want to be here. You, on the other hand, seem to have made yourself at home. Those pants are tragic. Did you get them at the feed store?”
Ignoring the jab, I continued quietly, feeding him the same old line that would keep him believing I was on his side. “I told you—I’m playing a long game, and you being here is fucking that game up. Go home. No one asked you to come.”
He turned, laying that cruel, cold gaze on me, the one I’d inherited. “I’m not leaving. But don’t worry. I won’t do any more damage than you will.”
His smile struck a chill that shivered down my spine. But before I could argue, Dottie came out, flushed and smiling and apologetic. But rather than sit with them where I’d have to endure my father’s grand display, I excused myself to the kitchen where it was safe.
