Page 11 of All Bets Are Off

“I’m not in the mood for a relationship.” That was true. I couldn’t put effort into a relationship when I didn’t even knowwhat I wanted from life. “I just want to get my head around the casino stuff. The relationship stuff can wait.”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about.” Rex’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “You need a fake girlfriend, not a real one. You need somebody who isn’t going to try to trap you with her feminine wiles or something.”

“You did not just say ‘feminine wiles’.”

“I did, and I meant it.” He tapped the bar, his mind clearly working overtime. “It’s too bad you couldn’t marry Olivia for a year or so. She needs insurance because she’s self-conscious about her teeth and she just lost her job. She’s been saving up for expensive dental work, and she just got laid off, so all the money she put away is going to go for her living expenses.”

“You’re not serious,” I said on a laugh. “Squirt? There’s no way.”

“It wouldn’t be a real relationship, though,” Rex said. “She could help you get your mind around the business aspect—she’s really good with numbers—and you could use your corporate insurance to help her with her teeth.”

“What’s wrong with her teeth?” I tried to picture Olivia and see a defect but there was nothing there. Whenever I saw her, I was momentarily blown away by her beauty. Then I had to remind myself that she was Rex’s little sister—he was much more protective of her than I was when it came to my sisters—and that she was off limits.

“I’m just saying…” Rex lifted one shoulder in a shrug and sipped again. “It’s probably a bad idea.”

It was a terrible idea. “We would kill each other. She hates me.”

“Yeah, but she’s really upset about her teeth.”

“You still haven’t told me what’s wrong with her teeth. Did they start falling out or something?”

“No.” Rex exhaled heavily. “I guess when we were kids my parents had her front teeth fixed but not her back teeth. They didn’t have the money for it. It’s a cosmetic thing—I guess they’re crowded—but she’s hyper focused on it.”

“Weird. And only she knows there’s an issue?”

“Yeah. She’s weird about stuff. She’s never felt pretty or something. She admitted that to me like a year ago when we were out drinking and I was drooling over a bartender.”

That was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. “Your sister is smoking hot.”

Slowly, Rex shifted his gaze to me. “No, she’s not.”

“Um, yes, she is.”

“No way. She’s just … Livvie. She’s so not hot.”

“You can’t see it because you’re her brother. That makes her a nonentity to you. I can firmly say that your sister is hot, though.”

Rex drained the rest of his drink as he regarded me. “You never hooked up with my sister, did you?” He was more serious than I’d ever seen him.

“Of course not,” I assured him. “I was as close with your family as I was mine back in the day. Heck, I respected your parents way more than mine. That means Olivia was like a sister to me, too.”

“Youdidfart in her face a few times,” Rex mused. “I know she’s still bitter about it because she brought it up a few months ago. She’s holding a grudge.”

That made me smile, although I didn’t know why. Maybe because that meant she thought about me occasionally. Although, why would I care about that? “Ah, good times,” I said finally. I didn’t know what else to say.

“The best times,” Rex agreed. He tapped the bar to signify he wanted another drink. “What are you going to do?”

“I have no idea, but I need to figure it out. I don’t think my dad was joking this time.”

“Has he ever joked about anything?”

“No. Good point, though. He’s deadly serious. I need to start figuring things out.”

“Good luck with that.”

I tried to keep my misery in check. It was a futile endeavor. “Yeah. What a mess.”

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