Surrender to Me (Boggy Creek Valley 4)

I scrunched up my nose. “Why was he arranging a date for his son?”

“Right? I thought it was weird, too, and I chalked it up to him most likely not being very good-looking or maybe newly divorced. My boss never really talked about his family at all. Honestly, I didn’t even know what his wife’s name was until I’d worked there for almost a year.”

“Was the son not good-looking?”

She laughed. “He was hot as hell. Tall, brown hair, and eyes so deep brown they almost looked black. And he had a body…Lord, his body should be illegal. He looked like a younger version of Gene Kelly, and I really love Gene Kelly.”

“He was a jerk, then?”

Shaking her head, Bree replied, “Nope. He was a gentleman all the way. He’s a fellow lawyer; or rather, he was a lawyer until he changed jobs.”

“What does he do now?”

Bree pulled out her phone and typed something in. She turned her phone, so I could see it.

“The Time Before Us? It’s a movie. Does he work for the studio?”

“Something like that.” She clicked a few more times and then turned her phone again.

A picture of a handsome guy who looked exactly as Bree had just described was smiling back at me. I read the caption, looked at the guy again, went back to the caption, and then lifted my head toward Bree. “He’s an actor?”

“Yep,” she said with a pop of the P. “A rather good actor. I hadn’t heard of him before because, honestly, I don’t really watch movies or TV. At least, I didn’t until I quit my job and moved home. Now my mother has me addicted to the damn Hallmark Channel, and we have a countdown on the fridge for that Christmas in July event. Apparently, they play all Christmas shows the whole month.”

“Oh, I love the Hallmark Channel. All three of them. Movies and Mysteries and Hallmark Drama. Christmas in July is my favorite!”

Bree rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. All I do these days is pop some popcorn, put on my PJs, sit on my ass, and power watch the Hallmark Channel. I’ve seen some of those movies so many times, I can practically recite them.”

“Yikes.” I grinned.

“Then, of course, you have Greer, who’s started my reading addiction. Did you know you can totally get horny as hell reading romance novels?”

“I did, as a matter of fact. I’ve read a lot of them these last ten years.”

Bree jerked her head up and looked at me. We both started laughing before she dropped back onto the bed. “Ugh, why does it all have to be so complicated?”

Dropping down next to her, I took her hand in mine. We both stared up at the ceiling. “What happened?”

“Ohhhh…we hit it off. I mean, sparks flew between us the night we met. I’ve never had that sort of reaction to a guy before in my entire life. We laughed, we drank—a lot. Laughed, danced, drank, and danced some more. We ended up leaving together and got a room in the hotel where the Christmas party was being held. It was, without a doubt, the best sex I’ve ever had in my entire life. He was…he was…perfect.”

“Okay, then what happened?”

She drew in another breath and quickly let it out before she went on. “We woke up the next morning, and I was starved. I suggested we go for breakfast, he suggested we order in. Let’s just say it didn’t take long before he finally told me who he was. Then I panicked, of course. I mean, he’s kissed Scarlett Johansson, for Christ’s sake.”

She started to laugh.

“I was so stupid. When he first suggested sneaking into the back of restaurants, or constantly meeting him at different places, it should have been a clue, but it was all so amazing. I really loved being with him, and I didn’t want our relationship going public any more than he did.”

“He didn’t want anyone to see you?”

“Part of it. He didn’t want anyone to see us, together. I got that, I really did. I mean, I dated him just over a year and never told a single soul. Not any of you guys, not my parents, no one but my assistant.”

“Why?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it was because if I told everyone, something would jinx it. Or if the outside world penetrated our little bubble, it would be different. I was scared and stupid, and scared and stupid.”

“So you said.”

“He had to go back to California after New Year’s, but until he left, we had the most amazing time. He talked me into taking some time off, which of course, my boss allowed because, hello, I was fucking his son.”

“Bree,” I said with a giggle.

“I was. It wasn’t a secret with his family. His father and mother knew, as well as his sister and his brother. Anyway, he brought me up to this beautiful house on the ocean in Maine. We spent five days there, just the two of us. It was a little town, and no one knew who he was, so we were able to just be regular people. I’m pretty positive I fell head over heels in love with him that week. After he returned to California, he flew back to Boston a lot and we snuck around like two criminals.”