Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 119548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 398(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 398(@300wpm)
“Oh, you’re all right, Bonnie, dear. Jeff is a good man, and I know he’ll look after you. It’s this one I’m worried about.” Nana pointed a tomato chunk at me. “She’s twenty-nine and perpetually single. How am I supposed to die knowing she’s all alone? She still lives with us, for goodness’ sake.”
That was hardly my fault.
Had she seen the cost of living these days? Why would I waste more than half my income on a rental property when I could live with them to save for a deposit? She was the one who’d proposed the idea in the first place!
Then again, this was a woman who could twist anything in her favour, so it was no surprise she was now using her own idea as a stick to beat me with.
“I… I…” I grabbed my margarita and took a big gulp. A sharp pain shot through my head as I got brain freeze from the giant mouthful of ice I’d just consumed in one go, and I winced.
That was a mistake.
“Mother,” Mum said. “Marriage doesn’t equal happiness. Deli has a lot of friends, a great job, and I’m sure she’ll eventually stop dipping into her savings and be able to buy a house.”
Ouch.
The truth really did hurt.
“I didn’t know that one friend equalled a lot these days,” Nana replied brightly.
“I have more than one friend!” I huffed, blowing my cheeks out like a child.
“You only ever speak to the earl,” she retorted. “At least that’s who I hear about. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a crush on him. There are worse men out there than Frederick Wellington, you know. I can’t say I wouldn’t fancy my granddaughter as a countess.”
My cheeks flamed. She’d been trying to get me to go out with him for years, and she’d only given up lately because he was still getting to grips with taking over the estate and businesses since his father died.
“Now that’s a man who could look after you,” she went on. “He’s handsome and rich, and his mother and sister aren’t bitches, either. Neither is his grandmother. Not to mention that he’s well-bred.”
“Mother, you’re describing him the way you would a horse.” Mum glanced at me. “And Deli looks as though she’s about to explode.”
Nana eyed me. “She’s blushing, that’s all.”
That’s all? That’s all?
Dear God.
“Well, they are only friends. Deli has never seen Fred in that way,” Mum said, unbothered. “And I doubt she ever will, so perhaps you should—”
“I have to go,” I said, wiping my mouth and throwing down my napkin. “I need to go home and shower before I go to the bar.”
Mum turned to me. “I thought it was your night off.”
“I have some paperwork to take Si for the new girl,” I lied.
“Right, you’re the manager there now. I forgot that.”
It was nice to know I occupied such a big part of my mother’s life that she forgot my promotion.
All right, so I was only the manager of a pub and not heading up some fancy conglomerate, but a promotion was a promotion.
“I can’t believe you work in a bar and can’t meet a man,” Nana said, turning back to her tacos. “There must be something wrong with you.”
Well, she hadn’t seen the kind of men I encountered.
She sighed. “My dying wish to see you married seems further and further away.”
I kissed both her and Mum on the cheek. “I’ll see you later. Let me know when you’ve spoken to Lucy.”
“Let me know when you’ve found a man!” Nana cackled.
“How do you know I’m not just keeping one a secret?” I shot back, then stilled when I saw her eyes light up. “I—”
“Oho, a secret lover,” she crooned, grinning at me. “I want to meet him. Bring him here.”
Mum shook her head slowly. “She has things to do, Mother. Deli, you should go.”
I didn’t need to be told twice.
Why on Earth had I said that? I knew that woman jumped to conclusions with breakneck speed, and I wasn’t surprised she’d taken my words in such a way.
Then again, was there any other way to take them? If one of my friends had said that very same line to me, I’d have assumed that exact thing—that she had a secret lover.
Damn it.
I’d walked right into this.
2
* * *
DELILAH
There were no two ways about it.
I was screwed.
I’d spent the last two days trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get out of this little predicament I’d gotten myself into, and I had nothing.
I wanted to say I couldn’t believe that my grandmother’s dying wish was to see her granddaughters both happily married, but I really could. The woman had been trying to matchmake me for years, but she was far too easily swayed by miserable mothers trying to get rid of their lazy sons and hadn’t conducted too much research into them.