There was a running contest in the office between the brothers. While they took their jobs seriously to a fault, they liked to push each other and test their limits of observation when it came to rig schematics. Something their father had begun when they were just starting out and it carried on almost a decade later.

  Marshall raised his hand and the room quieted. Sometimes being the eldest came with a few perks. Respect drilled into them since birth had the rowdy crew settling.

  “But all that will have to wait, I suppose?” Cole deducted from the sudden somber air that took over the room.

  “I know you gentlemen have a lot on your plate and itching to get out of the office for a few weeks and your family’s loss you have a lot to tend to, but gentlemen, if you don’t hear what I have to say, there won’t be a company to worry about.” Cruise turned to Marshall from where he sat silently gathering his thoughts and running through his own paperwork while his brothers chatted. “I hope you don’t mind, I called your mother and sister too. They need to hear this, sir.” Mr. Cruise fumbled through his work, another clue something didn’t sit well with him, and pulled out a thick legal-sized document with his father’s name blazed across the front in black ink followed by ‘WILL and TESTAMENT.’

  A flash of black and red caught his eye from the right as another door swung open that led into a connecting office.

  Five sets of eyeballs turned as the last of the Blackwoods waltzed through the side door.

  Finally. If someone didn’t tell him what was going on, no one was getting a single day off until Christmas. He’d work them eighteen hours a day all the way up to New Years of next year.

  “I see all my boys are here. Sorry I’m late. Mr. Cruise.” Their mother joined Cole on the couch as his sister made a beeline for the TV. As BlackCo’s communications director, the woman stayed plugged into every social media outlet and that only entailed a fraction of her job requirements.

  Everywhere she went all the TVs were turned to local and worldwide news catching everything from the latest celebrity happenings to political events, natural disasters and everything in between. If it involved this company, she knew about it.

  “Hey.” Stella gave each of her brothers a quick hug. “Why’s Shawn all red?”

  “Story for another time. Well, we’re all here now,” Marshall cut in before anyone could get started down that long road. He pegged the lawyer with a stony stare that hopefully delivered the same wave of impatience that suddenly made his large office seem the size of a cubicle.

  “Right. Now that the ladies are here… I was going over your father’s will and testament. Again, I’m sorry I couldn’t be the one that read it to the family or this wouldn’t have happened. Anyway, there was a mistake. You see, three weeks before your father’s passing, he made a change to the will. A big one and somehow the instructions I left with my legal assistant were skewed and didn’t make it to the copy that was read to you all.”

  Shawn pushed up from his chair and took the papers Mr. Cruise offered. “What the hell? How was that overlooked?” As the corporate lawyer for the company, Shawn took details seriously. The fine lines around his eyes hinted at the irritation he held for the other man.

  Their mother read over the papers Shawn passed down and her sudden gasp had his stress levels rocketing skyward.

  Cole and Sam took the papers and even his sister turned from her perch by the TV.

  He took a mental step back. Knowing his father this could go either way.

  What if he didn’t have to find a bride? Did his father come to his senses and realize you couldn’t force love and marriage? God, he hoped so. He didn’t need that kind of pressure.

  “You no longer have to find a bride in six months or risk losing your company,” started the lawyer.

  The audible sigh of relief made its way around the room.

  “No, no, no, Mr. Blackwood. You don’t understand.” His lawyer came to the edge of his chair, dashing a meaty hand from side to side.

  Marshall gritted his teeth until his molars threatened revenge. “Then enlighten me, please, Mr. Cruise. I’m at my rope’s end.”

  “You have to find a bride in two weeks, by your thirty-seventh birthday or the company will be dismantled and sold off. Period.”

  His brothers and sister openly gaped at the man. Beside them, his mom looked ghostly.

  Marshall lifted his chin in silent...what? Acceptance? Disbelief? The only thing he knew for sure at the moment had nothing to do with him and everything about his family. He could sink the Blackwood name with one false move. Fight the tide their father threw him in or swim with everyone in tow.

  It took a colossal amount of control to not say every fucking curse word in the book and then invent a few the occasion called for. Instead, he kicked back in his chair and turned to Houston’s simmering skyline.

  The irony of his father’s legacy versus the demands of his will wasn’t lost on Marshall. “Well happy fucking birthday to me.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The original reason Marshall had called the lawyer to his office took a permanent back seat as he considered all options.

  Well maybe not. Two weeks. Plenty enough time for a miracle. Right. Not even he believed that.

  Either find a loophole or a willing bride.

  No way would he let anyone get their hands on this company.

  Sam and Cole worked quietly over the plans at the small conference table that took up a third of the office space, but he could feel their questioning stares on the back of his head.

  Stella, his ever-observant sister studied the news, her eyes not really focused on anything or anyone at the moment.

  They were worried. He could read it in the tightness of his brother’s shoulders. The way his sister bit at her nails. Shawn was the only one he couldn’t read. From an early age, the man had learned how to school his emotions. Said it helped in his line of duty when the opposite team couldn’t get a bead on his state of mind.

  Marshall grunted and made a beeline for the coffee pot.

  He didn’t want it to come down to finding a bride but if that was the only way to secure his family’s future and fortune well, he’d take one for the team.

  His company. Their future. Marriages didn’t have to last forever. Divorce was as common an occurrence as birthdays. He could find a bride to share the I DO’s with, give her a hefty settlement with an ironclad contract and bam—done deal inside of a year.

  Less, if he was lucky.

  Nothing in his father’s will said he had to stay married. Unless Cruise came through his door with another addendum to his father’s final wishes, that was. And if that happened, he'd be looking for another lawyer.

  Cruise had dismissed himself shortly after delivering the blow to the family and his mother said her farewells with the promise of dinner this evening at home, with a long talk for dessert, no doubt.

  Even with the help of a stiff scotch on the rocks, he couldn’t swallow the sour news. Unchained and free to run the company was how he preferred his life. Uncomplicated was the word he’d used to describe his dating life when his father had asked a few weeks back.

  Now that answer lodged in his gut and swelled and swirled, making everything taste bitter. The old man had used his own words against him. He’d tried the dating routes but no matter how he looked at it, being a Blackwood had huge pitfalls in the romance department. Too many wanted the dollar signs and forgot about the man.

  The only fake thing he wanted in his life was the tofu turkey his mom tried to push on them every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

  The years he had dedicated to this place, all those late hours at his father’s side. To lose all of that now? No. Not now and not ever.

  But two weeks? What in the world were you thinking, Pop?

  “I know what Daddy was thinking.” Stella turned from her TV and Marshall cranked an eyebrow. It was freaky when she did that.

  “I take that back. I think I do. Remember last Fourth of July company BBQ?”

  “How can we forget?” Shawn looked up from the paperwork he had to have memorized by now.

  “You nearly killed us all with those blasted roman candles.”

  Stella gave a half shrug and smiled. “How many sorries do you need to let that go?”

  Sam and Cole tossed their pens down on the table and turned their gazes to Stella.

  “After all the fuss settled down from the fireworks and when Daddy and I were dancing, he asked me about all of you. Who you were dating and how you liked your jobs here and so on. Usual nosy, caring father stuff. But he was oddly focused on you, Marshall. When was the last time I saw you on a date? If you were interested in anyone? How you felt about children and so on.”

  Marshall scoffed but asked the question he already knew the answer to. “And what did you tell him?”

  She shrugged. “The truth. You are so married to BlackCo that he and Mom probably had more date nights in a week than you did in the last ten years.” She planted a hand on her hip and pointed a neon yellow-polished finger in his direction. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the shit you’re in now is my fault.” Her shoulders rounded and she dropped back into her chair, chin quivering.

  God, not fucking tears. He broke every time she did that to him. To any of them. Shawn especially. He caved faster than all of them when it came to the baby of the family.

  Marshall rose and fought to keep his calm game face in place. He didn’t want to make her feel bad but a little fib here or there might have swayed Pop’s rash decision in changing his will at the last minute. “Nah. No one ever changed that man’s mind once it was set. You really didn’t say anything he didn’t already know.”

  Stella’s shoulders visibly relaxed. And thank God for that. He couldn’t put up with her tears right now.

  “No way can you let anyone get their hands on this company. You know that little weasel Becker is just waiting in the wings for you to fail so he can swoop in and start slicing and dicing this company apart with a freaking legal machete.”

  Shawn took his place by the window and started his own cycle of pacing. “I can’t remember the last time I dated, to be honest. We’ve all been so busy here or at home. His last months were hard on all of us.”

  “You don’t need to remember. I do. And it was one shitty Ms. Pricilla Masterson aka money grabber bitch from hell.”

  “Don’t feel you need to sugar coat anything.” Marshall lifted a brow at her, which earned him a cocky smile.

  “Facts are facts, big brother.”

  “Masterson? As in the Mastersons?” Sam pegged him with an incredulous stare, his brows playing in his hairline from his spot over the blueprints.

  “Yeah. But it was only a couple of dates before I saw through her ulterior motives for her dear daddy dearest.”

  “Glad you nipped that in the bass early on. That wouldn’t look too good with the board.” Shawn never chanced anything if it could be helped. He couldn’t blame him.

  “See, you do recall.” Stella poked his shoulder.

  Marshall nodded, his attention already refocused on the rig designs Cole and Sam were reviewing.

  They each worked in different areas of the business. He sat as the CEO. Shawn held down the fort in the legal department. Stella handled communications. Cole and Sam each held their own degrees in engineering and were more hands-on with the mechanics of the oil rigs than the rest of them. Something he missed. Back-to-back meetings, boring contracts and fundraisers didn’t spell out the perfect life he envisioned for himself when he started out, but he did it for the family.

  Each of their lives interlocked with this place. He couldn’t risk their future.

  That settled that.

  “Jason-piece of shit-Becker won’t have the chance to get his grimy hands on BlackCo. I’ll either find a loophole or a bride before my birthday.”

  He winked at his sister to help ease the tension in the room.

  Stella crossed his office and placed a hand on either shoulder. “So it’s a shot-gun summer wedding for the Blackwoods?” she asked with a pained, sorrowful look. Her eyes drifted to the door before coming back to his. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess. I’ll help in any way I can.”

  “What’s there to be sorry about?”

  Her smile dimmed.

  “Hey, don’t be so gloomy.” He pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head. “There’s no way Becker is going to get BlackCo. Even if I have to marry Betty the damn poodle to make sure of that.”

  That had Stella smiling. “I’m sure Mom would love to see you marry the family pooch. That should add some humor to the family album.”

  “But it would save you from watching Becker waltz through those doors,” Marshall assured her.

  His one-time best friend and now sworn enemy—his words, not Marshall’s—had a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas. Paired with an ornery streak that was just as impossible. The man had his eye set on BlackCo since the day the man’s father disinherited him.

  He’d been working to find a way back into his old man’s good grace ever since.

  Marshall circled his desk and fell into his chair, the spring protesting the abuse. “Who in the world can find a bride in fourteen days and plan a wedding?”

  “You, it seems. First time for everything”

  “Stella, you always did have a way with words.” Shawn didn’t bother looking up this time.

  “It’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

  His younger sister flipped through several channels until she found one showing some flashy reality star at a wedding. His gut churned.

  Weddings. Flowers, dresses, cakes… he hated the flashy bells and whistles this whole charade would stir up. The media would find out about his predicament and run with it. He’d have to live out of his office. The damn media would be a nightmare to wade through just to get home.

  He’d never be able to stand in another checkout lane again. The magazine rags would make sure of that.

  “What are you doing to clamp down on this getting out?” Knowing her, she had a plan of attack.

  “Right now, nothing. All eyes are on Gretchen Stewart and her wedding. Thank goodness for reality TV. After that magic wears off, I’m giving an exclusive interview with Forbes. They just don’t know it yet. No one does and the board is locked with an NCND that their position in the company requires.”

  Worked for him.

  Over the next couple of hours they all got to work. Shawn dug through the will trying to find something, anything, they could be used for a loophole while Sam and Cole took care of business.

  “I’ve called a million and one shops in all of Texas. No one is available. They’re all booked/sold out. Whatever it is they call it when the masses flock to wedding shops for spring and summer weddings. Apparently, there’s a season for weddings. Who knew? I flashed everything from your name, to the company, to our credit cards and they still wouldn’t budge.”

  Fuck. “Interesting.” For the second time that day, Marshall didn’t know what to say.

  “Wait. Oh, shit. Yeah! SHE’S PERFECT!” Stella bounded up, her curls dancing around her face. Her sudden burst of excitement caught everyone off guard.

  “Look!”

  His sister pointed to the screen while punching the volume to max.

  The camera panned off a familiar brunette movie star and focused on a pretty blonde with what had to be the most delicate-looking golden dress a stiff breeze could knock off and the most sinful dip between her breasts that had him looking a little longer than he should.

  For once, Marshall agreed with his sister’s assessment of a woman. Perfectly bowed lips, sparkling eyes, and he bet she was a genuine sweetheart with the way her cheeks glowed when the cameras focused on her for even a second. Not like the attention seekers he had dated in the past. He didn’t need to see all of her to know she was a knock-out.

  “I’m sorry. Perfect? For what? Who?”

  “You, silly!”

  Right. because that was obvious.

  Still baffled, his brows furrowed in question. “Come again?”

  The movie star, wrapped an arm around her new husband, said something about dream wedding, dreams coming true, dream this and that, but Marshall admittedly couldn’t look away from the blonde who stood next to the movie star looking more beautiful with soft pink lips and a smile that had his cock stirring to life.

  Reserved and a little shy, she beamed like a star herself. And damn if he didn’t want to dirty her.

  Someone said her name and she started talking. Silky and smooth. Like an angel.

  Juniper. What an unusual name.

  His hands stilled from shuffling through the layers of plans on the table to look at his sister. He knew her and saw the cranks and wheels gaining steam in her head.

  The face of a woman with an idea turned to him and he and his brothers braced for it.

  Crazy ideas came second nature to the woman.

  “I have an idea.”

  Fuck. “I figured as much.”

  “Since I got you into this mess, let me get you out of it. Or find someone,” she raised both hands and did a half turn to the TV, “that can do all the heavy lifting for you.”

  “Stella,” Marshall warned.

  “I think it’s a great idea.”

  He didn’t know which one said it but his brothers needed to leave. He cut a look their way but none of them paid attention.

  “What I mean is,” Stella continued, “you need a wedding of the century kind of gal. You need a miracle and you need it now…remember? No one around here is wanting the job and it looks like she just wrapped up and has an opening. Maybe. Look, she’s it. I have a gut feeling and you know my gut feelings.”

  He did and that was what had him giving her only half an ear.

  “My gut says she’s the one to help us.” His sister spoke over the interviewer, barely taking a second to catch a breath.

  He walked around the desk and placed his hands on Stella’s shoulders. “Are you okay? Anything you want to talk about? Have you been sleeping okay, hit your head in the shower this morning? Did Cole spike your coffee with moonshine again? The woman is in LA for Christ’s sake.”