“We’re actually considering adding your company to one of the portfolios we offer,” Phillip said. “Some clients like to invest in areas that hold their interest. Some who are outdoors enthusiasts might welcome the option.”
“With Alice’s help, we’re getting a second brick and mortar store up and running, close by, in Waco,” Ian Kendall said. “As well as we’ve done to date, I have no doubt we’ll do much better now that we have our Alice working with us.”
Watching his sister and the two men she planned to marry—how the hell do you marry two men, anyway?—it was clear that both men were besotted with her, and Alice, of course, was all for them. With her flightiness, it didn’t surprise Jason that she would be.
She’s just the sort of woman to be in love with the idea of being in love.
That thought brought him right back to the place he’d been, mentally, when he’d come into the restaurant. “Percy was quite put out that you broke things off with him.”
He’d said that when he’d arrived, and he hadn’t planned to say it again. But maybe it was time for some hard truths. He’d introduced one of his oldest friends to his sister, believing Percy was just the man who could take Alice in hand and temper some of her capriciousness. He looked at each of the Kendalls in order to judge their reaction to his revelation.
Their grins were not what he expected.
“Ah yes. Percival Pious Poindexter,” Alice said.
Jason frowned. “You mean Percy Simmons?”
“Oh, no, brother-mine. ‘Percy Simmons’ might be an interesting man, even a nice man. But just hearing the name Percival Pious Poindexter should cause a sucking-lemons expression and should also clue you in to the sort of person this was. First, he thought that you gave me to him to mold into a proper corporate wife. He wanted to tell me what to wear and how to wear it, he wanted to approve my friends, and he wanted his mother to help make me a woman of, and I quote, ‘more refined femininity.’ He seemed to think that a percentage of your business would be his as some sort of dowry.”
Jason frowned. He looked from his parents to Phillip. He shook his head. “No, you must be mistaken.”
The fire in her eyes told him she was not mistaken.
“Two dates! We went on two flipping dates! That wasn’t a relationship, far from it. But the coup-de-enough-already came when he presented me to his mother—at their club—on that second, very regrettable date. Mother Pious Poindexter said, and again, I quote, ‘it might be a challenge to eradicate the remnants of the manure, but I am up to the challenge.’”
The gasps around the table matched Jason’s reaction to his sister’s words, exactly.
“I don’t understand! I thought Percy was a good man. I just wanted to….” Now there was the problem. What had he wanted to do, exactly? The truth was an uncomfortable weight on his shoulders. The truth was, he’d wanted to “fix” his sister.
Funny how you can think something without actually thinking it before you understand just what the hell it was that you were thinking in the first place. Jason reached for another antacid.
“Well, actually, as it turns out, you did Alice and us an enormous favor.” Ian Kendall picked up Alice’s hand and kissed it. “She didn’t come here to escape Percy, you understand, but you. And because she did, well, we’ve found the woman of our dreams, who has agreed to marry us. So, thanks, Jason. And the bonus from now on, for you? You don’t need to be concerned about Alice anymore, not one little bit. We’re going to be taking very good care of her from now on.”
That was as clever a put-down as Jason had ever heard. It was directed at him, of course it was, and he didn’t know quite what to think of that. What hurt the most, however, was knowing that basically, and for all intents and purposes, he’d built a wall between himself and the one sibling that was closest to him in age, the one he’d cared about the most—and that wall had just been covered in a layer of cement.
“I owe you an apology, Mr. Benedict.”
Jason looked up into the kindest, softest brown eyes he’d ever seen. Leesa Jordan. Grandma Kate had told him that Leesa could sometimes have a bit of a temper, but it never lasted. Here was the proof of that. Not only the words just said. There was a tenderness in her expression. In that moment, surrounded by family, in a place he didn’t understand, he knew one thing.
He didn’t deserve Leesa Jordan’s tenderness. Not one little bit of it.
Then she set a plate in front of him. On it were two very delectable-looking pastries. “These are for you.”
“You don’t owe me an apology, Miss Leesa, but thank you for it. And for the pastries. This is my best friend, and my cousin, Phillip Benedict.”
She extended her hand, and Phillip, who’d gotten to his feet, accepted her offer, taking her hand in his. Jason had risen, too, and she turned to look at him. Neither of them spoke, but when she made the same offer to him, he accepted.
“If you bring me another plate, I’ll share this bounty with my best friend.”
“I’ll see to that right away. Meanwhile, why not sit and relax? I imagine you’ve put in a long day of travel.”
Jason sat down, his gaze following Leesa as she went to the buffet and returned with a clean plate and another fork. She deftly transferred one of the pastries and set that plate down in front of Phillip.
“Your cousin Tracy makes these, and they’re usually the
