Page 11 of A Very Titan Christmas (Titan #14)

Despite his better judgment, Bryce led Rachel by the hand to where they’d left her mother and Roman. Roman noticed the hand holding immediately. Bryce didn’t want to deal with whatever Roman’s wild look meant, but at least he trusted Roman to keep his mouth shut until they could debrief later.

“So nice of you to return,” Eloise snapped with an assessing eye trained on Rachel. “Care to explain what’s going on?”

He didn’t like the way her mother analyzed her and seemed obsessed with her.

She’d been like this to some extent while they were in high school, but Eloise’s interests had been focused on school activities.

He guessed that making sure Rachel had high school resume builders had morphed into settling her daughter into the ideal life Eloise had dreamed of for her.

If Bryce had to guess, Eloise hadn’t asked Rachel if their views for the future aligned.

Bryce took the lead, “Rachel and I dated in high school.”

“Yes, I know,” Eloise said.

Roman didn’t, and Bryce’s explanation was more for his benefit. “We’ve stayed in contact, and now that we’re in the same place for an extended period, we’re dating.”

Eloise pursed her lips. “So this is a booty call? Is that what you call it these days? Friends with benefits?”

Bryce and Roman were both speechless. Rachel’s mouth hinged open.

“Mom.” Rachel rubbed a hand over her face. “We’re dating. That’s it. That’s all the details you’re going to get.”

Bryce was starting to understand the reason she’d lied.

“For the time that you’re in town?” Eloise inquired. “Not seriously, then?”

“Stop.” She shook her head. “You don’t get to know and plan everything.”

Unfazed, Eloise eyed him instead of pressing Rachel for details of their imaginary relationship. “Will you come to dinner tonight?”

“Mom.”

“I’ll go wherever Rachel wants me to.” This was her game, after all.

“Rachel?” Eloise asked.

“If he’s available,” she said with a slight grimace on her red-cheeked face, “then dinner would be fine.”

Between now and then, he and Rachel would call Jared Westin to explain everything. Bryce nodded. “Now that’s settled, we’ll get back to work.”

“Will any more men show up to meet me this afternoon?” Rachel asked her mom.

Eloise smirked. “Not that I can’t cancel.”

Rachel groaned, but Bryce laughed to himself as he and Roman moved back into position. Rachel had been correct. Eloise Porter would set up her daughter at every opportunity. He didn’t like the idea of lying, but spending time with Rachel wouldn’t be a hardship.

“You want to explain what the hell just happened?” Roman murmured into his comm piece.

Bryce grumbled. “Not really.”

“You two know each other.”

“Yup.”

“And you’re dating?”

“As of two minutes ago,” he confirmed.

Roman snorted. “Boss Man is going to haul your ass off this job. You know that, right?”

“He might.” There was a pretty solid chance that would happen by the end of the day. Pretending to date Rachel was about to screw both of them. Then again, Boss Man might understand if Rachel explained. “Or he’ll take pity on the girl and let it go.”

Headquarters hadn’t known Rachel Porter would be in Silverberry Ridge and was currently adapting its security plan to account for her arrival. A fake relationship might play well into that situation.

“She’s a pretty good-looking woman—”

“Keep your eyes to yourself.”

Roman laughed into the comms. “I am a happily married man. Just pointing out the obvious.”

Bryce rolled his eyes but scanned the holiday shoppers as their group slowly made its way farther down the aisle. Eloise was giving Rachel the third degree, and Rachel was pretending the vendors had her complete attention.

“Do you want to tell Jared what’s going on?” Roman asked.

Bryce snorted. “Instead of you? Yeah. I’ll bite that bullet.”

“Might as well do it now while the ladies are distracted by scarves and sweets. Boss Man will be more aggravated if he has to redo the security plan again.”

Bryce stole another glance at Eloise and Rachel.

Having Rachel explain the situation with her mother to Jared was the ticket to getting him on board with her plan.

But Bryce wasn’t sure that was reason enough to warrant a delay in updating him.

He sighed and studied the women. “I’m not sure anything sweet is happening over there between mother and daughter, but you’re right. I’ll update Boss Man. Be right back.”

The afternoon crowd was growing denser. Bryce wondered if other men were strolling the marketplace, waiting for their designated time to be introduced to Rachel. Eloise’s meddling was mind-boggling.

Bryce pulled up Jared’s contact information on his screen and held his breath as he placed the call. Jared wasn’t a warm and fuzzy guy, but he was smart and would understand the situation. He would see how they could use the fake relationship to their advantage. At least, Bryce hoped he would.

“What?” Boss Man answered.

“Well, hey there—”

“Unless someone is dead or dying, I need you to say what you need to say in five seconds or less.”

Bryce hesitated.

“You need a countdown clock or something?”

“I agreed to be in a fake relationship with Rachel Porter to give her some breathing room with her mother, who was asking for grandchildren.” There was probably a better explanation, but that would have required more than five seconds to butter Jared up.

His pulse hammered in his head as he waited for Jared’s explosion.

The silence unsettled Bryce more. “Did you hear—”

“Yeah, I heard you. I’m just trying to figure out if I heard you correctly.”

Bryce pinched the bridge of his nose and tipped his head back into the cold afternoon sun. “You probably did.”

“Then you mind telling me how in the hell that happened?”

“You want the short version or the long version?”

“I want to kill you right now, so tell me whatever you need to so I don’t fly up to Vermont to take a look at how you fucked up an easy-as-Christmas-fucking-pie assignment,” Jared grumbled. “Damn it, Bryce. All you had to do was keep an eye on the significant other.”

“And her daughter.”

“There’s a hell of a security headache in Silverberry Ridge in two weeks, and we don’t have time for you to play footsie with the daughter of a senator.”

“We’re not playing anything except pretend. It’s fake. Her mother was giving her a hard time. Rachel said something that I think we all regret—”

“That you’re dating?”

“Yeah.”

“It just, whoopsie, came out of her mouth? ‘I’m dating that guy over there.’”

“Well…” Bryce cleared his throat. “We dated a long time ago.”

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ, man. Did you forget to tell me something?”

Bryce paced the outskirts of the vendor area. “I didn’t know Rachel would be here. I haven’t talked to her in years.”

“You didn’t say anything.”

“You asked me if I was familiar with Senator Porter and his wife. I am.”

Jared growled.

“I know you’re pissed, but I couldn’t leave Rachel hanging when she’d thrown a Hail Mary pass. She was in trouble.”

“With her mother? Give me a break.”

“I thought you were familiar with Mrs. Porter.”

Jared grumbled again but sounded as though he could understand how Eloise Porter could be hard to ignore. “Fine.”

“Fine?”

“What’s done is done. We’ll write that into the security plan. But no playing house. You hear me on this? No distractions.”

“None.” Bryce smiled. He couldn’t help it. Rachel Porter, who hated him, had just tied them together for the holidays. There were worse ways to spend the next few weeks.

“You’re lucky you’re good at your job because I can hear that shit-eating grin on your face.”

“Not grinning, Boss Man.”

“The hell you’re not.” He sighed, resigned to the situation that Bryce had created. “If you start catching feelings, you need to be pulled off this job. You get me?”

“Loud and clear.” Bryce spotted Rachel and Eloise speaking with a man showing off mittens at the end of an aisle. The mittens had their attention, and Bryce guessed that Eloise’s interrogation was over. Roman flanked them from behind. “Anything else before I go?”

“Keep it in your pants.”

“Loud and clear,” he repeated and ended the call.

It wasn’t as if Rachel were searching for an actual boyfriend, and it wasn’t as if Bryce had any interest in filling that role.

Rachel had only to keep her mother at bay, and he had only to remember that this was a public-facing situation.

They’d been good together once. Hell, they’d been great—so great that he’d broken her heart to avoid shattering it when their long-distance relationship crashed and burned.

It would have. They’d practically been kids.

He rubbed the back of his neck. He and Rachel could work out the details of her expectations while playing pretend. For now, he had to make sure both Porter women were safe and secure.

Bryce scanned the perimeter and didn’t see them anymore.

“Sugar Plum separated. East toward the town hall,” Roman said in his earpiece. “You’re coming this way?”

“Affirmative.”

“Snow Queen is taking another meeting with a gentleman suitor.” Roman snickered.

What the hell was happening with that woman? Bryce had thought Rachel was exaggerating, but at this point, it was obvious that Eloise had an agenda.

He didn’t see Rachel but spotted Eloise and the man who ambled alongside her. The gentleman suitor, as Roman called him, seemed to know as many people as Eloise. They both waved hello and smiled, but they didn’t stop to chat.

Then he spotted Rachel far past Eloise and Roman.

Roman told Bryce, “I’m closer. You’ve got the Snow Queen.”

“I’ve got her,” Bryce confirmed. Keeping an eye on Eloise was easier than talking to Rachel now anyway. He could linger behind Eloise and deal with all of this later.

Eloise and the man stopped between two tables.

Bryce couldn’t read lips, but their body language differed from what he’d seen when Eloise was with the other man.

Their conversation didn’t appear as uncomfortable, and they shook hands before the man departed.

Perhaps not a potential suitor after all. She waved Bryce closer.

He took a bracing deep breath. “Ma’am?”

“I’m your girlfriend’s mother. Don’t ma’am me.”

“Yes—” He caught himself. This whole thing was too weird to figure out. “Mrs. Porter.”

She gave him a slight side-eye and readjusted her heavy jacket. “That was the mayor.”

Bryce nodded. “Okay.”

“William and I will have dinner with him tonight.” She gestured to the marketplace. “You and Rachel are off the hook for this evening.”

He nodded. Whatever it took to keep everyone happy. “Would you like me to update headquarters with the schedule change?”

“Yes.” She studied him closely. “Will you still have dinner with Rachel?”

“I don’t have her security plan yet, and—”

“I don’t mean as her security detail.”

A blush warmed his cheeks. “I’m not sure. I might be working.”

“Who do I talk to and make sure you’re the one assigned to her?”

Bryce swallowed hard. “I guess that would be my boss—” He caught the ma’am before it escaped. “I’ll be wherever I’m assigned.”

“You seem to have come out of nowhere.”

They could both agree on that. He offered a placating smile but could tell he wasn’t fooling Eloise. “Things fall into place sometimes.”

“If this is a game you two are playing, I’d like you to back away and give me a chance to help my daughter.”

“With all due respect—” Again, he lassoed the ma’am before it passed his lips. “Rachel is a grown woman capable of making her own decisions.”

“I know that. I do.” Eloise almost looked ashamed of herself. “She really has the world at her fingertips.”

“Not to overstep, but why are you trying to set her up?”

Eloise bit the inside of her cheeks. “Sometimes I overdo it.”

There couldn’t have been a bigger Porter understatement. Bryce decided it was best to keep mum. If Eloise had more to say, then he would listen. If not, he’d move back to his post and update HQ about the change in dinner plans.

“I get an idea and go on a tear,” she continued. “But I really have her best interests at heart.”

Bryce believed her. His parents didn’t notice a damn thing about his brother and him. Eloise was a lot to deal with, but that was much better than being ignored and unnoticed.

“And I’d make an amazing grandmother.”

Bryce had to laugh and wanted to escape before she started making demands of him too. “I’ll let headquarters know about the change for this evening.”