Page 120 of My Favorite Mistake

She scoffed and attempted to jerk her hand out of his. “Rude. I’ve been kind of busy and haven’t been for a manicure for a few weeks, and why do you care what my nails look like?”

He continued to clasp her fingertips and tugged her arm close to his side. “You’re the VP of marketing, and I have to explain to you the importance of keeping up appearances?” He gave her arm another incessant tug, forcing her to stand up. “Come with me.”

Brennan placed his hand on the small of her back and ushered her toward the front door with such haste that Liza couldn’t protest other than gaping at him. “Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to get that fixed.”

He opened the door and nudged her toward a black town car that was waiting next to the curb. He pulled open the back passenger door, and she stood on the sidewalk, still gaping.

“Are you high right now, B.?”

“No.” He gave her waist a nudge. “Jimmy said we’ve got some bigwig stopping by in an hour for an important meeting that’s pertinent to the future of the label.”

She squinted. “Jimmy’s out with Oscar doing a photoshoot. He didn’t mention anything about a meeting.”

“Well, he just called me and let me know about it, and you can’t talk to this guy while you’ve got raggedy nails.”

Liza scoffed again, but slid into the backseat, inching sideways as Brennan got in after her. “You’re being an ass, and this is such a double standard. If I were a man, nobody would even notice mynails.Let me have a look at yours.” She grabbed his hand as he used his opposite one to tug the door closed. To her dismay, his nails and cuticles were so perfectly groomed that he could’ve been a hand model.

She grumbled as threw his hand in his lap.

“Mynails are always in perfect shape,” Brennan said smugly, slipping his phone out of his pocket, quickly typing something, and then putting it away again. “I can’t do what I do with them being unkempt.”

Liza looked at him with a deadpan expression. “And what exactly is it that you do again? Sleep in and play poker?”

“Honey, I work with my hands on a nightly basis.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Doing what?”

Brennan bit his bottom lip and turned to her with a saucy expression as he looked at her over the top of his shades. “Guess.”

She rolled her eyes as she turned her head toward the window and crossed her legs away from him. “Gentleman rake, indeed.”

He chuckled and adjusted his tie. “In-deed.”

A few minutes later, the car pulled up to a salon, and Liza had relaxed in her seat as she admitted to herself that the loose ends she’d been tying up weren’t all that urgent, and a manicure would be nice that afternoon. In fact, she was silently appreciative of Brennan’s bizarrely intense insistence that she go get one given that they were having this surprise meeting.

Though it was strange that Jimmy had calledhiminstead ofher.

For the next twenty minutes or so, Liza sat in a big, comfortable chair while the manicurist worked on her nails, and Brennan thumbed through a bridal magazine next to her.

“So, B., who is this bigwig, and what is the meeting about?”

“Ahhh…” he said ponderingly as he flipped a page. “I’m not entirely sure, but Jimmy said something about him potentially having a very long and intimate relationship with you specifically.”

She drew her brows together and pulled in her chin. “Is he a marketing guy?”

Brennan flipped another page. “I actually have no idea.” He turned the magazine toward her, displaying a picture of groomsmen wearing suits with red Converse All Star sneakers. “L., promise me right now that whenever you and Deneau finally get hitched, you won’t make me wear Chuckie Ts with my tux.”

Liza couldn’t help smiling widely at the idea of the wedding she knew was in her near future. The topic had not been broached again since the harrowing afternoon and heartbreaking conversation in Ophelia’s kitchen about a week ago, but the unspoken understanding was there. A decade after first unofficially committing to a life together, the wedding she and Connor had only secretly discussed would finally take place. She wasn’t sure when. There was still no official engagement, but the marriage was imminent, and their future beckoned.

“Well, I don’t see how I could make you wear those with your dress blues,” she said dismissively, swiveling in the chair slightly.

Brennan groaned as he slapped the magazine on his lap. “Oh for God’s sake. Please do not make me put on a uniform.”

“Connor’s going to wear his. I always wanted him to. The Captain’s going to also. I’m sure Luke will want to.” Liza turned to Brennan and batted her lashes. “You’ll all look devastatingly handsome. Andin fact, you should be thanking me for that. You think women swoon when you put on that suit and tie, just wait ‘til they see you in uniform. Don’t you always say a wedding is one of the best places to find a hook-up?”

“First of all,” he said shifting in his chair to face her, “I am not hooking up with someone I meet at your wedding. For all I know, she could be one of Connor’s elusive sisters. I haven’t seen either of them in almost ten years, and they might look totally different now, and that’s a risk I can’t take.”

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