LITMIR.BIZ

       Thirteen

      Dimly, Seth was aware that there was still a soccer match going on. But that wasn’t the game he was playing right now.

      “She’s pretty,” Bruce Bolton, Seth’s grandpa, said. He turned his flinty eyes back to Seth. “What’s she doing here with the likes of you?”

      Seth tried to laugh that off. Over the years, he had learned to hold his own against the Bolton men. But that usually worked best when they’d chosen sides. The Boltons united was a fearsome sight to behold.

      Like right now. The three brothers and their father were all staring at Seth, expecting a reasonable answer. It was at that moment that Seth realized he might have overplayed his hand. Time for some damage control. “Like I said, she’s my real estate agent. I’m closing on my house this afternoon.” They stared at him like he had lost his ever-loving mind.

      “I wouldn’t waste my time with a lovely lady like that on real estate,” Bruce grumbled. Then he winked at Seth.

      “The second site we looked at this morning seems like a good fit for the museum,” Seth went on, desperate to keep the conversation away from how pretty Kate was. “It’s halfway between the highway and the factory. It costs a little more up front, but the site’s already been cleared.”

      If Seth had had any hope at all that talking shop would distract the Bolton men from the pretty real estate agent currently being coddled by the Bolton women, that hope died on the vine. “You be careful with her,” his uncle Ben said.

      “I am. I mean,” Seth quickly corrected, “it’s not like that. We’re just working together.”

      His dad’s glare hardened, and Bobby rolled his eyes in disbelief. Even Bruce looked like he wasn’t going to buy that line. Seth wasn’t a little kid anymore, but he began to sweat it. What if he couldn’t convince them there was nothing unbecoming between him and Kate?

      The Boltons were family men, and if they thought Seth was leading Kate along under false pretenses, Seth didn’t want to even think what they might do. He wouldn’t put a shotgun and a preacher past them, though.

      But the moment the thought drifted through his brain, something weird happened. Instead of shuddering in horror at the thought, he could see Kate walking toward him, her belly rounded under a simple white dress—not that cupcake confection she’d been wearing the day he’d met her. A smile on her face as she came toward him...

      He shook the thought from his head and glanced back over to where his mom and his aunts had surrounded Kate. Jenny had taken a seat next to Kate and appeared to be asking her a series of rapid-fire questions—about what, Seth was afraid to ask. Josey was piling a plate with food and Stella stood back a little ways, watching it all unfold. Kate glanced up and caught his eye. Her cheeks blushed a soft pink before she looked away.

      “Yeah,” Bobby said, chuckling. “Just working together. What did you say her name was?”

      “Kate Burroughs.”

      “And she sells real estate?”

      Seth nodded, feeling like he was sixteen and getting busted for staying out past curfew—again.

      Bobby’s grin turned sharp. “Wasn’t there a wedding...?”

      Of course Seth should’ve known that Bobby had his finger on the pulse of Rapid City gossip. “Yeah. I told you guys about that—I found the bride by the side of the road? That’s her.” He hadn’t necessarily wanted to share that particular tidbit of information, but it was better to get out in front of this sort of thing.

      Of course, being in front of anything with this crowd only guaranteed that he’d be run over. “You don’t say,” Ben said. “Business.”

      Honestly, Seth wasn’t sure what this thing with Kate was anymore. It was, in fact, business. But it was also something casual and fun, a rebound to help Kate get back on her feet. And yet...

      “Nothing but,” he lied.

      Not a single one of his male relatives bought that lie. Maybe because Seth didn’t buy it himself.

      Thankfully, something happened on the playing field and for a moment, everyone’s attention focused on the game. The Mustangs were up by three now, with fifteen minutes left in the game. The championship match seemed within their grasp.

      He glanced at Kate again. Connie was practically in Kate’s lap now, completely enamored of this fancy new person who wore pretty skirts. Kate leaned over, putting her at eye level with Connie. She had a big smile on her face and she clapped when Connie spun for her.

      Something in his chest tightened. Kate was going to be an amazing mother. But he knew how hard it was to be a single parent. He didn’t want that for her, damn it all. But aside from throwing two commissions her way, he didn’t know how to help.

      Kate caught his eye and gave Seth a tight smile. Then, as if by mutual agreement, they both looked away.

      When Seth turned his attention back to his family, he found himself squarely in the crosshairs of his father. Billy threw an arm around Seth’s shoulders and hauled him off to the side. “You’re telling me,” Billy began with no other introduction, “that you hired the runaway bride to be your real estate agent on purpose?”

      Seth had had his disagreements with his adoptive father over the years. Billy was a hard man who did things his way. He wasn’t afraid of a fight, either.

      But for all that, he was a remarkably fair man. From the very beginning, he had treated Seth as if he were an equal. Seth wouldn’t be half the man he was today if it weren’t for his father. And he hated disappointing his father.

      But he could tell that Billy was disappointed in him.

      “She jilted her fiancé and he kept the house they had together. Her family didn’t back her up and she had to quit their real estate office. I’m just helping her out. She needs the commissions.”

      All of which was true. Or at least, it had been a month ago. Now?

      Billy gave him a hard look, one that had Seth standing up straighter. “Women are not to be trifled with, son.”

      “I am not trifling with her,” he defended quickly. He’d made no promises to Kate beyond the next month or so. He was not leading her on with talks of love and marriage. There was no discussion of forever or happily-ever-after. No allusions to a future that existed past the new year. Ergo, it was not trifling.

      “We’re sending you to Shanghai,” his father said in the kind of voice that Seth had seen make grown men damn near wet their pants with terror. “In the new year. Bobby thinks it could be six, eight months there, with a possibility of Mumbai afterward.”

      So it’d been decided? Good. Great. He loved it when a plan came together. So why was he filled with a crushing sort of disappointment? “And I’ll be ready.”

      “Does she know that?”

      “Of course she does. She knows my job is everything.”

      His father gave him a long look. “And yet you brought her to your sister’s soccer game.”

      It was not a question. “I don’t know how many times I have to say this,” Seth

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