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“Skip has to move home. His grandpa isn’t doing well, and his dad needs help since he’s working. I can’t make the mortgage payments by myself. Despite what everyone thinks, we don’t make that much at Frank’s.”
Peter and I laughed. Frank only recently had the funds to pay Charlie and Skip. Before the riding camp opened, they took care of Frank’s farm for free.
“I hope you’re able to find someone. Have you thought about picking up other work?” I asked as I hammered a nail into the board Charlie was holding up for me.
“No. I’m pretty busy at Frank’s, so I don’t have much time for another job.”
I nodded. “Let me know if you’re ever interested in becoming a deputy. I’d take you in a heartbeat.”
He laughed, but our conversation was cut short when Frank pulled in with another load of boards. Peter worked on cutting the boards to size, and I moved on to demolition. There were spots that were full of rot and needed to be cleaned out. From the looks of it, we’d have to replace an entire wall.
It didn’t matter, though, because it was easy work, and I enjoyed doing something different each day. But I wasn’t enjoying the thoughts of Kat that ran through my head while I worked.
Despite the way dinner had gone last week, I wanted to see her again. I wanted to listen to her laugh and watch her bright eyes gleam when she was excited about something. There were a million reasons why taking Kat to the gala was a bad idea, yet I couldn’t make the call to cancel. I’d promised to be there for her as a friend, and I never left my friends high and dry.
That’s what I told myself, even though I knew there was more to it. But I reminded myself it was only for one night, and after that, things would go back to the way they were before.
Chapter 10
SID
THE COLLAR OF THIS penguin suit felt like it was choking me. I put my finger in it and pulled, but it didn’t help. A man with a tray of champagne passed, and my fingers twitched to grab a flute, but we’d only just arrived.
Kat was talking with her mom, Gwen, who had spotted us the minute we walked in. Instead of being happy—which was how my mom would be—she looked disgusted. Her eyes roamed over Kat, and then they zeroed in on my hair, and her nose scrunched up.
“Katerina, I really wish you would dress more appropriately,” Gwen said, giving Kat’s dress a once-over.
I kept my face neutral to disguise my irritation. Kat’s dress looked phenomenal on her. It dipped in at her waist and clung to her curves. She had twisted her honey blond hair into a knot at the base of her head, exposing the long column of her neck. I couldn’t stop staring at it and wanting to nip where her neck met her collarbone.
“Mom, can we not do this here?” Kat begged.
Gwen looked around the room and sipped her champagne. “Look at your sister,” she said, pointing toward the dance floor where Rebecca was wrapped up in Luke’s arms. “Her dress is classic and modest. Her breasts aren’t spilling out of it.” She turned back toward Kat and eyed her with disdain.
The high neckline of Kat’s dress actually hid her large breasts, and I liked that it teased me instead of showing me what was there. There was a slit up her left leg, but it ended just above her knee. Again, hinting at what was underneath without being too revealing. Overall, it was a very elegant look, and I had no clue what the hell her mom was talking about.
“You’ll never get a real man if you continue to dress like that,” Gwen continued.
“Mom, please,” Kat begged again.
Gwen’s eyes slid to me. She took in my classic black suit and long hair. “Who’s he?” she asked, her voice dripping with disapproval.
“This is Sid—”
I slipped my arm around Kat’s waist and tugged her against me. “Her fiancé.”
Kat let out a squeak.
Gwen’s eyebrows shot up. “Yourwhat? Since when?”
Kat seemed shocked to silence by my admission, and frankly, so was I. We’d agreed to fake a relationship in front of our parents, but that was it. And I sure as hell hadn’t planned on faking an engagement, but I couldn’t let Kat sit there and take the abuse from her mother. I could tell that there was more to her than she let on, and I understood why she didn’t feel comfortable being herself.
I opened my mouth to answer, but the words dried up when I spotted a couple in the doorway. “Shit, my parents are here,” I muttered.
Gwen turned her attention to the door and smiled. The fake smile she’d used on most of the guests throughout the night. “Steven and Elizabeth Lewis have attended the past few years and have made sizable donations to the foundation.”
Of course they had. A few years back, Will had invested in my parents’ tiny farm and helped turn it into the thriving vineyard and winery it was today. My parents had always carried chips on their shoulders, as if they were better than everyone in town, and his investment had made it worse.
I hadn’t seen them in person for a few years and only kept in touch over the phone with my mom. My dad didn’t exactly approve of my job. He wanted all of his sons to find careers that would afford them wealth and status. So far, both of my brothers had done just that.
