“Nice digs.” Harlow glances at the mansion. “This place is…beyond. And huge. No wonder Maxon suggested I stay here with you.”
I freeze and look at my brother. Is she kidding? By the apologetic expression working its way across his face, I’m
guessing not.
Britta leads Harlow and Keeley inside, and Maxon sidles up to me. “Dude, I didn’t have a choice. The house I bought for Keeley is being painted. We planned to move in after our wedding, but it’s not habitable right now. So I’ve got twelve hundred square feet of condo, including my lanai space. It’s a bachelor pad I’m sharing with my fiancée…who’s a screamer.”
I didn’t need to know that.
Wincing, I turn to him. “I’ll make it work. It’s just terrible timing. Britta and I have resolved to spend the rest of our time together acting like a normal married couple, as long as we’re not doing anything that’s technically cheating on her fiancé. We really need privacy and normalcy and…” I rake a hand through my hair. “I’ll put her up in a hotel.”
“I offered to do the same,” he murmurs under his breath.
Neither of us wants Harlow to feel unwelcome. But shit, the timing couldn’t be worse.
“She’s not having it?”
Maxon shakes his head. “No. She says she’s on the island to take care of wedding details. She wants peace and quiet to prep for her thesis defense, which is just before her ceremony. But she’s really here to be with family.”
It makes sense but… “Shit.”
“Yeah. Keeley and I will help you all we can. So…what do you know about this guy she’s marrying?”
“Nothing. Have you met him?”
Maxon shakes his head. “I was hoping you had.”
“Other than Dad’s rude drop-in a couple of weeks ago, I haven’t seen any of the rest of the family since they moved away.”
“Me, either. Harlow tells me that Dad introduced her to this guy.”
That sets off a few hundred red flags. Finding out that Dad is hitching his only daughter to someone who is potentially similar is not welcome news.
“I don’t like it.”
My brother nods. “I don’t, either. I’m hoping I’m wrong. I don’t know anything about him but…”
“I’m not holding my breath. Simon. That’s his name. The way she talks about him, it seems as if she’s invisible to him.”
I watch her laugh. She’s not restrained in the least. Harlow is big and full of life. She’s definitely buckets full of sass and sarcasm. Why would she marry some guy who doesn’t see what’s in front of him?
“If he ignores her, how long before she does something to raise brows? How long do you think she’ll stay?” Maxon muses aloud.
I send my sister a measuring glance. She’s already dressed like she wouldn’t mind male attention, and I don’t think her fiancé is anywhere on the island. I know how Harlow thinks. If she believes she’s getting short shrift, she’ll eventually fix it. She doesn’t let grass grow under her for long. Her lack of patience is well documented. Her audacious behavior is even more legendary.
“We’re in for a bumpy ride,” Maxon whispers in low tones.
“I want to meet this guy before I pass judgment, but yeah. I suspect you’re right.”
We follow the women into the house. I catch up to my sister and lead her to Jamie, who’s still sitting on the floor. He walked away from his animal crackers and found way more amusement tossing his trucks from Britta’s organized basket and onto the tile.
I pick up the little man and hoist him onto my hip. “Jamie, this is Auntie Harlow.”
My sister flashes a big smile. “That has a nice ring. Hi, Jamie. Can I get hugs?”
He looks at her uncertainly, then slants his stare over at me, silently questioning whether she’s trustworthy. “It’s all right. She’s always going to be your friend.”
Jamie hesitates a moment more. Harlow obviously planned for this possibility and pulls a big box from her carry-on containing six utility trucks. There’s a crane, an excavator, a cement mixer… My son is going to be in heaven.
He obviously realizes it when he lunges at Harlow to get his hands on the goodies. Everyone laughs.
Maxon retrieves my sister’s suitcases from his vehicle, and I schlep them upstairs, in the bedroom farthest away from the one I’m sharing with Britta, on the opposite side of the house.
As I head back down, I see everyone congregating in the kitchen, sipping iced tea, and eating raw veggies and sliced fruit with yogurt dip. There are smiles, jokes, laughter. It’s really nice to have all the Reed siblings together. Well, the legitimate ones. Dad has two others close to our age, whom we’ve never met, and another one on the way. He’s always paid for his children but never cared about any of them. I have no idea why—if he’s going to fuck around with every assistant he hires—he doesn’t get snipped.
Because he’s a fucking idiot. And he married someone every bit as self-absorbed as he is.
I join the group and take the tea Britta proffers in my direction, then grab a slice of mango she cut off the tree out back earlier. “So how long are you staying, Harlow?”
Everyone laughs, my sister most of all. “You are so transparent. I’ll try not to be a bother here in your palatial love nest. But I’ll be here for about a month. I have to take care of wedding details before all this shit gets away from me. Simon can’t help, and I’m over Mom and her ‘boyfriend’ right now. He’s a young leech who wants her money but has no trouble hitting on me.” She shudders. “I had to get out of there. I figured I can prepare for my thesis defense anywhere, so why not come to paradise?”
Why not? Except that a month is most of the time I have left with Britta. Still, I can’t turn my sister away. It’s great to see her, and I have the feeling she needs some time to decompress. Under her usual fun, flirty demeanor, she seems tense.
“Will we get to meet your groom before your big day?” Britta asks.
I’m glad she’s quizzing Harlow. It saves me from asking the same question, and I’d probably sound a lot less polite since I don’t like the sound of this guy.
“The way it’s looking now, I don’t think he’ll make it to the island until the day before our wedding. He’ll be working on a big deal in Amsterdam for the next few weeks.”
I don’t want to paint him with Dad’s brush simply because they know one another, but showing up the day before tying the knot and not lifting a finger to help seems like a dick move and something Barclay Reed would do.
“Sorry to hear that. What does he do?”
“International finance. He brokers deals between overseas players, gathers consortiums for construction or infrastructure projects, finds investors from all over the world. That sort of thing. It’s all boring to me.”
Basically, what our father does, just on a global scale. I’m shocked Dad doesn’t consider him a competitor.
Unless… “Is his firm bigger than Dad’s?”
She shakes her head. “Smaller. Simon’s company has only been off the ground a couple of years. He’s gone a lot because he says the face time while he’s establishing his business is critical. He’s sure it will taper off soon.”
Yeah, and monkeys will fly out of my ass before that happens. Dad wants to gobble up his new son-in-law’s company. I’ll bet you anything. Then he’s going to send junior on the road indefinitely to make him more money. And Simon must like the travel. He might even like the exotic pussy he can sample all over the world. If he didn’t, he would stay home more. Or at least stay home enough to make Harlow a priority. Sure, he’s put a giant rock on her finger, but that doesn’t hold her when she’s sad or had a terrible day and needs a shoulder. And good ol’ Barclay doesn’t give two shits about his daughter’s happiness. He’s really only ever cared about money and sex.
Shallow. Trite. Predictable.
Even Britta smiles like she doesn’t really believe my sister’s line of crap. I’m worried, however, that Harlow does believe it—or is trying really hard to. What woman doesn’t want to be happy with the man she’s going to marry?
I suspect that’s Britta’s issue with Makaio…
The conversation wanders, and Britta leads the other ladies on a tour of the house. I kiss the top of Jamie?
??s head as I set him