Born to Be Wild (Welcome to Paradise #3)
Elle Kennedy
Dedication
This one’s for all the bad boys I wish I dated…
Chapter One
“Why are we here again?” Jake Bishop grumbled as he sidestepped a passing waiter.
His twin brother, Owen, sounded equally unenthused. “Because Mom said she’d murder us if we didn’t come.”
Right. Jake did recall a murder threat being hurled their way over breakfast this morning. Maybe it made him and O a pair of pansies, two grown men afraid of their mother, but Della Bishop was pretty damn formidable. Barely over five feet tall, with strands of silver threaded in her dark blonde hair, yet one glare from those sharp brown eyes and her sons didn’t stand a chance. At least Nate and Austin had managed to get out of this shindig, those lucky bastards. Nate, the eldest, was accompanying his wife on her latest concert tour and was probably on a bus making its way along the West Coast at that very moment, while Austin, the baby of the family, was currently running Nate’s pub in his absence.
If given the choice, Jake would’ve jumped at the chance to tend bar tonight, but Nate had specifically asked Austin—a not-so-covert attempt to keep their baby brother in town. Austin had been itching to flee Paradise ever since Owen’s wedding last month, but his family was determined to keep him here. At least until they figured out why Austin had been acting like an ornery ass for eight months now. So far, no one had managed to get him to talk about whatever was bugging him.
“I still don’t get why she bothers,” Owen said with a sigh, his gray eyes drifting in the direction of their mother, who was loitering near the tables that had been set up for the silent auction. “She gets so fucking involved in all this community crap, but we both know that everyone in town still whispers about her behind her back.”
“She knows it too,” Jake replied, swallowing the lump of bitterness that rose in his throat. “She thinks that if she shows them it doesn’t bother her, they’ll eventually quit gossiping.”
Which was unlikely. Although many of the residents were down-to-earth and accepting, Paradise still had its fair share of snobs. Like most of the people in this banquet hall tonight. The town’s wealthier residents continued to look down on the Bishop family, even though Henry Bishop had been dead for years. But his reputation had preceded him. A carousing, womanizing drunk who repeatedly—and openly—cheated on his wife. Jake and his brothers constantly endured unfair comparisons to their asshole father, but unlike his brothers, Jake had stopped caring a long time ago what people thought of him.
It was almost a game to him now. Act like the bad ass they thought he was, just to see them squirm.
He’d already made several people squirm tonight. The charity benefit his mother had helped organize was being held in the Paradise Golf and Country Club, a place Jake had never stepped foot in until an hour ago. The dress code had been listed as semi-formal, but the rich liked to go all out. Surrounded by all these cocktail gowns and tuxedos, Jake felt ridiculously underdressed in his black trousers and white dress shirt. He hadn’t shaved either, so his jaw boasted thick, ungentlemanly stubble. Just for fun, he’d fixed several menacing scowls on passing strangers, enjoying the way they blanched.
“Hey, boys,” a female voice said.
Jake glanced up, then frowned. Of course—who else would that haughty voice belong to than Lexie Price, the daughter of the town mayor? Wearing a dove-gray satin dress and strappy stilettos, with her blonde hair twisted into a fancy knot at the nape of her neck, Lexie looked every bit the ice princess she was. Jake had never been a fan of hers, and he still couldn’t figure out what had compelled his brother Nate to strike up a friendship with the woman. Lexie was tight with Nate and Owen’s wives too, which was pretty fucking mind-boggling.
He didn’t get it. Maybe Lexie had changed after he’d left town to join the army, but he couldn’t view her as anything other than the snobby bitch he remembered from high school.
“Hey, Lex,” Owen greeted her, leaning in to kiss her flawless porcelain cheek.
Jake wasn’t as gracious. He grunted out a hello, then focused on the makeshift stage that had been set up across the ballroom. “What’s the stage for again?” he asked, warily eyeing the runway and podium.
“The bachelor/bachelorette auction,” Lexie answered with a sigh.