What a time to meet the family, huh? And still, Eva was thrilled to be invited to tag along.
“Take Lizardman for a second.” West handed the puppy over to her across the table.
She clasped the sweet little thing and nuzzled his delicate fuzzy neck, giggling under the puppy’s kisses. “Hey, little Lizardman! Relax already.” West’s oldest had named the puppy the strange name, and West had gone with it. Nothing could be more adorable. She returned all the puppy’s kisses with her own. “We’re almost there, little guy! You’re going to see your little boys really, really soon.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be back soon,” West told this mysterious “Carl” on the phone. “I have a little family emergency, but the second I get it taken care of, I’m there.”
He was rushing back to Nashville? Her ears stung at the revelation. But–but… what about the charming little vacation they’d planned together? What about his boys?
Her eyes narrowed on him.
“See if you can’t hold the fort down while I’m gone.” West’s gaze shifted to his brother, Nash, who sat in the seats across the aisle with his new wife… like wife-of-two-days new! They were just returning from eloping to Hawaii.
They were disgustingly cute. Emily sat on his lap, playing with Nash’s hair. He wouldn’t leave hers alone either. His heavy lids lowered as he took in his new wife like he was the luckiest guy in existence.
What Eva would do to get West to look at her like that! And now he was already planning on cutting their time together short? Over her dead body. He’d promised her a week to meet his family, and she’d accept nothing less.
“No,” West said after a moment. His voice turned harder, colder as he shut down whatever was being said on the other end of the line. “Nash is out.”
Oh, this Carl was trying to rope Nash back into the business again, was he? That wouldn’t happen. West had already tried to get him to work under him in Nashville, and after a stint with the wilder side of her daddy’s organization, Nash wasn’t going for it.
He’d found love instead.
Eva couldn’t be more thrilled for Nash. She took full credit for getting those two together. If she could do it for them, she could do this for herself, right? Right?
Soothing her disappointment at West’s party-pooper talk by strategizing ways to get around it, she kissed the puppy’s ear and turned from him.
West ended his conversation with a growled order to “Mind your own business,” before he slid his phone into his pocket.
“We’re rushing back, huh?” she asked. Who cared if he accused her of eavesdropping? She wasn’t deaf. She nuzzled Lizardman’s furry neck with her nose.
“It’s your daddy’s fault,” West said with a shrug. “Take it up with him.”
“He doesn’t like to talk business,” she muttered. Neither did West. She knew how to trick the information out of the both of them to get her way. “Sounds like you need someone more capable than Carl working for you, someone dependable, who can take anything you throw at them, even when you run off to take care of important personal affairs.”
He licked his lips, studying her. West was hard to read sometimes, especially when he watched her with those deep blue eyes. They were as magnificent as he was. She had seen the passion in them more than once, which was why it was so frustrating that she could barely get that emotion to turn on her. “You’ll love Harvest Ranch this time of year,” he said, changing the conversation abruptly. “It’s beautiful in the fall.”
“Really? Sounds like you need to take your time showing me exactly what you love about it.”
“Don’t worry,” Nash called over to them across the way. “West is staying the whole week. He promised his kids some good quality time. He’s not backing out of that.”
Her heart fluttered with happiness at the insider info. “Thanks for putting me out of my misery,” Eva said with a wink at Nash. She could always depend on him taking her side. The two of them had grown close while he’d stayed at West’s mansion on the posh side of Green Hills for the three months that he’d been there. She suspected that West had thrown his brother between them in an attempt to dampen her daddy’s suspicions that she and West were a thing.
That plan had backfired. She’d never felt closer to West.
“I can’t wait to meet the rest of your family,” Eva told West. She’d already had the pleasure of knowing Nash and Porter. She certainly preferred West’s intensity over his goofier brothers, but employing the jealousy angle wasn’t beneath her, so she used that card liberally to get his attention. “Are all your brothers as handsome as Nash?”
“More handsome,” Nash said. “Even my twin.”
His wife disagreed with a laugh. Emily slid her arm behind his neck with a gentle smile. She was as sweet as Nash was spicy, and her forehead wrinkled as she tried to talk some sense into him. “Don’t get me wrong, I love your family… but I love you mostest.”
Mostest?Yeah, super disgustingly cute.
And Eva loved West mostest.
Her heart skipped at the happy realization, but how to prove her absolute adoration to him? She had to act quickly if he was already talking about whisking her back to Nashville.
Her phone went off.