“My mom likes to play dirty. It’s what usually sets us apart, but in this case…”
Sawyer tried not to get stuck on her response, but it didn’t do much to put his mind at ease. If anything, it seemed they were in a predicament, the wholedesperate times called for desperate measurestype of thing.
Measures as desperate as having your daughter accept a proposal from the housemaid’s son. Sure, that housemaid was one of Claudia Benton’s closest friends, but that didn’t, in the world of known names and big money, make Sawyer a worthy candidate for her daughter.
At once, Duke’s offer shot to his mind. “You should probably tell your brothers. I just golfed with Duke. He asked me to go grab some drinks with him, pick up a few chicks while I was here.”
Betzy’s face scrunched up.
“His words,” he assured, “not mine. Anyway, I say we tell our families. If your grandma won’t go along with it, we’ll work on convincing her.”
She nodded. “We won’t be able to tell my mom’s boyfriend either. Matthew would never go along with it. But he’ll be easy. My grandma will be tougher since the two of us are so close.”
She shifted her gaze to look over the view, her gorgeous blue eyes reflecting the pool and sky and all their glory. And for a moment, it hurt to look at her. Hurt with a longing that might never be met. With a passion he might never fulfill. And with a determination to help this woman whether she felt the same or not.
“I think with my grandma…” Betzy said, her brow furrowed in concentration, “we’ll have to say that, you know, we’ve been flirting off and on while you were gone. And that when you came back this time, we had lunch…” She waved a hand toward him. “And just hit it off.”
Sawyer managed a smile. “Okay.”
“Or,” she blurted, “maybe we say that we told each other how we really feltmonthsago, but this is the first time we’ve been able to, you know, act out on it.”
Heat flared low in his belly. “That would probably be more convincing, since I’m going to propose before the month’s through.”
Betzy laughed. “Right.”
“So,” he asked. “This is kind of our first semi-publicappearance?”
Betzy glanced at the guests spread out on sun chairs below. The others who stood up to the bar having drinks. “Anyone who tried hard enough could see us together up here, so sure,” she said with a nod.
“Well, then…” Sawyer reached an arm across the table, rested a hand over hers, and tucked the tips of his fingers beneath her palm.Her skin was warm and silky. And when he glanced up to meet her gaze, the belly heat flared up anew.
She blushed, shifted in her seat, and then nodded to the list. “Are you okay with the rest of that?” Her voice was shaky now.
Sawyer followed her gaze, moving back up the page to find where he’d left off, but a random line scribbled along the bottom caught his eye.Get someone else if Sawyer says no.
“Whoa.”
She must have followed his gaze because suddenly Betzy was reaching across the table and crossing it out with her pen. “Don’t need that,” she mumbled.
Hmm.He forced his eyes back up to where he left off. “I’m coming to the cabin with you?”
“You don’t have to, of course. But it’d be fun. It’s been years since you and your mom came with us. She’s invited too, of course. Plus, I think it’s our only chance of convincing my grandma. And Mom’s boyfriend.Andif his daughter brings up her kids we’ll need to convince them too.”
This was starting to sound bigger than Sawyer first realized.
“The cabin is also good because if we disappear together, it will be more convincing that our relationship is real. If we really were dating, that’s probably what we’d do, right?”
“Right,” he said.
Sawyer could hardly get over the way that sounded on her lips. If they were really dating. If he had it his way, theywouldbe. His adrenaline spiked at the sight of number five:Sawyer proposes…
How many years had he imagined getting down on one knee for this woman?
Sawyer had to slow his next breath through pursed lips. He was getting ahead of himself. So far, she’d asked him to do a favor. One step at a time. Number six made him grin.
“Flaunt the ring in Daisy’s miserable face as she shrinks away in shame?” he said, lifting a brow at her.
Betzy hurried and crossed out that last part about Daisy shrinking away, but left the flaunting the ring part in place. “You have to understand, I was on the brink of insanity last night.” She reached out again and crossed out the entire thing. “There.”
