One Long Embrace (Eternal Bachelors Club #5)

“Is there a problem, Tara?” He suddenly sounded concerned.

She sighed. “I just don’t want to get a job because of my family. You understand that, don’t you?” It was a little white lie. She didn’t want to air her dirty laundry in public and admit to Paul that she suspected her parents of sabotaging her job search. Let him think that she didn’t want her name to be known because she didn’t want an unfair advantage, when in fact the opposite was true.

“No problem. What name do you want to use instead?”

“Uh.” She glanced at the iPad, looking at the headlines of the New York Times. “York, uh, Jane York.” Jane was her middle name.

“Okay then, I’ll call you back with details shortly.”

“Thanks!”

A click in the line and Paul was gone.

Tara set the phone down on the little table, her hands trembling with excitement. This was the chance she’d been waiting for. Now all she had to do was send her portfolio over to Paul and he’d take care of the rest. Luckily, she had all her files in the cloud and could access them from the iPad. She swiped over the file application, just as the phone rang again.

Did Paul already have news for her?

She snatched the phone, answering it without even looking. “Yeah?”

“Tara.”

Her heart sank into her knees. The voice belonged to her mother. Crap!

“Where are you?”

Tara wasn’t about to tell her. Nevertheless, her voice shook a little, when she answered, “It doesn’t matter where I am.” She’d never before rebelled against her parents. This was new to her and slightly intimidating.

“Don’t you take that tone with me!” her mother snapped.

Tara sucked in a breath, anger churning up in her. “I’m not.”

“You are coming home right now, Tara, or your father and I will—”

“I’m not coming home. I’m sick of you and dad dictating what I do. I’m an adult. I make my own decisions!”

“Do you? Let’s see if you still say that when you’re out of money!”

“I’m going to earn money!” Tara ground out. For the first time she actually believed it herself.

“And how are you going to do that? You don’t have a job, Tara! You’ve never had a job! Who’s going to hire you? Nobody is going to go against your father’s wishes and—”

Tara’s breath caught. “It’s true then. Dad made sure I never got any of the jobs I applied for.”

“That’s not—”

“Don’t deny it, Mom! You just admitted it. How could you?”

There was a sigh on the end of the line. “Come on, Tara,” her mother said more softly now. Apparently she was changing tactics. “Just come home. We only want what’s best for you. You don’t need a job. You’ll find a nice man soon, and then you’ll be busy with the wedding preparations.”

“I’ve already got a nice man,” Tara countered.

“What?”

“Yes, and he likes me, too. I’m moving in with him.”

“Tara! What are you doing? Who is he? Where does he live? Since when are you seeing him? Why didn’t you say you met somebody? Do we know his family?” The questions were fairly shooting from her mother’s mouth.

“You don’t know him.” Tara took a deep breath before landing the blow. “He’s a waiter. And he’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met.”

“A waiter?” Her mother’s shrill voice nearly pierced her eardrum.

Tara pressed the End button on her cell phone and disconnected the call, then turned the phone to silent. If she weren’t waiting for a call back from Paul, she’d turn her phone off altogether in order to avoid her parents’ calls, but at the moment she had no choice but to simply ignore them and let them go to voicemail.





16


“Looks good,” Jay commented to the general contractor and pointed to the sweeping staircase that led from the two-story entrance hall up to the second floor. “When are you ready to stain the wood?”

“Maybe in a couple of days. My guys are busy with the living room right now.”

“Great progress.”

A knock at the open entrance door made him swivel.

“May I come in?” Hunter asked, grinning.

Jay motioned him to enter. “Just watch where you step. I don’t wanna pay out a huge settlement if you slip and break your leg.” Then he looked back at the man who supervised the multitude of workers on the property. “Thanks for the update.”

His general contractor walked through the hall and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Wanna see the upstairs?” Jay asked, nodding to his friend.

“Sure.”

They walked up the staircase.

“Thanks for the car,” Jay started. “Appreciate it.”

“Yeah, about that.”

Jay slanted him a curious look. “Mmm?”

“First, I thought you were planning some sort of prank with it, but then I saw the chick with you. Somehow I seem to be missing something. Why wouldn’t you want to take a hot babe like her for a ride in your Ferrari?”

Jay walked ahead to the master bedroom and entered. “It’s complicated.”