Billionaire’s Pretend Wife (Preston Brothers Book One) from
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Chapter One
“Why don’t you and Lisa come over to my place on Thursday night? I’ll have my chef whip up something delicious, and we can talk details on the sale.”
Drew Preston kept a bright smile on his face. That was one of the rules of business his father had taught him early in his life, when his dad was building the family shipping business from the ground up. Wear the expression you’d want people to see, even if you’re on the phone. They’ll hear it in your voice.
He needed Jack Holloway to hear an easy confidence today, because Jack’s company—up for sale in a once-in-a-lifetime deal—was the final piece for Drew to pick up for Preston Logistics. After everything that had happened with his ex-wife Susan…
Drew wasn’t going to think about that now.
“Oh, sure.” Jack Holloway seemed to follow Drew’s father’s advice, too, because he sounded genuinely excited to come out to Drew’s place. Of course, that could be because Drew’s house was a mansion overlooking some of California’s most beautiful wine country. “Lisa will be thrilled. What time should we arrive?”
“Six o’clock?”
“Perfect. We’ll be there with bells on.”
They ended the call at the same moment Drew’s son Logan laughed in the next room of the office suite, where Drew’s secretary had her desk. His son had the best laugh. What he didn’t have was a nanny. The last nanny had been good—a little goofy, with curly blonde hair that she wore in an enormous bun on the top of her head—but two weeks ago she’d announced that she was headed off to business school, and that had been that. He’d had to interview eight candidates to find her, too.
The interview with a potential new nanny was coming up in fifteen minutes. Drew added the dinner with Jack and Lisa to his calendar, then stood up to meet Sam, his uncle on his father’s side. He’d been spending time with Logan the last couple of weeks while Drew’s staff vetted candidates for the nanny position, and Drew owed him. It was well within his means to hire a temporary nanny, but Drew didn’t want to switch out Logan’s caretakers more than he had to. The boy was only three. It was hard enough switching back and forth between Drew’s and Susan’s houses.
But when he got to the door of his office, Sam wasn’t there.
Logan sat on the leather sofa across the room from the secretary’s desk, pressed leg-to-leg with a woman so gorgeous that Drew’s heart stopped, stuttered, and raced ahead to catch up.
The light from the window caught in her dark hair as she bent toward Logan, her finger tracing a path on the book she held. The table in front of the sofa had a drawer with books just for this purpose, and Logan had clearly chosen one to give her.
“Look at that red truck.” Her voice was clear, almost songlike, and Logan glanced up at her with wide eyes before he focused back on the book. “What do you think about that?”
“I like red trucks.” Logan nodded decisively. “Some red trucks are fire trucks, and they’re loud and fast. We’re going to see a fire truck tomorrow.”
She flipped the page. “Hmm. A blue boat. Have you ever been on a boat?”
“I swam in the water.” Logan’s eyes lit up. “Daddy took me to the pool, and I have dinosaurs on my bathing suit.”
Drew’s heart ached. It had been a couple of months since the last time he’d taken Logan to his favorite pool—an indoor setup at one of the larger gyms in town. He had a home gym and a pool at the house, but Susan had wanted Logan to mingle with other kids, so the two of them had gone in on a membership at the gym when Logan was a baby. Drew had never given it up.
Logan sat so still for this woman. She had to be the candidate for the nanny position, but she was dressed more like an executive in a gray blazer and pencil skirt.
They interacted with an ease that he’d rarely seen in Logan. It was a balm on his heart—a bittersweet one. How could his boy be almost as comfortable with this perfect stranger as he was with his own parents?
How long had he been standing here watching?
Drew cleared his throat, a smile already on his face. “I hate to interrupt…”
She looked up at him and boom—there it was again, reverberating like