Sawyer:I will. But the more important question is this: do YOU find me sexy?
Heat flared hot in her chest, neck, and face.
“Did he text you back?” Camila asked.
“Yeah,” Betzy said. “Here.” She tipped the phone so Camila could read the interaction herself.
“He’s a flirt,” she said with a grin.
“I know.” Another text popped up.
Sawyer:Is that crickets I hear chirping? C’mon, is it that hard to admit you’re attracted to me?
Betzy shook her head. “Incorrigible.” It took her a moment to think of a response, but at last, it came to her.
Betzy:I can admit that all sorts of men are sexy. It doesn’t mean they’re my type.
Sawyer:Women. Always so complicated.
A deep, happy sigh spilled through her lips as she looked at the screen. She enjoyed this. Would miss it once it was gone. Which it would be once Sawyer got serious with someone. It was probably the only way she’d really know he’d gotten into a relationship.
“Hey, look what’s coming in next month’s issue,” Rachel said, pointing at a spot on the back page. Betzy read it aloud as she went.
“From hard-working bachelorette to wealthy old spinster. Find out which billionaire bachelorettes are destined to hold onto their money whilemenslip through their fingers.”
A hush fell over the table.
A sick knot formed in Betzy’s stomach as she reread the title. “You arekiddingme.”
She snatched the magazine from Rachel to see it up close and personal. “I bet you anything I’m on that list.”
“You’re in your twenties,” Grandma countered, but that crease along her brow said she was concerned just the same.
“It doesn’t say she’salreadya spinster,” her mom said, “just that she’s destined tobecomeone.”
Grandma and Mom exchanged a worried glance.
“Who else do we know that works forSlipper?” Mom asked. “We need to know if she’s on that list.”
Betzy turned her eyes on Grandma next. “Anyone? Think.”
Grandma gritted her teeth and snatched her phone from her purse. “I’ll ask around. Don’t you worry, dear. I doubt they would ever put you on a list like that.”
Mom locked eyes with Betzy across the table, her lips pursed in concentration. After all of Mom’s warnings that Betzy might end up alone if she pursued a career, there wasn’t a hint ofI-told-you-soin her gaze.
Claudia Benton knew how to play that mama bear role as well as the rest of them, especially when it was to protect the family name.
Betzy imagined the humiliation that might come of it—an appearance in an article that said she was destined to be old and all alone.The very fear that had haunted Betzy since she was a little girl.
Grandma and all of her gumption had given her the courage to compete in the business world with the best of the best and make a name for herself, despite her mother’s warning.
The trouble was, that warning might just hold true. A knot of burning heat stirred in her gut.
She would definitely be on that list. And she could guess at who’s idea it’d been to put her there: Daisy Shay’s.
Camila gave her a tap on the arm and leaned in. “Hey, James is heading out of town with Zander later today. Why don’t you come over? We’ll come up with a plan to combat the articlejust in case,and you can fill me in on your history with this sexy bachelor. Oh, and of course, we’ll eat something amazing.”
Camila wasn’t just saying that either. As one of LA’s finest private chefs, James’ new wife turned ordinary meals into something of magic.
