Page 29 of Crazy Little Thing Called Love

“Come on.” Del turned her toward the side door. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Don’t you have to work?”

“Not today. It’s Monday.”

Right. The tasting room was only open Wednesday through Sunday, and since Del was head bartender, he had Monday and Tuesday off. Too bad, because after that disastrous announcement, she could use a drink. A whole bar full of them.

CHAPTER 9

Del tried to reign in his temper, but he had a good, hard mad going on right now. He couldn’t believe how rude his family had been. To him, sure, they treated him like an idiot every day. Nothing new there. But Cassie? She’d been friends with the Jackson family for almost two decades. You didn’t treat friends the way his siblings acted toward her back in the tasting room.

They knew his family was going to be shocked, confused, and yes, probably even a bit angry at their secret, but he didn’t imagine the emotional explosion they’d just witnessed. He wanted to smack them all upside the head. Especially Charlie. She called herself Cassie’s best friend? Ha! Best friends were loyal and supportive. His big sis had demonstrated none of those qualities. Zero, nada, zilch! Del had more female friends than male, and truth be told they weren’t exactly friends so much as…friendly. But he knew the first rule of BFF’s was to stick by their side, no matter what.

Charlie hadn’t even tried to understand, not even for a second. Very soon he was going to have a talk with his older sister on how to treat someone who mattered to you, because judging by her immature display back there, it almost seemed like he was the older sibling.

Cassie’s hard, shuddering sigh brought him out of his thoughts. He paused, pulling her to a stop in front of him on the sidewalk.

“Hey.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tugging her into his side. “You okay?”

She sniffled and—aw, damn—her deep green eyes were bright and watery.

“She’s never been so mad at me. I…I don’t think I’ve ever seen Charlie that mad.”

“Then you’ve never eaten the last chocolate cream-filled éclair when Charlie’s Aunt Flow is in town, I guess.”

Cassie stared at him with a raised brow. His attempt at a joke fell flat. No surprise, women rarely appreciated period jokes. How many times had his sister told him that? Too many to count and not enough to sink in, apparently. Shit, he sucked at this. He just wanted to take that pain-filled sadness out of Cassie’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, Cassie.” He pulled her into him and found himself shocked when she placed her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Charlie will get over it. She’s just mad because she thinks we hid something big from her.”

“But we did! Or we are or…ugh, I don’t even know anymore. This is so much more complicated than I first thought.”

Yeah, it wasn’t looking as simple as it had in his mind. His brain jumped at the solution to his problem, seeing an equal opportunity for Cassie. He hadn’t taken into account the other people in his life and how this arrangement would affect them. If he thought Charlie was mad now, he could only imagine how pissed she would be if she found out the whole thing was a sham.

“I don’t want to lose my best friend.”

The softly spoken fear gutted him. Pulling back, he gazed into her worried face. “We don’t have to do this, Cassie. Say the word, and we can go back to the distillery and tell everyone it was a joke or something. I need this money, but not if it’s going to cause a fallout between you and my sister. I can find another way.” How, he had no idea, but he’d do it.

“No.” She shook her head. “We’ve come this far. There’s no sense in going back now. Besides, I still need a husband.”

He had no doubt she could find a much better prospect than him with just the wave of her finger. Men were drawn to Cassie like flies to honey. Who wouldn’t be attracted to all that smart feisty humor wrapped up in a sexy-as-hell package?

At five foot four, she was the perfect size for a man to tuck up against him. Though she always lamented about losing five pounds, Del found her curves to be womanly and tempting. Made a man get ideas about how soft she’d be as he laid her down on the bed, table, any flat surface. Her dark corkscrew curls bounced with a life of their own. There’d been a time or two—or fifty—over the years when he’d imagined those dark locks moving up and down as she rode him throughout the night.

He shifted as his thoughts brought Little Del to life. Adding an erection to this already complicated situation would be a dumbass move. He did chuckle at the irony of it. How often did a guy have to hide his attraction to his fiancée?

“Come on then, future Mrs. Jackson. Let’s blow this place and go do something fun.”

Her emerald gaze narrowed, one dark brow rising. “I don’t believe we discussed whether or not I was taking your last name.”

There was his Sassy Cassie. Good to see she still had her pluck. He winked, tugging her hand up to kiss her knuckles.

“We gonna do this all modern like? I take your name?” He paused as if to think it over. “Delta Brown. I like it. Has a nice ring.”

She laughed, the cheerful sound lifting some of the unease inside him.

“You are such an idiot.”

“Ooooh, I love it when you talk dirty, sweetheart.”

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