Page 11 of Bad Boy Husband
JAMESON
A fter golf and drinks at the club, we headed back to the house in Westlake with a whole damn entourage in tow. Six of us had left here. At least sixteen were coming home.
Dinner wasn’t for another hour though, which left me with a dangerous little thing called downtime. While the rest of them splashed around in the pool with drinks sweating next to loungers, I retreated to the pool house.
I had some work to get done, but I also just needed a few minutes to cool down—literally and figuratively.
My laptop hummed awake on the desk in the master bedroom, and after grabbing a quick, cold shower, I changed and sat down behind it. Tucked in the corner of the room, the desk was right next to the window, offering a view of the festivities I didn’t give a damn about missing out on.
I opened emails, half read them, and scrolled through a few reports I’d seen twice already, but my eyes kept drifting to the window. From this angle, I had the perfect view of Sadie where she was sitting on the edge of the pool with her sundress hitched up and her bare legs dangling in the water.
Carson was right there with her, but in the pool with his arms resting on the tile next to her legs and his head tilted up so he was looking at her face.
She was smiling at something he must’ve said, her expression bright and open.
It was obvious they were flirting back and forth, and the sight made my stomach twist. I just didn’t really understand why.
Sadie was in the same boat I was, using the day for the same thing I should’ve been—shopping for a spouse. She was trying to make the best of a family tradition older than any of us and twice as stubborn, but knowing that didn’t make it any easier to watch.
Hell, I wanted to drag Carson out of the pool by his chest hair and toss him off the property.
Or call one of my less than legal contacts and ask how hard it really is to make someone disappear.
It probably wasn’t the best idea, though.
I’d looked up the Dallas Cartmans back at the club after Trent had introduced him to her, and they weren’t nobodies.
They weren’t the biggest somebodies either, but I was damn sure they would go to the edges of the earth to find their prized fucking stallion if I tried making him vanish.
I snorted softly when I realized what I was thinking. Sure, Jamie. That’s why it’s a bad idea. Because his family wouldn’t let it go. Not because you’d be hiring a fucking hitman to actually kill someone.
It was ridiculous. Forcing myself to go back to work, I replied to a few emails and checked in with Sterling, then shut my laptop with more force than necessary when Trent called out that dinner was ready.
Someone killed the music that had been blasting and I heard the groans and splashes as they readied themselves to climb out of the pool.
Meanwhile, I scrubbed my palms over my face and stood up, not ready to spend the evening dodging Collins and watching Sadie make eyes at her potential future husband, but I went anyway.
Tables had been set up on the lawn under strings of fairy lights, the Texas air gold and sticky as the sun set.
Lightning flickered across the sky on the horizon, a storm clearly brewing in the distance. I looked around, but since no one seemed worried about it, I assumed they only expected the storm to roll in later—if at all.
I took my seat, fighting a grimace. Collins almost immediately dropped into the chair beside mine like she belonged there. My muscles tensed as irritation surged through me, but I leaned back and turned my torso toward her just far enough to fake interest.
“Did you get your work done?” she asked sweetly. Too sweetly for my taste. No one was as harmless as this girl pretended to be, and definitely not a high-society heiress. “We missed you in the pool earlier.”
Wearing a black bikini under a white cover-up, patches of which were wet and see-through, she should’ve captured my attention. The girl was objectively beautiful, soft spoken but charming and witty. There was nothing wrong with her—except that she wasn’t Sadie.
As she started talking about someone’s baby shower, my gaze drifted across the table to where Sadie was seated next to Carson. He was close enough that their elbows brushed every so often while they talked.
Servers brought out platters soon after, giant slabs of wood laden with grilled steaks that had been drizzled with a buttery sauce, some sticky ribs, and greens slicked with a dressing that probably had more calories than the steak itself.
Sadie’s face pinched just for a second as she looked at the food.
Carson dropped a steak onto her plate like he was doing her a favor. She winced, the movement subtle but there, and suddenly, I’d had enough.
“Here,” I said, reaching across the table and picking up her plate before she could stop me. “I’ll run inside and see if the kitchen staff has something for you.”
Carson scowled up at me, rude and territorial as he leaned his upper body closer to hers. “What’s wrong with steak?”
“She’s a vegetarian,” I said flatly. “I’m sure the steak is delicious. She just doesn’t want it.”
Sadie’s lips pressed into a thin line, her shoulders stiff and her gaze dropping to the table. To me, it looked like she now wasn’t just uncomfortable but embarrassed too. What the hell is wrong with her?
Instead of asking, I stood and turned on my heels with her plate balanced in my hand, ignoring Collins’ sudden silence beside me and Carson’s glower.
Maybe it wasn’t my business whether she forced herself to eat a steak for the approval of the man beside her.
It also wasn’t my business whether she’d wanted him to know or why she hadn’t just said something herself, but none of that mattered to me.
I was making it my business and getting her something she actually wanted to eat.
I’d barely made it into the kitchen when I heard the door click shut behind me.
All the staff were still out serving, it seemed, and when I looked over my shoulder, Sadie was there.
She cornered me between the stainless-steel island and the walk-in pantry, her hair curling around her face and her eyes sparking with something halfway between fury and confusion.
“What is your problem?” she hissed, her voice low but fierce. “Why did you do that?”
“Are you serious?” I shot back, a laugh escaping me that was a lot more bitter than I’d intended.
She crossed her arms, shoulders stiff as she narrowed her eyes at me. “Am I serious about what?”
“Carson,” I said, my head shaking. “You’ve got to be joking. That’s who Trent is trying to set you up with, right?”
“So what if he is?” She lifted her chin. “What exactly is it to you?”
“What is it to me? He’s an asshole, Sadie. I mean, come on. I know your family is putting the screws to you, but Carson ?”
“He’s perfectly nice,” she argued flippantly, like it didn’t even matter. “He’s from the right family and at least he’s not double my age. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s not a troll or that he actually has a sense of humor. I could do worse.”
“He’s a mouth-breathing big-game hunter with a compulsive need to brag about his family’s trophies,” I said. “You’re smarter than this, Sadie.”
Her cheeks flushed. “Everyone is allowed to have their passions.”
“He has a giraffe mounted in his house and a trophy from almost every continent. He told us on the golf course today that Australia is up next. I wonder if he’ll be stuffing a kangaroo or a koala bear when he gets home.”
She faltered. It was just for a breath, but I saw it, that flicker of horror she couldn’t quite hide. Sadie had always been so outspoken and so comfortable being herself, but she wasn’t that at all right now.
A moment later though, she seemed to have decided that a good offense was the best defense and she pushed back, her tone sharp and hard edged.
“What about Collins? Is that what you’re really after?
A sweet, southern belle who’ll be willing to let you do anything as long as you put a ring on her finger? ”
I laughed, the sound short and humorless. “Trust me, marrying her is the furthest thing from my mind.”
Sadie’s eyebrows twitched. “Yeah? And why’s that? The mighty Jameson Westwood is too good for a rancher’s daughter? Even if that rancher owns almost half the state.”
My next words came out rougher than they probably needed to be. “The only person who knows what she actually looks like is her plastic surgeon. Who even knows what my future children would look like? I guarantee they wouldn’t look anything like that woman.”
Her mouth dropped open, her eyes blazing with indignation. “God, you are such an asshole.”
She turned, meaning to storm out, but I caught her arm, every rational thought in my head evaporating. “Sadie, wait.”
“What?” she snapped, her chest heaving as she wrenched her arm free.
“Marry me instead.” The words slipped out, but they were honest and raw.
For a second, the whole kitchen felt too quiet, like even the air had stopped moving.
She froze, lashes fluttering in shock and her breath caught.
Our gazes hooked, and although I knew how reckless I’d been for just throwing it out there, for just a moment, I wondered if maybe she was about to say yes.