Mal burst out laughing and put a hand over her eyes. She could just see Jenna trying to be smooth and pretend to break something, but actually break it in the process. She was just that sort of cute and uncoordinated person when she got excited, though she was all grace and poise at every other time.
“I’ve been addicted to her ever since,” Tom said with a smile. “She could ask me for anything in the world, and I would get it for her.”
“Does she?” Mal asked, turning in her chair to face him more. “Ask you for things?”
Tom gave her a look, his eyes seeming bluer for the pinstripe in his shirt. “What do you think?”
Mal considered that. “Honestly, I can’t see Jenna asking for much. She’s pretty much the most perfect person I know.”
“Exactly. Try getting perfection to fall for you.” He shook his head and took a drink of the water on the table.
“Try being related to it,” Mal muttered.
Tom smirked and turned thoughtful. “I get the impression you don’t ask for much either, Mal.”
She shrugged and sipped her own water. “I’ve learned not to. For all my ambition to be someone in the world, I try to live as quietly as possible. Which reminds me,” she added, sitting up, “why didn’t Hunter know I was Jenna’s cousin?”
Tom exhaled and craned his neck. “Yeah, he asked me that one too. Jenna would have told everyone in the entire world that her cousin was taking the pictures, and that would have been enough for some people. Not her bridesmaids, of course,” he admitted with a snort, “but everyone else. I’m afraid the decision to keep that a secret was mine.” He gave her an apologetic sort of look.
She frowned, her brow furrowed. “Why, though?”
“Business,” he said simply. He put his glass back on the table and sat forward. “You see, Mal, I know what it’s like to be tossed into the Hudson world when you’re not ready for it. I come from a wealthy and high-end family in North Carolina, it’s true, but I didn’t have Jenna’s star appeal until I was dating her. I’m used to it now, so I don’t mind. But when she wanted to bring you in, I was hesitant. No reservations about you, but this is a big thing, and for someone who doesn’t have any connections to this sort of world, it would be a hard sell. I didn’t want your connections to be an issue. And I figured if we could get you something that might appeal to your artistic and professional side…”
“The resort contract,” Mal said, nodding in realization.
“Uh-huh.” Tom smiled. “I knew this place well enough to know that someone with vision could have a lot of success. I mean, the place works for the hobby photographer to have once-in-a-lifetime shots; what could a professional do? But again, I didn’t think you’d want someone to bring you on just because of Jenna. So, we kept that under wraps. Sold it to them just on your skills and portfolio alone. Hunter looked at them himself and was convinced, and the lawyers did the rest.”
Mal shook her head and sat back in her seat, crossing an ankle over her knee. “So, I really did get it on my own.”
Tom’s smile grew. “You really did, kiddo.” He winced. “Sorry, you’re not that much younger than me. I shouldn’t call you that.”
She chuckled and took her glass of water again. “You can call me whatever you want, Tom,” she assured him. “We’re family now. Anything goes.”
He inclined his head in thanks.
They sat there in a companionable silence, watching the rest of the group trickle in for dinner. Jenna saw them together and grinned, waving at Mal, looking much more at ease than she had earlier.
Tom whistled low under his breath.
Mal glanced at him in surprise, but he just grinned.
“Just when I think she can’t get any prettier,” he murmured, shaking his head.
Mal laughed. “You are completely head over heels, aren’t you?”
“So far gone,” he groaned as he pinched at the bridge of his nose. “Three years with her, and I still can’t breathe.”
Mal shoved at his knee with an exasperated noise. “You sound like a Hallmark movie.”
He laughed and shrugged his broad shoulders with ease. “I know, and I fully admit it.”
Mal looked over at her cousin, mingling and smiling nonstop. “That’s good,” she said quietly. “Jenna’s that sort of person.”
“Hunter really likes you, you know.”
She jerked and gave Tom a strange look. “Say what?”
Tom glanced to the doorway where Hunter and two of the guys had just come in, talking to each other. Mal also followed his gaze. Hunter was engaged in conversation with the others, but his eyes were on Mal. For a full set of heartbeats, she couldn’t move, couldn’t look anywhere else.