“You don’t even know,” Theo said. “Beyond good. But I think one is enough, they’re huge.”

  I laughed. “The kid can eat. A budding X Games pro needs to keep his energy up.”

  “Oh yeah?” Theo asked. “Which sport?”

  “Skateboarding,” he replied, still studying the menu.

  “He’s really talented,” I added.

  “Huh. I used to board a little back in the day. Then I got older and realized that I like my bones unbroken.”

  I rapped the wooden tabletop with my knuckles. “He’s all clear so far.”

  We went silent as we figured out what we were going to order, and my stress level ratcheted up. I’d expected the meal to be a little awkward, but it was starting off at level nine. I felt unsure of myself now that I knew Rafe was paying attention to how I acted around Theo. That meant I needed to walk a fine line, trying to look like we were a real couple without overdoing it.

  “What are you going to have, T?”

  Theo glanced up at me and raised an eyebrow at the impromptu nickname. “Um, I think some guac to start, then the enchilada platter. Do we all like guacamole?”

  Theo actually asked our opinion. Quite a difference from our first meal at the Salty Pelican.

  Rafe shook his head.

  “Okay, how about salsa?”

  “That works,” Rafe answered.

  Once we’d ordered, Rafe excused himself, no doubt to go outside to check his phone since I always forbid them during meals. I guessed he’d be gone for at least ten minutes. I took advantage of the alone time to fill Theo in on what had gone down in the car.

  “I’m trying to keep our arrangement as uncomplicated as possible, like we agreed to, but it turns out Rafe is more perceptive than I expected. He asked about you … about us, so I told him we were dating.”

  I studied Theo’s face for any sign of disapproval, but his expression didn’t shift as he shoveled chips into his mouth. “Yeah, that’s fine. We need to be prepared for hiccups like that. Does he usually get protective of you like this with your boyfriends?”

  Protective? I hadn’t thought of it that way, but now that Theo had brought it up, it sounded like it fit. I couldn’t help smiling a little, thinking how sweet it was that Rafe was trying to look out for me—in his own surly way, of course.

  Then I realized I hadn’t answered Theo’s question. “Oh, um…it hasn’t really come up. I haven’t had many relationships get to the ‘meet the family’ stage.” Theo’s eyebrows shot up, leaving me wondering how he interpreted that. I hurried to move the conversation on. “Anyway, as far as I can tell, he approves.”

  Theo smiled back at me. “I’m happy I passed the test. He seems like a good kid.”

  Our eyes met and I cursed the shiver that ran up my spine. I needed to keep reminding myself that this was a business deal and nothing more, but sometimes the way Theo looked at me gave me other ideas.

  “Theo!”

  A voice rang out from across the room, loud enough that the noise in the place died down for a few seconds.

  “Oh no,” he said, closing his eyes.

  “What?” I asked, craning my neck to see who’d called him. “Who is that?”

  “Shit,” he muttered. “Talk about needing to be prepared. Brace yourself.”

  “Theo, honey, what a nice surprise!” A sweet-looking older woman with a blonde bob and gigantic smile swept up to our table and stared at me with an expression that almost looked hungry. “And who is this?”

  Theo cleared his throat and shot me an uncomfortable look. “Hi Mom. Um, I was going to introduce you two at Jess’s engagement party but now is as good a time as any. This is Max. Max, this is my mom, Elena.”

  I gulped down my shock. How many more family meetings were going to be thrown at us today? I thought I’d have time to prepare to meet his people, yet here she was, the most important player of all, the reason why we’d entered into this fake relationship. I turned on my smile and got ready for the performance of a lifetime.

  “Hi, Mrs. Barnes, it’s so lovely to meet you,” I said, which seemed to snap her out of her trance.

  “Oh my goodness, you’re so beautiful,” Elena said. She took my hand in hers and held on, rubbing the top of it. She glanced at Theo. “Are you two seeing one another? You must be if you’re coming to the party! Oh Theo, she’s wonderful.”

  The way she was studying me made me feel like a prized cow at a state fair.

  Theo took one look at my expression and did his best to choke back a laugh.

  “And you can call me Elena.”

  “Why don’t you join us?” I said, looking around so I could pull an extra chair up to the table. Theo coughed and shook his head almost imperceptibly, and I realized I’d made a mistake.

  “I wish I could but I’m off to a manicure in a little bit, and my girl Gia is always booked weeks in advance. I can’t miss it, but I have a few minutes to spare.” She dropped into Rafe’s seat and noticed the glass of soda on the table. “Is someone else with you?”

  “Max’s brother is here too.”

  Elena nearly swooned as she placed her hands over her heart. “A family meal. How precious. And where is he?”

  “He excused himself for a few minutes, I think he might be outside on his phone.”

  She nodded sagely. “Just like my Theo, aways working.”

  I grimaced, realizing she’d assumed Rafe was around my age. I could explain his actual age, but then Elena might wonder why I’d brought my brother along on a lunch date, and I didn’t want to get into the specifics of why it was a bad idea for Rafe to be home right now.

  “And what do you do, Max?”

  “I’m a photographer.”

  Elena clapped her hands and beamed at Theo, almost like he was acing a game show. “How wonderful!”

  “Max is very talented. She did the photos for my new marketing campaign and website.”

  “May I see?” She held her hand out to me.

  I chuckled at the sweet but bossy woman. Now I knew where Theo got that confident, steamroller personality. “Sure, I have a few on my phone.” I scrolled to Theo’s folder and handed my phone to her.

  “Oh …” Elena flipped through the images. “These are incredible! It’s a shame Jessica already booked a photographer because you’d be perfect!”

  “Thank you, that’s kind of you,” I said. “But I don’t actually do weddings. That’s a special skill.”

  “And Mom, Max is going to be a guest at the wedding. I wouldn’t want her working it.”

  “Of course, that’s right. You two need to have a chance for dancing and romancing. Maybe you’ll catch the bouquet, Max?”

  It hit me that Theo’s Mom was an old-school romantic, which meant we were really going to have to sell our relationship.

  “And don’t forget this part,” she continued. She picked up a knife from the table and started tapping Rafe’s glass, the way people did at weddings to prompt the newlyweds to kiss.

  “Oh, no, no, that’s for the bride and groom,” I said quickly with a nervous laugh, glancing around the room to see if people were watching.

  Elena beamed at us but didn’t stop tapping the glass. “Just pretend. For me. Consider it practice.”

  Theo’s expression was completely unreadable. We glanced at one another as the clanging continued and before I could figure out what to do, he leaned over and gently palmed my cheek, drawing me closer to him. I wasn’t sure if Elena stopped tapping or if all of my other senses shut down as Theo pulled me in.

  Here we were, in a brightly lit, busy dining room, surrounded by people, and Theo was about to kiss me again. Worst of all, I was so hungry for him that I’d take it.

  He pressed his mouth to mine, a gentle ghost of a kiss. When he pulled away, I nearly followed him, desperate for another taste of his soft lips. I blushed when I realized that I probably looked desperate, and in front of his mother!

  “Oh, you two,” Elena sighed. “Young love. I wish I could stay with you, but I’m going to be late. Max, you are everything I dreamed of for Theo. It’s wonderful to meet you!”

  She gave me a kiss on the cheek, bustled over to hug Theo, then swept out of the room like a retreating hurricane, nearly running into Rafe in the process. I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn’t have to navigate that introduction.

  He plopped into his chair then glanced between me and Theo. “What? What did I miss?”

  Theo and I glanced at each other with shell-shocked expressions, both looking like we’d just endured a prizefight.

  12

  THEO

  “I thought I’d find you out here.”

  I recognized the voice immediately. Damn it, what the hell was Pam doing tracking me down here, now, out on the dock? It was the end of a long day filled with engine problems and know-it-all mechanics, and the absolute last thing I wanted to deal with was the woman holding my business hostage. I’d stepped off the boat to take a few minutes to breathe in the salt air as my form of meditation, but Pam was going to make it impossible.

  “Well, hello,” I said, finally turning to greet her. “Any chance you’ve got a contract in that purse of yours?”

  She laughed more cheerfully than she should’ve considering I was still waiting for the damn thing. “Work, work, work. Is that all you ever think of?”

  Pam was in her usual flowy floral print silk duster and high-heeled sandals. I couldn’t figure out how she walked down the uneven dock in the things without falling into the water.

  “Yeah, honestly, it is all I ever think of.”

  The image of Max popped into my head.

  Fine, there was something else I was thinking about besides work these days. Not that anyone else needed to know that.

  I craned my neck to glance behind her. “Ford with you?”

  She shook her head and pouted at me as she closed the distance between us. “No, sir, just little old me. Disappointed?”

  Fuck yes, I was disappointed. I was in no mood to deal with her solo. I ran through my options in my head, trying to decide if it was more of a professional risk to bluntly shut her down or suck it up and deal with whatever she wanted. “What can I do for you, Pam?”

  “I was hoping we can talk. Can we board and have a little chat?” She pointed up at the yacht in front of us, the Vivant.

  Not a chance I was going to let her on it.

  “Sorry, we just redid the teak, can’t let anyone on until tomorrow earliest,” I lied.

  “Oh boo,” she pouted. “Well, can we go to your office then?”

  My patience snapped. “Pam, can I ask what this is about?”

  She narrowed her eyes at me, just this side of peevish. “A couple of things, including the contract. But I don’t want to talk about it here in the open. It’s … sensitive.”

  My gut said she was bullshitting me, but if there was even a chance that I could finally close this deal today… “Fine, I have a few minutes before I have to leave for my plans tonight.”

  “Wonderful,” she cheered as we started back down the dock. “If I’m lucky maybe I can get you to change your mind about those plans.”

  I tried to hide my grimace. “Unless you’re calling Ford to sign, I doubt it.” I was unsuccessful at keeping the frustration out of my voice. “My plans are a business dinner with a VIP client, but I could be persuaded to push it back for the contract.”

  Another lie.

  “We’ll see,” Pam said cryptically.

  When we got back to my office, I unlocked the door and flipped on all of the lights, to drive home the point that I wasn’t going to stand for any flirty bullshit. I headed for the captain’s chairs in the lobby.

  “Please, have a seat.”

  Pam hovered a few feet away. She looked irritated. “Not here. Your office.”

  She pointed toward it as if reminding me where I sat every day.

  “Why?”

  She made a frustrated noise. “Because that’s my preference. I told you that this is a private matter,” she explained. She pointed at the bank of windows along the front of the office. “Anyone could walk by and see us here.”

  “See what, exactly?” The tension in my temples ratcheted up a few notches.

  Pam’s bottom lip quivered as her eyes filled with tears. “Are you really going to make me air my personal business in front of anyone who might be walking by?”

  Wait, was she not here to seduce me? Were there actual problems—maybe something with Ford she thought I needed to know?

  I thought of the way Ford tended to interrupt and dismiss Pam. I’d chalked it up as yet another case of a man who had a good professional life and a bad marriage. But if the wounded pride and insecurity he displayed in his personal life led him to make decisions that affected his professional life, I needed to know.

  “I didn’t realize something was wrong,” I told Pam. “Let’s go to my office.”

  She sniffled and raised her chin in victory. “Thank you.”

  I’d left the blinds on the windows facing outside closed, so once we entered my office, we were in a cocoon. If she needed privacy to tell me something that needed to be kept under wraps, then she had it now.

  “Please sit,” I pointed to the couch. “Can I get you a water? A seltzer, maybe?”

  “Do you have anything a little stronger?”

  I pursed my lips as I walked to the little wet bar in the corner of my office. Of course I did, and she knew it since we’d toasted the pending partnership the first time I’d met both her and Ford. But adding alcohol to the situation seemed like a bad idea. I certainly didn’t want her inhibitions lowered. On the other hand, if that was what she needed to give me a straight answer about why her husband was dragging his feet on our deal…

  “Whiskey. Vodka. Gin,” I offered. “What’ll it be?”

  “Vodka rocks,” she purred from behind me.

  I shot a glance over my shoulder at her. What happened to the tears? She was looking way too comfortable splayed out on my couch with her sandals kicked off and her ankles crossed.

  I fixed her drink and took a bottle of water for myself. “Okay, what’s going on?” I asked as I sat down in the farthest chair from her.

  She shrugged one shoulder as she took a gulp. “I just wanted to talk.”

  I frowned at her, pointing toward the window. “Talk about what? Outside, you were upset,” I could hear that I sounded harsh, so I tried to moderate my tone. “What’s going on, Pam? And what does it have to do with my deal with Ford?”

  It was as if a switch flipped in her. Pam’s eyes went watery again and her lower lip trembled. “Okay, okay.” She took a shuddery breath. “Fine, if we can’t have a few minutes of pleasant conversation then I’ll get right to it.”

  She stared off into the distance dramatically.

  “I’m ready when you are,” I said flatly.

  Pam put her drink down and ran her fingers beneath her eyes to wipe away tears that hadn’t actually spilled. “Ford and I …”

  My heartbeat slowed. If something was going on between Pam and Ford, it could impact my business. This was big.

  “We’re just not getting each other these days,” she said, finally letting a few tears fall down her cheeks. “All he does is work, and part of me wonders if he’s doing it to stay away from me.”

  She dropped her head and sobbed, her shoulders shaking. As little as I wanted to be anywhere near her, I could still hear my mother’s voice in my head telling me that I had a responsibility to at least try to comfort a crying woman. After all, even I could tell Ford was a jerk to her sometimes.

  I moved over to the couch, seating myself on the arm of it rather than next to her so I could pat her back without giving her the opportunity to turn and press herself into my arms. Maybe I was being unfair. Maybe she was genuinely upset, and this wasn’t the latest iteration of her attempts to seduce me.

  But I didn’t want to take any chances.

  “And I wonder if …” she hiccupped, “… if there’s another woman.”

  I’d worked with my fair share of cheaters. Like it or not, the money required to be a part of the yachting lifestyle meant that the men involved in it were power players who were used to getting whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it. My assistants had been asked to book escorts for excursions filled with married men, and I’d witnessed guys take off their rings to hit on fellow passengers. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I wasn’t in the morality policing business. What those men got up to was their private concern. As long as everyone involved was a consenting adult, I stayed out of it.

  With Ford, I just didn’t see it. He saw Pam as a status symbol. If he had a newer, shinier status symbol, he would have brought that woman on the day cruise, not Pam. Besides, if he was cheating on Pam, why would he be including her in negotiations for a business contract that didn’t have a single damn thing to do with her?

  “Pam, no, I don’t think—”

  She let out a wail and threw herself at me. I dodged, quickly standing, and she ended up falling off the couch and onto the floor.

  “Ow. Fuck. What the hell, Theo?” She glared up at me.

  “As I was about to say,” I began, crouching to offer her a hand up, “I really don’t think Ford is interested in anyone but you. He adores you, Pam.”

  She reluctantly accepted my hand and let me pull her to her feet. “I don’t know what to believe. All I know is I’m so lonely.” The waterworks turned up like she had them on a dial.

  “Let me get you some tissues.” I yanked my hand out of her grasp. “And then call you a cab. I’m sure you have a close friend you’d be more comfortable talking about this with. Or maybe a couples therapist?”

  Pam stopped me with a hand on my arm, as her expression shifted from unhappiness to … hunger. Damn it.

  You could make a bad drinking game out of this woman’s seduction attempts.

  “Theo,” she sighed without a hint of sadness. “Just kiss me.”

  “No,” I said firmly.

  She glared at me. “But I want this. Ford always gets what he wants. Men like you get whatever you want. Why don’t I get what I want? For once?” Her voice rang with broken, frustrated bitterness.