Royal (Conner Brothers Construction #5) - Cee Bowerman Page 0,2
Ronan had pretended to be me on a whim. I’d seen him do it and wasn’t jealous by any means, but the way Margie had reacted and the look on Ronan’s face had said it all.
Margie hadn’t known that Ronan wasn’t me, and I thought that was bad enough. It made matters so much worse when she found out and then immediately asked him if we’d ever shared a woman.
Ronan’s answer to that question had been a resounding, “Hell no!”
As soon as I found out what she’d said, I added to his answer with a short but sweet, “I think it’s time to see other people. Get your shit out of my fucking house.”
Margie ended up married to my dentist and running his front office.
I’d had to get a new dentist and so had all of my brothers. We’d moved our company account and insurance information to another dental practice here in town. Margie’s husband closed down his business and joined another practice that same year. I’d wondered if the loss of me, my six brothers, and the majority of my full-time employees all at once might have contributed to that.
Probably not, but it sure as hell made me feel better to think it had. That’s what he got for asking me to leave after Margie told him I was her ex.
“Gentlemen, it’s time to line up!” I jumped when I heard a woman’s voice call us all together, jerked out of musings about my now non-existent dating life. I heard the emcee start his opening speech just as I walked out of the dressing room and handed the garment bag to Thea’s assistant. She smiled up at me and said, “I just met your brother, Ronan.”
“Oh yeah?”
“It’s uncanny how alike the two of you look.”
“We get that a lot,” I told her as I slowly nodded. Was her name Stacy or Tracy? Shit!
“Go line up. We’re going in alphabetical order, so you’ll go out third, okay?”
“Sounds good.”
I walked over to the group of men she’d motioned toward and smiled nervously.
“Did you lose a bet too?” one of the men asked me with a laugh.
“No. I pissed off my sister-in-law,” I told him honestly. “She entered me in this thing without me knowing.”
“How in the world did she do that?” another man asked.
“She runs our office,” I said with a wry grin. “Just for the record, don’t piss off the office manager.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” one of the men agreed. We laughed and joked quietly for a few minutes, before I I walked toward the curtain to look out. My family was seated at a table near the front, and I saw that Ronan had his arm resting on the back of Thea’s chair.
“Hey, Ro,” I heard London say from behind me.
“Hey, sweetheart. What are you doing here?”
“Well, they hired me to do magic tricks,” London said seriously. “You know . . . because that’s what I do for a living.”
“Shit,” I whispered. “My bad. I guess you’re going to sing, huh?”
“Yeah,” London said as she slowly nodded. “You’re a quick one, aren’t you?”
“Shut up and get out there,” I told her as the emcee announced her name.
“Dumbass,” London hissed as she walked past me.
The man who was heading up the line asked, “You know London Cunningham?” It finally came to me why he looked so familiar: he owned one of the biggest ranches in this area.
“Yeah, I know her,” I confirmed. “Are you a fan?”
“Dude, I’d give half my bank account just to sit at the same table as that woman.”
“Put your money where your mouth is then,” I told him. “If you donate $10,000 tonight and show me the receipt, I’ll have London Cunningham meet you for dinner. Dinner only. And she’ll be accompanied by her security guard. His name is Tavin.”
“You’re serious?”
“Dead serious,” I told the man, knowing London would definitely follow through for that kind of money. “That’s all it’s for though, one dinner.”
“Shit,” the man boasted. “I’m there.”
“Bring me the receipt later, and I’ll get it arranged.”
I watched from the sidelines as London sang a Don Henley song that had the crowd in tears. It reminded me of when we took my niece and nephew home from the hospital and actually choked me up a bit too. The months after the death of five of our family members had been a very emotional time in all of our lives, and I suddenly realized that bringing them home had finally closed out that chapter.