Page 1 of Play Action Pass

Chapter One

As soon as Emerson stepped into the country club dining room, she spotted her parents waiting at their usual table by the window. Bunny and McBride Adinson had an excellent view over the golf course that allowed them the opportunity to not speak to one another. Why talk to your spouse when you can watch little round balls go flying while drinking endless mimosas? She sighed and dragged her feet, not wanting to sit with the toxic people she called Mom and Dad.

“One day, I’m going to bring a man to one of these fuck-awful brunches and tell them he’s my lover,” Jacoby muttered.

Emerson glanced at her twin brother. “I dare you to do that.”

He cracked his knuckles. “Oh, it’s on. Never dare a darer.”

She chuckled, unable to stay stern with him. “I’m surprised you’re here. I haven’t seen you for weeks. Been hiding?”

He shrugged and slid his arm across her shoulders. “Needed a break from this fucking place. Bunny told me if I didn’t come, they’d cut me off. I’m not meant to look this good just to do menial labor and get paid minimum wage.”

She pushed his arm off her. “God forbid you have to work.”

“Snark isn’t a good look on you,” he admonished.

“Every time you piss them off, they come after me,” she grumbled, as she turned to him to straighten his tie. “They’ve been forcing me to go on dates with men they deem worthy of the Adinson name.”

“Oh, shit,” he said. “They spotted us. Too late to run now.”

Emerson glanced over her shoulder and saw their mother’s frowning, disapproving face staring at them. Beside her, their father held up his wrist and tapped his expensive Patek Philippe watch, pointing out they were late. Jacoby grabbed her hand as he pulled her along.

“Mamacita,” Jacoby greeted. He saluted their father. “Papacita.”

“Sit down, Jacoby,” McBride snapped.

Her brother held out her chair and pushed it in as she sat, before sitting himself. Immediately, Jacoby raised his finger for the server.

“Stop summoning the help,” Bunny ordered. “It’s vulgar.”

“How else am I going to get enough alcohol to deal with whatever bullshit you both are going to sling my way?”

Emerson lowered her face to hide her smile. Her brother made pissing their parents off seem effortless. Predictably, they glossed over Jacoby’s sarcasm. Instead, they laid down a gossip news rag that sold papers by lying. She and Jacoby were front and center on the cover.

“This was brought to our attention,” Bunny said, her tone nothing short of Antarctica.

The picture was grainy in the low lighting, but Emerson remembered that party very well. At least, most of it. It was right before Jacoby disappeared for a month. She had gotten shitfaced and took some pills her friends had, and didn’t remember muchafter that.

“Oh, yeah.” Jacoby mumbled as he leaned closer to her. “That’s the party where you flashed everyone your tits.”

“Great,” she muttered.

“Enough!” McBride barked. “Both of you are a disgrace. In order to salvage the Adinson name, at the spring formal in April, I will announce your engagement.”

That statement stole all the oxygen in the room.

Jacoby blinked. “Come again?”

“We’ve found you a wife,” Bunny told him. “A decent woman. One who has been trained to be a CEO wife. She’s perfect stock.”

“What, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, the fuck?”

Bunny’s jaw hardened so much it looked like she could crack diamonds between her teeth. “Language, Jacoby. Don’t talk like a Section 8 trash eater.”

Emerson’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Mother, that’s an awful thing to say.”

Bunny’s cold gaze flickered to her. “I’m not talking to you.”

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