Page 50 of Dating the Rebel
“Is not a member.”
“He should be,” Tabitha argued. “He’s sexy as hell and he must be rich, since Blair didn’t have enough money to start that private charter business on her own.”
“She’s an equal partner,” Miranda defended her friend.
Tabitha snorted as if she wasn’t buying it. But they had never bothered to get to know Blair like she knew Blair.
Just as Miranda and Blair had vowed to never marry, they had also vowed to never let anyone have financial control over them. That was why they’d wanted their own businesses—to be in control and self-sufficient. Blair had taken out a loan to finance half of the business so that she would be an equal partner. But she’d admitted that Grant had offered to put up all the money. And he hadn’t even needed a loan. Did he really make that much from gambling?
“And if Grant has money, I have no idea where it’s coming from,” Miranda admitted.
“Who cares?” Tabitha asked. “Even if he was broke, it wouldn’t matter because he’s so damn good-looking.”
He was. Miranda could not argue that.
“Let him join,” Regina concurred.
The thought of Grant dating other women made Miranda’s stomach churn. Was she jealous? Had she somehow become possessive of him?
She shook her head.
“Why not?” Regina asked. “Do you want to keep him for yourself?”
“I can’t keep what I’ve never had,” she insisted. “I just don’t trust him.”
And that was the real problem between them. As much as she wanted him, she couldn’t risk the lack of trust turning her into her mother—insecure and dependent.
“Then don’t date him,” Regina said. “And let some of our clients decide if they want to trust him.”
She shook her head. “No. I have to protect them from getting hurt.”
“That’s your problem,” Regina said. “You think you always have to take care of everyone else—like Blair. And you don’t care about—”
A knock rattled the door, cutting off whatever else Regina had been about to say. Not that Miranda had wanted to hear it. She had proposed this business with her sisters to help take care of them. But it was clear they didn’t appreciate what she’d been trying to do.
She jumped up from the reception area couch and opened the door to the hall. To Grant. And she was so happy to see him again that a smile immediately curved her lips. But he didn’t return it.
Instead the corners of his mouth had turned down into a frown. His face was flushed, and his eyes were cold. What was he angry about?
Because she had no doubt that he was angry; she just didn’t understand why.
Grant was furious. So furious that he had barely managed to resist the urge to break down the door and join in their shouting match. Even if he hadn’t intended to eavesdrop—and he had—he wouldn’t have been able tonotoverhear them.
These women really expected his sister to just give up the love of her life. Or worse yet, to share him with the desperate, money-grubbing members.
In order to support themselves...
He wanted to shout at them that it was cruel and immoral. And just as he’d been about to break down the door to call them that, they’d started talking about him.
Apparently the sisters didn’t care if he was broke, but Miranda did. She didn’t trust him around those money-grubbing clients of hers.
And apparently she didn’t trust him around her sisters, either, because she opened the door to her private office and gestured for him to proceed her inside. “You two can leave for the night,” she told them.
They didn’t argue with her now. Maybe they’d noticed how angry he was. She had—because the minute they left, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I think you know what’s wrong,” he murmured. She was going to betray her best friend; he just knew that she would. To save herself and her sisters, she would betray Blair and Teo.
That was why he’d lied to her—to protect his sister. And she didn’t trust him over that—because he hadn’t been completely honest with her.
