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She shook her head. “She’ll do anything to get dad to like her. But he doesn’t really.”
I wanted to ask her more but I couldn’t. I didn’t want Summer to know that I had any interest in her father.
Because I didn’t, not really.
I had to get rid of those feelings as soon as they cropped up, like weeds springing up where they were not supposed to be. I couldn’t allow them to become bigger and stronger. Because then I would be unable to stop them from taking over. I didn’t want that to happen. I didn’t know if I’d be able to resist Tate if he tried to kiss me or touch me again. In fact, I knew I wouldn’t. Going away for the weekend with him was probably an extremely stupid idea. But it was too late now. Summer was happy now, finally smiling again. I couldn’t disappoint her by changing my mind. At least, that is what I told myself.
Chapter 10
Tate
I would have liked to take the Ferrari on the road to Los Angeles but we didn’t have enough time for the road trip. It would have to wait for another time. Instead, we took a flight on the Thursday, taking a few days off work.
Evie was nervous, I could tell.
She’d had her hair done, plus some shopping with the help of my credit card, of course. I couldn’t let her embarrass me in LA, she had to look the part of my fiancée after all. Summer and I dreamed up a career for Evie as a wealthy businesswoman. Evie didn’t have much of a say in the matter, Summer and I worked everything out, making a game of it and enjoying ourselves quite a bit in the process.
At the airport, while we were waiting for our flight, with Summer listening to music on her headphones, I thanked Evie for doing this.
“I know you don’t really want to.”
She nodded. “Summer really wanted me to, I don’t know why.”
I checked to see that Summer was not listening to our conversation and dropped my voice even more. “You know what this is about?”
She shook her head.
“Summer is mad at her mom for doing the whole happy family thing now. She resents her for not wanting to be a family with us. She doesn’t want to like Trevor and Adam because she feels it would be a betrayal of me.”
Evie gave me a look. “I think you’ve watched too much Dr. Phil.”
I had to laugh.
Evie said, “Maybe this Trevor really is a douchebag?”
“He is, actually,” I had to admit. “But I do want Summer to be okay with him as her stepdad. If anything should happen to me, she’ll have to live with them.”
Evie nodded and I knew she got it.
She was looking very fetching with her new haircut and sexy sun dress. Summer and I had decided that she needed to be a bit more feminine in her outfits, and we forced Evie to buy a number of sun dresses that she said she felt very uncomfortable in. But she looked great, it took all my willpower not to grab her and kiss her.
But I knew I had to be careful with Evie this weekend. I didn’t want to spook her. Even though I knew she was still attracted to me, she clearly had this idea in her head that it was not professional for us to fool around. I mean, who cares, I’m the boss and I make the rules, right?
But if she bolted now, the weekend was ruined and Summer would be disappointed.
I was sure, though, that somewhere on this weekend, I would find a moment to be alone with Evie and take up where we left off in the elevator lobby.
But I had not known what Star had up her sleeve.
The moment we landed in LA, we were taken on a whirlwind tour of the city. It was lunches in fancy restaurants, followed by dinner parties and clubbing on the first night. The second day, she came to pick up Summer and Evie from the hotel for a day of shopping while I tried to get some work done. I barely had a moment to myself with Evie. I could see Star was determined to make my supposed fiancée love her and Evie was going along with it. On Friday night, there was a party at some film studio executive’s house in the Hills and Summer stayed with a babysitter while Evie and I went out. Evie looked fantastic in a dress that hugged every curve. She complained about how she could barely move in it and when I told her it was worth it, she held up a warning finger, “Stop it! None of that.”
I had to hold my horses.
At the house, I plied her with one drink after another, hoping she would loosen up but instead, she got drunk and fell asleep in the car on the way back. I was beginning to think our moment would never come.
But then, a stroke of luck.
Star was called out to an emergency. A celebrity with a style crisis. It happened on the Saturdaywhen we were supposed to go for brunch. Star came by to the hotel to apologize in person.
