Page 112 of Square Deal

I was microwaving soup and coaxing a woman into taking cough syrup.

Had I inadvertently smacked my head on a stripper pole? Was I living out some sort of alternate timeline dream while lying on the club floor with a concussion?

Hannah was in a medicine-induced slumber. Her little snores against my chest were the cutest sounds I’d ever heard. A few minutes later, the exhaustion of travel finally caught up with me, and I dozed off.

When I woke up,it was light outside. The gray skies held the false promise of snow, and Hannah’s phone was ringing incessantly. I rolled over, intending to turn the damn thing off, but my thumb slid across the screen and answered the call.Ah, fuck.

“Hello?” I mumbled, carefully sliding out from under the mountain of bedding and slipping into the guest room. I peered back through the doorway to make sure I hadn’t disturbed Hannah.

“Who is this? Why are you answering my daughter’s phone?” The woman on the other end of the line sniped.

“Uh, Isaac?” I answered, unsure if Hannah had told this lady about us, but from the sound of it, the answer was a hardno.

The woman hemmed and hawed. “Well,Isaac,”she said briskly. “My daughter was supposed to be here an hour ago, and now a stranger is answering her phone. There is an upstandinggentleman here who is kindly spending his holiday with us to meet and court her. So, if you’ll kindly put my daughter on the phone.”

Hell no, I won’t put you on the phone with Hannah while you’re playing matchmaker for someone else.

“Hannah isn’t feeling well,” I said flatly.

“I don’t care if Hannah Jane isn’t feeling well. Attendance to family functions is compulsory.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that? It sounds like you don’t care that your daughter is sick on Christmas.”

“Hannah isn’t a child,” she said coldly. “She is a grown woman who knows what is expected of her. She wouldn’t dare sully the image of my family. I suppose I can delay things until she can get here.”

Didn’t her family live on the other side of the state?

“Sully your family image? Holy shit, woman,” I said with an exasperated laugh. “Who the fuck am I speaking to here? The Queen of England? I’m guessing not, considering I’ve met the woman and she knows to go through my assistant to speak to me. Go kiss an oncoming train before you ever think about speaking to Hannah like that again.”

“How dare you!” Mrs. Hayes exclaimed with an Oscar winning performance. I hope she inhaled the pearls she was probably clutching, and choked on them. “My goodness! I’ve never?—”

“Neverwhat?Never had someone tell you what a selfish asshole you are?” I interjected. “What kind of a shitty parent cares more about their family name than their child? Newsflash: no one knows who the fuck you are.”

“Now, you listen to me, young man?—”

“No, you listen to me,” I snapped. “I’m glad you recognize that your daughter is an adult. I agree. That’s why her hardworking ass is gonna stay in bed until she feels like getting up. And thenmaybe—if you can pull your head out of your wrinkly ass and act like a decent parent—I’ll let you apologize to Hannah.”

Mrs. Hayes’s voice turned deadly, but she wasn’t nearly as scary as Hannah Jane on a wedding warpath. “I don’t know who you think you are,Isaac, but I warn you: do not cross me.”

“Who do I think I am?” I laughed. “I’m Isaac-fucking-Lawson. Unlike you, I actuallyamsomebody. So don’t threaten me.”

“Well, I don’t—regardless,” Mrs. Hayes stammered. She may have been too old to keep up with gossip magazines, but she would know my father—or my grandfather. I inherited my fortune and penchant for the public eye directly from them—for good and for bad.

“And for the record, I’m in love with Hannah Jane. You’ll just have to deal with it, because I plan on being around for a long fucking time.”

That shut her up for a moment. Only a moment, though.

“I forbid you from ever speaking to my daughter again. You hang up the phone and leave this instant.”

“Good thing I don’t take orders from you,” I snapped. “Oh, and since you’resoconcerned, Hannah’s almost on the mend. She just needed some rest and a fucking break from everyone else’s expectations. Like I said: oncoming train.Pucker up. Merry Christmas, Mrs. Hayes. I hope it’s a terrible one.”

I gripped Hannah’s phone so hard I thought it was going to splinter the screen.

Fuck that bitch.

I blew out a breath to calm the adrenaline pulsing through my body. Maybe I’d grab my sneakers and go jogging. I needed something to take the edge off.

The wood floor creaked, and I whipped my head around. Hannah stood in the doorway.

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