Page 10 of Sweet Obsession
Gently, Blake rapped at the door.
Preston’s face lifted, his eyes tired. “Hey, man. What has you up at this hour?”
“I could ask you the same.” Blake inched into the room.
Tossing a pen on the desk, Preston rubbed his eyes and leaned back in the desk chair.
“No offense, but you look like hell.” Blake sank into the leather chair across from the desk, the same spot where he’d sat countless times as a kid when Charlie Sweet had dispensed advice and reproof in equal measure.
“It’s been a tough year.”
A decade or so ago, he would have jumped right in and peppered his friend’s brother with questions, but those days when they were all as thick as proverbial thieves were long gone. “How long have you and Sarah Sue been married now?”
A light shone in his eyes. Whatever had given him a rough time clearly wasn’t his wife. “Not long enough.”
Wow, that was not the answer he expected.
“I’m afraid our problems have nothing to do with Sarah Sue. Well,” he chuckled, “unless you count her marrying me for money.”
Blake blinked. “Say again?”
“Sorry.” For the next while, without any hesitation, still treating Blake like one of the family, Preston explained how afterCharlie Sweet passed, their old foreman Ray swindled his family of anything that wasn’t nailed down along with all the money their dad had borrowed to take the ranch to the next level.
The sum of which had Blake’s mouth going dry. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, that about covers it. We were literally days from foreclosure.” Preston continued to explain about the trust fund and how Sarah Sue stepped up to save the day.
“Holy Christmas. How did I not know y’all were trust fund brats?”
“We’re not really. What we’ve been doing is scrambling to save the ranch.”
Blake blinked, processing this information. “Wait. So all these recent weddings…”
“Weren’t exactly coincidental,” Preston confirmed. “Sarah Sue, Jess, Jackie—they all married into the family knowing it was a business arrangement. At least initially.”
“Hold up.” Blake leaned forward, his voice rising slightly, everyone looked so very happy and so very much in love—how could they be acting? “Y’all are just pretending?”
“Not at all. We all fell fast and hard.”
Now that made way more sense than any pretense.
“The thing is, that makes it tough for Jillian,” Preston continued.
“Tough?” Blake’s gaze narrowed.
Looking at Blake, Preston paused, almost seemed to be sizing him up. “We’re still not out of the woods so,” he shrugged, “it’s Jillian’s turn. And eventually Kade will need to help out. Once the year is over for each marriage and we get the larger lump sums, we should be golden.”
“But first, Jillian and Kade need to marry for money.” It wasn’t really a question.
Preston’s face folded into a grimace. “Yeah, that about sums it up.”
This was insane. Blake had to be dreaming. How could everyone in this family marry for business? This was the kind of craziness you’d see in a bad rom-com movie. “And if they don’t get married?”
Preston’s silence was all the answer Blake needed.
Running a hand through his hair, he tried to wrap his mind around it all. The Sweet family had always been his sanctuary, his second home when his own felt too small or too complicated. The idea that they were struggling didn’t compute. Images of young Jillian, a bright eyed and curious kid, hiding by the porch, watching him tinker on his guitar popped into his head—the thought that this now grown woman might be pressured into marriage for money, made something fierce and protective rise in his chest. “There’s got to be another way.”
“We’ve explored every option.” Preston’s voice was flat with exhaustion. “Believe me.”
