Watching sympathetically as Grant sank heavily into one of the chairs around the table, Devil sighed. “I think you heard me the first time. It’s not gonna sound any better to you the second time around.”
“You can not be attracted to my sister,” Grant denied absently, staring into space. “My psyche can’t handle it. I have two kids to put through college, Dev. I can’t afford the therapy that relationship would cost me!”
Devil rolled his eyes while Grant buried his face in his hands and shook his head. “Look, I haven’t said or done anything that could be construed inappropriately with your sister.”
“You mean other than that pesky engagement announcement you made in Nana’s room,” Grant replied, his voice muffled by his hands.
“Yeah,” Devil muttered guiltily, “Except for that.”
Lifting his head, Grant turned to glare at Devil. “What in the name of all hell were you thinking? You know Molly’s gonna kill you. There’s not gonna be a wedding. There’s not even gonna be an engagement. We’re all gonna be too busy with a funeral… YOURS! Because even now, as we speak, I can feel her plotting your demise. She was seething when she left here, man. I haven’t seen her that pissed since that dickwad broke her heart in college.”
“I know,” Devil acknowledged softly. “I’ll fix it.” He just wasn’t exactly sure how to go about making those repairs to Molly’s heart and mind quite yet.
“Ha!”
“I will,” Dev insisted with a frown. Hurting Molly had never been on his agenda, and never would be.
“How? You gonna march back into Nana’s room and break her heart? Rip away her dying dream? You can’t dangle a carrot in front of a bunny and not expect that cute, furry forest friend to bite your finger off, moron!” Grant pointed out irritably. “That old woman was over-the-moon happy. You take this away from her and you’ll likely lose a lot more than a lousy finger.”
“No, I can’t disappoint Nana.” Devil shook his head as he scratched his jaw. “I’ve simply got to convince Molly to marry me. And you’ve gotta help me.”
“Fuck you,” Grant retorted succinctly, shaking his head back and forth. “I’m not going over that cliff with you. No way, no how. I don’t care how you feel about my sister. Which, by the way, I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around and am not entirely sure I approve of.”
“Your sister is a beautiful, loving woman. At least, she is most of the time,” he amended quickly when Grant raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to reply. “Any man worth his salt can see that she’s special. I guess when Nana was making her dying wish known back there, I kind of snapped. On one side, I had the woman that raised me begging me to find a wife and make a couple of kids, and on the other side, I had the only other woman I completely trust. So, I went for broke and made the announcement.”
“Oh, you’re gonna get broke, brother. Into teeny tiny pieces. There won’t be enough of you left to fill a salt shaker when Molly is through with you.”
“Let me be the one to worry about Molly,” Devil instructed softly, stiffening his shoulders as he mentally started preparing his war plan. All he needed was a plan. With a good plan, all things were possible. It’s how he’d gotten so successful. “I want to marry her, Grant. I want to make Nana’s last months with us happy ones filled with memories she’ll cherish. I owe her that,” Devil shared, determination shining in his gaze.
“At the expense of my sister?” Grant barked, his jaw hardening as he met Devil’s eyes.
“No. Look, if Molly says no after I put my offer on the table, I’ll walk away from the idea. I’ll figure out something to tell Nana and let Molly off the matrimonial hook. But, I can make this worth Molly’s while.”
“How?” Grant asked bluntly, clearly unimpressed by Devil’s scheme. Honestly, this man was known for his blunt business acumen, and yet he had just managed to stumble his way into a never-ending black hole.
“By appealing to her sense of logic and reason,” Devil explained strongly. Sure, those qualities ran in short commodity with Molly, but if he dug deep, he was pretty sure he’d find at least a small volume of each virtue.
Grant laughed shortly. “Gooooood luck, buddy. Those are two things that Molly generally lacks. I love my sister, but facts are facts. She goes with her gut. And I’m here to tell you, her gut thinks you are a fornicating prick at least ninety percent of the time.”
“What does she think the other ten percent of the time?”
“She’s sleeping,” Grant declared flatly, glaring at his so-called best friend.
“Well, I plan on making her an offer she won’t want to refuse. A very lucrative offer. And when she accepts it and marries me, then that will give me the time that I need to woo her. I’ll convince her that I’m nowhere near the ‘fornicating prick’ she thinks I am. Somehow.”
“Is it wrong to admit that I’m going to enjoy watching you squirm at the end of her hook? Cause, I really, really am.”
Devil scowled down at the good doctor. “I’m not squirming yet, asshole!” Sure, he might be floundering a little, but it had been an extremely unique kind of day. Really, how many times did a man announce he was getting married before letting the intended bride know? He could be forgiven for not quite being his usual confident self, couldn’t he?
“Nah, you’re wriggling like a motherfucker, Dev! And you aren’t even really engaged yet! I’ll say one good thing about it, though – it’ll be cheap entertainment.”
“You’re a dick,” Devil muttered, then frowned as he added, “This is all your fault anyway, you know.”
Grant jerked upright in his seat. “How do you figure that?”
“Easy. If I hadn’t let you have Karen all those years ago, I’d be the one married with a couple of kids. You ought to thank me.”
Grant snorted derisively. “If you had married my wife, she would roast your balls over the fire and serve them to you on a bed of rice, one forkful at a time. Even when we were twelve, she knew better than to get involved with a scoundrel like you. Her feelings have not changed over time.”
Smiling in spite of himself, Devil shook his head. He loved Grant’s wife, Karen, like a sister. The three of them had been fast friends since middle school, and Grant was right. Devil could never handle a woman that took delight in doing things like rolling over a perfectly innocent set of golf irons when you forget one little anniversary. Of course, Molly would probably skewer him with a steak knife if he did something like that, but that was beside the fact. “You might have a point,” he told the other man as Grant’s pager beeped on his belt.
“Okay, I need to go,” Grant said with a glance down at his waist. “Let me bottom-line things for you, Dev. Hurt my little sister and I’m gonna have to kill you. Make her cry, and I promise you, it’ll be a painful, violent way to go. Capisce?” he asked, rising to his feet.
Devil nodded. “Understood.”
Shrugging his physician’s coat back on, Grant adjusted the credentials on his pocket. “You still gonna go try and talk to her tonight?”
“Yep.”
“I think it’s a mistake, but may the force be with you, man. You’re gonna need all the help you can get.”
“With a good game plan, all things are possible, Grant. Are you forgetting that I navigate around sharks for a living? My bread and butter are mergers and acquisitions.”
“Uh huh,” Grant grunted. “Too bad that you’re about to be eaten alive by a pissed-off piranha. Molly is going to be spitting out your bones for weeks to come.”
“Thanks for the support,” Devil growled as Grant headed for the door. With a best friend like Grant, Devil realized he couldn’t afford to make any more enemies.