Chapter 10

Hudson

I’d woken up at the ass crack of dawn and hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. I slipped silently from the room, relieved to find Mia sleeping on the couch next to the bed. She’d run off after I’d broken the news to her about having to get married on Friday, understandably, and had stayed out until dinner.

We hadn’t spoken at all about our impending wedding, and she’d already crashed out by the time her father and uncles had wrapped up the sports talk the night before. I listened politely, offering my input when it felt required but kept to myself otherwise.

For a couple of hours, I worried she’d run back to some high school ex-boyfriend who would fuck everything up, but she returned, telling her mother stories about someone named Tina.

Her mother was thrilled, and through the conversation that followed, I’d learned that Tina was Mia’s best friend from high school. I managed not to let my ignorance of that fact shine through. It seemed like something I should have known if Mia and I were really together.

Ryan watched me like a hawk throughout dinner but didn’t say anything.

I’d already been for a run, grabbed a shower, and was looking over some paperwork on my laptop in the kitchen by the time Mia’s mom came down to fix breakfast.

She seemed surprised to find anyone in the kitchen, but smiled brightly when she saw it was me. “Hudson, you scared me.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Doyle. I wanted to get some work done without bothering Mia.” At least that part was true.

“It’s not a problem, honey. I’m just not used to finding anyone in here so early anymore.” Her expression softened. “The kids used to do homework in here every morning before school, but they’ve been gone for so long it feels like it happened in another life sometimes.”

She flicked on a light over the oven and started pulling out kitchen appliances before adding, “Please, call me Alice.”

“Okay, Alice.” I finalized the email I’d been working on and closed the lid of my laptop. “Anything I can help with?”

“I’m a firm believer that too many cooks spoil the broth, but you can mix the batter if you’d like.” She offered me a mixing bowl with what looked like brown goo in it.

“Sure,” I said, thankful she didn’t want me to do anything more than mix. I’d noticed that even Mia only chopped veggies when she was in the kitchen. Mama Doyle seemed to protect her territory fiercely. I could respect that.

I mixed as she darted around the kitchen, pulling out ingredients and adding them all to their own bowls. “You know, I was over the moon when Mia called and said she was bringing someone home with her.”

I’d gathered as much. “Really, why? She’s a beautiful woman. You must have met your fair share of boyfriends in the past.”

Alice huffed. “We’ve met none, actually. A couple of dates when she still lived here, before she went off to Portland, but she’s never been serious enough about a man to bring him home specifically to meet us.”

That explained her reaction on the plane and on the way to the house. “She’s never brought anyone home?”

“Never,” Alice confirmed. “She didn’t tell you that?”

“If she did, I wouldn’t have believed her. You’ve got yourself quite the daughter there, Alice.”

Her answering smile brightened the room. A knot tightened in my stomach. That was how a mother should look when talking about her kids. “I do. I was blessed with two amazing children.”

“Forgive me if I hold one in higher esteem than the other,” I joked, but her expression became serious.

“I do forgive you. Ryan hasn’t been very welcoming to you.” Not welcoming? I would’ve snorted if I wasn’t with his mother. “He’s very close to Mia. I think this relationship has surprised him more than anyone else.”

“I’d bet on it,” I replied, not wanting to say more.

“Our fault, I’m afraid. We used to make it clear to Ryan he had to take care of his baby sister. Protect her at school and all that. He takes it very seriously.”

“I can see that. I’m grateful he has protected her for me all these years.”

Alice smiled. “It makes me so happy to hear you say things like that.”

“I mean it. I’ll protect her with everything I have.” Because she was potentially giving up something as important to her as the company was to me, her relationship with her family. As unimaginable as it was to me, maybe what she was giving up was more important than what I was fighting to keep.

Tears welled in Alice’s eyes. “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

“I’m happy to hear it. Mia means a lot to me. Your approval will make it so much easier for us going forward.”

“Forward?” Alice raised an eyebrow.

I flashed her my cocky smirk. I didn’t want to give too much away. That was for Mia to do, if she was still committed to our arrangement.

My palms grew sweaty. That never happened to me. I needed to know where her head was at, but I couldn’t exactly wake her over it and risk pissing her off more.

In the meantime, I settled for talking to Alice and actually enjoyed it. “Forward.”

“Well then, you’d better get to that whisk in your hand, young man.” She waved a spatula at me mockingly.

“What am I mixing, anyway?”

“You don’t know?”

“I trust you, but I’m curious.”

“It’s just bran muffin mix.” Curiosity flashed in her eyes, but she was too polite to ask about my lack of knowledge surrounding basic breakfast foods.

“Never had homemade bran muffins before,” I told her.

“You don’t say,” Alice mused. “Well, there’s a first time for everything. Now you get to have a hand in the first batch that you’ll ever taste.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a positive thing.” I glanced at the bowl with apprehension.

“It will be,” she assured me confidently. “My recipe is foolproof.”

“Good thing, since I’m a fool when it comes to cooking.”

“We’re baking, honey,” she teased.

I was amazed at how easy Alice was to be around. “An even bigger fool when it comes to baking then.” I smiled.

“Stick with me, I’ll make you famous.” She winked and went back to weighing and measuring. “You know, I remember when I taught Mia to bake. It was a disaster at first.”

I laughed, surprising myself. “It was?”

“Oh yes, she decided to make us pancakes for breakfast one morning. Got up long before dawn, bless her little heart. It would’ve been great if she hadn’t misread the recipe and swapped out the oil and water measurements.”

“She added oil instead of water?” I asked, more than amused at the thought.

“She added the amount of oil the recipe called for water, and the amount of water it called for oil. It was an unmitigated disaster. She refused to bake anything for years after that.” Alice’s eyes lit up with what was obviously a fond memory.

“It sounds like you two are really close.” It was an offhand remark, but it earned me a wide smile.

“We are. Did Mia ever tell you about the time we went on a girls’ day to Rodeo Drive when she was in the eighth grade?”

She launched into a hilarious story that ended with Mia becoming an accidental shoplifter. She was wiping tears of laughter from her eyes by the time Mia walked cautiously into the kitchen.

She seemed so very different from the stubborn, outgoing girl her mother had been telling me about while we covered every inch of the kitchen in baking trays that sat cooling with something or another in them.

“Angel,” I said and pulled her toward me. Her mother squealed with delight as I rose and spun Mia around in my arms. “Good morning.”

Well, at least one woman in the Doyle household thought I was charming. The look on Mia’s face spoke volumes in the opposite direction.

My stomach dropped. Even though I didn’t really believe she would back out of our arrangement, the more I learned about her, the more I realized this was a much bigger thing to her than it was to me.

“Can we talk privately, Hudson?” she asked quietly once I set her back on her feet. Alice was singing along to some song on her radio and seemed to be studiously ignoring us.

“Sure.”

She laced her fingers through mine in a gesture that had me hopeful I wasn’t wrong about the fact she wouldn’t back out. She led me to the gazebo where we’d spoken the morning before.

“You should sit down.” She started much the same way I had.

I pulled her down with me, settling her onto my lap, very aware of her mother and grandfather watching us from their respective domains.

“You have an answer for me?” I asked, toying with a loose curl at her lower back.

“I do. I mean, I will. I’ll go through with it.”

“I believe ‘I do’ is the correct answer, then.” I didn’t resist the urge to press my lips to her neck, taking rare pleasure in the shudder that passed through her.

She collected herself by taking a deep breath before continuing. “I have to be the one to tell my family, though.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Just okay?”

“Just okay. I told you before, Mia, they’re your family. I respect that.” There was an unfamiliar gleam in her eyes when she met mine.

“Besides, you’ve never tried to poison me by adding almost a whole bottle of oil to a batch of pancakes, you owe them one,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Her eyes grew wide, then she laughed and punched my arm. “That story doesn’t leave California, Blake.”

“Oh, yeah? How about the one where you snuck out to meet Ryan’s friend only to fall right onto Ryan after another friend ratted him out to Ryan?”

She cringed. “She told you about that?”

I nodded. “She did. Am I to assume it doesn’t leave California, either?”

“Let’s just say that nothing my mother tells you leaves these walls, nevermind California.” She eased herself off of my lap and led me back to the house.

Ryan’s hulking figure waited on the porch, scowling at me. He caught my arm as we tried to pass.

“Go on ahead, babe,” I said. “I’m just going to talk to Ryan for a second.”

She raised an eyebrow, revealing a very close likeness to her mother, flicking her eyes between Ryan and me with a worried glance before shrugging and heading inside.

“Let’s walk,” Ryan muttered, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans as he set off across the large backyard.

I matched his stride and followed him to the far end of the yard. That close to the perimeter, I could appreciate how close to the ocean we really were.

Ryan didn’t say much to me, brooding until he pulled to a sudden halt. “What’s going on between you and my sister?”

The guy was direct. I had to give him that. “We’re dating. Isn’t that obvious?”

“There’s something else.” His nostrils flared in a familiar way. There was no mistaking Ryan was Mia’s brother. From the set of their jaws, their arrow straight noses, intense dark blue eyes, and the way they carried themselves, they were undoubtedly alike.

“What are you talking about, Ryan?” I played dumb. The guy was obviously more astute than I’d given him credit for.

“Something is up between you and my sister. Something other than the obvious, that is.” He shuddered slightly at the insinuation that my dick was up between me and Mia. I took inappropriate comfort in that.

As far as he knew, I was sticking it to his little sister on a regular basis. I wasn’t going to shatter that image. He deserved it as a nightmare as far as I was concerned.

Besides, what couple of our respective ages were in a relationship that didn’t involve fucking? He wouldn’t have believed me, even if I told him the truth, that we’d never touched one another.

“Why don’t you tell me what you think is going on then, Ryan,” I challenged him.

“I don’t know what it is yet, but I’ll find out, Blake.” He fixed me with an intent gaze.

I nodded. “Okay, Doyle. Bring it on.”