The Inheritance (Contemporary Reverse Harem 1)

“Yup.”

A few silent minutes slipped by. Without meaning to, we both watched Garnet smiling and laughing as she did her thing.

I broke the quiet.

“I don’t know about her leasing the house, but I definitely would like to get to know her better. How do you feel about that?” I asked.

Win looked at me and nodded slowly. We’d navigated this before. Women were not something we fought about. We’d been through too much together, and our friendship was much more important than getting our rocks off.

“She’s a cool girl. What do you say we each go out with her and see how she feels about things?”

“It’s a plan,” I said, watching her gorgeous ass hustle from one end of the bar to the other.

Chapter 9

Garnet

“Hey, it’s about time you got your ass out of bed,” Matty shrieked at me over the phone, waking me from a dead sleep.

“Ugh. Matty. I closed last night. I didn’t get home ‘til two a.m. I should at least be able to sleep until nine-thirty or ten. And don’t you have work to do, anyway?” I needed a cushy receptionist job like he had, where I could gab on the phone half the day with my friends and cruise the online dating sites the other half.

I pushed myself to sitting, stuffing pillows behind me. The usual San Francisco fog billowed past my window, socking in the city.

“So have you spoken to the lawyer?” he asked. “What’s the latest on Grandpa’s estate?”

“Nothing new. Mr. Jones told me to call him if I found a husband. How ridiculous is that?” Honestly, I couldn’t believe he was able to say that with a straight face.

“Ugh. What a dick. Is he single, by any chance?” That was my Matty. Always looking for a lay.

“I have no idea, nor do I know if he even plays for your team. But somehow, I think that would be a massive conflict of interest. Anyway, I’m thinking I might have found some husband prospects.” Ugh. That sounded so creepy.

He sucked his breath in with interest. “Seriously? Prospects? With an ‘s’ on the end, like plural?”

“Yeah, can you believe it? I mean, maybe I’m imagining things, but who knows. The first guy is Nat, the accountant the lawyer put me in touch with. He’s blond, sort of a preppy Ralph Lauren-looking guy. I told you about him already. He’s kind of uptight and seems to work really hard.”

“Oh my god. Marry him so I can look at him at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner! He sounds delicious,” Matty squealed.

“Down boy,” I said. “Then there’s Linc, the guy who owns the gym with his brother. He’s tall and buff, seems shy, but is super sweet. He’s the one who rescued me from that Craigslist creep.”

“Ohhh, right. He’s sounds like a god. Maybe he has a big d—”

“C’mon Matty. I’m trying to be serious here.”

Big sigh, followed by a big huff.

“Okay,” I continued. “Then there are two guys who are friends. Win reminds me of the Marlboro Man with his craggy, tan face. He’s the groundskeeper at Grandpa’s mansion, and his best friend, Brose, a gorgeous bald, black guy with a neck tattoo and pierced ears, is a chef at North by Northwest.”

“Damn, that’s like an encyclopedia of men. I’ll take your leftovers if any of them want to try a walk on the wild side.”

“I’ll be sure to let them know, Matty.” I stretched, dragging my butt out of bed. “It would be nice if things worked out but c’mon, how likely is it that anyone finds someone to marry in thirty days? Seriously.”

Ugh. Why did Grandpa fuck me up like this?

“Are you gonna tell them about the money?”

“Hell no. I already tried being up front about the money on that stupid Craigslist ad and look what happened. I attracted every creep in the Bay Area.”

“Then how the hell are you going to get one of them to marry you by the end of the month?”