“Drew Quandry’s father. He’s flying in on Friday and my dad’s coming with him.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Aiden just called and told me. He called and ordered us to meet him at the local airport. He’s flying with Quandry on their private jet. Can you believe that?”
“Why? I mean, why is he coming to town?”
Jonah shook his head, “My guess—Quandry got to my dad since they run in the same circles and recruited him to spearhead against me. Quandry wants in, but I’m still not letting them in and the government is going to do whatever I say, but it’s just another cheap parlor trick that hits below the belt.”
“When was the last time that you heard from him?”
“Last year at Christmas. Aiden and I went to the city together for one meal and we were out of there. We don’t fit in. Dad got another wife and my half-siblings are worshiped now. Aiden’s the crazy soccer mom and I’m the nature-loving hippie. My grandfather actually staged an intervention for us one time, back before they got Charles to go into the business. I had a lot of pressure on me, but he took it off.”
“Charles?”
“My half-brother. He’s probably three years younger than me.”
“When did your mom divorce your dad?”
“Early on, when I was just born. Mom had an ‘aha’ moment when she watched how Aiden was treated. She didn’t want her children to grow up not respecting family and money, and just not having small town values—I guess. That’s what she said.”
“Your dad let her go when you were just a baby?”
“Truthfully, I think my mom blackmailed him with something. He would’ve fought for custody, but he didn’t. She probably just had proof of him cheating on her.” Jonah said dryly, “Can’t have the Bannon name dragged through the mud.”
“Aiden’s supposed to have her poker night that night.”
“Yeah.”
“How’s she going to swing that?”
Jonah shifted her more comfortably on his lap and she felt him between her legs.
Jonah smiled and murmured, “Hello there.”
Dani laughed, but asked again, “How’s your sister going to work that?”
“Oh.” Jonah sighed and murmured, “Aiden and I will drive in, say hello, and leave. I’ll tell my father that if he wants to talk business, he can make an appointment with my secretary. If he wants to stay with family, he can stay at my empty house.”
“And where will you be staying?”
“Where I’ve been most of the week. At your place.”
Dani sobered and told him, “Drew Quandry knows about you and me and me and Boone. He’s not happy with me.”
“That makes a lot more sense now,” Jonah mused. “No doubt that’s their angle. They want my father to attack my private life, a lot of blah, blah, about family values and how I should be married with children to raise the Bannon name properly and at the same time—Quandry’s going to attack me on the business side.”
“Sounds…”
“I’ve handled worse,” Jonah said huskily as he found her lips again.
Dani tilted her head and Jonah slid a hand to the back of her neck and held her firm as he explored her depths.
She felt his hand slid underneath her shirt and felt the warmth radiate from his palm as he spread his fingers wide against her back. Two of his fingers dipped inside her waistband and she sighed against his mouth.
Jonah grinned and moved his hand farther down.
She groaned and felt the burn burst within her.
Jonah worked at the front of her pants and tilted her head to the side as he moved down her neck, to the valley between her breasts.
Dani helped him undue both their jeans. Her hand slid inside and she grasped him.
Jonah groaned against her chest and she grinned against his hair as she rested her cheek to the side of him.
It was much later when Jonah freed Dani’s blanket and they both curled together inside the darkened cave. They felt for the other and sat in peaceful silence, their warmth and listened to the heartbeats.
“What are you going to do about Boone?” Dani asked, drowsy and relaxed.
Jonah tucked his chin atop her shoulder and rested his face against her cheek. He breathed out, “I’ll handle it. To be fair to your ex, I don’t think I’ll have a problem with him. It’ll be Drew Quandry and their father. Those guys are going to be a different thing.”
“Boone did say that he had taken a sabbatical from his family and the family business. Now I guess…I know why.”
“I can relate,” Jonah mused.
Dani shivered and asked, “What time is it?”
“Late.”
“And we have to swim back, huh?”
“Come on.” Jonah moved away and she felt the chilled night air replace his warmth. She shivered again. “The water will warm you up. Swimming is meant to be a nighttime activity, anyway.”
Dani grinned and nodded, “Uh huh.”
Jonah tucked his legs and flipped into the water. Dani dived in after and whatever dried was quickly soaked as they raced from the cave. They left the blanket and flashlight behind for another time.
When the morning broke, Dani found herself alone, curled next to her pillow and nightstand. The pillow was soft and conforming while the nightstand was not and Dani quickly shifted her legs inside the blankets. Her toes were cold from the morning chill.
Rolling over, she glimpsed at the clock and saw that it read seven in the morning. They’d returned to her home around midnight the night before.
Jonah had been right.
Swimming was best when done at night.
Yawning, Dani stumbled from the bed and showered. She made a pot of coffee and curled on her inside porch for the first cup and let her lungs warm from the aroma.
She hadn’t sat long before she heard a knock at her front door. Another came on its tail; whoever stood on the opposite side was in a hurry.
Dani frowned as she neared the door, but she opened without a glance outwards.
It was Aiden and she was flushed from excitement or apprehension.
“I need your help,” Aiden said flatly.
Dani readied herself and asked, “What with?”
“My father is coming into town tonight and he wants to stay at my home.”
“Um…”
“You don’t understand. My father. Is coming. And he wants to stay….at my home. At my house. My house where I’m supposed to be having a party tonight and people are supposed to be giddy and drunk and laid. And Kate and Robbie are supposed to kiss tonight. I know it’s juvenile, but that’s what I’m hoping for tonight.” She took a breath and said flatly, “My father—cannot step one foot in my home and ruin the night where my two best friends are finally going to kiss.”
“Oh.”
“He will not ruin that. He will not ruin my poker night. We’re going to dress as Carnies tonight. Kate’s going to be one of those belly dancers. Bubba’s the bearded lady and I was going to dress as the blind hostess.”
“So…what are you going to do?”
“He’s going to stay somewhere else and I’m going to tell him it’s my house.”
Dani frowned.
“All we need is a place—a very nice place—and most of my stuff can be transferred. Of course to whoever’s place we stay at—we’ll have to get rid of their pictures and keepsakes, but we can do it. We can do it! I just need your help. You don’t have a job. You have time.”
“Uh…” Dani took a step back, from instinct.
Aiden didn’t care. She rushed inside and magically produced a thermos from behind her back. Aiden poured the rest of Dani’s coffee into the thermos and grabbed Dani’s arm.
“We can take my car.” Aiden gushed and Dani managed to grab her purse and keys before she was dragged outside.
Once in the car and down the driveway, Dani dared to ask, “So whose house are you going to use?”
“That’s a problem.” Aiden frowned
fiercely as she gulped some coffee. “I’ve been thinking about that. My dad’s beyond rich, he’s going to expect a certain type of house and our house—it won’t pass muster.”
“He’s never been to your house?”
“Hell no! Are you kidding? My father is stuck-up, rich, and thinks mansions grow on trees. Mansions and dollar bills—they just pop up like fruit. Whatever.”
“So who has a mansion for use?”
“I’ve been racking my brain and I can’t really—Robbie! Robbie just bought a huge house. Oh—that’s perfect. He didn’t move in too long ago, he probably hasn’t had any time to collect furniture and I’m betting Lori got rid of most of his personal belongings. That’s what girlfriends do. They throw out the old and put their stuff in its place. Lori’s the type that would do that. That’s great!” Aiden’s eyes lit up in anticipation.
“What am I in charge of?”
“Okay, we’re going to Robbie’s. He should be at the office right now. You charm Kelley Lynn, get his keys from her and I’ll head in to smooze it over with Robbie.”
“Me and Kelley Lynn? No.”
“Yes. The girl’s been biding her time before she pounced on you.”
Dani frowned.
Aiden continued without thinking, “Everyone knows—Erica knew you were coming back. She made all her friends promise to be really nice to you. Only Julia’s the stick-in-the-mud. Kelley Lynn promised, but she thought you needed time to adjust being back home. So anyway, Kelley Lynn will only be too happy to help us. She’ll probably even help with decorations.”
“Decorations?”
“Yeah. Anything Robbie has won’t be good enough for father dearest,” Aiden said mildly as she raced around a corner, nearing town.
Dani grabbed the door handle to keep from falling onto Aiden. As they rounded the corner, Dani kept her hold for safety’s sake.
“What kind of decorations are we talking here?”
“Hmmm. That’s another problem that I’m trying to figure out.”
Dani frowned. “Won’t your father think it’s weird that you give him your house and don’t stay there?’
“No. He’ll think I did it to spite him.” Aiden shrugged. “It’s something I’d do.”
And Jonah had echoed the same sentiment. Dani was beginning to see a trend.
“The problem is,” Aiden continued, rambling to herself, “I need really rich stuff, but I can’t afford to buy it all.”
“What about—Bryant and Amalia’s rooms? Are you going to get kids stuff?”
“Oh no,” Aiden pished poshed. “I’ll just tell him that they stay at the nanny’s house. He’ll believe that—he did it to me.”
Dani was taken aback.
“Okay. We’ll need bedding, a few rugs, probably a new set of dishes, um….what else, what else?”
“A chandelier?” Dani joked.
Aiden gasped and lit up, “Yes! Of course! Mae has one at the Grill! You think she’d let us borrow it?”
Dani arched an eyebrow and frowned.
“Okay. Okay. You explain it all to Mae. That’s your other job. Would Mae let us use some of her fancy dishes? You know the ones—the ones that she pulls out for the ‘hoity toity’ crowd? She always says that.”
“Uh….” The truth: maybe, probably, and definitely if she’d earn a laugh at the expense of those ‘hoity-toity’ folk who shared the same economical level as herself, but Dani’s truth: that meant she’d have to talk to her aunt so soon after an emotional splurge. Too soon.
Dani suggested differently, “Why don’t you call Jonah and recruit him for that? I’ll be too busy handling Kelley Lynn.”
“That’s a good idea. You’re good at this.”
Dani arched an eyebrow at that, but fleeting murmured a prayer in relief.
“Okay. Plan of attack.” And Aiden made her phone magically appear next to her ear. It didn’t take long, until… “Jonah—drop what you’re doing. I don’t care. This is Ground Zero time.”
Dani was mystified.
“Yeah, still not caring.” Aiden rushed over her brother’s protests. “Dad is staying at Robbie’s house tonight….yes—he’ll think it’s mine….shut up—you have to go and talk to Mae. Get her to let us borrow the chandelier and anything ritzy that dad would be impressed with.” Another moment and she interrupted Jonah’s qualms, “Not caring. You will do this or you will not be eating at my house ever again.”
As she hung up, Aiden parked in front of Robbie’s office. She looked over and smiled brightly. “This is defcon 1 to defcon 0, we’re going in.”
“Do you even know what that means?”
“No.” And Aiden was out and inside the building.
Kelley Lynn had been predicted and Aiden smirked smugly at Kelley Lynn’s sweet offers to help with anything. Robbie took a little smooth talking, but after a quick word in private with Aiden, he offered anything and all that he owned to impress Daddy Warbucks.
Dani had been shooed with Kelley Lynn as she drove to her own friends and family members. Bedding with a thread count in the millions were offered up quickly and Kelley Lynn held everyone in the palm of her hand, much how Dani remembered her reign with Erica when they were kids.
After they’d gotten the bedding with added offers of a Jacuzzi and even a pool table, Kelley Lynn asked in the car, “What?”
“Nothing,” Dani lied, reluctant to voice her thoughts.
“You’ve been…watching me.”
“That’s bad?”
“There’s watching and there’s watching and you’re…watching.”
“People like to help you.”
Kelley Lynn parked the car and turned in her seat. “That’s not what this is about.”
“It’s not?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
Dani itched for the door handle, but she stayed. She held firm because she was turning away from her cowardly ways.
“This is about Erica.”
Yes, it was, but Dani smiled easily and lied through her teeth, “I’m just amazed at how much you’ve gotten to help out Aiden.”
“I’m not doing this for Aiden.”
Dani braced herself.
Kelley Lynn continued, “I’m doing this for Jonah.”
Not what Dani expected. “What?”
“I dated Jonah for a while and I remembered him talking about his dad. A real piece of work, right?”
Dani frowned as a few raindrops splattered their windshield, but she asked, “So if Dave calls…?”
The perfect cheerleader was back in place as Kelley Lynn said sweetly, “Then I’m helping out an old friend.”
“Aiden.”
“You.”