The Charmer (Harbor City 2)
“I’m hanging up now,” she said, never more glad that Fallon hadn’t FaceTimed her and been able to see the five-alarm blush burning her cheeks right now. “Oh, but first, can you feed my cat while I’m away?”
“Yes. And love you, too, sis.” Fallon made a kissy noise and disconnected the call.
Felicia left her phone on the counter and crossed into her bedroom, the overnight bag sat in the middle of her already made bed. Team Anticipation and Team Annoyance were back duking it out in her belly, making her lungs tight. Just looking at a bag shouldn’t do this to her insides. But it did. What’s worse is that it wasn’t the sight of the bag that made her nipples pucker against the soft material of her robe. It was the hope that Fallon was right and that she’d never unpack.
…
Hudson had been up since dawn—a freak occurrence of epic proportions—double guessing his plan to make Felicia the first person to step foot inside the cabin since he inherited it at eighteen. He’d been staring at his penthouse’s pristine ceiling for hours by the time he finally gave in and picked up the phone. He didn’t need to look up the number. He’d known it by heart since his first day of school.
“What’s wrong,” his mother answered.
“Why would something be wrong?” he asked as he paced from one end of the bright white room shot through with slashes of indigo, amber, and ebony, the hardwood floor cold on the soles of his feet.
“Because it’s before noon on a Saturday and you initiated the call,” Helene said with all the subtlety of a cop in an interview room with a phonebook and a pipe.
He strolled out the door and headed straight for the kitchen and the coffeemaker. “I call you all the time.”
“Not this early in the morning. What’s wrong?”
Okay, this had been a mistake but the only other person he knew that got up this early was Sawyer, and he’d learned the hard way that his brother and Clover were the kind who got naked, sweaty, and orgasmic first thing in the morning. He only made that mistake once.
Popping the coffee pod in the machine, he tried to think up something—anything—that would explain this call to his mom besides the truth, that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Felicia. She was his project not a potential date, as far as his mom was knew.
“Are you still there?” his mom asked, concern thick in her tone.
Shit. The last thing he wanted was to freak her out. She’d finally stepped out of a three-year mourning and, while she was emotionally stronger than when he’d watched My Fair Lady practically on repeat with her, she wasn’t the same woman she’d been before his dad’s heart had unexpectedly given out on him.
“I’m here.” He hit the brew button. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m going out to the cabin this weekend.”
“What is it that you do all the time out there? Wait, don’t tell me,” she said, the words rushing out. “A mother shouldn’t know those things.”
“It’s true, I’m having orgies at the cabin I inherited from Grandpa. I figured he’d appreciate it.”
“The man never appreciated anything,” Helene grumbled. “God rest his soul, but he didn’t—especially not the son he’d ignored.”
Hudson may not have been able to tell his dad, Michael, about his art after the massive blowout they’d had his senior year in college, but that had been the only—if major—blip in their relationship. Otherwise, it was all baseball games, family vacations, and smack talk during boys-only poker nights. That hadn’t been the case with his dad and his grandfather. Those two had barely been able to be in the same room without an arctic blast freezing the whole place.
“What ever happened between them?” he asked.
Helene mumbled something under her breath before speaking, “Just the regular pigheaded Carlyle man no-one-knows-what’s-right-but-me thing.”
“I resent that,” he said, speaking up for the men in the family.
“No,” she shot back. “You resemble it. Now, what’s this I hear about you bringing the same someone to two client dinners.”
Sawyer sure had a big mouth when he wanted to. “Just trying to help Felicia hook Tyler like you asked me to. Nothing makes a man notice another woman as much as another man noticing the same woman.” Yeah, that was as fucked up as it sounded.
He picked up his now full cup of coffee and walked out to the balcony to enjoy his view of the park. It was a sight that always relaxed him, especially this time of year when the leaves had gone from deep green to a mix of orange, red, and gold.
“That’s it? Clover made it seem like more.”
“Why would Clover think that?” Crap. That wasn’t a good sign. While Sawyer was all big picture, his wife noticed every detail—even the ones Hudson always tried to hide. Time to spin this away from the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about and toward one of his mom’s favorite pet projects. “Did she also mention that Sawyer and Tyler are hanging out again? And that they were able to meet for a client dinner without Clover being there as a buffer?”
“It is a job she’s proven herself to be quite good at, and on that note—how is your little mission going?”
That’s it. Spin that conversation like you get paid for it. “I think Operation: Bromance is going well.”
Better than expected really, and he hadn’t even gotten Tyler to fall for Felicia yet. He could have but he was going slow—for her sake, of course. No matter what kind of list Captain Clueless had been at the top of for her, the man was a grade A dipshit and didn’t deserve a woman like Felicia.