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“Are you even listening to me?” William’s bark snapped Amelia out of her pity party.
She straightened her spine and shook her head while closing her door. “Give me a minute and I’ll go find her.” The door clicked closed, locking William out of her life for a brief moment.
“She’s not in her room,” William shouted from the other side of the door.
Dressed, Nate stepped out from the bathroom. Amelia’s heart sunk with disappointment. She gave him a half smile and inhaled deeply as he crossed the room toward her.
“I take it you’ve got to go?”
“Sorry,” she mumbled, her eyes focused on the center of his defined chest. The maroon V-neck T-shirt he wore hugged his pecs and arms. The first thing about him she’d spotted was his bicep when he reached across the bar downstairs to pay for a round of drinks. She’d always adored a man with nice arms.
“Did you at least enjoy yourself?” Nate asked, stopping inches from her. His gaze focused on her lips.
“Hell yeah.” Amelia anticipated his hug and opened her arms. Somehow being in his embrace she felt safe, warm, as if everything was going to be okay—but it wasn’t. Her tryst this evening might come with a cost—her job. Was he worth it? Nate’s arms closed tighter around her waist and he effortlessly lifted her into the air while planting a stream of kisses along her collarbone. Goose bumps began to swarm her forearms. A wicked wave of passion fluttered between her legs. Dear Lord Jesus, yes, this man was worth it.
“I plan on seeing you again,” Nate declared, setting her on her feet.
“I wouldn’t bet the farm.” Amelia half smiled. “I am a pretty busy woman.”
“I like farms.” Nate perked up. His emerald green eyes lit up with curiosity. “What do you know about farms?”
“Boy, please,” she said, pushing at his chest playfully. “We may have just met, but don’t be fooled by the manicure. Trust me, I spent my summers on my grandmamma’s farm in rural Georgia eating peaches straight from the tree.”
“How rural?” Her body moved forward when Nate tugged at the button of her slacks. “I love me a country girl.”
“We’re talking one streetlight downtown, you blink and you miss it.”
“Keep talking.” He stroked his long index finger against her earlobe and down the curve of her jaw. “You’re turning me on.”
“I wish I had the time.”
“We have to do this again,” he said, leaving a trail of kisses where his fingers had touched moments ago.
Flames of desire flickered in the pit of her stomach. A television pitch popped into her head:
Dear MET executives,
Instead of airing a highlight segment on the best fights of our reality shows, how about the best hookups of seasons past? Better yet, best one-night stands, complete with a where-is-he-now segment.
Sincerely,
Amelia
The phone in her hand began to ring. This time, instead of Natalia’s face, Amelia’s mother’s face appeared. Amelia’s heart thumped against her rib cage. Cynthia Marlow never called after nine. “Maybe. I’ll leave my info at the desk, but right now I’ve got to take this call.”
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” he teased, leaning forward to brush a kiss against her cheek. Any other given time, Amelia would have extracted her business card, her real one, and encouraged him to definitely use the number. But right now, for her mama to call after midnight, something was up.
“I’ll let you take your call,” he said as he reached behind her to open the door, “and get some coffee for us.”
Amelia half smiled while watching him walk away, appreciating the view. She closed the door behind her and exhaled a deep breath. What on earth had she been thinking tonight?
“Amelia? Amelia, darling, are you there?”
For a moment Amelia had forgotten her mother until she heard her father, Howard Marlow, question whether or not she was on the line. She tapped the speaker button and fanned her face with her free hand. “Hi, Mama, it’s late, what’s going on?”
“Amelia, honey, it’s your grandmamma.”
* * *
Nate Reyes stood by his motto, No complications. Yet, since his encounter with the reality show producer a week ago, his life seemed anything but. He wasn’t supposed to daydream about what she was doing. He wasn’t supposed to stop being interested in other women. Yet she consumed him.
“Can we stop this now, Uncle Nate?”
The words registered in Nate’s brain, but he did not acknowledge them until his niece Kimber exhaled a droll sigh. As he tried not to laugh at Kimber’s irritation, the pink feathers of the boa he wore around his neck flittered and stuck to the pink lip gloss he’d worn at the insistence of his other niece, five-year-old Philly. Nate glanced up from the tiny pink porcelain cup of air-tea in time for the dramatic eye roll. For the last forty minutes, Kimber had refused to partake in the semiformal tea party her sister had set up for them.
“Sorry, Tío Nate,” Kimber corrected herself with a heavy Spanish accent and clearer sarcasm.
In the span of eight months, Nate had uprooted his life to move from Atlanta to settle down in Southwood, Georgia, to raise his two nieces in their childhood home after his brother Ken and sister-in-law, Betty, had passed away. Named legal guardians, Nate and his older brother, Stephen, didn’t have a fight on their hands for custody of their nieces. Betty’s parents were too old to take care of the girls and Nate’s parents lived on Villa San Juan, a small island off the northwest coast of Florida.
Between him and Stephen, they’d seamlessly transitioned themselves into a daily part of the girls’ lives by bringing their real estate and contracting business down South. With the help of Stephen’s soon-to-be fiancée, Lexi Pendergrass, the clan now had a stable touch of femininity. They’d even managed to take Kimber and Philly on an overdue visit to their paternal grandmother when Nate’s mother had noticed the lack of Puerto Rican cultural influence in the way the girls were growing up. And somehow the blame was placed on Nate and Stephen.
“My bad,” Nate said, setting the dainty cup on its matching saucer with a clatter. He shifted in the small pink seat. Truth be told, he wanted to end this activity but he’d promised Philly a tea party if she could spend one full day without wearing her well-earned tiara from her beauty pageant last weekend. People in Southwood thought Philly waltzing around town with her pageant crown was cute, but if she scratched the back windows of his SUV any more he was going to have to replace them. Thanks to the heaviness of the twelve-inch Swarovski tiara, the walls in the house leading up the stairs were scraped. Everyone in the family had scratches on their arms from Philly standing too close and turning her head. Even the wooden headboard of Philly’s twin bed suffered from deep grooves because she slept with the crown.
“May I be excused now?” asked Kimber.
“Are you finished with your tea?” Nate asked with a lopsided grin. He leaned forward to peer into his oldest niece’s cup, which she angled toward him with another eye roll.
“You didn’t finish your cookies.” Philly pointed out the stack of burnt premade desserts the woman in the grocery store had promised would be easy to make.
Nate cleared his throat and nodded his head toward the cookies. Kimber’s mouth widened with disbelief.
“This is beyond punishment,” Kimber mumbled. “This is cruel and unusual.”
Burning the cookies had totally been his fault. His mind had been elsewhere—in Atlanta and on the sexy producer who’d fled the minute she had the chance. Of course, finding her wouldn’t be hard. He knew Natalia Ruiz personally and if he didn’t his media connections at MET would have come in handy.
Nate’s mind breezed over Amelia once again. Tomorrow would make a week since being with her and she still hadn’t gotten out of his system. The original plan in Atlanta had been to distract her at the bar, buy her a drink or something in order for Stephen to speak with a potential client. Taking her to bed the same night—well, those were the perks of being a great wingman.
A set of keys jingled at the front door and automatically Philly’s face lit up with excitement. A deep “aha” came from Stephen Reyes at the bar separating the dining room and kitchen. He entered; the front door slammed shut and moments later in walked the future Mrs. Stephen Reyes, Lexi Pendergrass, who shook her head in preparation at the banter.
“I expected you to teach them how to gamble,” said Stephen, standing at the bar and staring into the breakfast nook in a two-piece gray suit with a gray-and-blue paisley tie loosened at the throat, “but a tea party?”
“C’mon, bruh, you know when a five-year-old asks you to play tea party, you damn well better play tea party.”
“Oooh,” Kimber and Philly chorused.
“Go ahead and put your cash in the swear jar,” ordered Lexi.
For a split second Nate scowled in Lexi’s direction as she pulled Philly’s chair away from the table. Thanks to the rule Lexi had installed in her pageant dress shop, the swear jar had now made its way to the marble kitchen counter. Nate stood and stepped over his mini chair. Stephen followed him into the kitchen as if to make sure Nate extracted a dollar for the jar. So far they had enough money to take a trip down to Puerto Rico.
“I expected more from you,” Stephen pretended to scold.
“Really?” Nate raised a brow. “You expected more even after asking me for a favor last week?” Albeit, Stephen never asked Nate to go such the distance.
Screwing the top back on the jar he replaced it back on the counter before reaching into the fridge for a cold beer. Lexi appeared in the doorway with Philly on her hip and let out a low whistle. “Do I even want to know?”
“No,” Stephen and Nate chorused.
“Sounds like my cue to leave.” Kimber pushed away from the small table. “Uncle Stephen?”
Stephen made an elaborate show of ignoring his niece and keeping his focus straight ahead on Nate, who bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Kimber had Stephen wrapped around her finger.
Sucking her teeth, Kimber remembered. “Tío Stephen?”
“Yes, darling?”
Nate refused to be putty in Kimber’s hand and wasn’t remotely fooled by the sugary tone in her voice. He gave her the props for having the nerve to sweet-talk Stephen after all the scheming she’d done this summer. Recently, Kimber thought she could get away with the bait-and-switch boyfriend trick, saying she was dating an overly studious classmate instead of a football player jock, for fear they wouldn’t approve. They didn’t at first, but Nate and Stephen were growing fond of Philip. On top of the boyfriend issue, Kimber stole a racy dress from Lexi’s Grits and Glam Gowns boutique in order to impress the jock. He already knew what Kimber was going to ask. Stephen may have laid down the law, but Nate made sure she followed it.
“Am I still grounded?”
“Yes.”
Kimber grunted and balled up her fists as she spun around to stomp up the kitchen steps. The glass patio door leading out to the pool shook. Only when Kimber’s door slammed shut did Nate and Stephen start to laugh.
“That’s your niece,” said Stephen as he shook his head.
“Oh, sure.” Nate sighed. “When they’re good, they’re your nieces, but when they’re bad, they’re mine. This is the thanks I get for staying home with them all day long cooking and cleaning?”
Stephen turned and faced Lexi. “Here we go.”
“Look, I am the one getting the kids ready for school, making sure they have their breakfast—”
“Is your cooking really a selling point?” asked Stephen.
Nate restrained the urge to flip his brother the middle finger. “Let’s not forget all the back-to-school forms I’ve been filling out all day long. I swear I provided this same information back in January. We have two kids in the school system. Why can’t there be one form online for them? My damn hand hurts.”
“Well.” Lexi chuckled. “Good luck trying to reform Southwood. In the meantime, I’m going to put our beauty queen to bed. Tomorrow, Nate, you and I can get a mani-pedi. Sound good?”
“Funny,” Nate said, realizing being a third wheel was becoming a nuisance.
“You may want to take her up on her offer, Nate,” said Stephen. “Do something together tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is Thursday. I’ve got to take the girls school shopping so I’m not fighting the crowds who also waited until the last minute.”
“I can do it,” offered Lexi. She gave Stephen a wink and Nate rolled his eyes. The main reason the two of them had first met was because Stephen had jumped the gun over the racy dress Kimber wore. He assumed when Kimber said she got the dress from Lexi’s boutique that Lexi had sold it to her. “You guys discuss it. The queen and I are going upstairs.”
As Lexi passed by Stephen, he reached out and swatted her behind. “Later, I get to put my beauty queen to bed.”
Nate pretended to gag. Stephen did not show as much constraint with flipping him off. “Domestic life looks good on you, bruh,” Nate teased, passing through the kitchen to the open French doors to the dining room. He sat down at the large maple table.
“Thanks. You ought to try it someday.”
The image of a pair of copper-hued legs wrapping around his waist entered his mind. “One day.”
“So for now you’re still on the market?”
Nate did not like the tone in his brother’s voice. They might not be twins, but Nate understood how Stephen’s mind worked. First he’d try to talk about how something was a great idea and the next thing Nate knew, he’d be volunteering to do his bidding. Nate already knew the stakes.
Earlier today at the grocery store, a few of the ladies he lunched with after church had asked if he planned on doing the fall bachelor auction Saturday night. Proceeds from the benefit went toward supplies for the local schools in four counties, affectionately referred to as Four Points. This fall marked the first time his nieces started school without their parents. The kids had adjusted to their new life and Nate liked to take the credit for their stability.
He also saw himself as the charitable type in most cases, but something about being on stage and having women bid on him frightened him. Since being here the last few months, he’d been the shiny new toy all the single ladies—and not all single—wanted to play with. The last thing he wanted was for any of these Southern belles to have to expose themselves by making a spectacle while bidding on him. Lord knew these ladies were not quite proper behind closed doors.
“Slow your roll,” Nate half grinned. “I know where you’re going with this.”
“Then you’ll understand the money you’ll bring in will go toward the school.”
“And time,” Nate added. “This auction offers up services of forty hours of my time. God only knows what will be expected of me if certain people bid on me.”
“So you’ll fix things here and there,” said Stephen. “Business is slow and it’s only forty hours. I am sure I can handle things.”
Nate didn’t have much to do besides refurnishing Lexi’s shop, which she was in no rush to open. He took a seat. “I’ve been in town a lot longer than you. All of a sudden you care?”
“If I plan on staying here and raising my family,” Stephen said with a sly smile.
“Are you trying to tell me Lexi’s pregnant?” Nate asked, leaning forward and widening his eyes. He lowered his voice in case Lexi could hear from upstairs in Philly’s room. “You sly old dog.”
“No.” Stephen frowned, then shook his bald head back and forth. “I am talking about the future. Our future.”
Prior to Ken and Betty passing away, Nate had worked alongside his brothers in a lucrative real estate and contracting business based in California. They provided the perfect homes and locations for Hollywood directors to film movie scenes. When Ken met his wife and started their family, he moved to Betty’s hometown in Southwood, Georgia. Nate and Stephen, wanting to be near their brother, then moved Reyes Realty and Contracting closer without actually being in Southwood. Atlanta, a rising home for television and film, was a perfect location. When Ken passed away, they realized that, in order to better care for their nieces, they had to commit to moving to Southwood.
“Whatever you’re planning, stop.”
“Don’t you want to be a part of the community?” asked Stephen.
“I am, more so than you.” Nate shuffled cards one good time, then stacked them in the center of the table. The back of the chair supported his weight when he leaned backward to reach in his pocket for his cell phone. Four missed texts in the last hour from three different women, one a bit antsier than the others. Brittany Foley, his after-school special. Nate grinned. The pre-K teacher had worked with Philly during the transition after Ken died. She also worked on Nate in a more intimate way. He scratched his chin and the hairs where the beard he hadn’t bothered to shave away all week tickled his fingers.
Stephen sighed. “Hooking up with all the ladies in town is not considered being part of the community.”
“Whatever,” he mused. None of the women seemed to compare to Amelia. He dodged them at after-school pickup, went different directions down the aisle in the grocery store and hadn’t paid attention to any of his text messages. Prior to Amelia, his messages never went unread. Now, eh. What was wrong with him?
“Speaking of your service...” Stephen cleared his throat before folding his arms across his chest. “You’ve been staying in all week. Something you need to tell me?”
“Like what?” Leave it to Stephen to pay attention to this part of his personal life. When they were kids, Nate had been the nosy one.
“Like something about the woman you distracted for Natalia.”
“Yeah, so much for the private conversation. You two were blasted all over the internet.” The corners of Nate’s mouth turned upside down. The checkout lines were filled with photographs of Stephen and their childhood-friend-turned-reality-star. The guys knew Natalia way before she and her family became household names.
Stephen waved off the Nate’s guilt. “Lexi’s fine and we’ve never been better. I have you to thank. Natalia’s looking to leave show business and we’re in charge of finding a remote place for her.”
