Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Luke

M y brother met me in the bar area just inside from the veranda. His hand shot out with a highball glass. “Thought you’d need some fortification first.” I envied my little brother. Like the second prince in a royal family, less was expected of him, and he took full advantage of his freedom. Even now, he’d shown up to my mom’s cocktail party in a pair of ripped jeans and a Metallica T-shirt. I was sure his attire garnered a look of disapproval from our mom, but that was as far as her lecture would go. Bryan wasn’t expected to take the helm of the company and family after our dad died. That fell to me, only I wanted nothing to do with any of it.

“Whatcha been up to?” I asked as I took a healthy swig of the whiskey.

“Oh, you know—a little travel, a few pretty women along the way and I’ve been doing some investing in real estate. How about you? I heard you brought someone, a girlfriend.” He smirked into his glass.

“I did bring someone.”

“A decoy?” he smirked again.

I wasn’t in the mood for this. “Where’s Rachel?”

Bryan glanced around as if she was hanging around, even though she clearly wasn’t. “Who knows? Probably trying a new hairstyle for the hundredth time. She’s got that shrieky friend, Chloe, with her. That’s her maid of honor, and they’ve had a parade of hair and makeup artists marching through the house all week. Can you believe she’s marrying that guy? The other day, he tried to tell me a joke, and it fell awkwardly flat. I couldn’t even work up a polite fake laugh?—”

“You don’t know how to do polite or fake. You’ve never had to.”

“Big brother, you finally graced us with your presence.” I spun around. Rachel looked thin, too thin, and she’d gone a bit overboard on the spray tan. She was wearing a yellow sundress and gripping a glass of wine as if it was her lifeline. There was no sign of her cardboard cutout fiancé.

Rachel’s hug was far tighter and longer than I expected. I leaned back and looked directly at her. She quickly averted her eyes and laughed airily. “Has mom cornered you yet?”

“There was an ambush on the staircase.”

Rachel glanced around. “So, where is she? Where’s the mystery woman?” There was enough of a grin on her face to assure me she’d already figured out my plan.

“Isla is taking a hot bath. We had a long trip.”

Rachel reached over and flicked some small invisible particle off my shirt. “Have you met her?” she asked cryptically.

“Isla? Yes, we drove up here together, and we’ve been together six months.”

She laughed dryly. “Sure, you have. I’m talking about—the other woman. Mom invited her friends, the Carltons, and their daughter, Alexandria.”

“Oh, yeah.” Bryan found a reason to join the conversation. “She’s hot.” He waved his hand back and forth as if he’d just touched a hot stove. “I think Mom might have delivered this time.”

“Doesn’t matter. I brought someone, and we’re serious.” Bryan was my brother, but I’d never trust his taste in anything. I threw back the rest of the drink. (Even his taste in whiskey was questionable.)

I could hear my mom’s laugh, a practiced, nasal sound, coming through the French doors. “Well, I guess I’d better jump into the sea of sharks.” I looked at Rachel.

She lifted her brows and put a hand to her chest. “You’re on your own. I already sat through two cocktails and three of mom’s passive-aggressive comments, so have fun.” She patted my back. “She’s probably got a lot of those same comments saved up for the son she hasn’t seen in months. She’ll mention that too because she brings it up to me constantly.” Her dress twirled with her as she turned and left the room. Bryan refilled his glass and flopped down in one of dad’s leather chairs to let me know he’d had enough of the cocktail party, too.

“Coward,” I muttered as I headed out to the veranda. The sun was setting, leaving a pinkish sky and a nice breeze. It was as if my mom ordered the picturesque sunset for her cocktail party. The usual people—my parents’ friends, my dad’s brother, Jim, his wife, June, along with a few other people I recognized but hardly knew—were standing and sitting in clusters on the veranda. Dad stood under one of the shade umbrellas talking to a group of friends. I didn’t need to hear the conversation to know the topic was either business or golf. He barely looked my way. My mom was sitting next to an older woman I’d never met. The woman had dark hair tucked under a straw hat. Dark sunglasses covered most of her face. A long strand of pearls hung down from her neck. Mom spotted me and leaned closer to her to say something. The woman looked my way, lifted her sunglasses and smiled. She then turned back to my mom for a few more whispers.

“Darling, come over and meet my new, dear friend, Patricia Carlton.” It seemed I was about to meet the mother of the woman I was to be matched with. She’d invited them for the weekend even though I made it clear that I would bring a date along. My mom was at the top of her controlling, pushy game, it seemed.

I nodded. “Luke. Nice to meet you.”

“Patricia came with her daughter, Alexandria.” My mom swiveled around on the rattan sofa to glance out at the grounds. “She took a walk, but she hasn’t returned. I do hope she didn’t get lost. Maybe you should go look for her, Luke.” Mom’s exuberant, charming expression vanished at something behind me. “Oh, your little friend is here.”

We had company, so I had to bite my tongue. I spun around. The breath caught in my chest. Isla really did fit the angel nickname. Her silky blonde hair was pinned back from her face. She was wearing a pin-striped, blue sundress with a halter top and a pair of short brown boots. It took me a second to find my smile and my feet. I moved toward her. People turned her direction, but she didn’t seem to notice. She kept her focus on me.

“Was the bath everything you hoped it would be?”

A white smile lit up her face. “It was and more. There were bubbles, enough so that I nearly lost my way in there. Like a bubble blizzard.”

“Luke, why don’t you let your friend sit with us women, so we can get to know her.” Mom patted a seat cushion next to her on the sofa.

“Isla,” I told my mom sharply. “Her name is Isla, and I think I’ll take her on a tour of the grounds first.”

Mom laughed and added one of those pearl-clutching gestures. “We’ll be nice, Luke. I promise.”

“The fact that you have to make that promise says it all. I’m going to show Isla around.” I was done with my mom and her group of judgy friends. I took Isla’s hand, but before I could lead her to safety, Nina, one of my mom’s more venomous friends and heiress to a peanut butter fortune, lobbed an arrow our direction.

“Darling, I love that dress. Did you sew it yourself?” That was of course considered a top-notch insult in my mom’s world of designer duds, but Isla didn’t seem to mind.

She glanced down at her dress. “Thanks, and no, I didn’t sew it myself. I found it at a second-hand store. The tags were still on it, so I snatched it right up.” She spoke so confidently, and she left the line of women so speechless, I wanted to prop Isla up on my shoulders and carry her around for a victory parade.

Mom looked as if someone had pushed a sour lemon between her lips. I took Isla’s hand and hurried her down the steps to the path that led between the pool house and my mom’s prized roses.

“That was perfect,” I said.

“What? You mean about the dress?” She shrugged. “It’s the truth, but I figured the mention of a second-hand store would make them all a little lightheaded. I think it worked.” She tugged my hand to stop our progress. “I’ll be able to handle myself with your mom and her friends. Let me earn the money. If you hide me away from them, they’ll know something is up.”

Right then, a woman with long brunette hair stepped into view. She was tall, statuesque, like a model on a Paris runway. She had her amazing figure wrapped in a skintight, shiny blue dress. She was barefoot and a pair of high heels hung from her fingers. She moved so elegantly; it looked as if she was on ice skates. Her smile was dazzling.

“Oh, it seems I’ve managed to navigate my way back to civilization,” she said. Her voice was as lovely as the rest of her. “I guess I’ll follow the scent of overpriced perfume and Cuban cigars and eventually end up at the veranda.” She moved her shoes to her left hand and stuck out her right. Her fingers were long and elegant and tipped with white nails. “I’m Alexandria but people call me Alex. What a cute dress,” she said to Isla. “Don’t you just love a dress with a Marilyn Monroe-style halter top?”

“I do and thank you. Your dress is beautiful, too.”

Her laugh was as elegant and gorgeous as the rest of her. “I’m sorry, I went straight to rambling on about Marilyn Monroe. I didn’t catch your names.”

Admittedly, it had taken me a second to find my tongue. “I’m Lucas Greyson, but people call me Luke. And this is Isla.”

“Ah, so you’re Luke.” She leaned in closely as if we’d known each other for years and not just seconds. “Just a warning, I think our moms have been hatching some matchmaking plans.” She straightened again. “But I love Maggie. It was so nice of her to invite us this weekend. Your stables are beautiful. I just picked out my horse for tomorrow morning’s ride.” She squinted an eye at me. “Majesty? The blue roan? Good or bad choice? The stable manager said he loves to take low shrubs and fences, and I do love to jump my horse whenever I’m out in the country.”

“Uh, yeah, he’s a great horse. He used to compete.”

“Perfect. Well, I’d better get back before my mom sends out the search crew. It was nice meeting you both.” It was hard not to watch her stroll off in her snug dress and long legs.

I pulled my gaze from her and looked over at Isla, only she’d already continued along the path. I hurried to catch up to her. “Hold on there. Don’t want you to get lost.” I chuckled, but she didn’t respond. We walked in silence for a stretch, and it took me a second to realize it was a cold silence.

We passed the pool house and, without charting any particular course, we headed toward the pond. A work crew was setting up the tent for the wedding on the lawn just past the pond. A pair of swans floated serenely on the rippled surface.

“I guess my sister decided to bring swans in for the wedding. She must have forgotten our trip to England when an angry swan chased her for getting too close to her babies. Rachel thought she could take one home as a souvenir.” I glanced over at Isla. She stared ahead. “Oh, come on, I was sure you’d like that story.”

Isla stopped so suddenly I had to throw on the brakes and turn back to her. “Why did you introduce me as Isla?”

“Because … uh … that’s your name?” Then I got it. I was such a thick-headed idiot. “I’m sorry, I should have introduced you as my girlfriend, Isla. In my defense—you’re not really my girlfriend, so I forgot.”

“Well, I’m no psychiatrist, but I’d say you left the girlfriend part out because the woman your mom was trying to match you with, the woman you wanted to avoid so badly you hired a silly, cash-desperate woman right off the street to pretend to be your girlfriend, intrigued you. So, when it came time to really build up the backstory and the whole fake relationship, you caved. I don’t blame you. She is easily the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. Your mom’s roses were drooping in shame as she sashayed past. Should I go? I can just go. I’m sure there’s a bus depot?—”

I took her hand. “Isla, stop. Just stop. I’m sorry. I should have said you were my girlfriend.”

“No, like you said—I’m not your girlfriend. This whole plan was silly. Who in that crowd is ever going to believe that we’re a couple? I mean look at you.” She waved her hand at me, and I caught it again.

She peered up at me, and the look on her face went right to my chest and laid there like a lead blanket. “I didn’t just pick you up off the street. This is going to sound creepier than I’d like it to be, but the morning before I hatched this admittedly stupid plan, I watched you from my office window for so long I got way behind on work. You were filling coffee and helping and chatting with customers, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. You’re amazing. Don’t ever forget that, Isla.”

“Alexandria is amazing. I’m just Isla.” Her expression and posture had softened some. “I won’t be angry if you decide you don’t need me here as a buffer anymore.”

“Did I say that? Yes, she was beautiful and?—”

“Breathtaking and elegant and she can jump a horse whereas I’m very good at petting them and telling them how pretty they are, but those are my equestrian skills in a nutshell.”

I motioned with my head to keep walking. “I need you here … with me.”

Isla gasped and then scoffed. “Tennis courts. Of course. Why wouldn’t there be tennis courts?” She looked over at me. “Maggie. She called your mom Maggie. I didn’t even get Margaret.”

“Yep. Makes me like you even more. Hey, want to go pet some horses and tell them they’re pretty?”

“Yes. I need to hone my skills before tomorrow’s big ride.”