The Perfect Stroke (Lucas Brothers #1)(26)

“Sweet mother of… Wait. Hold the flucking presses and call Maury to find the baby daddy. Did you say tabloids?”

“Yeah.”

“C, you said he had money, but you didn’t say he was famous. Just who the hell are you dating?”

“Damn it! If you’re dating my man, I’m going to hate you for life!”

“Trust me when I tell you, Valerie, that I’m not dating the lead singer from that band.”

“His name is Adam and he’s mine. His wife is the only thing in my way, but that won’t last much longer. She doesn’t understand him like I do.”

My eyes go over to Mer, who’s pointing a finger at her head and spinning it in a circle to indicate that her sister’s whack-a-do. That’s a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with.

“It’s Grayson Lucas,” I tell them, and they look at each other in question. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t follow golf. “He plays golf,” I add.

Valerie is the first one to look him up on her phone. “Oh. My. God,” she whispers to her screen.

“Sweet Jesus,” Mer adds, yanking her phone over to look at it.

“Does he have a brother?” they both say together and I laugh—a real laugh, because just like that, I’m good. I feel really good. They aren’t saying Gray is out of my league. They aren’t telling me I’m crazy for seeing him. Just the opposite, and so I laugh and then proceed to tell them about his colorful (pun intended) family.

This might just work out after all.





“What do you mean we’re taking the boat out?” I grumble, trying to keep my game face on, but really just wanting to get the hell out of here. I feel like I’m in level three of hell. Three levels, because there are three major things f*cking with my plans for the day. One, I’m on Riverton’s sea cruiser, which is most definitely not a sailboat. Secondly, Cammie has been flirting and pawing at me for the last hour, and finally, Riverton is M.I.A. “Your father’s not even here yet.”

“I told you, daddy said he may be held up at the office and for us not to wait for him,” Cammie says almost giddily. Hell, I’m a man, and I’m the first to admit men are usually clueless, but even I can see the calculating in her eyes.

“Honestly, Cammie, I have plans for this evening. We can just reschedule this and do it some other time.”

“What? Why? I’m here and, Gray, I am the CEO for daddy’s marketing. It’s really me you should talk to about this anyway.”

“You are? Then why has your father been…”

“Daddy was just being generous with his time, Gray. He likes you. But honestly, I’m the one who usually makes all the decisions about corporate sponsoring. I had the cook prepare us a nice lunch, and with daddy not here, that means there will be more than enough food. How about we take the boat out? There’s a nice island in the middle of the lake. We can drop anchor close to it and enjoy lunch and talk business?”

Warning bells are going off in my head. Cammie’s got me in her sights and that really is reason for me to turn her down. On the other hand, it appears I’m never going to get to talk to Riverton one-on-one about this. If Cammie is really the one in charge here, it would be smart to deal with her, get it over with, and put this entire trip behind me.

“I have dinner plans tonight I can’t be late for,” I warn her. I promised CC I’d take her out to eat to make up for the other night and I have every intention to keep that promise.

“I can always call the club and…”

“It’s not the club. I have dinner plans with CC tonight.”

“CC?” she asks, sounding confused. “Are you dating Claudia?”

The tone of her voice gets on my nerves as well as the scandalized look on her face.

“We’ve gone out a few times, yes. Is there a problem?”

“Well, no. I mean, who you see is your business, I guess. I just thought that you and I had a connection.”

“Listen, Cammie. You’re a very nice person and all and I have the upmost respect for you, but I’m afraid I don’t really date people I work with in any way.”

“But…”

“I just find it bad practice to mix business and pleasure,” I tell her, cutting her off. “I’m sure you understand.”

“Well, not really. I mean, we’re both adults and we have similar interests and…”

“It’s just a personal rule,” I tell her again, cutting her off before she can keep going. I need to shut this down and get it back under control. She studies me for a minute, then something passes over her face and I feel another warning bell go off, but in a second the look is gone and I have to wonder if I imagined it.

“Fine, then. We’ll be business partners,” she says, holding out her hand. I take it and I can’t help but feel that this seems just way too easy.

“Business partners,” I agree.

“And friends. We can be friends, right? One can’t have too many of those.”

“I completely agree,” I tell her with a smile, starting to feel very relieved that all of this is out in the open. It’s the best thing really, to be upfront with each other.

“Great. Now that we have that out of the way, why don’t we skip taking the boat out and instead have a business luncheon at the club and discuss what our sponsorship exactly means?”