Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(61)

“Was it that bad?” I asked when his laughter had quieted down.

He moved his hands away, and his eyes were actually glistening. His whole face was a shade of red like he’d spent too much time in the sun. “No,” he said through twitching lips. “It was amazing. You have a really unique style.”

He held a straight face for approximately three seconds before he sank into another fit of laughter.

I couldn’t do anything but watch him and smile at how amused he was. I didn’t enjoy making a fool of myself, but I liked seeing Rich laugh so hard. Even when he was joking around, he could seem so serious. This was yet another side of him I hadn’t ever experienced, and I found myself liking it.

“What’s so funny?” asked Nick.

Nick leaned on the railing in front of us while Cade stood directly in front of Rich. Cade was eating peanuts, shells and all. Nick had a slice of cheese on a paper plate.

“Nothing,” Rich said. He looked like he had finally calmed himself down all the way. “What the hell?” he asked suddenly. He pointed to Cade. “You know you’re supposed to take the shells off, right?”

“What?” asked Cade. He bit straight into another peanut, gnawing his way through the shell and then chewing up the contents before speaking again. “Are they poisonous or something?”

“No, but they have the texture of tree bark,” Nick said. “You’ve been eating the shells? Are you really that dense?”

“Yeah, and cheese is just a loaf of old milk,” Cade shot back. “So bon appétit, asshole.”

Nick looked at his cheese with a slightly disturbed expression and then set it down on one of the steps. “It looked like Kira was having some kind of episode or mental breakdown, so we thought we’d better come check on you two,” Nick said.

I glared.

Nick reeled backward like I’d balled up my fists to punch him.

“I was dancing, not having a mental breakdown,” I said.

Cade burst out laughing. “This guy,” he said, looking at Nick. “I’m supposed to be the one who is dumb enough to say something like that out loud. You’re supposed to be smarter than that, Nicky boy.”

“Shut up,” Nick said. He cleared his throat. “So, other than costing us millions of dollars, what are you two up to?”

“Well,” Rich said, “we’re waiting for people to stop harassing us so we can enjoy the fair.”

Cade nodded sagely. “Yeah. People suck. It’s like you just want some space to breathe, and they’re always there, just taking up space. You know?”

Nick took Cade by the arm and tugged at him. “He’s talking about us, dumb ass.”

“Oh. Oh.” Cade waggled a finger at me and winked. “I got you. You two want some alone time. Don’t forget to wrap it up. Actually, wait. Do forget. I would love to see the look on Mom and Dad’s face if you got her pregnant. Can you imagine? Mom would want you to name it Rosenthal. Or maybe Gretchen.”

“Cade,” Rich said.

“Got it. I’m gone. Oh, one last thing. You might want to start giving that personal assistant of yours more to do. I heard he ended up in some drunken orgy last night. Nobody has seen or heard from him since.”

Rich grimaced. “It’s fine. Jalen was a lost cause anyway. And I haven’t needed him since we’ve been out here.”

“Yeah, because you’ve been chasing Kira so much that you hardly spend any time doing actual work,” Cade said.

“And I’ve still been doing four times as much work as you. What does that say about you?”

“That I’m efficient and you’re slow?”

Rich sighed. He pulled out his phone and checked a notification. I thought I saw his expression darken even more.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s fine. Hey, is that fried ice cream?”

I nodded, and even though I suspected he was changing the subject on purpose, I decided he was right about one thing. We should enjoy the time we had while we had it, because there was no telling what was coming next.





Chapter 22





RICH


We had two great days together. It was more than I’d expected. Mayor Summerland made his threats in the morning, and I spent the afternoon and most of the evening wandering the fair with Kira. Then we used the pool at my place and watched a movie on the back wall of my house with the projector. We had both felt daring, so we watched Jaws while floating on an inflatable duck together. It was highly romantic, ridiculous, and honestly a little terrifying.

Yesterday had been normal in the best possible way. It was a Monday, so Kira was at work for most of the day. It was the first chance I’d had to really dig into what kind of obstacles the mayor and my parents were putting in our way. My lawyer had texted me when I was at the fair with Kira about a “big problem.” In a very uncharacteristic fashion, I’d put off getting back to him until I dropped Kira off at work. I didn’t want anything spoiling my mood when I was with her.

After a long meeting with our team of lawyers and experts, I learned the obstacles were significant. Worse, it wasn’t one of those problems you could fix by throwing enough money its way. We either had to find a resolution with my parents and the mayor, or we were looking at six months of delay, minimum.