Page 57 of Parading the Cowboy Billionaire (Bluegrass Ranch 4)

“Knock, knock,” Lawrence said as he entered Cayden’s office.

“Hey.” Cayden minimized the spreadsheet and leaned back in his chair as his brother sat down. “How’d it go with Mariah?”

“Good. We got four more menus.” He passed over one piece of paper. “She’s emailing the others to me and you. We have calls and emails out for the last three, and she said she’d run them down tomorrow no matter what.” He grinned, and Cayden smiled back.

“Thanks for working on this with me,” he said. “You’ve been amazing.”

“Thanks,” Lawrence said, his smile growing and his dark eyes shining like moonlight off dark water. “It’s actually been fun.” He glanced around the office. “The air conditioning can’t be beat.”

They chuckled, with Cayden sobering first. “You sure it’s the air conditioning you like? Or Mariah Barker?” He watched Lawrence closely, because this particular brother had always been terrible at hiding how he felt.

“All of it,” he said airily, which gave everything away.

“I’m concerned about you dating her,” he said. “Doesn’t she have some policy through her company?”

“No,” Lawrence said, his eyes flat now. “Her boss loves it when people date—and besides, we’re not dating.”

“You go out with her.” He raised his eyebrows.

Lawrence folded his arms, and while he usually wore more cowboy casual clothes, today, he had on a dark blue shirt with white pinpricks all over it. It was still cotton, but not flannel, and he’d probably looked like he fit right in at The Gemini Group.

“No,” he said. “I don’t.”

“No? Didn’t the two of you go to a movie screening on Monday night?”

“That was for her work,” he said. “It wasn’t a date.”

“I see.” Cayden didn’t really see, but he thought he knew where Lawrence was driving. It felt a lot like the truck he and Ginny had been in last Christmas. “So she has events she needs to attend, and you…accompany her.”

He lifted one ankle to his opposite knee, his chin going right up. Cayden had hit close to the bullseye but not right on it. He leaned his elbows on his desk. “I don’t care either way. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on.”

“Why does it matter what’s going on?” Lawrence asked. “I didn’t sit and hound you last year when you went out with Miss Winters every other day.”

Cayden smiled, because it wasn’t every other day. He didn’t argue; this was one of those times where he didn’t have to be right. He also didn’t want to drive Lawrence further away, nor did he want to make him feel like he was doing anything wrong if he wasn’t.

“I didn’t mean to hound,” he said, leaning back and picking up his phone. “Ginny’s gone with her family tonight. Do you want to go get wings and frozen custard at the Lionshead with me?” He looked up, though he’d tapped on their app already.

They sold a limited number of tickets for Thursday night wings, all-you-can-sip beer, and the best chocolate custard in Kentucky. They put on sports from around the world, and while Cayden wasn’t a huge sports fan, he’d become addicted to their wings the very first time he’d gone with Duke.

“Or we can get pizza and stay home.” That option sounded like heaven to Cayden, and he wondered when he’d gotten so old.

Lawrence shrugged, and that only annoyed Cayden. He knew precisely how to hide that, though, and he tapped on the big red button at the top of his screen. “I’m getting two tickets at the Lionshead.”

“The Gemini Group doesn’t have a policy against clients dating their associates,” he said, and Cayden looked up from his phone, his fingers frozen in mid-air. “It’s Mariah who has a personal no-dating-clients policy.” Lawrence cleared his throat and dropped his foot back to the floor. “She needed a boyfriend to get invited to the parties her company throws, because her boss is a complete chauvinist and he only invites married couples of people with partners to his events. He hands out the best assignments there, and I said I’d be her—boyfriend—for the summer.”

He really ground out the wordboyfriend, and Cayden just kept watching him. He had more to say, and knowing Lawrence, he’d say it just fine.

“When the Smash ends, we’re going to give the real dating thing a try.”

“You’ve talked about this with her?”

“To death,” Lawrence said. “We talk abouteverythingto death.”

Cayden burst out laughing, glad when his brother at least cracked a smile. “When did you ask her out?”

“Blaine’s wedding.”

“What did she say?”

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