That got him to laugh. “Self-preservation. Right.” Then he sobered. “You know Amber. She would want more. More that I’m obviously not willing to give. If I held out until the end of the summer, who knows what would happen?”
Clucking his tongue was Nathan’s way of considering things. Preston studied him as Caleb let him work out the logic of his reasoning. It didn’t take long for his cousin to catch up. This time when he sighed his shoulders lifted and dropped in resignation.
“You’re right. If you string Amber along, her mother will have you two engaged by your birthday party. Which, by the way, will have servers whose sole purpose is to pour champagne.”
The excitement in Nathan’s tone made Caleb wince. “Can we not?”
“We finally have a theme.” He gestured in a wide arc. “The Roaring Twenties. Excess to the max, baby!”
Caleb and Preston shared a groan like animals in great pain.
Nathan’s grin was pure excitement. His face practically glowed with it. “We’re going to make Baz Luhrmann weep. His movie will have nothing on what I have up my sleeve.” Then his expression turned serious. “You know as well as I do that you can’t attend those events without a date. The sharks won’t leave you alone. It’ll be a feeding frenzy.”
Matchmaking was the favorite pastime of the Dodge Cove elite. The one percent liked to keep wealth in the family—especially those from old money. Mothball money. If the bank accounts didn’t match, then no go. Events turned into meat markets, putting pressure on the unattached to find their soul mates quickly or be forced to endure a merry-go-round of daughters and granddaughters. Not a pretty sight. A lateral move, or even better, a step up were the only viable options. He thought by dating around he would have been immune to this, but it seemed the biddies and mothers didn’t care about his reputation. All they cared about was the family he came from and how they could squeeze themselves in.
Using his fingertips, he massaged his temples. “Amber was the last available option.”
“What about Cecily?” Nate suggested.
He shook his head. “Sophomore year.”
“Tracy?” All it took was for Caleb to shoot daggers at him for Nathan to say, “Oh right, the pregnancy rumors. What a mess that was. Anastasia?”
“Didn’t her mother send her to a spa?” He sandwiched the last word in air quotes.
“Then you’re screwed. There’s no one left our age that you haven’t dated and left heartbroken. Many of them are still licking their wounds. The older ones will eat you alive, and the younger ones . . .”
“Let’s not go there.” He rubbed his face, sudden fatigue eating him from the inside out. “I wish Tash were here. Your sister always knows what to do.”
Nathan’s lips quirked. “She’d love this. I’m pretty sure she’d tease you into the next century for being a playboy.”
“I think her exact word was manwhore.” He chuckled.
“We could call her,” his cousin suggested, taking out his phone.
“And ruin her ‘retreat’?”
“You’re right.” Nathan sighed. “Plus, the last thing we need is to prove to her that we turn into complete idiots when she’s gone.”
Despite the humor relieving some of his stress, Caleb couldn’t help saying, “Why does JJ have to act all fatherly now? He left me alone for so many years.”
“Has it occurred to you that this has nothing to do with being a father?” the usually restrained Preston asked bitterly, shocking the cousins into staring at him in surprise.
“What do you mean?” Nathan pressed.
Preston shrugged. “Ever since your mother died, JJ has buried himself in work.” He paused, settling those serious green eyes on Caleb. “Amber’s father is one of JJ’s most important clients. Doesn’t he pay your father an absurd retainer?”
“Yeah,” he said. “What about it?”
Nathan clapped once, getting Preston’s meaning. “You breaking up with Amber threatened JJ’s work. That’s a deal breaker for him.”
Realization dawned on Caleb like a punch in the gut, causing him to stagger onto the opposite bench. “Messing with his work messes with him.” He groaned into his hands. “Shit.” His gaze darted over the floor of the gazebo as he figured things out. “I bet he knew that by making me attend those events without a girlfriend I would have to fend off unwanted attention. Christ, he’s crueler than I thought.”
“I hate to say this—”
“Then don’t,” he interrupted Nathan.
But it was useless because his cousin said it anyway. “You are so screwed.”
“Hire someone?” Preston mumbled. He had a faraway look on his face.
“Excuse me?” he asked.
“If you want to avoid a repeat of what happened with Amber and the biddies setting you up with their granddaughters, hire someone to be your girlfriend for the summer.”
Nathan threw his head back and howled. He laughed so hard that he hugged himself as if he needed to keep himself from bursting.
Shaking his head, dismay clear in his expression, Preston grabbed Nathan’s arm to keep the other guy from falling off the bench.