Bad Engagement (Billionaire's Club #10) - Elise Faber Page 0,62

of a painful memory.

He’d given.

He’d given so much.

So, it took no effort at all to tell him the truth. “No, baby,” she said. “Not that. Never that.”

His eyes softened, and he held her tight for another long moment.

Then he leaned back, propped her back under the stream of water. “Should we finish getting cleaned up and then go back to digging your hole?”

Her lips tipped up. “That’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.”

A chuckle, hands pouring soap onto her loofa. “Well, then, we’re both wet and naked, whatever shall we do?”

She burst out laughing. He joined in.

Then she snagged the loofa. “I’ve got some plans.”

Oh boy, did she have some plans.

Twenty-Three

Jaime

It was Christmas Day. Well, Christmas evening, and Jaime was staring in shock at the crowd of people in the hallway of Kate’s parents’ house. “What are you guys—” A shake of his head. “How are you guys here?”

Tammy pushed past his parents and walked up to him. “I called Mom from the airport, told them about the girl, about your Kate and how you bought”—

This was the point he started making slicing motions with his hands.

Of course, his sister missed them.

“—her a big, fat diamond—”

More slicing motions. More ignoring.

“—and were going to ask her to marry you—”

For fuck’s sake. Half the crowd might already think he’d popped the question, but Jaime had plans. Plans he should have enacted that morning, but she’d distracted him with gorgeous red lace.

Then with green lace.

And . . . time had gotten away from them. So much that they’d barely made it to the party on time.

For Christ’s sake, they hadn’t even cleared the hallway before the knock had come.

“How did you—?” He blinked. “I mean.” He shook his head. “You’ve never been here before.”

Tammy held up her phone. “Find Your Phone family plan works both ways, buckaroo.” A grin. “We tailed your car.”

“And then barged into a house you didn’t know?” he asked.

He loved his family, but . . . for fuck’s sake. Were they trying to nuke his personal life?

“Hi,” Kate said, extending her hand to his sister.

Jaime sighed. “The wannabe spy is Tammy, my sister. My mom and dad—” He pointed to his parents, but Kate had slipped by him, closed the distance.

“I’m Kate,” she said to his mom. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Huntington.”

“Tawny, please. And this is my husband, Andrew.”

“So nice to officially meet you both,” Kate said. “Jaime talks about you all the time—”

“What’s this?”

The crowd turned to see Marabelle in the hall, her hair perfectly coiffed, a reindeer-printed apron wrapped around her slender frame.

Silence then, “Mom! Isn’t this great?” Kate said. “Jaime’s family came to town and surprised him.”

To her credit, Marabelle didn’t miss a beat.

She walked over, introduced herself to Jaime’s parents, then they completed the introductions with Jaime’s other sister, Penny, and his brother, Brad.

“Mom,” he said, tugging her a little ways away and sending death glares at his siblings for letting his mom bundle them all into the car and drive out. Not one of them appeared unabashed. Hell, they were all so nosy, they’d probably encouraged her. “Not that I’m not happy to see you,” he said quietly, “but . . .”

She lifted her chin. “You were too busy to come home, so we decided to come out and meet this girl,” his mother finished for him. “Do you know how expensive last-minute flights are? We ended up driving out.”

“From Utah?” Kate’s mom exclaimed, tuning into the conversation. “Gosh, you guys must be so tired. Please, come in. Dinner’s almost ready.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t want to intrude,” his mom said.

Jaime snorted.

And got a smack on the back of the head for his trouble.

But Marabelle ignored them both. Instead, she took his mom’s arm and led her down the hall. “There’s always plenty of food. We’ll just bring in some more chairs. Harry! Dave! Jake! I need chairs.”

“We’ll help,” Brad said, snagging Penny and Tammy and hauling them down the hall after the moms.

Hell.

The moms.

“Welcome to the family, Kate,” his dad said. A shake of his head. “For the record, I tried to stop them.”

Kate giggled.

And Jaime? He decided to roll with it. What choice did he have otherwise? “At least we won’t get sweaters from Aunt Janet this year,” he said hopefully.

“Oh no.” His father patted his shoulder. “Your mother packed those.”

Kate giggled again, and with another shake of his head, Jaime’s dad followed everyone else down the hall.

“They drove out?” she whispered, wide eyes meeting his.

Jaime rubbed