She's Got Dibs

by AJ Nuest

  The hand he rasped across his stubbled chin did a poor job of masking his smile. She spun around and whipped the towel at him.

  “Come on, Rex.” He chuckled, catching the towel against his chest. “I want us to get married.”

  “Well, that’s not gonna happen. We can’t get married, Dibs. You, of all people, should know that.”

  “Why not?”

  She brushed past him through the doorway to the far side of the bed, jerked and straightened the blankets. “Because of so many reasons,” she muttered, shaking her head.

  “Name one.”

  “How long were you lying in bed thinking about this?”

  “An hour.”

  “And you’ve got the whole thing worked out in your head, don’t you?”

  “You’re just mad because you can’t think of one good reason why we shouldn’t get married.”

  “Oh my God, you have got to be kidding!” She propped a hand on her hip. “Okay, let’s start with the obvious; how about the fact your mother hates me?”

  …Just wait until they start taking things away…you will begin to doubt your hasty decisions…

  “She hates the idea of you, not you personally. She’ll hate anyone she doesn’t choose herself.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Dibs. She would still make life unbearable.” The edge of the blanket still fisted in her hand, she aimed a finger at him. “And you can’t tell me her rejection wouldn’t kill you. Even though you say you don’t care, I know you do.”

  “This is about you and me, Rex, not anyone else.”

  “Don’t patronize me! We both know this is about your family. You’ve lived your entire life bucking their authority. You love to get a rise of out your parents. And gee, Dibs, isn’t it convenient they hate your new girlfriend, and oh boy, wouldn’t it really get their goat if you up and married her!” She threw her hands down at her sides.

  “You can’t ask for my hand in marriage like you’re suggesting a restaurant for dinner. Those words are out there now, hanging in the air over our heads.” She flailed an arm in the air.

  “Rex.” He rounded the bed, butting in between her and the mattress. “I’m not asking you in retaliation against my parents.”

  She seized a pillow and heaved it at the headboard, reached around him for another pillow, and he side-stepped to block her way. “I’m asking because I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.” His eyes followed her progress to the other side of the bed. “I couldn’t care less how it makes my parents feel. Now let’s get married.”

  “No! Stop asking me!” She whipped the pillow at him.

  Dibs ducked his head to the side. “I thought you said you loved me.”

  “I do love you, you big dumb jerk!”

  He grinned. “Well, I love you, too! So what else matters?”

  …They haven’t forced you to make a choice yet…the decisions are left to the ones holding the money and controlling the power…

  “Okay, obvious reason number two.” She crossed her arms. “How about the major event I’m preparing for your father’s company? Think how that would look, Dibs!”

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass how it would look.” Lips compressed in a tight line, he shook his head, but laughter blurted through anyway. “You know that. And neither should you.”

  She stormed into the bathroom, jaw clenched, leaving him no choice but to trail behind. “I work in an industry where everything depends on image and word of mouth. You’re damn straight I care how it would look. I don’t have the luxury of not caring.” She reached into the shower room and twisted the knob. “Someone in this relationship has to use their brain since yours is temporarily out of service.”

  Chin lowered, he closed his eyes and pinched his bottom lip.

  “You’ve got a completely demented sense of humor, you know that?” She tested the water temperature with her hand and dropped his robe to the floor. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m finding out now.”

  His eyebrow twitched in delight. “Does that mean you’re breaking up with me?”

  “Watch it!” She pointed at him. “I’m in no mood.” She stepped into the water, a deep scowl in place when he entered behind her. “Get out of here. I’m mad at you.”

  Slipping his arms around her waist, he pulled her to his chest, heedless of the water darkening his pajama pants. “Marry me, Rex. The rest be damned.”

  She shoved his shoulders. “I said no. Now stop.”

  His kisses lingered along her neck, dotted across her shoulder, his voice barely audible above the rushing water. “Tessa Adams, will you please marry me?”

  Her heart lurched. If she said yes, a good chance existed everything else in his life would be put in jeopardy. If she agreed, her consent could initiate the beginning of the end.

  Obvious reason number three…For him to make that sacrifice…it could ultimately destroy him, wipe out everything he’d worked for, and in the end that same sacrifice would ruin their love.

  “No, Dibs. I love you, but I can’t marry you. Not now.”

  “When?” He tugged her closer, his hand floating up to gently cup her breast. He lowered his lips to hers again and again.

  “We just…can’t…Dibs,” she said between his kisses. “The timing’s not right. You need to think about these things before you jump in.”

  “I have thought about it. In fact, marrying you is pretty much all I can think about.”

  Hope reigned clear and bright in his eyes. And as angry as she had been, not one thing in the world compared to the future she envisioned with Dibs. Marrying him meant everything to her. God, how deep his love must be to even suggest such a thing.

  An aching ball of sorrow mushroomed in her throat, and she wound her arms around his neck, hiding her face over his shoulder so he wouldn’t see her heart breaking. If only she could be sure how her answer might affect him. She just needed more time.

  “Tessa, please,” he whispered. “Say you’ll be my wife.”

  She closed her eyes. He would never give up. Quitting wasn’t in his nature. Not when their hearts were on the line. She should have known. Dibs would never put his own well-being ahead of her.

  He loved her so completely, he was willing to risk it all.

  Searching her mind, she latched onto the one thing that might work. So all the blame would be hers. So he would remain safe until she knew for certain what their future held. So they could both walk away from this mess unscathed.

  “I’m not ready,” she whispered. “It’s too soon, Dibs. I can’t say yes yet. I just can’t.” She leaned back, placed a hand on his chest. “It was a big enough step for me to admit I was in love again. That will have to be enough for now.”

  He smoothed a hand down her hair. “Okay, Rex. I know you were really hurt by what’s his name. But I’m glad he left. I’m happy he was such a fool. After all, if he married you, then I couldn’t.”

  She smiled into his eyes. “I do believe that was the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  A faint pounding echoed inside the room, and she frowned, turning her ear to the door. “Is someone knocking?”

  Dibs released her and braced his hands on the shower threshold. When the pounding repeated, he stepped out and slid a towel from the bar.

  Tessa shut off the water, crawled into his bathrobe and tiptoed after him, peeking around the bathroom doorway.

  Marcus stood inside the open door to their bedroom. “So let’s go,” he said. “We haven’t been in years.”

  She entered the bedroom and sat on the bed, meeting Dibs’s lifted brows. “Marcus has just asked to us to go skiing. What do you think?”

  Shifting her gaze between them, she squeezed her hair in a towel. “Why don’t the two of you go? Get in some brotherly bonding time.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Of course.”

  “You sure you’re sure?”

  She dropped her head to the side. “Stop acting like a five and j
ust go already.”

  Marcus studied her a moment before facing Dibs. “What’s a five?”

  He shrugged. “That’s a little complicated.”

  “It’s pretty scary you two have your own language already.”

  “It’s not really our language. It’s more just hers.”

  “Yeah, but you understand what she means, right?”

  “You know, I’m sitting right here,” she said loudly.

  They both stiffened. “Sorry,” they mumbled in unison.

  “Go skiing. Then you can talk about me all you want.”

  Marcus nodded once firmly. “Meet you downstairs in fifteen, old man.” He waved at Tessa and disappeared down the hall.

  ****

  Cell phone in hand, Tessa settled on a chair near the window and hit the office speed-dial, a smile in place when Tiffany answered the call. Nothing compared with talking to a good friend.

  The next hour flew by while she updated Tiffany on everything that happened since the Brenner family arrived in Vail, but at the last minute, she skipped the conversation she’d overheard on the stairs. Tessa didn’t want to mention anything until she’d had a chance to further contemplate her next move, and she wasn’t really comfortable betraying Dibs or his family’s secrets to anyone.

  The nonchalant mention of his proposal, however, was met by yawning silence.

  “Oh my God. You’ve fallen in love with him.”

  Tessa sputtered. “I told him no, remember?”

  “Well, of course you told him no. But I didn’t hear you mention a flight back to Chicago, either, so I guess that means you’re seriously considering it.”

  She bit her lip. Tiffany knew her too well.

  “Well, I guess that makes this next bit of news a little easier to swallow.” A pause heavy with emphasis unwound in her ear. “Michael called.”

  The room screamed into sharp focus. “I need you to tell me he didn’t call,” she whispered.

  “He called…first thing Monday morning.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yep.”

  “Did you ask what he wanted?”

  “When I asked if there was any message, he said he would call back.”

  Tessa sifted through her memories, grasping for some explanation behind Michael’s insistence on speaking with her. The little hairs on the back of her neck prickled over the recollection of his earnest concern at the Sandburg wedding. She tugged her shawl from the back of the chair and draped it around her shoulders. “Okay, well, thanks, I guess. I’m now going to try and forget this conversation ever happened.”

  “You should tell Dibs.”

  “I’m not telling him, Tiffany.” Especially now. The last thing he needed was another troubling problem stacked on top of the overloaded pressure on his shoulders.

  “All right,” she conceded. “I’m just voicing my opinion.”

  “Duly noted. I’ll call you later in the week, okay?”

  “’Kay.”

  Tessa flipped her phone shut, gazing through the window at the rugged landscape. Maybe Michael wanted his ring back. No…after three years? She studied the rose on her pinkie. Her eyes trailed up her wrist to the diamond bracelet, and she adjusted the jewels with the tip of her finger.

  Forget Michael. She had more important riddles to deal with. And she wasn’t going to solve them in the confines of this room.

  She slipped her cell phone into her pocket and crossed to the door.

  ****

  Feet up along the leather sofa, enjoying a quiet moment in front of the crackling fire, Tessa forked a hunk of chocolate cake into her mouth.

  The last two hours she’d spent in the kitchen with Gerald and his wife, Theresa, had been pleasant, and what’s more, well worth her time. After a bit of coaxing, as well as taking them into her confidence about the previous night’s dinner, a tentative friendship had developed, and with it the flood gates had opened. She was treated to a bowl of Theresa’s delicious beef stew and several slices of crusty French bread, sitting quietly while Gerald told her stories of Dibs’s childhood that completely mirrored his personality as an adult.

  He’d inherited his adventurous spirit from his grandfather—the same who had coined his nickname—and much to his parents’ chagrin would often go off and do as he pleased, regardless of the consequences. Even in childhood, he was frequently warned to stop daydreaming and focus on his schoolwork, only to disappear for hours, never fully disclosing what mischief he’d been up to. Once Marcus was old enough, Dibs often tried to include his younger brother in his escapades, but Marcus always declined, preferring to earn his parents’ approval by working with his tutors, chastising Dibs for not being more serious.

  After the death of his grandfather, Gerald had told her, Dibs lost his way. He disengaged from the family altogether, traveling from one location to another, trying new things, meeting new people. Oftentimes the family would discover his whereabouts only because Mr. Brenner had been contacted by the authorities to get him out of one difficult situation or another.

  Not until he returned with his proposal to finish school and start the Brenner Foundation did any sort of relationship between them resume, and by that time Caroline was old enough she became enamored with her renegade brother. She idolized him, thought Dibs romantically tragic, and in return he doted on her. Wanting the strong bond he shared with his sister to continue, he had straightened out, married Margaret, and obeyed the rules.

  Tessa sighed. The story filled her with sadness, but at least now she understood Dibs’s relationship with his family. After his long absence, Mr. and Mrs. Brenner must have been extremely relieved by his return. So much they tightened their grip, thinking it was their duty to protect him, keep him from doing harm to himself or, God forbid, the family name.

  But what she didn’t understand was the arranged marriage to Margaret. The whole thing didn’t make sense. Didn’t Mr. and Mrs. Brenner want Dibs to be happy? Were his parents really more concerned about him marrying someone of equal social standing than whether or not he was in love?

  Most likely, the answer was yes. Mrs. Brenner had already proven that by telling Dibs he made a mistake in divorcing Margaret. For God’s sake, didn’t the woman know anything of boundaries, anything of privacy where her children were concerned?

  Tessa pushed her empty plate onto the wooden coffee table and slid lower on the couch, but couldn’t shake the niggling sensation of something not quite right, like an important piece was missing. Which meant her first order of business would be getting closer to Caroline. If Dibs’s sister truly adored him as much as Gerald had said, then surely Caroline would want Dibs to be happy. If Tessa took Caroline into her confidence, maybe she would provide the missing links or, even better, offer a clue on how to win the Brenners over.

  The exhaustion of the sleepless night crept into her body, and her eyes fluttered closed. Either way, she would have to be careful, play her cards very close to the vest. Whether or not Caroline could be trusted remained to be seen. The conversation Tessa had eavesdropped on the night before drifted through her mind. Caroline had said she lived several different lives. So who was the authentic Caroline? The one Tessa had met at dinner, or the one she heard speaking with Dibs?

  Voices echoed down the hall and, at first, seemed part of a dream, carried in from far away. Tessa’s eyes shot open when she recognized Mrs. Brenner and Caroline approaching the welcoming room. Anxiety tingled along her nerve endings. She darted her eyes around the sitting area and scooted farther down on the couch.

  “What should we do?” Caroline asked.

  “Nothing, right now,” Mrs. Brenner answered. “It’s too soon. He thinks he’s in love with her, and anything we say he would dismiss as meddling.”

  Tessa instinctively held a breath.

  “Did you see how she silenced him with a look?” Caroline asked. “All she did was look at him and he stopped talking, like he could read her mind.”

  “First she interrupted him,” Mrs
. Brenner corrected. “Then she silenced him with a look. It was distressing. And that bracelet…I wonder what she’ll demand he buy her next.”

  Tessa wrinkled her nose.

  Their footsteps stopped near the front door.

  “I will not permit that woman anywhere near your birthday party.” A sharp edge hardened Mrs. Brenner’s tone. “Your father practically sent me through the roof with his suggestion. Who knows what would happen if things were left in her control?”

  “And she was so rude. Can you imagine not paying attention to Dibsy for two whole weeks? She must be insane.”

  “I’m sure that was all part of her plan, dear. Any smart woman knows in order to get a man’s undivided attention you must ignore them. They enjoy the chase.”

  Tessa snapped her head over when Gerald entered from the hallway, a large suitcase weighing down each of his arms. He locked onto her and his stride momentarily faltered. She quickly put a finger to her lips, asking for silence.

  “Gerald, there you are,” Mrs. Brenner said. “Now where is Benjamin?”

  “I believe Mr. Brenner is in the kitchen, ma’am.”

  “No doubt spoiling his dinner with Theresa’s beef stew.” She sighed. “Well, take our luggage to the car, Gerald. No need to stand around.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The front door opened and closed.

  “You’ll meet us at the house, then?” Mrs. Brenner asked.

  “Tomorrow or the next day. I’m sticking around to see where all this is headed.”

  “Just remember,” she instructed, “don’t press him too hard. Fighting with him will only strengthen his resolve. There are better ways to achieve the desired result.”

  “Don’t worry, Mumsy. I’ll be coy.”

  “Good girl. Call when you have something to report. Now, where is your father?” The front door opened. “Gerald, will you please tell Benjamin I am ready to leave.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He crossed the room, past the couch, and darted a glance over his shoulder.