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Paula snickered. Her parents bickered alot. “No, I’m saying you married a woman who was ten years older than you and already had a kid, and you had Owen before you were thirty, then I came along and you went instantly gray.”
“Gray is not a bad thing in the real estate business. Quick deals can be winners. This fellow sounds like a winner. I’ll lay you a bet you take his ring.”
Her father had a wildly exaggerated idea of how many proposals she received. “Dad, you know nothing about this guy. Never mind, listen, right now I’ve go—”
“Your friend said you did your hair up. Sounds like a major commitment to me.” He shouted, “You hear that, Lori? Your daughter’s changed her mind about that stylist.”
“Dad! I did not do my hair up. That is a vicious rumor. And no stylist.” She tried not to encourage him by giggling…when he started egging her on, there was no stopping him. “You need to stop teasing mom when she’s laboring for all of you people in the kitchen. I told her already, I’m done with the all-day beauty sessions. Is that her?” She could swear she could hear her mother’s voice in the background.
“That’s your mother. She only wants what’s—”
“—best for me, I know. Listen, Dad, hold on a second, there something else I need to tell you. Don’t get your hopes up, it might not happen, but there’s a chance—a very distant, far-off chance—you heard that I said not to get your hopes up, right?—achancethat I might be able to get there for New Year's.”
Her father responded, but Paula missed what he said. A glance across the way revealed Bastian trapped in a corner, Belinda confronting him, her expression downright ugly. And the words drifting over were even uglier.
“Oops, gotta go, Dad. My date needs rescuing. Love you.”
Bastian
“...the last way to select one. This is not something you leave to frivolity, Sebastian. Why don’t you settle on someone suitable? Why did you let Trisha go? Your father and I hadsuchhopes. Now I find you embarrassed all of us, simply out of sour grapes. She would have married you, I tried to tell you that. And that lovely attorney, you hardly gave her a chance. Her aunt is on the board of Feehan and her cousin is the professor who nominated your Uncle Andrew for the award. And what about that Emmender’s hostess? I tried repeatedly to set you up but you couldn’t be bothered to make the call…..”
Bastian let his mother drone on as her criticisms washed over him. His active ear had been listening to the rich cadence of Paula’s joyful laugh as she talked to whoever it was on her phone. He felt a stab of envy that someone else got the benefit of her effervescence while he got trapped and lectured by the last person he wanted to spend the holidays with.
“...and that woman you showed up with, what is she, some unemployed urbanite squatting in some random person’s condo? And you’re having a fling with this person? Is she aware of who you are? Does she know your father’s family have taken faculty positions at MCU for four generations? Does she know about Spencer Property Management and the fact that you’re going to head it some day?”
Bastian’s tolerance abruptly disappeared. He straightened under a surge of violent emotion. “I’m done, Mother. Get out of my way.”
But Paula’s voice stopped him as soft fingers wrapped around his forearm. “No, I didn’t know that, Belinda,” she said in a very sweet and pleasant voice. “Is that true? You plan on taking over the family business?” She turned her face up to him, her eyes very wide with an innocence not to be believed.
How the hell had she approached without his seeing? But he knew how.
He’d been blinded with rage when his mother had turned her criticisms directly on Paula. And Paula seemed to be dealing with similar emotions herself. Her eyes blazed. She was directing a sweet smile at his mother, who probably didn’t appreciate the lethal quality to it.
All the tension in him left in a woosh. He slid his arm around Paula’s shoulders, not questioning the feeling of safety it gave him to have her pressed to his side. “That’s my father’s plan,” he told her. “He wants me to buy him out.”
“Oh, really?” she said. “Aren’t there any other buyers?”
Belinda bristled. “For your information, young woman, Spencer Property Management manages operations for all the upscale facilities in this town,” she informed Paula coldly, “not the least of which are the Rubicon and the Hotel conference center. Our clients include all the larger commercial properties this side of the Cascades. There is no shortage of buyers.”
“But none willing to pay Dad’s asking price. The business is sinking,” he told Paula. “It’s been Dad’s hobby, not his livelihood, and more oversight was needed to keep it profitable. Most of his money was made in investments, and those are extremely volatile right now.”
His mother made a sound of protest, which they both ignored.
Paula nodded, putting on a thoughtful face. “Translation, the market isn’t doing so well. So he wants to hang up his shingle, turn in his white elephant, and retire with your money.”
This woman was gorgeous. He wanted to suck on her lip and thrust in his tongue. “That’s right. I’m sorry you overheard all that.”
He wasn’t sure what part she’d overheard. But he found himself far less concerned about his mother’s feelings than Paula’s.
“I’m sorry, too.” Paula turned to face Belinda and met her eyes straight on. “Which Spencers are on faculty?”
“I’m sorry?”
“You said four generations were on faculty at MCU,” Paula said crisply. “Well, who are they, and what disciplines? I know a lot of MCU faculty, one way or another. Maybe I know them.”
Belinda’s mouth opened. “Ah…Andrew Spencer, Art’s brother, is well known in his field.”
Paula’s brow furrowed. “Andy Spencer. Agricultural Engineering, right? My roommate had him. Said he was an easy grader but knew his machines pretty well. Who else?”
