Page 3 of Bad Boy Husband
This wasn’t the first time I’d thought about this.
Not at all. I just never thought she’d go for it.
Now she had a reason to at least consider it.
Sadie would get her money to save the monkeys, or the donkeys, or whatever it was, and keep the nonprofit alive.
I would get the old man off my back for a while by fulfilling my obligation as a Westwood.
It would be a partnership. Temporary, transactional, but with Sadie. Hell, this could work.
Trent didn’t notice my silence. He kept talking about his house and some new barn he was building, but I barely heard him. My mind had already left the veranda. Eventually, I refocused on him, but after leaving him to catch up with Callum and Sterling, I went to find her.
Sadie was out in the garden as the sun dipped lower, shadowed by expensive candles floating in glass bowls.
She was laughing at something Laney had said, her shoulders relaxed, her head tipped back.
For a second, she didn’t look like someone carrying the weight of a trust fund gone and a dream on life support.
She was just Sadie. The same girl who’d once kissed me under a pecan tree on the ranch. I still couldn’t get a whiff of honeysuckle without getting at least half hard after that kiss.
Biding my time until Laney drifted away, I stepped closer, a drink gripped in my hand. The other slid into my pocket. “Sadie.”
She turned to face me, the candlelight catching the gleam in her eyes that was equal parts amusement and wariness. “Jameson. Does this mean that we’re talking again?”
“Nothing wrong with a little conversation between old friends,” I said, my thumb brushing the seam of my pocket nervously. I rarely got nervous about anything, but I was entering uncharted territory. “Got a minute?”
Her brows shot up, that hypnotic smirk ghosting across her mouth. “I usually only make bad decisions after midnight, but it is your house, so sure. What’s up?”
“Not much,” I lied, but it wasn’t like I could come right out with it after so many years of radio silence. “How was your summer? It’s been a minute since we caught up.”
“A minute?” She tilted her head, studying me like she couldn’t quite decide what I was playing at. “It’s been a decade, but sure. I suppose some days, it does feel like a minute. Besides lurking around gender reveal parties and scaring the help, what have you been up to?”
I smirked, though my pulse ticked faster. “The usual. Work. Family stuff. Trying not to die of boredom.”
“Ah,” she said with a sparkle in her eyes. “The glamorous life.”
“How about you? You still haven’t told me what you’ve been up to, besides overanalyzing nursery paint colors and wrecking Sterling’s kitchen with lattes.”
She sighed. “You heard about that?”
“Yep.”
“I didn’t wreck it, but there really isn’t much else to tell anyway. I’ve been feeding too many animals, paying too many bills, and surviving on cereal because of it.”
The faint scent of her perfume, something warm and faintly floral, wafted over and hit me hard. I tried not to let it show as I looked at her. A flicker of something raw danced in her eyes under the amusement and bravado.
“Right,” I said finally. “I heard you’re poor now.”
Laughter burst out of her, quick and surprised. “God, have you always been this blunt? I don’t remember that.”
I shrugged. “Trent might have mentioned something.”
She rolled her eyes, but her smile stayed. “He’s dramatic, but yeah, it’s true. I’m about two missed paychecks away from living in my car.”
Something in my chest tightened, but before I could say anything, she surprised me by adding, “I actually came here hoping to pick Sterling’s brain about arranged marriages.”
That threw me for a loop. “Arranged marriages?”
She nodded, seemingly almost sheepish until she caught herself and squared her shoulders. “If anyone knows how to turn ‘I don’t love you, but let’s get rich anyway’ into an actual plan, it’s him, but he’s floating around on future-daddy cloud nine. I haven’t been able to pin him down.”
I stared at her, a dozen thoughts racing through my mind all at once. Is it really going to be this easy?
“Maybe you don’t need Sterling,” I found myself saying before I could think better of it. “Maybe you and I could meet up and talk it over sometime soon.”
Her eyes sharpened, like she was trying to read the truth behind my smirk, but before she could answer, Trent’s voice cut through the garden, loud enough to make a couple of partygoers glance our way. “Sadie, come here, you’ve got to see this!”
Trent’s eyebrows shot up when he realized I’d been sitting with her, his tone light but edged with warning, “You better not be making any moves on my baby sister, Westwood.”
“Who, me?” I raised my hands in mock innocence. “Never.”
Sadie gave me one last, unreadable look before she turned and walked over to her brother, disappearing into the lantern-lit crowd. I exhaled, the night air thick in my lungs.
Apparently, this wasn’t going to be that easy, but then again, nothing worth doing ever was.