Bad Engagement (Billionaire's Club #10) - Elise Faber Page 0,58

wanted to be with Kate, no holds barred.

The sooner everyone on the planet knew that fact, the better.

And so, maybe he was feeling the tiniest bit possessive.

Meh. A man had to do what he had to do, and that included making it clear to the rest of the populace that Kate was his.

“Hmm.”

“What?” he asked, playing innocent, even as he turned in the direction of the airport. Tammy needed to get to her flight, and he needed to get back to the clinic. He’d already pushed several appointments when she’d shown up unexpectantly. He didn’t want to disappoint his clients, knew their time was just as important.

“And none of this staying here for the holiday has anything to do with this Kate?”

“Not going to say it’s not a benefit,” he muttered. “Sex with the woman I love versus opening a poop brown sweater from Aunt Janet.”

Tammy smacked him. “You’re terrible.” A beat. “But not wrong.” Sighing, she leaned back in her seat. “I miss sex.”

He groaned. “No, my ears!”

“What? You can talk about it, but I can’t?”

“Yes,” he said, flashing her a grin. “Exactly that. You’re my baby sister. That means I’m going to go through the rest of my life pretending you’ve never had sex.”

“Newsflash, dumbass,” she grumbled. “I’ve had sex. Loads and loads of really hot, really awesome—”

“La. La. La.”

“Don’t cover your ears,” she said. “You need your hands to drive.”

He laughed, shook his head. “Wasn’t planning on it.” Jaime paused, checking traffic as he merged onto the freeway. “It didn’t work out with your guy?”

“No.”

“Want to talk about it?”

He saw her make a face out of the corner of his eye, expected the change in conversation that came a second later. “When do I get to meet this Kate?”

“When I can get her to not run screaming from our family,” he said dryly.

“Good luck with that.” But it was a lighthearted response, one equal to his words. Because Kate would love his family. It was the same reason he’d felt so comfortable stepping into hers. Love and teasing. Jokes and banter around a dinner table. Enjoying each other’s company. Not hesitating to drop anything to help, to be there, to show they cared.

Two sides of the same coin.

He just had an extra sibling in the mix.

Which is why he knew he’d be making a trip home soon—as much as he grumbled, he loved his family, would miss seeing them for the holiday. He just hoped that he could convince Kate to keep trusting him enough to hop on a plane with him.

Tammy changed the topic to work, and they spent the remainder of the ride to the airport talking about her plans for her job.

She was considering a move to the Bay Area but wasn’t sure she wanted to get mixed up in tech, not when her skills in Human Resources meant she could work in a variety of fields.

“Well, just remember that your favorite brother is here,” he said, hugging her tight.

“My favorite older brother,” she teased. “My favorite younger brother has decided his role is jet-setting around the world and giving our mother coronaries.” They shared a grin, knowing that wasn’t hard to do. Their mom wasn’t exactly known as being easy-going.

“He’s good at that,” Jaime said.

“Damned good.”

“We should take notes.”

She laughed and rose on tiptoe, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Love you, Jaime-Maimy.”

He groaned. “Really? Pulling out old nicknames?”

Tammy grabbed her bag. “It’s part of my privilege as a younger sister.”

“Safe flight, Tammy Two Shoes.”

A roll of her eyes. “And yours, too, apparently. I always hated that nickname.”

He tugged her ponytail. “At least you’ve figured out you only need one shoe on each foot now.”

“They were slippers!” She tossed up her hands. “I was four. How was I supposed to know that you didn’t wear hard shoes over them?”

“I’m not touching that,” he said with a smirk.

“Good. Don’t. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Then after one more and a wave at the automatic doors, she was inside the terminal and Jaime was back in his car, driving to the clinic.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur, an emergency pushing his already messed up schedule into the realm of fucked. He kept his head down, tried to stay focused, but as the hours passed, a knot grew in his stomach.

At first, he thought it was something he was missing with the dog.

It had been hit by a car, had suffered some severe injuries.

But as time went on, as he stabilized the lab mix, he