My heart fluttered. It was pretty clear that this wasn’t going to be a strictly business dinner.
I demurred, “I don’t know if I’m actually going to win.”
“You will,” Walter said, still giving me that intense stare that made my stomach flip-flop. “Not only am I writing you a very generous campaign donation check, but your performance tonight let everyone know that you are a caring, intelligent woman.”
Jeez, these billionaires.
“Come out with me.”
Gulp.
“Actually,” I said, resisting the urge to start fanning myself, “I have another appointment.”
“Call me when you have availability,” he replied.
Kate winked at me then followed her boss off.
I tried to calm my nerves. I’d need them tonight for my big appointment.
But as I turned to look for my purse, I met Hunter’s steel-eyed gaze, cold with fury.
20
Hunter
Walter fucking Holbrook was after Meg. And from the way she looked at him, she was into him in a way she wasn’t with all the previous losers she had dated.
Before I could grab her and tell her in no uncertain terms that I would not allow her to be alone with him, the reporters from the Harrogate Chronicle stopped me for an interview. By the time I had answered their questions, Meg had gone.
“He was flirting with her,” I fumed to Remy as we herded the children out to the bus. Of course my other adult-aged brothers were nowhere to be found. They were all out with their girlfriends. That should have been Meg and me, but she was mad at me, and now Walter was circling her.
“Yup,” Remy said, “and she was flirting right back.”
“He’s old, and he’s her best friend’s father-in-law!” I seethed, separating two kids who were fighting over who was going to eat the cookie that they had found on the sidewalk.
The only saving grace when I had given up my billionaire, carefree existence in Manhattan to move back to Harrogate so I could take care of my ever-multiplying younger brothers was that I would be there with Meg. Now Walter was trying to steal her from me, just like he had with my company.
“I won’t stand for it,” I insisted.
“Big words for someone who aired Meg’s dirty laundry at the public debate,” Remy said, frowning.
I scoffed. “I’ll send her flowers. She cannot end up with Walter.” I needed to do opposition research on him, figure out what he was up to. The Holbrooks always had dirt. There was something there I could use to convince Meg that Walter was radioactive.
“Remy, you’re going the wrong way,” I said after he spun the wheel, the bus making a left turn on a main road.
“Nope,” he said. “I promised the kids I’d take them to Costco if they behaved at the debate. And they did great!”
“Did I do good?” Davy asked me, shaking my leg. “I went up when I was supposed to.”
“You did,” I assured the kid. “I’m going to get a huge poll boost from you.”
“Archer said I could pick out anything at Costco that I wanted if I did it right!”
“Totally,” I told him absently. My mind was already spinning schemes to keep Meg away from Walter and ideally ruin him and the rest of the Holbrook cousins in the process, though I would settle with Meg accepting my marriage proposal and Walter not earning a wedding invite.
Remy parked the bus in the Costco parking lot. “This is your stop!” he boomed.
I settled in my seat to wait for him to take the kids inside.
