“Yes, but none of us are married. We’re not stable. When gran leaves, we might sell off the company and he’d be stuck with a contract he doesn’t want.”
Hunter shook his head. “That wouldn’t happen.”
“I know that. We all know that,” I said motioning to all of us. “But he isn’t convinced.”
“So how did you convince him?” Carter asked.
I took a breath. “I let him host my wedding.”
Three sets of eyes stared and blinked at me.
Finally, Hunter said, “What wedding?”
“The one I’m having soon in Italy.”
Noah let out a loud bark of a laugh. “Who’d be willing to risk dying of boredom to marry you?”
I ignored the boring part of the comment and instead responded to the who. “Kellie.” It felt weird calling her that, but she was right, we’d need to act more familiar with each other.
“Who’s Kellie?” Noah asked.
Carter’s frown was disapproving. Hunter’s was more in curiosity.
“Ms. Nichols,” I answered Noah.
“Who?” he said again.
I rolled my eyes. “My assistant, you dumbass.”
“Jesus, Ry,” Carter said. “That’s a lawsuit in the making. You’re supposed to expand the business, not put us out of business.”
“I know, but she’s agreed.”
Noah leaned forward. “Are you fucking your assistant?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I bellowed at him, pointing my finger at him. “It’s one thing to disrespect me, but I won’t have you disrespecting her.”
Noah’s eyes widened and he sat back with his arms up in surrender. “Sorry. I can’t figure out why she’d do that.”
“I’ve offered her a bonus.”
“Uh huh, and what about when you get back?” Carter shook his head again. “Are you going to continue to live in wedded bliss? How is that supposed to work?”
“It’s just for show.” I said it nonchalantly like it was no big deal, although the way my gut was roiling, I knew I was lying.
“Until she takes half of everything you own and possibly part of this company in the divorce.” Carter really should have been a lawyer, I thought.
“We won’t have a license. We won’t really be married.”
“Only you could take something that is supposed to be romantic and filled with emotion, and suck all the life out of it,” Noah quipped.
“I don’t see you getting married,” I said. “Anyone of you could do this and make LaMont happy.” I scanned the room. “Hunter? Carter? I know you’re not getting married Noah, you can’t even commit to your family.”
“Hey!” Noah took offense at that.
Hunter sighed. “You think LaMont will walk if you don’t do this?”
“I do. You should have seen him when I said I was engaged. The guy lit up like a Christmas tree. He insisted on hosting the wedding.” I scraped my hands over my face. “It’s this or we start over, looking for a new distributor, which we all know, he was our top pick. Plus, it would push back our goal to have our fall line there.”