Page 99 of Strictly Pretend

“I’m sorry?”

“She’s seduced you to get what she wants. I thought better of you.” He shakes his head. “What did she do? The dance of the seven veils?”

I stand up, angry at the insinuation. “Don’t you fucking dare,” I tell him. “She’s a good woman.”

His jaw is tight. He’s an old man, but he’s also made of steel. But right now, I don’t give a damn.

“Can we all calm down a bit?” Myles asks. “Emma? That’s her name?”

“Yes.” I nod at him.

“And you’re engaged to her?” he clarifies.

“Yes.” And I’m not giving them the full fucking story. Not right now, anyway.

Myles’ expression softens. “Congratulations.” He stands and hugs me. Then all my brothers are surrounding me. Holden hugs me next, Eli slaps me on the back, and Liam punches my arm. Then Linc – my closest brother – kisses my cheek.

My dad pinches the bridge of his nose. “Congratulations,” he manages. “I look forward to meeting her.”

“Don’t ever let him,” Linc whispers in my ear. I try not to smile.

“But business is still business,” Dad tells me. “And if she’s going to be part of this family she needs to understand that. Ifwe don’t redevelop the Redfern Building we’re going to be in a financial hole.”

“I’m not throwing her out of the building,” I say firmly. “I’ll fill the hole myself if I have to.”

“You don’t have enough money.”

“I’ll take out a loan.” I lift a brow at him, because I’m not doing this with him. Yes, business is important. We both agree on that.

But some things are way more important than money.

Dad presses his lips together and shakes his head. “I would never let you do that. And anyway, it doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” I ask him, annoyed at how quickly he’s dismissing me.

He looks straight at me, his eyes flinty. “I met with our lawyers on Saturday. In your absence, I authorized for them to give all the shops in that building one month’s notice from today. Our server drove down there first this morning.”

My blood turns cold. “You did what?”

Dad shrugs. “I instructed them to serve the notices at ten. The sooner we get this mess sorted the better. It’s business, son.”

I look at my watch. It’s already a quarter after ten. Emma and her granddad will already have the letter in their hands telling them they won’t have a business within a month.

She’ll think I knew about this. She’ll think I’m involved.

She’ll think I screwed her over the way everybody does.

I grab my phone from my pocket, and panic as I see I have missed three calls from her.

Fuck. How the hell am I going to make her believe I have nothing to do with this?

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

EMMA

“Hey stranger!” Rita calls out as I carry a tray of coffee into her shop on Monday morning. I try to stifle a yawn – which is all Brooks Salinger’s fault because apparently the man can do phone sex almost as well as he can do it in person.

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