I shrugged and pushed him away. “If you insist on being in here, then that’s where you’ll sit.” The man couldn’t expect to be touching me while I tried to tame my hair.
He put up his hands in surrender and sat down on the lid. “I have to say that this is a first in all of my thirty-nine years.”
I grabbed my blow dryer out of the drawer and plugged it in. “You never saw your mother getting ready growing up?”
“Yeah, as I raced past the bathroom running up and down the halls waiting. Never actually sat down and watched,” he chuckled.
“Well, it’s really not that exciting. You are going to have to deal with the blow dryer for a bit.” I whipped my head towards the floor and finger-combed my hair. “Sexy, right?”
Dante chuckled, and although all I could see was his feet, I knew he had a sexy smile on his lips. “Just giving me an idea of how we can break in the bathroom later.”
“Always thinking about sex,” I giggled.
“Like you haven’t thought about what we’re having for dinner? We both have our priorities, honey.”
I whipped my head up and smiled. “I already called the cook and found out.”
“Shameless,” Dante chuckled.
Little did he know that I planned on having him stop at Sonic on the way home because what my mother had on the menu for tonight was not going to fill either of us up.
I finished getting ready with Dante watching my every move, and then we were out the door on the way to my mother’s.
Time for Operation Decoy.
Although, this all seemed a bit too real to be decoy time.
My heart had become involved somehow, and I was terrified that I was going to end up hurt when that was the whole reason I had agreed to this.
I looked over at Dante and smiled. This may all end up hurting in the end, but at least I’d have fun while it lasted.
**********
Chapter 24
Dante
I glanced at my watch and saw that it was six forty-seven. “Honey, we’re going to have to knock.”
Kennedy shook her head and stared at the door. “I think we should just head back to my apartment, eat ice cream, and watch Law and Order reruns. That sounds like a much better time to me,” she muttered.
“It isn’t going to be that bad. Just open the door, we’ll rub elbows with your mom and her friends for a couple of hours, and then we can go home.”
“Everything could change as soon as we open that door.” She turned to look at me, her face pale. “Home sounds so much better than knocking.”
“The only way anything beyond this door is going to change us is if we let it change us.” I lifted my hand and knocked on the door.
Kennedy grabbed my arm and pulled it to her side. “Are you insane?” she hissed. “I needed time.”
“Time for what? Grass to grow under our feet?”
The door swung open, and I was surprised to see Kennedy’s mom open the door. I had figured she would have a butler or some shit like that since Kennedy said they have a cook.
“You’re late.”
Kennedy cringed, and I had to hold back a laugh. So far, everything Kennedy had ever said about her mom was true. She was immaculately dressed, her hair and makeup were flawless, and she had a scowl on her lips.
“By three minutes, Vivian. It’s not that big of a deal.” Kennedy moved past her mother and pressed a kiss to the side of her head.
“It is a big deal when I asked you to be here at six forty-five, and you completely ignore my request.” Her tone was snotty, and her eyes traveled over Kennedy. “Don’t you think that you could have done something with your hair?”
Kennedy rolled her eyes. “I washed it. I’d say that’s doing something with it.” Kennedy grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house. “Vivian, this is Dante.”
Her mother turned her gaze on me, starting at my feet and traveling up.
I had unearthed a pair of black dress slacks, paired it with a dark red button-down shirt, and put a black, silk vest over it. I wasn’t sure how dressy to get, so I figured what I had on was good. I had tossed a suit jacket in the back of the truck in case I needed it. Kennedy hadn’t said anything about what I was wearing so I figured it was okay.
Her mother’s scrutinizing gaze made me doubt my attire a bit.
“It’s nice to meet you,” she mumbled when she was done eyeing me up.
“You as well, ma’am. You have a beautiful home.” All the things my mother had taught me growing up about manners and how to act meeting someone new came back to me. I gently shook her hand and moved next to Kennedy. My arm lightly wrapped around her waist, and I pulled her next to me.
“Why, thank you. Henry and I have worked hard on fixing it up.” Kennedy scoffed and rolled her eyes. I’m sure all they had done to fix it up was hire a contractor. “Your father isn’t home yet, but he should be here soon. I have drinks set up for us in the kitchen.”
She floated away from us to what I assumed was the kitchen, and I leaned down, my lips next to Kennedy’s ear. “Breathe, and try not to roll your eyes so much. They’ll get stuck that way.”
Kennedy snorted and slugged me in the side. “Yes, Daddy,” she giggled.
“I’ll show you who your daddy is when we get home tonight, honey,” I whispered. My lips brushed against her ear, and a tremor rocked her body.
She turned to face me and tilted her head back. “Keep this up, and I’m going to have to show you my old room.” Her hands ran over the smooth fabric of my vest, and her eyes flooded with desire.
“I think that’s one room I’ll have to see for myself as long as you’re my tour guide.”
“I’m sure we can make that happen,” I whispered.
“Kennedy,” her mother called. “Are you going to greet the guests as they come, or are you actually going to come into the house?”
Kennedy face-planted into my chest and shook her head. “She is such a cock-blocker,” she muttered.
I tried to keep a cap on my laughter, but Kennedy was too damn funny. I busted out laughing and wrapped my arms tight around her.
“Well, I don’t know what is so funny, but the wine I chilled for us is no longer chilled. Can we please move away from the door before the guests start arriving?” Vivian was standing at the archway to the kitchen with her hands on her hips.
“I don’t think I’ve made the best first impression with your mom, honey.”
Kennedy looked up at me and smiled. “Neither did I twenty-five years ago,” she laughed. She pulled out of my arms and threaded her fingers through mine. “We need to get in the kitchen before she starts threatening to have a coronary.”
Vivian was standing next to the kitchen island when Kennedy pulled me through the entryway. “How nice of you two to join me,” she called snottily. “I poured a glass of wine for each of you.”
“Dante doesn’t drink when he has to drive, Vivian.” Kennedy picked up one of the glasses and took a drink. “So I can drink his for him, and I’ll just get him a bottle of water.”
“Oh, nonsense. There’s no reason why he can’t have one glass of wine,” she insisted.
“I’d prefer not to, ma’am.” I knew that one glass wouldn’t affect me, but I had a solid reason why I didn’t want to drink.
“He has a tournament he’s training for, Vivian.” Kennedy grabbed a bottle of water and set it on the counter in front of me.
“Tournament? For what?”
“He’s a fighter,” Kennedy answered before I could. “It’s in a week, and he needs to be in tip-top shape.”
That wasn’t the reason why, but it would do. “That’s right, ma’am.”
Vivian wrinkled her nose. “You’re one of those cage fighters?”
I shook my head and twisted off the bottle cap. “No. I don’t have the balls to do that. I practice karate, and I spar in tournaments.”
“The only word I understood from that is karate. Do you practice at the place by Kennedy’s li
ttle yoga place?” I was surprised that she had even taken notice of Powerhouse.
“I practice, teach, and own Powerhouse with three friends,” I informed her.
Vivian's eyes lit at the word own. “Oh my, well, that’s quite the accomplishment.”
Kennedy scoffed and downed her wine in one swallow. “How come it’s not an accomplishment that I own Zen?” Oh hell. Kennedy had just finished her third glass of wine counting the two she had drunk while getting ready, and then she grabbed the one her mother had poured for me.
“Because you playing at yoga is not a career. I’ve told you time and again you need to settle down and start a family,” Vivian explained. “You know I owned that art gallery before I met your father but sold it when we married. You need to do the same thing.”
Jesus, did this woman think we were in the nineteen fifties? I thought it was damn impressive that Kennedy owned her own business at the age of twenty-five. When I was her age, I had been living on the circuit, hanging out with zero responsibilities. “I don’t see why she can’t have her business and a family?”
Vivian scoffed and set her wine glass on the counter. “Of course, you wouldn’t understand.”
I tilted my head and really looked at Vivian. How in the hell someone like Kennedy came from this cold-hearted woman, I have no idea. Where Kennedy was hardworking and kind, her mother was just a bitch.
A knock sounded on the door. “The guests are arriving. Please don’t hide in here all night. I need you to meet your father’s new business partner.”
Kennedy saluted her mother while she tossed back the fourth glass of wine. “I don’t know why I need to meet him, but I’ll plaster on a smile and act like the dutiful daughter.”
“Because he could be the one to pull you out of this slumming that you insist on doing.” Vivian disappeared to the front door, and Kennedy’s jaw dropped.
“That woman has balls the size of Uranus,” I muttered. I had never been insulted like that to my face before.
Kennedy scoffed and grabbed the bottle of wine and refilled her glass. “That was nothing. You haven’t seen her worst yet.”
“There’s my Kennedy.”
I turned around and saw an older man with white hair walk into the kitchen through what looked like a door connected to the garage.
Kennedy finished filling her glass and handed it to the man. “Hello, Dad.”
“I see we’ve already had to start hitting the wine,” he chuckled.
Kennedy gave him a small smile. “Yep. You know it’s easier to take Vivian with a couple of glasses of wine in you.”
I could tell that Kennedy had a better relationship with her father, but I had to wonder about a man who allowed his wife to speak to his daughter the way she did.
He turned toward me and shook my hand. “You must be Dante.”
I was surprised that Vivian had told him about me. “Yes, sir. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Call me Henry, please.” Now, this was a guy I could like. He had the air of having money, but at least he didn’t have his nose stuck in the air. “It’s nice to meet the man who’s been taking up all of my daughter’s time it seems.” He eyed me up the same way his wife did, but there was a huge difference.
Vivian had been sizing me up, trying to see what I worth.
Henry looked at me as a father making sure the man standing before him was worthy of his daughter.
“How many people are coming tonight?” Kennedy asked.
Henry leaned against the counter and unbuttoned his suit jacket. “It was just supposed to be you two initially, but your mother got it in her head that she needed to invite a new business partner and a couple of friends.”
“How many is a couple, really?”
Henry chuckled. “Last I heard, it was five.”
Kennedy hung her head. “Why can’t Vivian just be happy with me being here? Why does she always have to make it some huge party?”
“Because as much as your mother pesters you, and says she hates your yoga studio, she’s proud of you.”
The woman sure had a strange way of showing that she was proud.
“She told me that I needed to stop slumming and hook up with your new business partner.”
Henry’s jaw dropped. “Dan is sixty years old. The man is my age.” At least her father seemed appalled for his daughter.
“He’s rather young for mother to be throwing him at me then,” Kennedy laughed.
Henry shook his head. “I’ll have a word with her to lay off. You’re still young, and there’s no reason for her to force-feed men to you.”
“Especially not when I already have one. I’m much more into a man who works hard for a living, and not one who inherited a fortune and sits on top of it, counting it all day.”
Ouch.
“Now, now, dear. Not all people with family money are like that. You stereotype a little too much.”
Kennedy rolled her eyes. “I can’t help but think that when that is all I’ve seen growing up.”
Henry sighed heavily. “How about we don’t discuss this tonight. I’d much rather get to know Dante.”
Kennedy moved next to me and put her hand on my arm. “This is Dante Craig, and he is nothing like any of the men that are going to be here tonight.”
Henry’s eyes widened. “Dante Craig, you say?” he asked me.
Shit, shit, shit.
Danger Will Robinson, danger.
“Kennedy,” Vivian called. “Please come here and say hello to Beth. You haven’t seen her in years.”
“Why don’t you go talk to Beth while Dante and I can get to know one another,” Henry suggested.
Kennedy started to protest, but I looked down at her. “I’ll be right behind you, honey. Don’t worry.”
She huffed and topped off her wine glass. “It’s not you I’m worried about,” she mumbled. “You have exactly five minutes to do whatever male bonding it is you need to do, and then you better be out there with me,” she insisted.
I pressed a kiss to the side of her head, and she trudged out to her mother.
Henry crossed his arms over his chest and did not look happy. “I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that my daughter has absolutely no idea who you are.”
I cleared my throat and shook my head. “Does she know who my family is? No. But she knows who I am. The amount of money I have has nothing to do with the kind of person I am.”
“You just heard my daughter, didn’t you? As much as I try to convince her of the exact thing you just said, she doesn’t believe it because she’s never seen it.”
“Well, she’ll see it from me.”
Henry shook his head. “I wish you luck, son. But she’s not going to see it that way. I can’t tell you the one thing that Kennedy hates more than people with money.”
“I know what you’re going to say, Henry, and that’s not what I did.” I hadn’t lied to Kennedy. My money had nothing to do with anything that was going on with Kennedy and me. She had to realize I had money from the car I drove and the fact I co-owned three businesses.
“I knew your father, son. The way you are is the exact same way he was. You could never tell how much money the man had just by looking at him. Sure, he dressed nicely, but he never threw in people’s faces that he was the richest man in the Midwest.” He took a sip of his wine. “Your mother was the same. They were both cut from a different cloth like I had never seen before.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“It was a shame what happened to them,” he added. “We had all assumed that you were going to sell the company when you came of age.”
“Craig Real Estate is my father’s legacy. Even though I chose not to follow the same path he did by running the business, I could never sell.”
Henry nodded. “I know you’re a good man, son. I don’t doubt that. I’m just worried that my daughter is going to fall on her stereotype of who you are and not care.”
I was worried about the same thing. I knew that Ke
nnedy hated the things that money did to people. I had also seen the effects of huge amounts of money on people and while some fell into the category of assholes, I wasn’t one of them.
“You need to tell her before she finds out from someone else,” he advised.
That is what I had been telling myself for the past two weeks, but every time I tried to tell her, I thought about losing her and chickened out. “She’ll find out from me.”
Henry nodded and put his finger to his lips.
“What are you two doing in here?” Vivian asked. “Kennedy keeps looking over here, and I finally had to come and see what her problem was.”
Henry pressed a kiss to his wife’s cheek and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s good to see you too, dear.”
She slapped him on the chest and pulled out of his arms. She reached up, patted down her hair, and scolded him, “You were supposed to be home an hour ago. Where have you been?”
“I had to finish up a few things at the office and got caught up before I realized what time it was.”
She tsked and shook her head. “Well, now that you’re home, head on out and greet our guests. I’ve released Kennedy on them, and it’s only a matter of time before she starts drinking the wine right from the bottle.”
“Dennis, please go reel her in.”
I looked around checking to see if someone else had walked into the room.
“Vivian, it’s Dante,” her husband chastised her.
She flitted her hand and shook her head. “Oh, well, you know what I meant.”
I grabbed my bottle of water. “Dennis, Dante. Same thing, Veronica.”
Henry smothered a laugh, and Vivian looked like she was about to blow a gasket. “I’m going to find Kennedy. Maybe we can spike the punch.”
“What… you can’t…” Vivian stuttered.
Henry gathered her in his arms and motioned for me to just go. Thankfully, he was still trying not to laugh.
I was normally level-headed and didn’t give a shit what people thought of me, but Vivian pressed all of my buttons at once. To blatantly call me the wrong name and then brush it off was a sure-fire way to piss me off.
My eyes landed on Kennedy on the far side of the huge living room. She was standing with two older women and looking like she was ready to fall over.
Black Belt in Love (Powerhouse MA Book 3) Page 16
