Page 9

“Sometimes people have important messages,” Jace said.

Elsie, sitting across the room, scoffed. “Louis Vuitton was having a sale on purses.”

Jace tilted his head. “You remember what Jennifer was looking at on her phone during the conversation Mom is referring to?”

“Yeah, because I couldn’t believe anyone would pay $2,500 for a purse and call that a sale.”

Olivia nodded in agreement. “I can’t bring myself to spend more money on a purse than I would ever carry in it. That just seems wrong.”

“I’m holding you to that,” Carson told her. “And you never carry more than one hundred dollars in cash.”

“I might start carrying more.” She opened her phone screen and scrolled through a site. “I think I should start carrying about two hundred dollars, maybe two-fifty. You can get a really cute Kate Spade purse for that…”

Carson turned his attention back to Jace. “Since I’m the person who paid off your student loans and is giving you a no-interest loan for med school, it worries me that you might end up married to someone who could bankrupt you with her spending habits.”

And this was the difference between his family and Jennifer’s. His family was frugal by nature, and hers saw money as something that was meant to be enjoyed. “Jennifer is going to be a doctor too. I don’t think you have to worry about it.” If the two of them got married, Jace could be the saver, and he would let Jennifer be the spender.

Carson laughed and shook his head. “I know a lot of guys who made way more bank than a doctor’s salary and then went bankrupt after leaving the NFL because they’d gotten used to blowing through money for stupid things. Sounds like Jennifer is already there.”

Lucas began scrolling through a Louis Vuitton site on his phone. “What could possibly make a purse cost $2,500? Did fairies weave it from starlight?”

“The purses are leather,” Elsie said. “But they came from cows who ate nothing but caviar.”

Lucas shook his head and let out a low breath. “I should give up management and go into purse design. How hard could they be to make? They’re a small bag with a couple of pockets and a handle.”

Carson stretched out his legs in that casual, muscular way that made him seem like a human endorsement deal. “Look, bro. We’re not saying Jennifer’s a bad person.”

“Yes, you are,” Jace said flatly.

“Okay, I am,” Carson admitted. “But even if she wasn’t, it wouldn’t kill you to date someone else. You two are on a break. Take advantage of the off-season.”

His mom clasped her hands. “We’re only trying to help, sweetheart. I know she’s … um, smart⁠—”

Jace’s father grunted from the corner of the living room and joined the conversation for the first time. “She called your mother’s cobbler ‘provincial’.”

“It is provincial,” Lucas chimed. “That’s what makes it delicious. Snobby people just don’t appreciate cooking unless it comes from chic, overpriced restaurants.”

Jace’s head was beginning to pound. “Jennifer isn’t snobby. She just has specific tastes and knows what she likes.” Except when it came to him. Then she needed time to decide.

Elsie leaned closer to Olivia. “When she first came to Lark Springs, she said it looked like the set of a low-budget Hallmark movie.”

“That was sort of a compliment,” Jace muttered. “Everyone loves Hallmark movies.”

“I bet she doesn’t,” Elsie said.

Jace exhaled, scrubbing a hand across his face. Okay, so Jennifer had made a bad impression, but his family ought to be willing to give her a second chance. They didn’t know her like he did. Last summer she’d spent a month in Guatemala volunteering to do pre-op work for the doctors who were performing cleft palate surgeries there. Every day, her social feed had shown her smiling with a grateful parent or doing her best to calm a nervous child.

Jennifer had a good heart.

Jace’s mother paced in front of the fireplace, her hands waving as she spoke. “It wouldn’t hurt you to date other women while you’re here.”

“Women with normal spending habits,” Carson put in. “So I don’t decide you’re a bad credit risk and make you get a regular student loan for the rest of med school.”

That’s what they’d come to? Carson was guilting him about his past financial aid and threatening to rescind future help? Jace had to bite his lip in order not to tell his brother that he couldn’t control him with his money.

Carson had done a lot for him. Even though Jace had received a scholarship that covered most of his undergraduate expenses, he’d still had to take out a student loan. When Jace graduated from Montana State, Carson surprised him by paying off that debt. He’d also agreed to give him interest-free loans for medical school. Jace owed him a lot of gratitude—and about $70,000 in interest that would have accrued before he even graduated.

He took a slow breath in and out. He would not bolt out of the room. His family loved him and had his best interests at heart. They just worried too much. He needed to find a way to assure them that he wasn’t about to ruin his life by marrying a snobbish shopaholic.