by Brea Viragh
Maverick’s face turned a nasty shade of red and his mouth opened to retort, when Lorelei interrupted with, “Tell me you do not go out and get your nails done. I’ll feel even less feminine than I do now if that’s true. Look at these nubs.”
Daisy let out a hoot of laughter before a quelling look from her husband shut her down. “Actually, we make it a weekly date,” she took pleasure in telling the table. “I know a fabulous woman with her own shop who offers champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries when you come in.”
“Glad to know you’re a regular.” Sawyer clapped his hand down on his brother’s shoulder then took a seat at the head of the table.
Lorelei returned shortly after with the promised bottle of cider. “I don’t want this night to be all about work.” Her version of a warning. “I want to enjoy family time before you bring up your business proposal.” She turned to Sawyer and pointed a finger at his face. “Understand?”
With any other woman, he would have told her he had a real aversion to taking orders. Especially from someone who was only pretending to be his wife. And he wouldn’t have had the sense to phrase it in a respectful way. Probably the exact opposite.
Instead, he sighed. “Yes, my gilded lily of the dawn. Whatever you say.”
Now it was her turn to stifle a laugh. Sawyer glanced toward his brother, at the inquisitive yet well-mannered expression on his face, and the outright confusion on Daisy’s at his pillow talk.
“So, tell me what you do, Lorelei.” Daisy recovered first, training her face into a mask of graciousness. “For work.”
“Nothing exciting,” Lorelei answered. “I’m a schoolteacher. Sixth-grade math.”
“Oh my. Doesn’t that get messy?”
“Sometimes. I’m up to my elbows in quadrilaterals and parallelograms and the Cartesian coordinate system.”
Sawyer nearly choked on his first bite of mashed potatoes. The best part? Daisy didn’t recognize the joke for what it was.
“How delightful,” she answered slowly. “It’s funny…”
“What’s funny?”
“How a teacher and a wind chime maker got together. It seems like you two would be worlds apart.”
“We’re not so different.” Lorelei leapt to Sawyer’s defense at the thinly veiled insult. There was no way to miss the derision in the other woman’s voice. As though what they did somehow mattered less than other professions. For whatever reason, Daisy saw no validity in either occupation. Like being a housewife was the noblest calling in the world.
“We’re both artists. It takes a certain amount of artistry to mold young minds. To get them excited about learning.”
Daisy nodded. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“Do you have any children?” Lorelei asked lightly.
“Us? No, absolutely not.” Daisy shook her head. “I don’t have time for them. Between my charity events and being on the board for the hospital, there’s no room in my schedule for anything else.”
“I’m sure Maverick takes up his fair share of time, too. He was always on the needy side.” Sawyer leaned back in his chair with his fingers laced behind his neck.
Lorelei used her free hand to slap him on the back of the head. “Mind your manners and carve more turkey. You’re scarfing down mashed potatoes and insulting everyone before we’ve even had a chance to fill our plates.”
Maverick chuckled. “She definitely has you whipped into shape.”
There wasn’t much to say in this case. Not unless Sawyer wanted to blow his cover. He had already prepared a snappy comment regarding real-life whips when he spared a glance at Lorelei. She was smiling at him. Beaming. He finally understood the term. Her eyes brightened like two sapphires and a dimple appeared on her cheek. What did she have to smile about?
Why did he suddenly find it hard to draw air into his lungs?
The knife bit into the turkey and exposed steaming cooked meat. Sawyer felt his mouth water as he sliced. “I’d rather talk about the business proposition,” he muttered, stalling. Changing the subject so he wouldn’t have to deal with conversations about his wife.
His wife.
“Now?” Maverick adjusted his seat, placing the napkin on his lap.
“Sweetie, I told you not to—”
“Now is as good a time as any. I’d like to have the details hashed out before we get to dessert.”
“He can be hasty sometimes. You know how he is. Like a dog on a bone.”
Lorelei had lost her smile, Sawyer realized when he glanced up again. Something he said? Her brows drew together and the look on her face said he was being an asshole. Probably was. Nothing new there.
Maverick’s long, drawn-out sigh let the rest of the table know how he felt about the discussion. “Fine, if you’re not going to let me eat this turkey until we talk, then let’s talk. What’s your number?”
“Fifty,” Sawyer responded without hesitation. The knife continued to cut smoothly through the white meat.
“Fifty is exorbitant.”
“Fifty is reasonable for expansion capital. On the low end, actually. Especially at three percent.”
“Three percent? Who do you think you’re dealing with?”
He’d expected the back and forth, the verbal volley. Maverick would not agree to the terms right off the bat. If at all, Sawyer mused. It would take technique and finesse to deal with his brother. Especially when the other man kept looking from the turkey to Lorelei. Turkey. Then Lorelei.
Sawyer swallowed the sliver of anger burning his throat. “Eyes over here.”
“I’m mulling over your proposition.”
Seemed like there were more options to mull over than just his business proposition. “Think about it. I’ve printed out the plan and we can discuss. Fifty at three percent or we renegotiate the bottom line with a lawyer present. Your choice.”
“Bor-ing,” Daisy put in with a well-rehearsed study of her nails. “Can’t we talk about something exciting? I’m tired of all our dinners revolving around numbers and bottom lines.”
“Then maybe you should have stayed at the hotel,” Sawyer snapped.
He felt a sting on his wrist and looked down at the long fingers slapped down there. His eyes traveled the length of the tanned arm all the way up to Lorelei’s eyes. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say she was laughing at him. Ticked off, but laughing.
Sawyer wanted to dive into his proposal again, but the spiel was slowly slipping from his mind. Never in his life had he had this much trouble getting his point across. Even a pretend wife messed with his general flow.
He couldn’t be mad at her now, either. Even when he bit into his mashed potatoes and found a tiny piece of the butter wrapper. She’d definitely needed the help there. She turned conversations on their head, caught the eye of his brother—which he wasn’t happy about—and derailed his train of thought. She was damned beautiful doing it.
“You are nothing but a pill,” she murmured.
“Yes, but that’s why you married me.” He couldn’t help the quip. Then plowed into his turkey like he had a personal vendetta against it.
Those beautiful eyes rolled. “One of the many reasons.”
“I think this is cute.” Daisy used her knife to slash the single slice of turkey meat on her plate into minced pieces exactly a quarter of an inch square.
“What’s cute?” Maverick asked.
“The two of them teasing each other. You never tease me.”
“Because you hate it. You want me to engage in behavior you hate?”
Daisy looked like she could argue the color of the sky with a blind man. Which is to say, pointlessly. “Maybe sometimes. It’s adorable, the way they talk to each other. When you come home from work you can barely stand to stay in the same room with me. Do you know what he does, first thing through the door?” she asked Lorelei. “He kicks off his shoes and bolts into his little hidey-hole in the pool house. I hardly see the man. He doesn’t call me pretty names.”
“D
aisy, I can assure you,” Lorelei said, “the name-calling abounds in our house.”
Sawyer reached for his plate, surprised when it rattled beneath his fork. “What the—”
“Jeez, I’m sorry. I forgot to turn off my phone.” Lorelei offered a self-conscious half-grin and bent to turn off the ringer.
“What do you have down there? A chainsaw? That’s the loudest silent setting I’ve ever heard,” Maverick commented.
“Yeah, well, this phone is from the stone age, so there you have it.” It took Lorelei a few moments to fish the cell out of her pocket and press the silencer.
“I want to know how you managed to shake the table when the damn thing wasn’t even out of your pocket.”
“You and me both.” She glanced around at the others. “Sorry.”
Daisy offered a wave of her hand, combined with a reach for her glass of wine. “Sweetie, don’t worry. This one?” She hiked her thumb over her shoulder toward Maverick. “I don’t think we’ve had an actual conversation over dinner since we were first married. He’s always on the phone.”
“No giving away secrets,” Maverick warned.
The phone rang a second time, rattling Sawyer’s elbow to the point where the next forkful of mashed potatoes landed somewhere on his cheek rather than in his mouth. “Lorelei…” he threatened needlessly.
“I am so, so sorry.” She reached beneath her again, checked the screen, then turned to Sawyer. “It’s my mother. Let me get this real quick.”
“It better be good.”
“How interesting.” Maverick steepled his fingers.
“Hello? Hi, Mom. Whoa, whoa, slow down. She what? Put her on the phone,” Lorelei demanded, glancing up and meeting Sawyer’s gaze. “Put her on.” She waited a few more seconds before her voice raised and burst over the hush of the dinner table. “Young lady, what did I tell you about swallowing change? It’s going to make you sick one of these days. You can’t just break open your piggy bank and eat whatever you find in there. We don’t have the money to take you to the emergency room every time you swallow a quarter.”
“Who is she talking to?” Daisy searched the circle of faces for an answer.
Maverick leaned forward, pointing helpfully at the cell phone and the frantic woman nearly screaming into the mouthpiece. “Yes, Sawyer. Who?”
Sawyer answered neither of them, listening to the panic in Lorelei’s voice. The sort of inherent maternal panic that burst to life in any stressful situation.
“Denise is going home and Grandma is going to have to take you to the doctor. Thank God she came home when she did. I’m sure your poor babysitter was in tears. Yes, sweetheart, I know it hurts. Momma will be there as soon as she can. You go now and I’ll be there soon. I love you.”
She clicked the phone closed, her eyes still locked with his. “Is everything all right?” Sawyer asked.
Lorelei shook her head. “She does this every time I’m away. I think it’s for attention but she’s going to end up really sick…” As though realizing what had happened, Lorelei straightened her shoulders. She’d let the kid out of the bag.
“Do you…do you have a child?” Daisy wanted to know, her fingernails clicking along the edge of the table.
Maverick’s smug grin was the last thing Sawyer saw. Then Lorelei bolted from the room, and he made sure he was hot on her heels.
CHAPTER SIX
Of all the lousy ways to introduce her daughter. Hadn’t they just agreed to keep Allison under wraps? Seemed the universe had other ideas on the matter. Lorelei fought back a wave of tears, rounding a corner into Sawyer’s workroom. Far away from the mess in the dining room. She was an idiot. What was worse, guilt had her anxiety increasing through the roof. Guilt at not being home when her kid needed her. Guilt at ruining the dinner for Sawyer.
She shouldn’t have answered the phone. Which made her feel guilty in the extreme. The sensible thing would have been to leave it on sleep mode. Or in the kitchen nestled snugly inside her purse. Instead, she’d kept it in her pocket for those just-in-case times. And this was one of those just-in-case times.
Footsteps were close behind her. Lorelei toyed with slamming the door and had actually spun around to do so when Sawyer caught her around the shoulders.
“Whoa, there. Take it easy.” His voice was calm. Tender. Like she was an animal in need of soothing.
Instead of fueling her fury as his tone normally would, it set her off in the opposite direction. She heatedly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have taken the call. I came here with a weird feeling in my stomach, and my damn woman’s intuition was right. I’ve got to leave.”
“I understand.”
“I didn’t mean to ruin your dinner,” she said quickly. “Please make my excuses. Whatever kind of excuses you need, I’ll play along with them. Call and catch me up later.”
“I’m not going to make up excuses. They’ll deal with it. The more I say, the more questions there will be, and I know you aren’t ready to answer them.” His fingers tightened, digging into her shoulder muscles for a split second before his thumbs began to massage. Small, tentative circles at first. “We’ll figure this out together. Tell me what I can do to help.”
She leaned into the contact, letting her guard drop for the briefest second and imagining what it would be like to be part of a team. A team with another person ready and willing to help if Allison got sick. To take charge when Lorelei didn’t feel strong enough to go it alone.
“There’s nothing you can do. I need to get home before she starts to puke and my mother freaks. It happens every time. The doctor is probably going to have to make a house call tonight.”
It surprised her when Sawyer draped his coat over her shoulders. Even more so when he helped her slip first the left arm through, then the right. It was protection from the rain, the weather. It was a gesture so small it was liable to be mistaken for nothing. To her, it was enough to make her tears well anew.
“Are you sure I can’t help?”
“Yes,” she insisted, flustered. “It happens all the time. I—”
“Tell me.”
Lorelei wiped her eyes to clear them of moisture. Gah, she hated to cry. She hated appearing weak, even if it was only in front of Sawyer. Especially because it was in front of Sawyer. “I don’t know what to do when she acts out this way. I don’t know if it’s a cry for help, a weird chemical imbalance, or what. I try to be a good mom, but when she does this, I…I feel like a failure.”
“You are a good mom.” His voice went granite-hard. “No one is telling you any different.”
“Yeah, right,” she mocked. “I’m a good mom. I’m a good mom when I’m on the way home from my pretend-husband’s house to force my kid to puke in the toilet until the doctor comes.”
“Everyone pukes.”
“Not everyone eats their loose change instead of putting it in a piggy bank.”
“Maybe she’s just unique. You don’t know. Or it’s a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Make the kid eat some broccoli instead.”
“Thanks for being sweet.” She patted his arm and sniffled. “I know it’s hard for you.”
His face lost a bit of its stiffness. “Don’t let it ruin my reputation, okay? Keep this between us, and if you tell anyone, I’ll be forced to retaliate.”
Lorelei glanced to the door, then back to Sawyer. “I really do hate to run off. I didn’t even help you do the dishes. And your brother is sitting there—”
“You don’t need to explain anything to me,” Sawyer interrupted. “You’re a mom. It’s important. Let me handle this while you go stick your finger down your kid’s throat.”
“Maverick is going to think I’m bolting. Daisy is chomping at the bit with questions. What the hell are we going to do?”
A familiar pain began to ricochet behind her eyes, like a golf ball rattling around her skull.
Sawyer put both hands on her shoulders again, forcing her to face him when she would
rather drop to her knees to avoid the scrutiny. “Look at me.” His voice became demanding when she refused. Then he almost snarled. “Lorelei, look at me. It’s fine. You let me handle my brother. You take care of your kid and make sure she doesn’t get toxic shock,” he ordered through gritted teeth. “You got me?”
Her grin was slow to come. “Toxic shock comes from tampons.”
“Well, whatever kind of malady you get from eating coins.”
“Mostly vomiting. The coins will pass in her stool in a couple of days, but until then…” Lorelei trailed off, sneaking a glance out the window. Her teeth gnawed at her bottom lip. “Bad tummy-ache. I can’t leave her alone when she’s sick, Sawyer.”
“Then go.” He steered her in the direction of the door. “Stop dragging your feet. I’ll manage without you.”
“What? You’ll be forced to do your own dishes?”
“Something like that.” A swat on the ass sent her toward the front hallway where her boots sat in a neat line next to his.
Daisy’s heavily-styled hair peeked around the corner and an instant later she was on her feet. “You’re leaving? Right now?” She pushed her chair aside to follow the two of them down the short hallway.
Lorelei slipped into her boots, sparing a single contrite glance over her shoulder. “I can’t stay. I’m sorry.”
“Full of apologies tonight, I see.” Maverick leaned against the doorway to the dining room, filling the space. Arms crossed over his chest. Lorelei wasn’t sure if he looked more like a bouncer, a Secret Service agent, or a bad cop. “Especially after the bombshell dropped.”
“Yeah, I’d offer you another one, but I got a sick kid with her grandma,” she said in a huff. Sawyer she could handle, Lorelei thought hastily. But if Maverick tried to push her buttons one more time, he was going to get an earful. “Sawyer will explain.”
“I’m sure he will.”
Lorelei had one foot over the threshold when Daisy piped in like the one annoying kid from the peanut gallery. “You aren’t even going to kiss him goodbye?”
