After His Peonies: A Romantic Comedy

by Alina Jacobs

  "So you're a thief as well as a liar," I said cutting him off. "What a wonderful example you're setting for your brothers."

  His expression turned slightly cold. "I do what needs to be done to be successful. That's why I've come so far in life. I don't just do what everyone tells me to do and stay in my little box."

  "You are so condescending," I spat.

  "I’m sorry," he reiterated. "Look. I'll find you another job. You can work at my brother's company. You'll be fine. You can start tomorrow."

  "Don't bother," I snapped. "My uncle is finding me a job in the city government."

  Hunter sighed. "Then let me make it up to you. I'll take you out. Harrogate isn’t New York City, but there are nice places. It will be fun."

  There was that smile that promised an easy pleasure, a smile that promised he would take care of everything—except that I knew he wouldn’t.

  "I don’t want to see you anymore," I said quietly and shut the door in his face.

  Hunter banged on the door. Hazel opened it and shouted, "Go away! She doesn’t want to see you."

  "I'll be back in a little bit," I heard Hunter say. "Maybe she'll want to see me then. I am sorry about everything."

  "Hunter's a jerk," Rose assured me after he left.

  "You'll find someone better," Hazel said. "Harrogate is really on the up-and-up. Svensson PharmaTech and the supporting research facilities are really bumping up the quality of men here. It's not just trailer-trash meth-heads. We have men with PhDs living here now."

  My sister wiped my eyes. "Sit on the couch. I have the best heartbreak cure."

  Hazel poured me a glass of wine. Minnie and Rose kept me fed with a steady supply of pizza rolls, taquitos, and meatballs.

  After a series of Richard Gere movies and half a bottle of wine, I was starting to feel better. Maybe I would give Hunter another chance. Kate seemed to think Danielle was at fault. She was the only person who could have sent the recording. There had to have been some ulterior motive.

  My phone buzzed and I reached for it, thinking it might be Hunter.

  I would answer the door the next time he came over. I would let him beg. Then Hunter would pay my illegal parking bill. We would laugh.

  It was an anonymous number. There were two video clips. My stomach churned as I waited for them to download. When I hit play, there on my screen was a video of Hunter with Danielle.

  "That's graphic," Minnie said, watching over my shoulder.

  Danielle was all in black—her funeral attire. Hunter's hand was down her shirt. The other hand was between her legs. I searched his face. I wanted to see disgust. But he didn't look like he was being coerced. He almost looked like he was enjoying himself.

  The next video was somehow worse. They were in a restaurant. Hunter was gazing at her. His body was loose. She was sucking on his fingers, and next to her? A big bunch of blush peonies and roses. It cut me more than I wanted to believe.

  "He was buying her the flowers," I croaked.

  A final message came through.

  UNKNOWN NUMBER: Looks like your billionaire boyfriend doesn't care about you after all.

  "I don't feel well," I groaned. I grabbed the popcorn bowl and puked.

  30

  Hunter

  "I can't believe Danielle," I raged as I walked into the large mansion. "She ruined my life!"

  "What was that?" Greg said sharply, pouncing on the comment. He had driven one of the cars to Harrogate to transport our brothers back.

  "Leave it, Greg," I growled, but I knew he wouldn’t.

  Greg scowled at me. "I can't believe you would risk dealing with Danielle for that information. She killed her own children. You put our whole family at risk with your hubris."

  The kids screamed as they chased each other through the house with sticks. My nerves were frayed. I missed Meg. I felt sick thinking I would never hold her again.

  "Danielle can do real damage—" Greg started to say.

  "I know!" I shouted at him over the din. "She had Meg fired."

  Billy was doing backflips off the furniture, to shrieks of delight from his brothers.

  "Stop it!" I yelled at them. My younger brothers ignored me, and I didn't have the wherewithal to bring them into line. I could only focus on Meghan and how to win her back.

  Greg shook his head, face derisive. "You think you're so smart. You think you can just control everyone and make them to do whatever you want. Now it cost you Meg."

  "I’m not losing Meg," I told him.

  "Honestly," Greg said, "she deserves better than you."

  "That’s a wonderful thing to say to someone who is about to, yet again, give over his life for his family."

  "If you hadn't lost our company in the first place, it wouldn't have happened," Greg said, face tight in anger. "But you did. And it sounds like you lost Meg. You hurt everyone you care about. This is your own fault. I never wanted to go into business with the Holbrooks. You insisted. I told you to stay away from Danielle. You did it anyway. Now look where we are."

  The kids had stopped running and were watching our argument.

  "I did that for you, for all of you," I yelled. "I sacrificed everything for you all. Now I'm doing it again."

  Greg gave a snide laugh. "All your hard work?" he mocked. "The kids turned out like shit. All of our little brothers did."

  "They're not that bad."

  "Mace barely sleeps. Liam's an idiot. Archer's a sociopath. You fucked up, and now you're fucking up again."

  Everyone was looking at us, and for once, it was dead silent.

  "I'm just telling the truth," Greg sneered.

  "Get out of my house," I said coldly.

  "Go to hell," he replied, slamming the door behind him as he left.

  "You broke up with Meg?" Archer said, aghast.

  I shook my head. "I just need to fix it. I'll fix it. She likes flowers. I'll give her a nice bouquet."

  "You can't just do flowers," Archer said. "Trust me. You need brownies and nachos and stuffed animals. Go! Everyone, put in your best effort."

  My little brothers raced around, collecting gifts to give Meg.

  The flower shops in Harrogate had closed, but the flowers I had bought for Danielle were still in my car, and Remy wrapped them in some nice paper he had found, reusing the ribbons.

  I ended up with a pile of gifts for Meg that included brownies of questionable quality, an entire pizza, gum, and some Silly Putty one of the littlest Svenssons contributed.

  "She can't say no to all of this," Archer said. "She'll take you back."

  Greg's words haunted me. I wasn't so sure.

  31

  Meghan

  "You need to find a man," Minnie told me. "A different one from Hunter."

  I drank vodka and ginger ale to settle my stomach. The nausea had been replaced with fury.

  "I am not relying on a man. That's how our mother was screwed. And Dad did the same thing to us when he gave all our assets to Uncle Barry to control. Now we have to beg him for grocery money. No, I refuse to end up like that. I am not going to be the shivering ingénue who has to pander to a man for cash and favors. Hunter can go fuck himself."

  "He's back," Rose said from her perch on the window seat. "And he has flowers! They're so pretty! Just let him apologize at least."

  I opened the door. Any thoughts of accepting any apology went out the window when I saw the bouquet. I knew flowers, and I knew that bouquet. It was the same one he had given to Danielle. It even had the gold and silver ribbons.

  I screeched at him, "Don't you dare bring me those flowers!"

  "I’m trying to apologize."

  "Not with those."

  "Meg, you're acting irrationally. These are perfectly nice flowers. They're your favorites."

  I suddenly hated him. I was just another woman he was going to bribe to do his dirty work.

  "I know you're sad that you had to move back to Harrogate," he said, sounding very sincere, "but if I'm being honest, I'm so ha
ppy that you're here. I just moved back to town to take care of my brothers. I had been planning to ask you to come with me. I didn't want to live without you."

  I felt myself starting to soften. He smiled at me, grey eyes soft. I just wanted to fall into his gaze.

  "My brothers are a handful," he said with a slight quirk of his mouth. I wanted to kiss it. "I bet they would really like you. I'll have to raise them to be better men than me. I was…" He looked away then back at me. "I was hoping that we could…I don't know…do it together?"

  "What the hell!" I said, shocked. "No. I am not going to take care of your little brothers so you can go off and execute your ethically questionable schemes. Is that what this whole thing has been about? You're trying to rope me into doing something for you? That's all it is with you, isn't it? You just try to maneuver people into being your puppets. Well, I am not going to be your plaything."

  "What, no! That's not what I meant at all!" He looked shocked, or maybe he was pretending to be shocked. Hunter was an expert liar, it seemed.

  "That’s what you do with everything!" I exclaimed. "The deception about Archer's hotels—"

  "It was a joke," he insisted.

  "You lie and cheat your way through life. You are a terrible, horrible person. You don't deserve to be happy," I told him.

  "You know what?" Hunter said, nostrils flaring. "I guess I am a horrible person. But I do what I have to do, not just to survive, but to thrive. And I wanted to do that for you. We could have been a good team."

  "You never thought of me as an equal," I said, my lip curled in disgust.

  "No, I didn't. I saw you as someone better than me." He shook his head. "You don't want these?"

  I glared at him. He looked at me, grey eyes stone cold, then he threw the flowers off the side of the porch.

  "I never want to see you again," I told him.

  "That's too bad," Hunter snapped. "You're going to be seeing a lot of me. The Svenssons own most of this town. We'll be doing business together."

  "I’m going to make your existence here miserable," I said, my expression cold.

  "That a promise?" he challenged, eyes narrow.

  "Yeah. Now get off my property before I call the cops."

  He turned on his heel.

  I watched him go then quietly closed the door. My sisters were standing behind me.

  "You're scary when you're mad," Rose said.

  "You didn't even let him explain!" Minnie whined.

  "I didn't want to hear it," I told her. "When the universe is trying to tell you who a person is, you need to believe it. And I know what kind of man Hunter is."

  32

  Hunter

  I dumped the rejected gifts on the kitchen table. Remy patted me on the back, but I brushed him off. I felt a glower start in my forehead and settle over my face, tightening my jaw, making it ache.

  The kids were running around, shrieking, giving me a headache.

  "Look at me!" I roared at them.

  They stopped and turned. I narrowed my gaze at them.

  "This is your last night of freedom," I hissed. "From now on, I am here. I am in charge. You will go to bed on time. You will wear pants. You will bathe every day and eat salad." They all nodded. "Now clean up this mess." I watched them as they scurried around the room.

  I had lost Meg. I had lost my company. I wasn't losing my family. They were falling apart. Maybe this was for the best. I had a new plan, and Meg wasn't a part of it. Meg would only be a distraction.

  33

  Meghan

  That night as I lay in bed, I couldn't shake the horrible feeling that I had screwed up.

  "You didn't," I whispered to myself. I felt the tears try to come. "I hate him," I whispered fiercely, wrapping the anger around me like a blanket of ice.

  I needed it to numb me to the reality that I didn't truly hate Hunter. I just hated myself for trusting him, for letting my guard down around him, for letting him make me believe I was something I wasn’t.

  I needed to return to my true self.

  "There will be a new rule," I whispered to the dark. "The rule is—no more Svenssons."

  To be continued…

  Meg and Hunter’s story isn’t done! They still need their Happily Ever After! Their big book will be coming! I promise!

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  About the Author

  If you like steamy romantic comedy novels with a creative streak, then I'm your girl!

  Architect by day, writer by night, I love matcha green tea, chocolate, and books! So many books…

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