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She’d filled him in on her father’s ultimatum. Nate had been equal parts bummed and relieved that they wouldn’t be able to carry out the rest of Kris’s plan. He was out $7,500, which sucked, but he was secretly glad he didn’t have to do anything more with Gloria. That woman put him on edge; she was the human equivalent of a viper hiding in the sand.
“It’s fine. For our mandatory ‘one-on-one’ time—” Kris rolled her eyes. “We go to that spa she’s always raving about. It’s perfect because we get our treatments done alone and don’t have to talk to each other. My father will never know. He’s too busy with work to get into the specifics. All he cares about is that we go somewhere together once a week.”
“Maybe youshouldtry to get to know her better,” Nate ventured. “She’s going to be your stepmother, so a truce would be useful.”
Kris’s glare could put a zombie back into the ground.
“Or not,” he said.
“I don’t want to talk about her. Even hearing her name raises my blood pressure.” Kris fiddled with her earring. “Actually, I have a favor to ask of you.”
Nate clutched his chest. “Kris Carrera, asking a favor of little ol’ me? I never thought I’d see the day.”
“Shut up,” she grumbled, but she was smiling. “Anyway, Gloria spilled the beans about our ‘relationship’ to our father and now he, uh, wants to meet you.”
Nate’s grin disappeared. Meet the parents? He wasn’t ready for that. He liked Kris a lot, but they weren’t really dating, and he’d bet his last dollar that her father was scary as hell.
Fathers didn’t like Nate. They took one look at him and—correctly—assumed he would corrupt their daughters’ precious virtue. Never mind the fact that their daughters wanted to be corrupted, and it was their choice what they did with their bodies.
Plus, Nate couldn’t see a multimillionaire businessman like Roger Carrera being all that thrilled about his only daughter dating a broke college dropout.
“I would’ve told him we broke up,” Kris added. “But we put on such a show for Gloria that it’d seem suspicious if we ended it just like that. It’s also not a one-on-one meeting. He’s hosting a dinner party and there’ll be some big Hollywood people there. It could be useful networking for you. I would’ve asked you earlier, but I wasn’t sure whether he was going to go through with the dinner. He sent the official invites out this morning, so I guess he is.”
He’d never seen Kris look so nervous.
She was right. It would be good networking, but Nate dreaded the thought of meeting her father in some fancy-schmancy environment even more than he dreaded meeting the man one-on-one. What if Nate wore the wrong clothes or used the wrong fork? He wasn’t schooled in rich people etiquette.
There was no way he could say no, though. Not with Kris looking at him like that, all big brown eyes and soft skin.
“Okay.” He forced a smile. “Sure.”
“Great.” Relief flooded her expression. “Oh, and I’ll pay you the rest of your money tomorrow. Do you want cash, or would you prefer I wired it to you? It’s been so crazy at work that I didn’t get a chance to withdraw—”
“What money?”
“The $7,500. For the remainder of your contract.”
Tension crawled its way down his spine and lodged itself in the pit of his stomach. “I didn’t see the contract through. There’s no reason to pay me the rest of the money.”
“Technically, no,” Kris allowed. “But it’s not your fault my dad showed up all of a sudden. Plus, you put in the time and effort, and you’re pretending to be my boyfriend at the dinner. You deserve it.”
A muscle ticked in Nate’s jaw. “You don’t have to pay me $7,500 to attend a dinner party.”
Kris looked taken aback by his harsh tone. “Whyare you being so stubborn about this?” She threw her hands in the air. “It’s just money. Take it! $7,500 is not a lot to me, but it—” She stopped.
Something dangerous pulsed behind Nate’s temple. “But it is to me. Is that what you were going to say?” His voice was quiet. Deadly.
Kris looked away. “I’m trying to help. I know things have been difficult with your dad, and Skylar’s senior year is coming up. She’s going to have homecoming, prom, college application fees. It’s expensive.”
Twin tornadoes of fury and humiliation blazed through Nate’s chest. “It’smyfamily.Mydad.Mysister. We don’t need your handouts. We’re not some charity case that you can throw money at to make yourself feel better.”
His family may not be perfect, and he and his dad still weren’t speaking after their blowup—well, after Nate’s blowup—in the kitchen last week, but they were still his family, and he wouldn’t have anyone looking down on them.
“That’s not it,” Kris said hotly. “I don’t think you’re a charity case—”
“Then stop treating me like one!”
The wind rustled in consternation. Nate suddenly realized how quiet it was—too quiet. A glance around confirmed that the other hikers in the vicinity had stopped what they were doing to watch his and Kris’s drama unfold with wide eyes. He was pretty sure one of them was the star of the latest hit Netflix show.
