Love and Chaos (21 page)

Emma
couldn’t help it. She smiled.

“Jen,”
she said in relief, glad to see her sister in one piece.

“Emma,”
her sister grinned back at her.

Hands
on her hips, Emma shook her head. “I don’t know whether to hug you or strangle
you.”

“I’d
probably prefer the hug, but would understand strangulation,” Jen admitted.

Emma
reached out and pulled her sister into a bear hug. God, she’d missed her. Even
as she had wanted to kill her.

“Do
you have any idea what you did to me, Jen?” she asked, releasing her sister and
putting it all right on the table, needing everything out in the open from the
start.

“I
do, Em. And I want to explain. I mean, I knew he’d be mad and all. I hope he
wasn’t too mean to you. But I figured you’d be able to calm him down if anyone
could.”

Emma
collapsed down onto the couch, tucking her foot up under her. “Why did you send
me over there, Jen? There were no things to pick up. Did you want me to be your
replacement?”

Jen
dropped her purse on a table and sank down next to her sister. She reached out
and squeezed Emma’s hand. “No. No, Emma, no. Of course not. I just know that
you’re a calm and sweet person, and a lawyer. I figured that if anyone could
tell him nicely, it would be you. And since I took $300k of his money, I wanted
you to maybe buy me some time.”

“Why
did you need that money, Jen?”

She
looked embarrassed. “Leo and I were going to open a motorcycle repair shop in
California. I figured that would get us started, and I didn’t think he’d miss
it.”

Emma
shook her head. “Jen, you didn’t need to know Mason well to know that he wasn’t
going to just let $300,000 go.”

“I
kind of figured that he wouldn’t pursue it. That maybe he’d be too embarrassed.
You know, for having to buy a wife and all.”

“You’ve
met the man.”

“Sure.”

“And
you still think he would need to buy a wife.”

“Yeah,
I kind of wondered about that. Thought maybe he had issues.”

“He
probably does,” Emma admitted. “But nothing that would prevent half the single
women in this town from marrying him on the spot.”

“So
he must have found someone else,” Jen said immediately. “Good. I figured he
would. I mean, with all that money and all.”

“Um,
Jen...?” Emma said, holding up her left hand and pointing to the ring on her
finger.

Jen
turned white. “
You
married him?”

“I
didn’t really have a choice, Jen. Remember that pesky little contract you
signed?”

“That
thing? But that didn’t mean anything, Emma! It was just a paper that said that
I wouldn’t financially gain from the marriage. Well, beyond what we’d agreed
to, anyway.”

Emma
looked at her incredulously. “Did you even read it?”

“I
glanced at it,” Jen said defensively, her eyes focusing on the straps of her
purse.

Emma
leaned back against the back of the couch and closed her eyes. Without opening
them, she asked her sister, “Do you remember me telling you once that you
should never sign anything without letting me read it?”

“Yeah,
but this...”

“This
was a legally binding contract, Jen. It stated that you would go through with
the marriage. If you didn’t, you needed to find him a replacement ‘wife’. If
you didn’t, he could sue for breach of contract.”

“Oh
Lord. Emma, you should have let him sue,” Jen said seriously, reaching out
again to grasp Emma’s hand. “Why did you marry him?”

“It
was sort of a forced issue, Jen. Given that you had $300,000 of his money, and
he had a contract that you’d signed and reneged on. Jen, this is serious. He
could have done more than sue you. He could have had you arrested.”

“But
he didn’t, Emma. I still can’t believe you married him. This wasn’t your
problem - you should have just let him deal with me directly. I could have
talked my way out of it.”

Emma
shook her head. “Jen, he was not so much in a talking mood. He was definitely
in a suing mood. And he would have taken all your assets.”

Jen
shrugged. “I don’t have that much.”

“Including
the house.”

If
Jen could go any whiter, she did. “Oh no. Emma.”

“Yeah.”

“Emma,
I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. I had no idea. Look. I’ll pay him back. Or you.
Since you now deserve all of the money for actually marrying the guy.”

“I’m
not making any money for marrying him, Jen. He already paid you, and there was
no way I was taking money for this. It was bad enough that my sister stiffed
him.”

“You’re
giving up $750,000?” Jen asked incredulously.

Emma
turned her head and looked her sister in the eye. Softly, she said, “Jen...”

She
had the grace to look sheepish. “OK. You’re right. I’m sorry.”

The
two sisters sat quietly on the couch for a moment, before Emma asked quietly,
“What happened to the shop?”

Jen
looked down at her lap. “Leo and I split up,” she admitted.

She
looked so morose that Emma’s heart melted a bit. Just a bit. “I’m sorry, Jen,”
she said quietly.

Jen
nodded. “Me too.” After a few more moments, she asked, “Did you tell Mom and
Dad about all of this?”

“No.
Not their business. Gran knows, though. She was giving me the cold shoulder for
way too long and I caved.”

Jen
looked chagrined. “Does she hate me?”

“Of
course not. Nobody hates you. Not Gran, not me.”

“And
Mason?”

“Nah.
Some days he probably wishes he’d married you and not me, but we’re
coexisting.”

Jen
took a deep breath, and then offered, “Em, if you want me to, I’ll step in.”

“I
don’t think it works that way. I think he needs to be married to the same woman
for three years. So while I appreciate the pinch hitting offer, there’s no
need.”

Jen’s
eyes filled as she looked at her sister, and realized the mess she’d put her
in. “Emma, don’t be mad at me. I love you. You’re my sister.”

Emma
gave her sister a small smile in return. “I love you too, you moron. But I
think I might stay mad for a while.”

Her
sister looked over at her with a calculating expression on her face. “You’re
good for him, I think. This might work out in ways that you don’t even realize
yet.”

“What?”

“He’s
cold. You’re warm. Some of that warm needs to rub off on him.”

“Maybe
the cold is rubbing off on me. He’s a reptile, Jen. He has cold blood in his
veins. The only thing that warms him up is the damn sunshine.”

But
Jen just snorted. “He’s a hard man, that’s true. You can see that by just
looking at him. But I think there’s more there, Emma.”

“Now
why would you say that?”

“He
asked me to step in to marry him to seal a business deal, Em. We met at a
party, and we got along pretty well. We hung out a bit - nothing romantic at
all. And then one day, he asked me if I wanted to make some money, and I said
yes. So that’s what started all of it. If I’d said no, he would have found
another solution. That’s just the way Mason is.”

Emma
just looked puzzled. “But that makes no sense. If that were the case, he would
have just gone after the money you took from him, and let the contracted
agreement disappear.”

“That’s
what I’m saying, Emma. And that’s why I was so surprised not only that you
married him, but that he pushed it so hard.”

“You
must have misread him, Jen. A man does not draw up a contract like you signed
if he’s not completely serious about his intentions.”

Jen
shrugged. “Maybe. But here’s the thing, Emma. Mason and I got along fine, but
we both knew that we were too much alike for there to be anything between us.
Ever. I like the guy, don’t get me wrong, and I think he’s sexy as hell, but
we’d never survive a real relationship. But you, on the other hand...”

“What
about me?”

“He
didn't need to marry you, Em. He could have yelled at you, told you to get back
the money I took, and run you off his property. But instead, he pushed you into
taking my place. It may have made things easier for him, but I’m not convinced
that it was the only way for him to get that stock.”

“What’s
your point?”

“You
and I are different, Emma. A blind man could see that after spending ten
minutes with each of us. I’m completely wrong for him. But I think you may be
completely right for him.”

Emma
just looked at her in disbelief. “What are you saying? That he took one look at
me and thought, hey, I’d like to marry that woman and give it a three-year test
run?”

Jen
shrugged. “Maybe,” she said softly. “It’s possible.”

Emma
snorted. “No way. Not in a million years. I do not inspire that kind of
behavior. I inspire exasperation. I inspire frustration. I do not inspire that
kind of impetuous act, and certainly not from a man like Mason Parker. Who, I
might add, is still as cold as the day I married him.”

But
Jen shook her head. “I kind of doubt that. But we’ll see. Can I come over
sometime?” she asked with a sly grin.

Emma
picked up a pillow from the chair and threw it at her sister. “You’re a crazy,
terrible, horrible, rotten person. I love you anyway, you fruitcake.”

Jen
caught the pillow easily and tucked it under her leg. “I know you do. Listen,
Emma, I really am sorry that you got stuck with this. It was never my
intention...”

“I
know, Jen. But next time you have a contract in your hand that you’re thinking
of signing, even if it’s just an agreement box for downloading software on your
computer,
call me
.”

“I
will. I promise.” She crossed her heart with her index finger.

“So
are you around for a while?”

“Yeah,
a few weeks anyway. I might stick around for longer if I can find a job.”

“I’ll
let you know if I hear of anything. It’d be nice to have you here for a while.”

Jen
sighed. “I should go over to Mom and Dad’s. You coming over this weekend?”

“Not
sure yet. They’re still a little mad at me for marrying Mason without any
warning. And I haven’t actually introduced him to them yet.”

“Emma,
why didn’t you just tell them the truth?”

Emma
shrugged. “Why should they be mad at both of us? And at this point, they’d be
doubly mad at me for not telling them sooner. They’ll get over it eventually.
But don’t be surprised if they tell you how disappointed in me they are.”

“I'll
tell them, Emma.”

“Nah.
Honestly, at this point it’s a moot point. Let it go and bask in being the
prodigal daughter,” she said with a grin.

After
Jen left with a big hug and a promise to see her soon, Emma moved around the
house, reclosing and locking the windows and drawing curtains on the lower
floor. When she was done, she sat back down on the couch and thought about what
Jen had said. She knew that maintaining his uncle’s voting rights was
critically important for his business. And the absolute airtight contract that
Jen had signed made it clear that he took the marriage a lot more seriously
than she had. No wonder she’d backed out, Emma thought. Jen had assumed that
Mason could weather the hit that her disappearance would cause, or that he’d
find another way to deal with the requirements of his uncle’s will. But Emma
wasn’t sure there was another way.

Or
was there? Did he have a backup plan, in case Jen didn’t show up? Or was he
just so annoyed and angry at being walked out on that he took it out on Emma?
There was way more going on here than she had initially thought. The problem
was, Mason was not exactly the kind of guy she could just ask. He’d shut down.
He’d freeze her out. Because as much as Jen assumed that he’d warmed up a bit,
Emma knew he hadn’t. The only time she saw him show any emotion was when he was
kissing her, and that was raw physical attraction. There was no soul connection
between them. Made clearer, Emma thought, by his reaction every time - he retreated.

Well.
This was a fine mess. She’d have to unravel it all eventually. And it would
take a talk with Mason to figure it out. So unraveling it any time soon was
unlikely. Oh hell, she thought to herself. A serious mess. Standing up, she
grabbed her keys and headed for the door.

When
she got back home that night, she let Chaos out into the back yard to scout the
perimeter and look for any morsels of food that might have been tossed over the
fence by some benevolent stranger that day. Grabbing a bottle of water from the
fridge, she went in search of Mason, finding him working in his office. She
knocked lightly on the door, then walked in when he looked up to see her in the
doorway.

“Emma.
This is a surprise.”