“That makes sense. Preston needs it. She’s cool with playing along?”
“Yeah. It’s...kind of a miracle.”
“No,” Archer said. “The miracle is agreeing to get on a plane with you. She does know you’re going to be obsessed with the show all weekend, right?”
He looked at Penny, her face lit from the sunny skies rushing past outside the plane’s windows. “She knows.”
Archer was quiet for a long moment. “Are you into her?”
“I don’t mix business with my home life.”
His brother scoffed. “Okay.”
The rest of the flight went by as smoothly as a six-hour flight possibly could. When Logan popped up from his nap, Penny supplied him with an endless stream of toys and fidgets from her bag. Drew blinked and they were landing, blinked and they were riding into the city, and blinked as the driver pulled up to the entrance to a park.
“It’s close to the hotel,” Penny said. “I looked it up while you were answering some emails. This okay?”
She thought of everything.
Drew and Penny took Logan into the park while the car took Archer and their luggage to the hotel. For an hour they took turns pushing him on the swings and letting him climb a bridge across a fishpond over and over.
“Both hands!” Logan cried on the way back to the playground from the pond. “Both hands.” He wanted them each to hold one of his hands so he could jump and swing, and as they counted down his every “BLAST OFF!” together, something like peace bloomed in his chest.
But the peaceful feeling flew away as they got closer to the concert. His pulse picked up the pace, and by the time they ate dinner at a Shake Shack by the hotel, he was almost totally focused on the concert.
“This is really important to you, isn’t it?” Penny’s question came to him as if from miles away, and he came back down to earth to watch Logan eat another french fry drenched in ketchup. “This concert. It’s like...” She motioned to her chest. “It’s all around you, how excited you are.”
Drew ran a hand through his hair. It would be a risk to talk about the feeling that thrummed under his breastbone. But she’d come all this way. She was pretending to be his wife.
“It’s my favorite band. They...got me through a lot of hard times.”
“I get that. When I was in college, I was so homesick...” She gave a rueful laugh. “There was this one album I listened to every day all year. It got me through.”
“Carver Row is like that for me.”
“I can see that.”
He believed her.
Drew blinked again and they were making a quick stop at the hotel; again and they were heading into the concert venue and separating from Penny and Logan, who went backstage with one of the security people with a wave and a smile.
One more blink and Carver Row was onstage, playing, and he was lost in the sound.
Until his brother tapped his shoulder. “I’m going to trade places with Penny,” he said into Drew’s ear. “She deserves to see this.”
* * *
The backstage room was way nicer than Penny thought it would be—a cross between a dressing room and a hotel room, trending more toward hotel room. She’d brought along her bag of toys for Logan, but he’d been more interested in eating snacks from a basket on the counter. For about fifteen minutes…and then he’d passed out on the couch.
It had been a long day.
A long good day. It wouldn’t be so bad just to fly on a private jet every day, even if it they had no particular destination in mind. It had been so nice. Penny had been on a private plane once, with her dad. She hadn’t been entirely forward about it with Drew, though. The plane she’d been on had been outfitted much the same, but it had been owned by the man who swindled her father out of his company. She’d hated every moment in his presence.
Penny sat in a cushy chair, watching the concert on a closed-circuit TV on a stand. Logan snored softly on the sofa nearby, so she kept the sound low.
“Hey.”
It was Archer, Drew’s youngest brother. His hair was a little darker, but he had the same blue eyes, and his cheeks were pink. Must be hot in the auditorium.
“Hey, Archer. How’s it going out there?”
“It’s good. You should go see for yourself.”
She waved him off. “Oh, that’s okay. I agreed to watch backstage.”
“No, seriously. Drew at a concert is a sight to behold. Plus, the band is in rare form tonight. You should go.”
“Are you sure?” She hadn’t planned on attending the concert. Carver Row wasn’t her band, though she had spent several minutes thinking about Drew’s face when he talked about them. About music. It was like she could see inside his soul.
“Yeah.” Archer came in and sat carefully on the sofa next to Logan. “I’ll be fine with the little dude.” He nodded toward the door. “Go.”
Penny went out, and one of the security guards from the backstage area led her to the concert hall. “Fourth row,” he said, pointing. “There it is.” She patted at her hair, at her clothes. Thank God she’d worn a silvery tank top and tight black jeans. It was perfect for the heat of the room.
Drew Preston was easy to find in the fourth row, tall and blonde and handsome. She worked her way through the standing crowd.
He took her breath away.
Talking to him about music was nothing compared to this.
It wasn’t a show he was putting on—not the way he did for clients. That was a genuine part of him too, but this bright, open expression tugged at her heart. Communion, she thought. That’s what it reminded her of.
She was three steps away when he turned and saw her, and something else entirely lit up his face. Surprise…then heat.
Penny resisted the urge to leap on top of him and kiss his perfect lips, though with the band’s pulsing beat, it seemed…almost right. Instead, she took her place next to him, faced forward, and closed her eyes.
Just for long enough to feel the beat. Just for long enough to join him in appreciating this moment, this sound, this band.
Penny let her feet move, then her hips sway, and then, with a rush of adrenaline, she was dancing, lost in the beat.
She opened her eyes and watched the lead singer throw his head back. It was his body that guided the whole of the concert hall, setting all of them on the same beat, but it was Drew’s body next to hers that she felt most keenly. In the music, there was no space for words. There was no pressure to slip her business knowledge into the conversation. There was no Logan, who wanted to hold both their hands. She felt a pang, but they’d all be together soon, and anyway, it wasn’t her place to get attached. It wasn’t her job to do anything right now. And so she danced.
They moved closer together, then back apart, kept in the same space by the crowd around them and by a magnetic pull that wrapped around Penny’s hips and drew her toward him. One step together, one step apart, one step together…
Their hands brushed.
The touch was electric, a pleasant shock, and then Drew twined his fingers through hers, holding on tight as if she was in danger of being lost in the crowd. Her heart leapt into her throat. She held on right back as the music slowed for one aching song. Were those tears in her eyes? And what were they for, other than the pure emotion that tore through her with every strum of the guitar? She brushed them away as the song ended and the band ramped up into another tune, the beat crashing, throbbing. The crescendo of the concert. Penny could feel it building, building, and so could everybody else around her. She felt the crowd’s focus, all of it drawing forward onto the stage.
The lead singer leaned into the mic, pouring himself into the song, and Penny knew. This was the peak before the crash, the high that would carry them into the night, and it was so powerful. She could see why Drew had flown to New York City to see this band play. She could see—
Drew turned her toward him and kissed her.
The kiss was glancing, as fast and hot as that high note,
and she sucked in a gasp. Oh, oh—
More. I want more. I want more, more, more…
Drew’s lips left hers. The band left the stage.
A cheer rose from the crowd.
But nothing mattered, only his blue eyes on hers, full of hope and anticipation and oh my god, what did we just do?
“I should get back to Logan,” she said, voice hoarse. When had she been shouting?
“Yes,” he said, but it was a long time before he let go of her hand.
6
“I’m going to be so late.”
Penny balanced Logan on her hip, the weight of him solid and warm in her arms as she stood in the doorway of Drew’s home office. “You’re going to be fine. I’ve got things under control. Finish up your stuff, and then we’ll figure out everything else. Want to go get some breakfast, buddy?”
Logan lifted his head from her shoulder and pouted. “No.” His face was getting red again. Penny curled her hand around the back of his neck. Hot to the touch. Time for another dose of medicine.
She didn’t usually get up in the night with Logan—that wasn’t part of her job description, and Drew had never asked her to handle overnight issues unless he was out of town. He hadn’t gone out of town yet. Well, he had, but they’d gone with him to New York City. It was only last weekend, but it felt like a hundred years ago. Not in a bad way, either…though Penny could use a nap.
Logan had fussed most of the previous day and been lethargic and feverish to the point that she’d driven him in to see his doctor. Drew had met them in the parking lot. A bug, the doctor said. Some random virus that made kids miserable but didn’t need to be treated with an antibiotic.
“We’ll chill at the house,” Penny had said as they left the doctor’s office. “We’ll watch your truck movies, okay?”
But Logan hadn’t wanted Drew to leave his side. By the time they slid into the car, Drew had canceled the afternoon’s meetings and come back to the house with them. The little boy had been uncomfortable through the night, though, and the third time Penny heard Drew’s low voice down the hall, she got up to keep him company.
But he couldn’t cancel this morning’s meeting, and now he ran a hand over his tousled blond hair and sighed at the computer screen. “I still have details to finalize on this presentation. I thought it was done, but something’s nagging at me.”
“Is this for Jack?”
Her pretend husband glanced up from his seat. “Yes. This presentation, and then another one for a second company.”
“A second company?”
A frown shaded his face. “Bigger than Jack’s, owned by a guy named Michael Bower. But the routes aren’t exactly what I’m looking for.”
That was different. “I thought you were trying to impress Jack all this time. I didn’t realize you were trying to decide between two potential acquisitions.”
“It’s going both ways.” Drew leaned back in his seat and sighed. “I want him to sell to me, so I need him to know that I’m the kind of man he can trust. If he doesn’t sell to me, then I have to fix this by going in a different direction. Michael’s company.”
Fix what? Curiosity burned a path through her mind. But this was business, and he didn’t want to mix business with anything else.
Now wasn’t the time.
“Can I make a suggestion?” Penny hefted Logan a few inches higher on her hip.
Logan raised his head. “Daddy, I want to take a bath.”
“I can give you a bath,” Penny murmured into his hair.
“No. I want Daddy.” The red in his cheeks deepened, and he started to squirm. “I want Daddy.”
Penny saw the stress flash across Drew’s face. He half stood, but his attention was hooked on the computer screen.
“Let’s do this,” she said, projecting all the authority she could gather into her voice. “You take Logan to get another dose of ibuprofen. That’ll make you feel better,” she said to Logan, then gave Drew a smile that hopefully said we’ve got this. “Get him started in the bath and give me a few minutes to look over your presentation.”
He rubbed a hand over his mouth, blue eyes on hers.
“It doesn’t have to cross any lines. Just a fresh set of eyes so you can put it out of your mind. I’ll see if there’s anything crazy, and if there’s not…”
“I want Daddy,” Logan said into her neck.
“If there’s not,” she finished, “you’ll be good to go.”
Another heartbeat ticked by. “Okay.” Drew came to take Logan into his arms. “We’ll go get some medicine and have a bath.” Penny stepped past them into the office.
It was wild, in a way. Two weeks ago, she’d never have pictured herself slipping into Drew’s office in a pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She probably had terrible bedhead. Now? It was almost comfortable between them. Being up in the night had that effect. It lowered inhibitions.
Drew poked his head back into the office as she settled into the chair. “You don’t have to—”
“Go.” She waved him off. “I want to take a look. It’ll be reassuring, trust me.”
The water ran through the pipes of the house a minute later, the sound a backdrop to the clicks and scrolls from the mouse as she went through his presentation. Penny’s dad had made lots of similar presentations when she was growing up, though his had been on a slightly smaller scale. Her father’s business had never quite reached the level of Preston Logistics. It might have—once she came on board, she saw the places in the company where expansion would have worked for them—but all that had been lost in The Swindle. She’d been thinking of it with capital letters since it happened.
That wasn’t going to happen this time. It was clear from the information in the presentation that it wasn’t the same situation, so she discarded the worries that jumped out at her on that front. Details. She had to pay attention to the details, since that’s what Drew was fretting about.
Three-quarters of the way through the slides—he’d picked a sleek design, and she had no complaints about that—she saw it.
Drew and Logan came back in on a wave of baby shampoo and a giggle from Logan that warmed her heart. “I think I found what’s bothering you.”
“You know, it’s fine. It’s fine after all. I was overthinking it.” She could feel Drew’s nerves in the air and took her hands away from the keyboard. There it was—that wall around his professional life. It was one thing to pretend to be his wife at dinner, but another entirely to look at the inner workings of his business.
Still.
“Actually, there’s a place I think you could—”
“I’ve been over it a hundred times.” Drew’s eyes flicked from her hands to the screen and back again.
“Hey. Snap out of it.”
He laughed out loud, surprise coloring his voice. “What?”
“You’re being a little ridiculous about this whole thing. I’m not interfering with your business decisions, I promise, but let me tell you what I found.” Penny swiveled the chair to face him.
“Fine. Tell me.” Drew rocked up onto his toes. He’d want a shower next, and she would take Logan down to eat breakfast. It was part of the routine they’d developed together after New York, and it was…surprisingly efficient. And surprisingly comforting in a way she hadn’t expected.
“The one thing that’s not crystal clear is future maintenance,” she said. “You glossed over it in the last half of the presentation, and I think Jack’s going to notice.”
Drew narrowed his eyes. “What? I added a section about upkeep and reinvestment.”
“You added a slide. And only as a percentage of revenue directed to the area. But if Jack is as invested as you say he is, he’s going to want more than that. Remember the dinner?”
“You weren’t at the dinner.” Drew stared at the screen over her shoulder.
“I was there after, when he was talking about how his company is his legacy. I’m telling you—he’s going to want to know how you specifica
lly plan to keep his routes maintained and active.”
“They’ll be my routes,” Drew said, and Penny laughed.
“Of course they will. But they’ll still be part of his legacy.”
The clock on the far wall of the office ticked the seconds away.
“Well,” Drew said finally. “I underestimated you.”
“You didn’t think I’d have anything to offer when it came to the presentation? Ouch,” she joked.
“I thought you might go with typos.”
“Typos are a good thing to catch in any presentation. I fixed a couple, by the way.”
He leaned down, giving her a taste of the sleepy scent of him, and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”
Goose bumps rose on the back of her neck, spreading down the length of her spine and curving around her hips. It was one kiss, and a short one, because Drew still held Logan in his arms.
“Daddy, I’m hungry,” Logan said.
Penny was hungry, too. She was hungry in more ways than one. Her stomach felt like a hollow pit, but more than that, the kiss on the cheek—the whole conversation—it had felt like something worn-in and familiar and right. Was this what it looked like to have a happily ever after with someone? A home and a child and a husband she could go back and forth with on things that were important to them?
The vision was so powerful it took over everything else, dropping down like a scrim over Drew’s office. But it only lasted a few moments.
“You ready to head downstairs?” Drew asked his son.
“Yeah! With Miss Penny!”
Penny stood up and swept Logan out of Drew’s arms, twirling him around in a big circle. He laughed, his head thrown back, and she caught a glimpse of Drew’s eyes on the two of them. Could he see it, too? The pure fantasy of a life together?
That’s all it was, she told herself as she went down the stairs with Logan in her arms and set about making him breakfast. A fantasy. It would probably end when the deal closed. That would be logical. Why keep it up, after that?
The Billionaire’s Pretend Wife: Preston Billionaires Book One Page 4
