Page 9 of Mr. Brightside

Right.

I’ve still got three hours left of this shift. We’re not slammed, but I’m not going to slack off and make Lia work herself to death because I’m distracted by our funny, charismatic, sexy-as-sin manager. The guy who got so close earlier I could feel his minty breath on my face.

Shit. I’m doing it again. He really is the perfect distraction.

Jake Whitely may be a fuckboy who’s only interested in a good time. But for once, that’s exactly what I’m looking for, too.

I give Lia a sheepish smile and head to the dining room to check on my tables.

I just have to get through these next few hours until we meet up. Then I can really let myself get lost in his specific brand of hot, sweaty, no-strings-attached fun.

Chapter 5

Jake

IcalledMikeonmy way home tonight and told him it was done. That I had a plan. That I would have the money.

We’d already negotiated a price, and there’s not time for any sort of formal transition or training. He’s literally getting on a plane tomorrow. He’ll be back and forth for a while since he still has to sell his house and move all his things.

He knows the deal. Well, not the details of the deal. But he knows I have untapped funds from my dad’s will and that I’m sticking my tail between my legs to unlock that money and buy him out.

Thankfully he trusted me enough to agree to an initial down payment with a promise to pay in full as soon as I have the money. According to my lawyer, it shouldn’t be more than a few weeks from the time we send the marriage certificate to my father’s estate attorney.

It’s comically easy. There are no other conditions to satisfy. All I have to do is get married, and the money is mine. For all intents and purposes, I just became the new owner of Clinton’s and The Oak.

Well, aside from the part where I still have to actually ask Cory to marry me.

I’ve spent the last hour psyching myself up. Tidying the condo. Convincing myself that this will work.

I’m prepared to offer him half of everything. No prenup. No conditions. Just half of everything I get. There can’t be a paper trail to this arrangement. But if he’s willing to help me—to trust me—I’m happy to give him five million dollars.

To think: the man was worried about coming up with twenty grand.

I’ve pumped myself up so much I feel sick. Little blasts of nausea keep catching me by surprise as I wipe down my kitchen island for the third time. Cory’s never been here, and I want to make a good impression.

I snicker at the idea of worrying about sparkly counters when I’m about to propose marriage. I doubt he’ll be able to focus on anything once I drop that bomb. Speaking of sparkly…

I don’t have a ring.

Doesn’t matter. If he goes for it, we can go shopping together. That is, if he wants to wear a ring. I don’t care either way.

My lawyer was clear; there are no extra conditions or a time frame included in my dad’s will, so we don’t have to stay married forever. But I don’t want to call any unnecessary attention to the situation by getting divorced too quickly, either. Especially because I know my brothers will catch wind of what’s going down. And they’ll be watching for me to mess this up.

I don’t know if either Julian or Joey would care enough to take me to court, but I’m not willing to fuck around and find out. I don’t think we’ll cause much of a ruckus if we stay married for two years.

I finally make myself sit. Cory’s going to walk in and know something’s wrong if I don’t cool it. I pick up my phone and open up a social media app, intent on doing a little research on my potential future husband.

Husband.

Fuck.

That’s going to take some getting used to.

I find him immediately. Even though we’re not connected, we have a bunch of mutual friends. His profile picture is an upper body shot of him laughing and looking past the person taking the picture. He looks really handsome.

I keep scrolling and poking around, but force myself to go slow so I don’t accidentally click on anything to let him know I’m creeping. There aren’t many recent pictures, but I think that’s typical for people our age. I was desperate for everyone on social media to know everything I was doing five years ago. Now I mostly just use it to remember to text my friends on their birthdays.

There are a few pictures of him with Tori and Lia, and one of him with a woman in her late fifties or early sixties. There are also a few pictures of him and a blond man who looks to be five or ten years older than me. In one of the pictures, they’ve even got their arms around each other, posing in front of a highway sign.