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“Fine, you want to be fucking miserable, that’s on you, but I am not going to spend the next two months with her being a bitch to anyone and everyone she meets. I just don’t get what you see in her—”
Brent leaned over the table and spoke in a low growl. “Because she meets all of my father’s requirements for a wife, and if I want to continue to run my third of the company my way, then I need to fall in line. That means get married, preferably to a woman who will give me children and is willing to stay home and raise them. She should be manageable, and willing to toe the line. Sonora, despite her troubles, has agreed to all of these things, and if she should become difficult at times, well, then I’ll just go to work.”
Luke couldn’t believe this was the same guy he’d met in high school, who’d written bad poetry for a girl he’d been crushing on in their sophomore English class. It was so cold and calculating.
“That’s fucked up, man.”
“No, that’s life. That’s business. Not everyone thinks love and marriage have to go hand and hand.”
Luke shook his head. He didn’t believe a word of the bullshit his friend was spewing, but he wasn’t going to tell him how to live his life. Luke wouldn’t tolerate people getting all up in his business. It was why he’d moved to L.A. in the first place, to get away from his sperm donor.
Luke’s lips pinched just thinking of the bastard. Henry Calhoun had been a married, philandering dick when he knocked up Luke’s mother, the cook’s daughter, who had grown up on his Texas ranch. Kaylie Jessup was eighteen and imagined herself in love with the charismatic Henry, twenty years her senior. The fantasy she had about the two of them being together after he divorced his wife went up in smoke when she told him she was pregnant. He wrote her a check for college, and told her in the nicest way possible to leave and never come back.
So she took his money and bought them a small place in Mississippi. They lived off the money from Henry until Luke started kindergarten and Kaylie got a job as the cook at his school. His mother was his whole world and he adored her.
When he was twelve, his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. The medical bills were a heavy burden, and Luke found himself mowing lawns and other odd jobs to help his mom out.
But then Henry came looking for them. Turned out his other two sons by his ex-wife wanted nothing to do with him, and he needed someone to take over his business affairs when he died.
Luke’s mom told him to go to hell, but he offered to pay off all their medical bills and swore he’d set her up with the best doctors in Houston. Despite everything he knew about Henry, Luke never had a father, and wanted the chance to know him. Luke realized that he was the main reason his mother agreed to Henry’s terms.
The next year was like a whirlwind, and when his mother died just two months’ shy of his fourteenth birthday, he was left in Henry Calhoun’s care. He’d gone to the finest school, where he met Brent and other boys Henry approved of, and he played football and dated the girls that Henry pushed his way. For the next four years, Luke was like a zombie, not really living, just going through the motions.
Then a Marine recruiter had approached him while he was out with friends, and he took the first step to defy Henry Calhoun’s plan.
When he told Henry, the old man became so furious, Luke was sure he was going to hit him, but in the end, he just tried to pull every string to keep Luke from going. Only no amount of oil money could release Luke from his commitment and three months later, he shipped off. He did four years and instead of heading back to Texas, he went to New York. After f
ive years working SWAT for the NYPD, he transferred to Los Angeles.
But last December, Henry’s oldest son, Michael, called to let him know that Henry had died of a heart attack and for the first time in eleven years, he’d gone back to Texas. He hardly knew his two half-brothers, and after a weekend of listening to them rip Henry to shreds even as they contemplated how to spend their inheritance, Luke had no desire to know them. Ever.
Henry had been a selfish man, but he wasn’t a villain.
Of course, once the will was read, there was no use trying to convince the other men of that. Henry had left everything to Luke—his company, his ranch, all of it—and a letter, explaining that even though he’d been a complete disappointment to him, Luke had been the only son he had worth a damn.
What had followed was a whole lot of drama in and out of court as his two brothers took turns suing him, but they both lost, and after they paid court fees, were more in debt than before. Luke hadn’t lost much sleep over their predicament though. Instead, he sold off all of Henry’s assets, split the money into several money market accounts, and bought a house on the beach.
He’d only been able to take four years of Henry’s controlling crap. He had no idea how Brent was still bending over backwards for his family.
“I tell you what. If I ever take that plunge it’s gonna be because I am so crazy for the woman, I can’t stand to be without her for one more minute.”
Brent nodded grimly. “I wish you the best of luck with that.”
Chapter 3
Monday morning, Marley’s first thought was of her lunch date with Luke. She opened her eyes with a smile on her face. And immediately started screaming.
Butterscotch jumped straight up in the air and took off across the bed, flying down the hope chest and skidding along the wood floor with frantic clicking until he disappeared out the bedroom door.
Marley flopped back on the bed, sucking in air and trying to calm her racing heart.
“Damn it, Butters! You need to stop staring at me until I wake up! It is freaking creepy!”
Of course, she didn’t actually expect the rabbit to respond. After six months, you’d think she’d have gotten used to seeing the little white, furry face in hers, but it was still jarring.
When she finally climbed out of bed, she went about her daily routine: filling Butters’s dish and rubbing her hand over his soft ears so he knew there weren’t any hard feelings. After that, she took a shower and got dressed for work. A chiffon yellow dress and a pair of bright floral heels would work for her meeting with her boss and for her date with Luke.
It took her less than five minutes to drive across town to the office of Something Borrowed Wedding Solutions. Kelly Barrow had started the bridesmaid-for-hire service ten years ago, when she was twenty-one, after all of the bridesmaids for one of the biggest weddings of the season had come down with the stomach flu. Kelly, who had been working at X’s and O’s Bridal Shop, offered to step in as maid of honor, and called up five local girls who could fit into the bridesmaids dresses.
