Page 10 of Sweet Temptation (Honeysuckle, Texas #3)

The door to their father’s study closed with a soft click as Jillian, the last to arrive, slipped inside.

This had become the go-to-meeting place whenever they had something serious to discuss—or plan.

Garret glanced around at his siblings; Carson seated at their father’s desk, Rachel curled up in the worn leather chair by the window, Preston standing with arms crossed near the bookcase.

The familiar scent of leather, old books, and maybe even their dad’s cologne, lingered in the air.

“So,” Rachel broke the silence, “how did the drive go?”

“Things are coming together. I’m hopeful we’ll work it all out.”

Jillian plopped down on the nearby chair. “Well, Mom clearly likes her.”

“Definitely,” Carson agreed. “She seemed thrilled when y’all told her at dinner that she’d be staying a bit longer.”

“Yeah,” Rachel said. “It was a good strategy to pretend how long hinged on whether or not she found a job.”

Waving a single arm in the air, Jillian sighed. “Well, it’s not like they could tell her she’s staying for a year to pretend marry Garret and collect on the trust.”

“Is she really looking for work?” Carson swirled the cubes in his drink.

Garret nodded. “Yes, we stopped at the café. She pulled two opportunities from the bulletin board.”

“Which ones?” Rachel shifted in her seat.

“Town clerk assistant and an admin position at the high school.”

“Remind me what she did in Houston?” Preston asked.

“Operations manager for a small insurance company.”

“That’s right.” Preston’s head bobbed.

“So she’s really staying?” Jillian leaned forward, elbows on her knees.

Garret nodded, feeling a strange mix of relief and something else he couldn’t quite name. “We hammered out most of the details on the drive back.”

“So when’s the big announcement?” Rachel grinned, a mischievous glint in her eye. “And the wedding?”

“There’s the challenge. We couldn’t figure out a way to move things along quickly without drawing suspicion from Mom. After all, I can’t exactly blurt out over breakfast, Isn’t Jackie great? We’re getting married next week .”

“That might be a bit odd.” Preston shrugged.

“What if,” Carson leaned forward on the desk, “you don’t make it seem sudden? Say you’ve been talking online for months. Finally, met in person in Millers Creek, which is true enough.”

“And it was love at first sight,” Jillian added with dramatic flair, hands clasped to her heart.

“Less is more,” Carson advised. “Don’t over explain. Just say you reconnected, things clicked, and you both realized no point in wasting time when you find the right person.”

“Worked for me,” Preston said with a smile.

“And me,” Carson agreed.

“Speaking of clicking,” Rachel’s gaze sharpened on Garret, “how’s that going? You two seemed pretty cozy at dinner.”

Garret felt heat creep up his neck. “We get along well. It’s… easy being around her.”

“Good, because this needs to move along sooner than later.” Carson leaned back in his seat again. “You’ll need to start cozying up in front of Mom.”

“And the town,” Rachel added. “Don’t forget the town.”

“And you’d better get your stories straight, because Mom will eventually get around to the questions of how you met, how long have you known each other, etc.” Jillian shrugged at her brother. “Otherwise, things could get complicated.”

As if marrying a near stranger wasn’t complicated enough. “I can handle complicated,” Garret said.

“Good,” Preston said. “Because you’re about to get a whole lot of it.”

“Okay,” Jillian stood, “let’s be practical. We’ve had two quick marriages in a row. If we don’t want Mom to get suspicious, we have to come up with an exact plan.”

Garret nodded, it was why they’d all come together, a good idea or two was what he’d hoped for. “Have something specific in mind?”

“Of course I do. Think of this as any other courtship. Sit down with Mom, talk to her. Tell her how much you like Jackie. How there’s something about her that is different and special.”

That would be easy enough, so far Jillian hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true.

He’d known from the moment Jackie put on a good face and slid down the sand hill even though he could see how scared she was that she wasn’t like any other woman he’d known.

Simply having agreed to this hare-brained trust scheme, reinforced how special she was, and he really did think about her more than he should.

Rachel frowned at her sister. “You want him to tell Mom what he’s planning?”

“Hear me out.” Jillian stared daggers at her twin.

“Ask Mom what she thinks of Jackie. We all know Mom is a romantic at heart, and she seems to really like Jackie, so she’ll have some profound bit of wisdom for you.

Then ask her, is it crazy to court her? Of course Mom will look at you like you have nine heads because no one courts a girl anymore, but if you play it right, I think she’ll not only buy it, I bet she’ll help you win over the girl of your dreams.”

Girl of his dreams. Is that what Jackie was? No, he shook his head. This is pretend. But courting?

“You know,” Rachel piped up, “she has a point. Lay your intentions on the table and get Mom’s help. Then the proposal won’t be a surprise.”

“In the meantime,” Preston added, “take her out, show her off, and let the gossip start. It’ll take a little acting, but if Jackie is in agreement, I think Jillian’s idea is a good one.”

“Of course it’s a good one.” Jillian made a silly face at her brother before patting herself on the shoulder. “I’m brilliant.”

“Ha,” Rachel scoffed. “Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard, you might fall off that pedestal.”

Most of the room broke out in short chuckles or muffled laughter. But the important thing was they all agreed. And they had a plan.

His siblings filed out of the study, each giving him an encouraging nod or thumbs up as they passed.

Garret stayed behind for a moment. His father’s presence seemed especially strong tonight, and Garret could almost hear his advice: Plans are good, son, but life rarely follows them.

For the first time he could remember, he really hoped his father wasn’t right.

A rap on her door pulled Jackie away from the most boring book she’d ever picked up. “Come in.”

“I’m not disturbing you, am I?”

She shook her head. “No, I thought I’d relax a little before tackling the two applications.”

“Need some help?” Garret remained in the doorway, his feet planted firmly in the hall, his head peeking inside.

“Couldn’t hurt.” Closing the book and setting it on the nightstand, she reached for the papers beside her, and crossing her legs, patted the foot of the bed for Garret to take a seat.

The way he walked slowly toward her bed, anyone would think he was facing a firing squad, not an application for her employment.

“I think I’d like to apply for the school job first.”

His head bobbed as he slowly descended onto the edge of the bed. Any more on the edge and he’d be sitting on the floor. “Any reason in particular?”

“I’ve worked in a stressful industry; I can’t help but think working for the city could be equally stressful. A school, on the other hand, shouldn’t be high maintenance, and,” she sprouted a grin, “summer vacations!”

Chuckling, Garret looked at the application for the high school office position. “I can’t argue. Summers off is quite the perk.”

“Is that the voice of experience talking?” One of the many things she appreciated about spending time with Garret was the ease with which conversation came. For the most part, after only a few days, she felt like there wasn’t anything they couldn’t discuss, or share.

“I’ve had a nice vacation or two. On a teacher’s budget, of course.” His smile widened and he shifted a little further onto the bed.

She liked that he was becoming more comfortable around her. “Of course.”

Frowning, Garret carefully eyed the paper in his hand. “I’m surprised they’re not asking you to attach a resume.”

“They’re not?” She scooted forward, shifting to kneeling like a curious puppy looking at the paper in his master’s hand, hoping it was a snack.

“Look for yourself.” He handed her the paper and she sat back on her rear. “Well, that is odd.” Her gaze lifted, meeting his. “Do you think I should attach one anyway? If you have a printer here, I can access it from the cloud storage and then print it.”

“We do. And I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”

Reaching for a pen, she began filling out the obvious, her name, birth date, and then paused. “Is it going to look weird if I use the address here?”

He shook his head. “Not after I start courting you.”

Pen in hand, her head snapped up. “Excuse me?”

“You say that a lot, don’t you?” He smiled.

“My grandmother would have my head if I said what . That drove her nuts. Especially when she called my name. I learned to respond with coming !”

“Got it. Anyhow, we decided to try a different approach this time. I’m going to ask Mom’s advice on courting you.”

“Courting?

He nodded.

“Like in the nineteenth century?”

“I suppose. Or that TV show with that religious family and a bazillion kids. I think Mom will really buy into the old-fashioned charm.”

“If you say so.”

“What we do need to work out is the story I’m going to tell her about how we met. I was thinking… Last summer I took our class on an outing to NASA. Can you think of any way we could have run into each other?”

That took a little thought. “NASA isn’t exactly in the middle of downtown Houston or near where I live. Of course, your mother doesn’t have to know where I live.” She thought a little more and then leaned forward again. “Where did y’all have lunch?”

“Lunch?” He looked to the ceiling a moment “Some lunch joint. Nothing special.”

“Rudy’s is a favorite barbecue place. They’re all over Texas but more in Houston and Austin. We could say we met there during lunch. I had to wait for all the kids to order and you were very kind and stopped the next kid from ordering so I could get my order in first.”

“Well, that was nice of me.” That smile was doing weird things to her stomach. “And I actually do love Rudy’s. Their creamed corn is to die for.”

“Right?” She sat up, absurdly excited to learn he liked the same food she did. As good as their barbecue was, it was the corn that kept her coming in to eat.

“But we didn’t see each other again until you had a job opportunity in Millers Creek—that, of course, didn’t pan out?”

She wasn’t quite sure if that was a statement or a question, so she simply nodded.

“Good, then we have a plan?”

“We do.” It felt oddly nice to be working together with Garret.

He pushed to his feet, and extended his hand to her. “Come on. I’ll take you downstairs to Dad’s study and you can print that resume for the application.”

Immediately her fingers curled around his and her stomach did that funny rolling thing again.

She’d expected him to let go of her hand once she was standing, but he didn’t.

He held on as they left the room, walked down the hall, descended the stairs, and then crossed into the study.

What she didn’t know, was if this had been simply for show, hoping to bump into his mother, or if this was real.

In her head she understood this was probably just the first of many performances for family and friends, but still a small part of her kind of hoped maybe it was just a little real.