Page 98 of Strictly Pretend

BROOKS

It’s Monday morning and we’re in my father’s office in the big house at Misty Lakes, his estate in Virginia. All six of us brothers are here, plus my dad.

We all have a financial interest in every part of Salinger Enterprises, even though half of my brothers do their own thing. Myles and Liam – my oldest brothers – run their own consulting firms, helping small businesses grow. Eli is a coach for a hockey team, and Holden works as a pediatric oncologist in West Virginia. Then there’s Linc, who has just walked in wearing a pair of bright pink shorts and a white polo, which seems a brave choice considering he has baby Abigail strapped to his chest.

“Is this going to take long?” Linc asks, checking his watch. “I promised the kids we’d go swimming this morning.”

“Which kids?” Myles asks him.

“All of them. Which means we all get to be on lifeguard duty.”

Between them, my brothers have a lot of kids. And when they’re all in the lake swimming, my brothers all have to watch their kids like hawks.

“Including you,” Linc says to me, his brow lifted.

“I don’t have any kids to watch,” I point out.

“Yeah, you do. You have ours.”

My dad clears his throat. “Can we get on with this? I need to get back to New York this afternoon.”

“You’re leaving?” Myles asks.

“I have a couple of meetings.” Dad looks at me. “What did you want to talk about?”

“The Redfern Building.”

“Ah yes. When I was in the office last week they told me about the contract they found. Good news.” He gives me a smile. “Makes things a lot easier. Was that what you wanted to talk about?”

My throat tightens. “I’ve changed my mind about evicting the tenants,” I say. “I want to keep things as they are.”

From the corner of my eye I see Myles tip his head to the side, running his thumb along his jaw. He’s trying to work me out.

“Why would we do that?” Dad asks. “You said yourself this deal was hemorrhaging money. It was looking like a drawn out court case, but now we have the upper hand. I’ve already given Luke a bonus by the way. He did good by that contract.”

“No,” I say. “You don’t understand. I’ve changed my mind. We’re sticking with the original contract. The Vintage Verse bookshop can stay as long as they like. And the other two businesses as well.”

My dad’s gaze is unwavering as he stares at me. “Why the hell would you want to do that?”

“Because he’s in love with the girl who runs the shop,” Linc says. I turn and glare at him and he shrugs.

So much for brotherly love. I make a note to push him under the lake when we’re both in there later.

“Emma and I are a couple, yes,” I say. “But that’s not the reason why I’ve changed my mind.”

Dad puts up his hand to stop me talking. “Emma is the shop girl?”

I screw my nose up at the way he describes her. “Emma Robbins runs the shop. And she’s also my fiancée.”

That shuts everybody up. Six sets of eyes are on me. I press my lips together, because this wasn’t exactly the way I was planning to tell them. But she’s not a damn shop girl.

She’s everything.

Dad’s face is unreadable. “She’s your fiancée? As in you’re engaged to this girl?”

I jut my chin out. “Yes.”

“Jesus Christ.” Dad shakes his head. “It’s the oldest trick in the book.”

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