Page 29 of Just One Summer with the Grumpy

A walk. With Chase Everett. Like two normal people, shooting the breeze. “Is something wrong?” I asked, rising to my feet.

“No.” He headed for the open wall and the outdoors without another word.

Okay? “Let me lock up here. I’ll head home afterward.” I placed Blythe’s scattered papers back into the file before heading over to close the open wall.

He nodded curtly. “I’ll walk you home then.”

Once everything was locked up, we started walking in silence, the night sky above freckled with a smattering of stars. They didn’t look regular and tidy at all. These were beautiful in their messiness, natural and clumping and varying in brightness and color. Kind of like people. The very best ones, at least.

Meanwhile, here Chase stood, walking with his hand just inches from mine. He wore a loose golf polo and fitted trousers with his sunglasses pulled up onto his head, for once. If I didn’t know who he was, I never would have guessed this man had such incredible wealth. What would it be like, harboring more money than you knew what to do with? Would I work as hard as he did, running all over the island and trying to make people happy?

Nah. I’d retire on an island exactly like this one and pay people to makemehappy.

“You said you had a question,” I prodded after two full minutes of silence.

He drew in a sharp breath as if I’d startled him. “I shouldn’t ask. It’s really none of my business.”

Now he had my full attention. “You’re wondering something about me?”

“Yes. Well, about Ty today. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you.” He fixed me with a probing stare. “Do you two know each other?”

Triple crap. Quadruple crap? I couldn’t remember what number I’d reached at this point. All that mattered was my boss was suspicious about Ty and me, and this could all end tonight if I wasn’t careful.

I chose my words as precisely as a gymnast walking on a balance beam. “We went out a few times in New York, but it didn’t work out. Please tell me you aren’t worried about my stealing the groom.”

“No.” He stepped in front of me, blocking my path and forcing me to look up into his shadowed eyes. “I’m more worried about the groom stealing my wedding planner.”

He didn’t look angry. Only concerned. No, not even that—almost anxious, maybe even a little jealous.

A pleasant shiver darted through my body, one far stronger than the one I’d felt upon first seeing Ty yesterday. I shouldn’t feel this way in Chase’s presence. For one thing, boss-employee relationships never worked out well. For another thing, we were alone on this path on an island he owned—this could end up all kinds of inappropriate. And for a last thing…

I would soon be betraying Chase Everett. Getting close to him first wouldn’t be smart.

Swallowing hard, I stepped around him and continued walking. “Well, this wedding planner happens to like her job. Besides, that was a long time ago.”

“At least seven months ago, I would guess, because that’s how long he and Veronica have been dating.” He took a deep breath. “I know, because before that, she was dating me.”

I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped about a second later, because I found myself standing on that path, positively gaping. “You…and Veronica?”

“I know. We weren’t exactly made for each other, which is why it didn’t last longer than a few weeks. I ended things when I realized commitment mean different things to each of us.” He scowled.

I didn’t know what to say. Chase and Veronicadidmake more sense than Veronica and Ty. But the fact that he would ask her out even once made me feel strangely disappointed. Was Veronica more his type? Did he seek out others in his same social class regularly?

Of course he did. Who else would a billionaire date?Come on, Daphne. Get it together.I wanted Ty, not Chase. If I had to repeat that a thousand times before it would sink in, I would do it.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.

Chase stopped pacing and looked directly at me. “I think Ty and Veronica’s wedding is a sham.”

This conversation had only gotten stranger by the minute. “Seriously? Why?”

“Veronica won’t stop seeking me out. Everywhere I go, she’s there. I feel like I’m being haunted by the ghost of girlfriends past.” He grimaced. “I think she’s trying to make me jealous.”

I stumbled over a tree root and tried to play it cool. “Really.”

“There’s no other reason she would hire my company. Veronica is clever and conniving, so there’s a reason for everything she does. That’s where you come in, Daphne. I want you to pretend to be my girlfriend.”

If Chase had sprouted horns, I wouldn’t have been more dumbfounded. “Girlfriend?” I mentally kicked myself at how ridiculous I sounded right now, echoing everything he said, but my brain simply couldn’t process this.

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