Page 20 of The Fix Up

Ben glanced around the room and wondered how long he’d have to stay here hobnobbing before he could head upstairs and get out of this goddamn suit. He studied the well-groomed masses drinking a little too much, clapping each other a little too hard on the back.

“Benny boy!” The shoulder clap came from behind, and nearly knocked Ben’s drink from his hand. If he hadn’t turned at the last second, he might’ve splashed Holly with beer. The thought of licking it from her cleavage was enough to buoy his spirits for a second, but then he remembered who’d just delivered the blow.

With a heaviness he wished he didn’t feel, he turned to greet the shoulder-clapper. “Hi, Dad.”

* * *

Holly watchedBen’s smile go from warm and genuine to cardboard-stiff as he turned to greet his father. Another person might not have noticed the shift, but Holly had been admiring Ben’s smile all evening, making note of when he looked like he meant it and when he was phoning it in.

Was it wrong to silently celebrate the fact that she seemed to earn the real smile most of the time?

But the smile on Ben’s face now looked like he’d just chewed a mouthful of glass and taken a swig of grapefruit juice. Even with the pinched look on his handsome features, the physical resemblance was strong between Ben and his dad. Same broad shoulders, same chiseled jaw, same brown eyes with amber flecks, though there was something about the way Ben’s dad’s gaze swept her body that made Holly uncomfortable. She and Ben were standing a couple of feet apart, so it was possible the elder Langley didn’t even realize they knew one another.

She saw Ben shift his weight, angling his body a little closer to her. From the quick glance he gave to her, then his father, it looked like he was shielding her from his dad’s gaze. The rush of gratitude she felt was enough to leave her arms feeling tingly.

“Shoulda been out there on the course with us today, Benny Boy,” the older man said, slinging an arm around Ben in a gesture that seemed more like aggression than affection. Holly remembered a documentary she’d watched once about male lions in the wild, and thought about that as she watched the way Ben’s father manhandled him while giving a play-by-play of a golf game Ben clearly had no interest in whatsoever.

“But obviously, you were too busy pushing pencils across a desk to get out there and swing the wood around,” the elder Langley said, elbowing his son.

Ben opened his mouth to respond to the barb, but Holly beat him to the punch. She slid a hand around his waist, shoved her hand in his back pocket, and gave his ass a small squeeze. It was clear Lyle Langley was a grade-A jerk, and even clearer Ben would prefer not to contradict his dad in public. The least she could do was help Ben play in the same ballpark.

She didn’t take her hand off Ben’s ass as she turned her best high-wattage smile on his father. “You must be Lyle Langley,” she said as she extended the hand that wasn’t grabbing Ben’s ass. “I’ve heard so much about you, and it’s such a pleasure to finally meet you in person. I’m Holly Colvin.”

“Holly,” he said, pumping her hand harder than necessary as he stole a glance down the front of her dress. “Well, well, well. I was hoping Ben might bring a lady to the event tonight, but I had no idea he’d managed to round up one so—so?—”

“Intelligent?” Ben supplied. “Professional? Charming? Lovely?”

“Yeah, what he said,” Lyle answered, seeming to catch himself a bit with his son’s gentle reminder that there was more to a woman than tits and ass. The elder Langley cleared his throat. “Nice of you to join my boy here this evening. A powerful man needs a beautiful woman at his side.”

“Thank you,” Holly said, figuring it was easier to accept the compliment than to dwell on the suggestion that she was nothing more than arm candy. It’s not like she’d never been around men who thought that way. Hell, she’d married one.

“So, Mr. Langley,” Holly began, but Ben’s dad cut her off.

“Lyle,” he said. “Call me Lyle, sweetheart.”

“Lyle,” she replied, glancing up to see Ben’s cardboard smile firmly still rooted in place. “Ben was telling me about your remarkable leadership of the company. Tell me, what’s the secret to your success?”

The old man beamed like she’d just praised his dick or his car, and Holly knew she’d asked the right question. These business types were all alike, and she hoped Ben was taking mental notes on the inroads to a fellow executive’s ego.

“Well, honey,” Lyle said, leaning a little closer. “Just between you and me, the secret to success is ball-sack.”

Holly blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“It’s an acronym,” Ben supplied, not sounding nearly as enthusiastic about it as his father did. “BALSAC. Stands for brains, attitude, luck, skill, aggression, and confidence.”

“Served me well my whole life,” Lyle said, raising a toast to himself and his BALSAC. “That, and aligning myself with the right sort of people.” He gave her another appraising look, this one slightly less lecherous. “Having a sweet, pretty girl by his side can help a man get ahead, too.”

Ben edged closer to Holly, which felt like another effort to shield her from his father. “We should probably get going?—”

“It’s okay,” Holly said, giving Ben’s ass a reassuring squeeze to let him know she could handle his dad. “You must be very proud of your son following in your footsteps the way he is.”

“Absolutely,” Lyle said, taking a big gulp from a glass of amber liquid that made Holly’s eyes water from three feet away. It smelled like a forest fire, and she wondered what the hell it was. “In a family-run company like Langley, it’s all about heritage. Good old-fashioned values and traditions that have made this company great for generations. The good old days were good for a reason, and we like to keep ’em going at Langley Enterprises.”

“Sure,” Holly said, certain she’d heard a version of this speech coming from her ex-husband’s lips not long after they’d returned from their honeymoon.

“There’s a reason traditional values are traditional, Holly,”Chase had pointed out a few weeks after she and Miriam had opened the doors at First Impressions and he’d realized that having Holly own her own company made her less available to furtherhiscareer by mingling with the other country club wives. That was right about the time he’d started dropping not-so-subtle hints that she sell her share of the company.

Holly took a slow sip of wine now, conscious of Ben simmering beside her. “Actually, Dad, the good old days weren’t always so hot,” he said. “Human life expectancy a hundred years ago was only forty-eight, and between poor sanitation and nutrition, it really wasn’t?—”

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