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“It would be about a year and a half from now, and with the distance, I’d really have no choice.” Hair seemed to constantly fall in her face, and I brushed some back. “Have you been?”
She nodded. “Twice. Both times for stopovers. So much to see and do. And the food? I die.”
“Agreed. I just have to convince the team.”
“The team is Macon and Cooper?”
I moved my arm out from under my head and rubbed my hand over my hair. “I fucking wish. That would make my life much, much simpler.” I hissed out a mouthful of air. “My uncle recently retired, finally handing over the business to us boys and my cousin, but with that came a merger with Cole International. A transition that hasn’t been easy on any of us. So, instead of there being four partners, there are seven.”
She sat up. “I read about this too.”
“You probably did. It made international headlines for quite a few weeks.”
She wiggled over the mattress until she found a position she liked. “Let me get this all straight. There’re three Spade brothers and a cousin?”
“Jo Dalton. She’s married to Jenner.”
“Oh, yes, I’ve met her. She’s so lovely.” She tucked her legs underneath her. “And then there’re two Cole brothers and a sister, right?”
“Ridge and Rhett are the brothers. Rowan is their sister. Rowan is dating Cooper, my middle brother.” I chuckled. “It’s a lot to take in, I know.”
“Good Lord.” She rested her hands in her lap. “I’m pretty sure I’ve read about their romance. It hit the tabloids.”
I clasped my hand around her shoulder. “Do me a favor—mention that when you see him. Nothing would please me more than the look on his face when you tell him there was a fucking article written about his love life.”
She winced. “I’m pretty positive it was a magazine.”
“Even better.”
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re unhappy with having three more partners.” She paused. “Am I right?”
It blew my mind how smooth it was to talk to her. How uncomplicated it felt. She wasn’t drilling me or interviewing me, like many of the women I’d hooked up with in the past. She was truly trying to just understand it all.
And opening up—something I rarely did outside of family and close friends, and even then, I was usually tight-lipped about the personal stuff—wasn’t hard to do.
“You’re right.” I rubbed the outside of her thigh, needing at least some part of me touching her. “Rowan’s cool. My issue isn’t with her. Although when she first started dating Cooper—given that she was one of our partners—that rubbed me the wrong way. Her brothers, on the other hand, have gotten under my skin since day one.”
“I get the sense that’s easy to do.”
“You really think you know me, don’t you?” I winked.
“Just a little hunch I have.”
“Again, you’re not wrong.” My thumb stilled by her inner thigh. “But those fuckers came in with nothing but attitude. Granted, we’re three cocky men who hate advice and compromising. I wouldn’t want to deal with us, and I don’t know how Jo does. But those dudes came at us all wrong.” I flattened the top of my hair. “Ridge has a little girl, Daisy. She’s a cute one, and he’s the softer of the two, but Rhett”—I ruffled up my hair—“that bastard is something else.”
She smiled. “Sounds like executive meetings are a blast.”
My head shook back and forth. “They’re getting better. They’re nothing like when the merger first happened. Honestly, Rhett is lucky to be alive with how many times I’ve wanted to choke his ass out.” My voice quieted a little as I added, “Macon wants us to give him a little slack. Their dad, Ray, is dying. He doesn’t have much time left. It’s tough.”
“Are they close to their dad?”
“Very.”
“Take it from someone who’s been through it. He’s going to need a lot of slack. I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone—not even someone I hate.”
I moved my hand under her leg and squeezed. “For you, I’ll think about it.”
A sound went off on the other side of the room.
