The Baby Pact (Babies and Billions #5) - Holly Rayner Page 0,31

suggesting.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It seems shady to me. She hasn’t spoken to me in a month, and you’re saying I should show up at her door with what basically amounts to a bribe to keep going out with me?”

“You really can’t look at it that way,” Jeff said. “And you have to acknowledge that you’re the one who’s putting that face on it. It’s not like you’re handing her a thousand dollars in exchange for agreeing to come on a date. You’re just arranging a really nice date. But if you don’t want to take this woman on a really nice date—”

“No, I do,” Zach said. “Of course I do.”

“Well then, I don’t see the problem,” Jeff said. “It looks like a win-win situation from where I’m standing.”

The timer went off and Jeff bent down and took the tray of zucchini bites out of the oven.

“You want to try one now?” he asked Zach. “They’re a lot better when they’ve been cooked.”

Zach laughed, realizing that the one he’d sampled before hadn’t been the finished product.

“Sure.” He took a zucchini bite and ate it. “You were right,” he said. “The paprika really makes it.”

“I’m always right,” Jeff said, smiling.

“Okay, okay.”

“Are you going to take her out?”

“I guess I have to,” Zach said. “I can’t seem to let her go, and I’ll never forgive myself if I leave something untried. I have to win her back, and your idea is the best one I’ve got.”

“That’s the spirit,” Jeff said. “Will you let me know how it goes?”

Zach was glad he’d asked. Having someone to report back to about this strange mission would make it easier, in a way, to see it through. It would be hard to face Jeff and explain that he had backed out. Knowing that Jeff would want to hear the story would motivate Zach to go through with it.

“You’ll hear all about it,” he promised. “You’ll be the first to know.”

Jeff grinned. “Fantastic.”

Zach glanced at his watch. They were getting down to the wire. They needed to make sure they were ready for the party.

“You finish up here,” he said. “I’m going to go help the guys on soups and make sure everything is ready. We need to leave in twenty minutes so that we can start setting the place up to be ready in time for the party guests.”

Jeff nodded, all business again. “I’ll be ready,” he assured Zach.

Zach walked away toward the soups station, his mind racing.

Was Jeff’s idea really a good one? He couldn’t be sure. The Rhea he had known in college was not the kind of girl who would have been impressed by gestures of wealth. He remembered well how she had gone out of her way to avoid doing anything to show her family’s money, even going so far as to disguise it by dressing in plain clothes and buying secondhand books for her classes.

He would never have thought, on his own, of trying to impress her with a big fancy display like the one Jeff had suggested. But he knew, also, that he couldn’t afford to leave any idea untried. Not if he wanted to get Rhea back—and he did, very much.

I’ll do what I have to.

Already, ideas were coming to him, ways in which he might try to impress her on their date. He couldn’t wait to get home tonight and start planning.

Chapter 11

Rhea

“You’re late!” Kaylie grabbed Rhea by the hand and pulled her into her apartment. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming!”

The truth was that Rhea had seriously debated not coming to tonight’s party. Even the idea of spending the evening around a lot of people and trying to put on a happy face felt positively exhausting. She had been tempted to stay home, watch bad television, and fall asleep on the couch.

But it was New Year’s Eve. And she had promised Kaylie that she would do this party.

She allowed her friend to take her coat, and Kaylie squealed gratifyingly over the silver sequined dress Rhea had purchased for the occasion.

“This is gorgeous!”

“Thanks.” Rhea managed a smile. “You look great too.”

“The party’s out on the deck,” Kaylie said. “A bunch of people are in the hot tub. If you want to get in, you can borrow one of my swimsuits.”

Rhea nodded her thanks, knowing that she wouldn’t be taking her friend up on that offer. It was generous, but she didn’t want the forced intimacy that went hand in hand with sharing a hot tub