Kash eyed me skeptically again. “It’s fishy, that’s all I’m saying. Why would she risk all that?”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said, trying not to sound petulant.
“I mean it, Marcus. It’s her whole life she’s putting on the line, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask why.”
“Think about growing up under Evelyn Bower. You’d turn out one of two ways. Either you’d be exactly like her or—”
“You’d be the exact opposite,” Luke finished.
I nodded. “If you think we hate that woman, we’ve got nothing on Maisie. You either trust me on that or you don’t. But I’m not gonna sit here and convince you—I know a brick wall when I see one.”
Kash finally understood, unhappy as he seemed about it. His forehead smoothed, and he let loose a mighty sigh. “I’m sorry. We trust you. Don’t we, Luke?”
Luke nodded, rubbing a hand over his lips. “You know what you’re doing better than any of us. It’s just hard to override a lifetime of conditioning against them, that’s all.”
“I know. Trust me, I know.”
“You’re gonna have to be more careful than you were last night,” Kash warned. “The second Mom hears you whistling, she’s gonna know you’re seeing someone—”
“God, you guys and the fucking whistling—”
“And when she figures that out,” he said over me, “your secret won’t be safe. She’d burn down hell to figure out who it is, and you know Luke can’t keep his mouth shut.”
Luke punched him in the arm hard enough to knock him off balance.
“Don’t tell Laney.” I pointed at Luke.
“Why would I tell Laney?”
“I don’t know, why would you tell anybody? Jett either. And Kash, not a word to Dad.”
“Like Dad and I gossip about you assholes all the time? Please. I think combined we utter a paragraph a day. And even if he knew, he’d never tell Mom. Not unless she asked him point-blank with Marga—Maisie Bower’s name in her hand. Just make sure you stay ahead of it until then.”
I nodded once. “In the meantime, we’ve got plenty to figure out. The faster we get through this lawsuit, the better things will be for all of us.” I checked my watch. “I’ve got to meet Ben. Bower is going to try to bury us in legal fees, so we’ve got to come up with a plan to head them off. If we can stay ahead of them, the whole thing will be behind us real soon.”
“Hopefully, Mom survives depositions,” Luke said. “If last time was any indication …”
“She’ll be fine,” I assured him. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it under control. All of it.”
And God help me if I didn’t.
15
One Look
MARCUS
Maisie giggled, delving her chopsticks into my orange chicken. “She did not, Marcus Bennet.”
“I swear,” I said on a laugh. “Mom had us all lined up by age like the von Trapps and spanked us, oldest to youngest. Not one of us ever started another mud fight again. Not with the greenhouse dirt anyway.”
She kicked her head back, and the sight kicked my heart into my sternum. “God, there must have been mud everywhere.”
“After Luke made a Slip ’N Slide out of mud in our foyer? I think there’s still dirt behind his ears from that. You should have heard him crying, waiting for his turn to get put over Mom’s knee.”
“Aww,” she cooed. “He was just a baby.”
“Don’t worry—she barely popped him. I think he cried more worrying about what was coming than the spanking itself.”
I watched her take a bite of chicken, the piece too big to eat gracefully. Her lips closed over half of it, and the display inadvertently bordered pornographic.
We were stretched out in bed, wearing almost nothing—me in a pair of jersey sleep pants and her in one of my tailored shirts, unbuttoned so low, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the V and the occasional glimpse of her breasts when she did things like lean over me to dig in my food.
I never shared food with anyone, but Maisie could have whatever she wanted. I’d share it all, especially when there was a view involved.
I’d enjoyed that view for nearly a week, every morning, every night—a view I couldn’t seem to get enough of. She’d become a regular fixture at my place, and every night when she left me to go back to her warden’s house, I watched her go with the determination to boost her from that particular prison. If for no other reason than to have her in my bed for a whole night.
“I can’t believe your brothers found out already,” she said, swiping her hair out of her face with the back of her hand, the one with the chopsticks.
When it fell right back in her face, I tossed my chopsticks in my carton and tucked the errant lock behind her ear. “They’re nosy as all hell, so I can’t say I’m surprised. I just hope they keep their mouths shut.”
“Are you gonna spank them if they don’t?” She smirked.
“In the nose with my fist,” I answered, digging a bundle of lo mein out from her container. “Is your Mom still going crazy?”
“As is her way. Too bad I can’t spank her in the nose with my fist.” Poking around in her noodles, she glanced down. “I spent the entire day at one of our farms in Long Island, pretending to like her while we took eleventy billion photos.”
“And you’ve got the sunburn to prove it.” I booped her rosy nose.
“Longest day ever. But she wasn’t so bad today. The worst part was the car ride home. At least at the farm, we had fresh air. Sharing a confined space with her for hours was the actual worst.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t suffocate.”
“Trust me, it was touch and go for a minute there. Listening to her garden club drama is mind-numbing. Whose daughter is sleeping with whom. What so-and-so said to whomever about the state of their begonias. As if any of them grow their own flowers.” She snorted, rolling her eyes. “I especially don’t want to hear another recount of her overthrowing your mom.”
Anger bolted through me at the mention, gone as soon as it appeared. “I hate them. All of them.”
“All of them? Because I heard you dated half the members’ daughters,” she said bashfully, casting her eyes down.
“I went on dates. I never dated them.”
“No?”
“Not a single one. I didn’t even kiss any of them.”
When she met my eyes again, hers were smiling. “Not even Verdant? She kisses everybody.”
“Nope. That one was all Kash.”
With a laugh, she turned the conversation back to her mother. “Honestly, Mother has been on her best behavior. For the most part, she’s kept her composure since that first night, but I can’t shake the feeling that things are a little too calm, a little too easy.”
“I wish this wasn’t so hard. I wish you didn’t have to deal with her.”
“I’ve been dealing with her my whole life. At least now I have something worth the trouble.”