The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) (11 page)

They settled on Jonquil’s bed. “Angela isn’t normally such a brat. At least, I don’t remember her being like that before.” Maybe she had a right, if there was something going on with her and Gage, Jonquil really should have said no thanks to dinner. Her heart ached.

“Being in love, even puppy love, can seem pretty big when you’re in it. And apparently she is.” Delphi leaned against the headboard. “How about you? Is it puppy love?”

Jonquil tried to sort it out in her head. “I really like him. A whole lot. But he’s made no bones about not wanting to have a real relationship. I don’t know what the hang-up is, but apparently even though he’s happy to spend time with me now, anything more is totally off limits.” She remembered the way he’d touched her cheek and covered her hand on the table but dismissed it. They could just be her imagination, his idea of friendship, right?

“Why? He never struck me as someone who was that obstinate. Except where it comes to you.” Delphi was already in pajamas and folded her legs in front of her.

“I have no idea.” Jonquil bit her lip for a moment, debating whether to say it or not. “I think he almost kissed me after our rock climb was done.”

“Go, Jonquil.”

“No. Not ‘go, Jonquil.’ Stupid Jonquil. That’s what I am. I didn’t even consider the fact that he had been seeing Angela. They’ve gone to lunch twice, she said.”

“Okay, first Jeremy said Gage hasn’t dated anyone for months, maybe even a year. Not all because he’d wrapped up in his family issues and his business. He’s not a big player.” Her blue eyes darkened a little and a furrow appeared in her brow. “Whatever’s going on with you and him and him and Angela, you better sort it out, because if it’s the way it sounds, I’m going to kick his butt.”

“But you don’t think it is?” Jonquil felt a stirring of hope rise inside her.

“Maybe you and Angela ought to talk without all the yelling. You know, when she calms down enough to be reasonable. And if you have to drag him into it to get the whole story, then fine, but don’t let it fester, because that sucks.”

“And how.” Jonquil knew there was no way she was going to sort this out with Angela anytime soon, even if she tried. It was just one more failure to add to her list. “I never thought he’d even look at me long enough to see we had things in common but waiting until now with Angela in the mix sucks big time.”

“Yeah.” Delphi leaned back against her headboard. “It’s kind of irritating, isn’t it? That Dad was right. About all of us and the guys. It’s irritating. It would be easier to hate him sometimes without all of the other feelings twisting in there.”

Jonquil laughed. “You’re not kidding.”

“So what’s this about you and college? You went to college.”

Jonquil froze, feeling her heart sink. “Yeah. I did. For a while.”

Delphi’s brows lifted. “How long is a while?”

Jonquil’s chest constricted and she looked away. “One semester. And a few summer classes. Mostly recreational on the summer classes.”

“You’ve never said that. Did you just love your job so much you decided to ditch school?”

“Something like that.” Nothing like that. More like she flunked her book classes—or very nearly did—so she gave up. She never told people that. It made her feel like a complete dunce. She’d been diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age but knowing her struggle with reading wasn’t her fault didn’t make it any easier to deal with. It was one of the reasons she had pushed against taking this job to begin with. It was hard to hide her trouble with reading if she had to do reports. That was why she had been training Tara to do most of them. Tara was a whiz with a spreadsheet.

Delphi looked at her for a moment, then let it go. “Well you hardly need a college education to do what you love, so why waste the time in classes, I say. When did you start working for a florist?”

Jonquil let out a breath of relief and focused on her answers.

She hadn’t had to explain about school, and Delphi didn’t think Gage was a player. Jonquil wasn’t sure if Delphi was right, but she would worry about that later.

Gage left the restaurant and headed to his mom’s to check on her. He hadn’t heard anything from his sister all day, which was great since he usually only heard from her when things went wrong. He hoped that meant she was doing something about selling her car. He’d have to check on her too. He stopped in front of the house still thinking about his time with Jonquil, and what he thought he was doing getting involved with her, but when he thought of the way they clicked when they spoke, he wondered why he was fighting things so hard. It wasn’t like they had to settle down and make babies just because they were attracted to each other.

He headed up the inside stairs of the house to his mom’s suite of rooms and knocked. “Mom, are you in there?”

“Come in.” His mother’s voice rang out through the door, cheery and bright compared to the past few days.

He pushed into the room and smiled when he saw her decked out in a designer outfit that meant she had probably been to the club to see her friends. “Looks like you’ve had a good day.”

“Oh, yes. We had such a great time at lunch. Elva told us all about her new boyfriend and there is so much new gossip.” Her eyes twinkled. “What have you been up to? You have a smudge on your arm.”

He looked at his left arm and saw a scrape and a smudge of rock dust peeking below the sleeve of his T-shirt. He must have missed it when he cleaned up in the restaurant bathroom. “I went rock climbing. It was a nice break.”

She frowned, clasping her hands in front of her. “I hate it when you go out to do that. It’s so dangerous.”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t climb alone and everything went smoothly.” He decided a change of topic was in order. “So do you have more plans for this evening or are you done for the night?”

“Natalie is taking me out for dinner. I wanted to do dinner theater, but she said the show doesn’t open until tomorrow night.”

“Right.” Angela had said something about that. “It sounds like they have a great show for the summer. I just wanted to check in on you. I ought to get a shower and clear up some business email.” He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

“Thanks for stopping by. You’re such a good boy.” She patted his cheek with a wrinkled hand.

There was a knock at the door and Natalie walked in without waiting for an invitation.

“Ah, good, I hoped I’d catch you before you took off again,” she said to him, smiling. “I saw your car out front.”

“I was just about to come find you. Walk me down?” he asked, afraid she would say something to disturb their mother.

“Terrific.” She smiled brightly but it didn’t reach her eyes. As he walked past, she linked her elbow through his. “We don’t get enough time to chat, you know?”

Gage had been wary before, but now his senses screamed that something was wrong—she only acted like this when she wanted something. “Right. So what’s going on? Have you had any luck selling your car?”

She frowned. “I can’t get nearly enough money for it, Gage. Can’t you get the money for me? I really need it. I know they’ll hurt me if I don’t come up with it.”

Frustration warred with worry for her. “You haven’t even tried to sell that car, have you? I know you could get most of the money out of it. It’s a freaking Mercedes.”

Natalie’s lips twisted in a frown. “I can’t. I kind of borrowed some money against it.” She said this slowly with her eyes downcast. “I only have about ten thousand in equity on it.”

He turned away from her in the foyer and stared at the wall while he counted to ten. He wouldn’t ask her what was so important that she needed a loan. It would be pointless and probably only make him angry that she was so irresponsible.

Natalie grabbed onto his arm. “Gage, these men are serious. They’ll hurt me for sure if I don’t get them their money.”

He felt torn; would they really hurt her? His options were limited. “How much time do you have?”

“Two days. They gave me an extension, but only two days. How do I come up with that much money so soon?” Natalie’s voice was nearly a wail. “You have to help me.”

He rubbed a hand through his hair. “I want to help you, but how do you expect me to come up with it?” he asked, “I don’t have it. I’m tapped out.”

Tears brimmed over in her eyes. “They’ll probably break my legs or something. I’ll pay you back. I swear. Just help me.”

He had always been a sucker for tears but didn’t see any other options. He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Let’s go to your suite and see what you have that you can sell. We’ll make it work.”

Natalie’s eyes widened. “We can’t let Mom know. She’s expecting to leave in just a few minutes. There’s no time tonight. Can I come to your office in the morning?”

“Coming to my office won’t fix anything. I’ll come back here tomorrow and we’ll see what you have so you can work out a deal with them.” She probably had fifty-grand in designer shoes alone, though he had no idea if she could get that kind of money from them so fast. Didn’t they have second-hand stores that bought back designer clothes?

She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“I’ll be here at eight.” He squeezed her hand and then walked out to his car. His mood went from light to worried far too fast.

He had some retirement savings—not much, but some—but it would take nearly two weeks to get anything from that. And the Camero was in pieces in the garage, and without the needed repairs wouldn’t sell for nearly enough anyway, even if it were together. He might have a few more things he could work out, but he still didn’t think he could come up with ten thousand, never mind the full fifty.

Gage wondered if there was any way to keep her safe instead while they raised the money. Maybe it was time to call on Joel.

Gage headed back at his mom’s after a near-sleepless night. Natalie was not exactly an early riser, but hadn’t complained when he had suggested they meet at eight o’clock. She must really have been getting desperate.

He was halfway there when a text message hit his phone. He stopped at the stop sign and looked at the message. It was from Natalie.
I had to run to Denver this morning. May have the problem solved. Going to chat with the bookie. Will check in later.

He sighed and hoped that she was right. He turned left at the next intersection and went to work instead.

The day was busy, but relatively uneventful until Jeremy strolled in shortly before five.

“Hey, what’s up?” Gage asked. He hadn’t seen as much of Jeremy as usual since he got engaged.

“Just checking to see if you have plans tonight. We thought maybe we’d catch dinner and a show at Framer’s Theater. It’s opening night and Delphi figured Jonquil shouldn’t have to go alone.” He sat on the edge of Gage’s desk and picked up the Newton’s cradle sitting on the desk. He lifted the ball on the end and watched them all start their perpetual motion thing.

Gage ignored it and considered what Jeremy was suggesting. “You want me to go as her date? Because you know we’re not going to end up like you and Delphi.” He’d established that with both of them, right?

Jeremy’s lip twitched slightly, but then his expression returned to the too-casual, bland expression he’d worn when he entered. “I didn’t say anything about a date. There are a bunch of us going. You can join us if you don’t have other plans.”

Gage thought about what Jonquil would read into it. What Angela would think—if he showed up on opening night, would she think it was because of her? And did he want to spend his evening watching people sing and dance on stage?

Then he thought of how much fun he’d had with Jonquil the previous day. “Just a bunch of us. This is a non-date?” he asked carefully.

“Absolutely. Delphi and I will swing by and pick you up in,” he paused to check his watch, “an hour or so. We got tickets for everyone in the group and that includes dinner. I hear they grill a good steak.”

“There’s that. Count me in. But I’ll meet you there instead.” Gage watched Jeremy saunter back out of his office, then reached out and stopped the tapping of the balls on the desk. He’d have a good steak, survive an evening of song and dance and… at least he wouldn’t be alone.