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Jacob cocked an eyebrow. “Are you going to make up for lost time, then?”
“I don’t know. It’s tempting, but just because she isn’t here doesn’t mean that she wouldn’t get to hear about it. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not as though she doesn’t want me to have a life or to date – she’d love it if I were to meet someone and settle down. It’s more about the family name. For you, you’ve been the name and the face of Jacobs Estate. For me, everything I do reflects on her – and she doesn’t want the DuPont Wineries name to be associated with a philandering son.”
Jacob shook his head. “I can understand all of that, but you deserve to have some fun. And how are you ever going to meet someone if you don’t … date around?”
“Maybe the same way you did. You didn’t meet Becca by dating – or sleeping – around. She just came into your life through the natural course of things.”
Jacob nodded and smiled as he watched Becca chatting with Piper. He’d already talked to Cameron, who’d told him that his wife thought the world of Becca and wanted the four of them to get together for dinner soon.
He smiled as an idea struck him. “Maybe you could do what Cole did.”
Bentley gave him a puzzled look. “Want to explain the complete non-sequitur?”
Jacob laughed. “Sorry. I was looking at Becca with Piper, which made me think about Cam, which brought Cole to mind.”
“Okay. I’m with you so far. And when you said, do what he did, you mean start going by another name, right?”
“Yeah. Even Cam calls him Smoke these days.”
“I know, but how would assuming a different name help me?” Bentley chuckled. “I can see how he got Smoke from Cole, but what would I be – Car?”
Jacob laughed. “Hell no! Shit, I don’t know. What if you just shortened it to Ben or Lee?”
Bentley laughed with him. “Now I know you’re under the same kind of spell as Mom is. For years she gave Tori a hard time for shortening her name from Victoria. Now, she has no problem going by Ria – because that’s what Russ calls her.”
Jacob grinned. “The more I hear about your mom and this Russ guy, the more I like it.”
“You should come over next time they’re back in town.”
“I’d like that.”
“Yeah, so would I.”
Jacob met his friend’s gaze.
“I like having you back. Is this the beginning of a new era?”
“I’d like to think so.”
“Me too.”
Bentley grinned at him. “Anyway, I’m going to go and get something else to eat before we get all sentimental on each other.”
Jacob had to laugh. “Yeah, you were boring me anyway. I’m going to go and talk to someone else now.”
Over the course of the afternoon, he’d caught up with Antonio and Marcos, had a long chat with Cameron, and spent a good half hour with Grady and Ava. He wasn’t so worried about the women; not that he didn’t care about catching up with them, just that he knew they would all seek him out to chat when it suited them. Women were like that – they wanted to draw him back into their circle of friends. The guys had learned over the years not to come to him – that he’d come to them, and mostly, he hadn’t.
He was making his way across the room to Becca. He’d tried to let her do her thing, flitting around and chatting. He’d stood in on a few conversations with her when she looked unsure of herself, but mostly she’d seemed comfortable.
“Jacob?”
He turned to see Molly grinning at him.
“What’s up, Molly?”
She laughed. “Why does there have to be something up? Why can’t I just want to catch up with you like everyone else? It’s been a while.”
He laughed with her. “Because I know that tone. You’ve always been fierce. Even when we were kids, and you were five feet nothing and should have been scared of your bestie’s big brother, you were able to put the fear of God into me.”
