I end the call but leave the phone in my hand. With my hair wet against my shoulders, I stare at the device and wonder what to do.
Chapter Nine
Holt
“And then Wade acted likeIwas crazy,” Boone says. “I told him to go double-check his facts and call me back andmaybeI’d answer. Can you believe that?”
“Nope.”
I give myself a mental pat on the back for getting the timing right with my response. I have no clue what he’s talking about nor do I care.
Boone is the youngest of my brothers but only eighteen months after Coy. The two of them were buddies growing up while Ollie and I book-ended the other side. That left Wade in the middle. He’s now your proverbial middle child with two older CEOs on one side of him and two heathens on the other. Sometimes, I feel sorry for him … especially when Boone is on his back.
The late morning sun streams through my office windows as my brother starts in again.
“Anyway,” Boone begins, “Mom called this morning and wants everyone over for brunch next week since Coy will be home. I’m supposed to spread the word.”
I tap the edge of Blaire’s credit card against my desk. Each tap makes it seem like my brain is being split farther in two.
Half of it is here, in my office, processing my conversation with Graham Landry and listening to Boone. The other half is perplexed with a dark-haired woman who I’m now considering might be fucking with me.
I don’t really believe that. She’s not the game-playing type. I’m positive about that.Mostly.But she’s also not the leave-your-credit-card-behind kind of woman, yet here I sit, holding it. It makes a man wonder if this is a game or some fucked-up gift from above.
“You’re coming, right?” Boone asks.
I sit back in my chair and pull my thoughts back to the present. “Of course.”
“Okay. I’ll let her know.”
“Like Mom’s not going to call us all and give us a run-down on her menu and ask if we have any requests.”
“She asked formyhelp,” he says with a hint of pride. “I’m just doing what I said I would.”
I scoff. “Whatever. She’s just trying to keep you busy so you keep your dick out of … what’s-her-name.”
I can hear Boone’s jaw drop. Or maybe it’s just the way he gasps and hides a chuckle right after. Either way, his reaction makes me laugh.
“Mom doesnotknow who my dick is in,” Boone says.
“The hell she doesn’t. Mom knows everything, and the sooner you realize that, the better.”
“She can’t possibly know I’m fucking Daphne Monroe.”
The edge of Blaire’s card presses into my thigh as I move it back and forth.
“Boone,” I deadpan. “You don’t think Daphne is running her mouth to everyone who will listen—especially to all the women at the country club? That girl is shooting for the Mason family trifecta or whatever it would be called with five people.”
He laughs. “You mean four because Wade isn’t gonna fuck her.”
I laugh too because he’s right. Wade’s not going to get a piece ofthat because Wade doesn’t get a piece of anybody. If Oliver and I are workaholics, Wade is whatever the next level of that is because no matter how busy Ollie and I get, we do our own versions of dating. Wade does not.
“I’m not fucking her, either,” I say, wrinkling my nose at the thought of banging Daphne Monroe. “I guess trifecta works, after all.”
I flip the card into the palm of my hand and rub my thumb across Blaire’s name.
Maybe I should just stick it in the mail or have someone run it over to the Landry’s.
The raised, gold letters spelling her name prickle against my skin. I can’t help but remember how she felt against me last night. But as I think back, I realize the best part wasn’t the curve of her waist or the way she fit so perfectly around my cock.
