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“Thanks, Lisie. I can always count on you to be on my side.”
Weston growled and tugged her close. “She’s always on my side.”
Elise patted his puffed-up chest. “Is it possible we’re all on the same side? I’d love it if we were.” She pointed at something. “Oh, look. That has to be her pulling in.”
“Be nice,” I warned Weston.
He gave me a long, assessing look. My brother was smart. At twenty, he’d invented a thin, lightweight, environmentally-sound insulation for outerwear and started his company, Andes. He’d build it into something more massive than any of us could have foreseen, even him. So, when he looked at me the way he was, he was using that big, fancy brain of his to find the things I wasn’t saying.
I’d never warned him about a girl before.
Had never invited one along on a hike.
Had never met one at work or talked her up the way I had Daisy.
He was seeing there was something different at play here. This wasn’t casual.
That was true. This thing with Daisy was serious. I didn’t fool around when it came to my business, and this relationship had become the focus of my work.
Daisy made her way across the parking lot toward our trio. Her head was covered by an army green hat, and she wore a plaid shirt tucked into slim, dark brown cargo pants. On her feet were a fine pair of hiking boots—boots that told me she really was a hiker.
I went to her, stopping ten or fifteen feet from Weston and Elise. “Hey, Daisy-daze.”
“Hey, Spreadsheet.”
I tugged on the bill of her hat. “I’m going to give you a great big hug now. Act like you like it, okay?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Oh, all right. I’ll try.”
With a grin, I swooped her into my arms and lifted her right off her feet. She was too short for me to waste time bending over and trying to get in there. Her arms circled my neck, holding me tight in the same way her mom had. For a second, I found myself wishing she’d wrap her legs around me too.
“You’ve got that Dunham hugging gene,” I said as I buried my face in the side of her neck.
“Why hug if you’re not going to go all in?” She played with the hair at my nape and sighed. “You can kiss my cheek, but then you have to put me down.”
“What if I want you to kiss my cheek?”
Without a word of argument, she turned her head, catching her lips on the hinge of my jaw. A soft press of warmth and it was over as quickly as it had started. “There,” she whispered. “Put me down now. I’m dangling.”
“I didn’t get my kiss yet.” I pulled my face out of her neck and slid my cheek along hers, touching my lips to her chin. “There.”
I set her on her feet, holding her elbows until she was steady. “Ready to meet my asshole brother and his sweet fiancée?”
“I heard that,” Weston called.
I grinned at him. “Why do you think I said it so loudly?”
Daisy went ahead of me, greeting Elise then Weston. She shook their hands, the little business lady. Of course, Weston approved. Probably because the last woman he’d seen on my arm had been at Elise’s birthday party almost two years ago. She hadn’t really even known where she was, much less whose birthday she was celebrating.
Daisy and I were an arrangement, but if one of the effects of faking it with her was building me up in my brother’s esteem, I would take it. Weston didn’t give a shit about names or pedigree. He judged based on work ethic and loyalty. I already knew Daisy had plenty of the first, and I was banking she wasn’t short on the latter.
“Do you do a lot of hiking, Daisy?” Weston asked.
“I make sure I get out at least once a week.” She hooked her thumbs around the straps of her backpack. “I don’t know if that constitutes a lot.”
Weston stared down his nose at her. “By yourself?”
She shrugged, not seeing the danger she was about to step in. “Sometimes. It depends if I can find someone to go with me. But I’m always on populated trails, so I’ve never felt unsafe.”
