Page 73 of The Deal with the Playboy

My mouth drops before I sip on my bitter champagne and the bubbles tickle my nose. “That’s a lot of money, but I’m not complaining. If we get a divorce, I’m going to keep this bad boy.”

His hand tightens on my butt and a frown crosses his face, but before I can ask him what’s going on with him, my stepfather speaks through the mike and says, “Welcome, my daughter, Poppy, and her husband, Jasper. I’m so proud of the woman she’s become and I’m proud to call her my stepdaughter.”

This is the only time my stepfather has ever made known that he’s proud of me. We never really had a relationship when I was growing up, and I always kept my distance from him. He provided for me and always attended all my after-school events, but we never spent one-on-one time together, not the way he spends time with Sophia and Jimmy.

I plaster a fake smile and Jasper kisses me on the cheek as everyone cheers. My mother walks up to us and gives me air-kisses, and then air-kisses Jasper too. She has makeup caked on her face, the dress she’s wearing hugs her body a little too tight, and her hair falls down her shoulders like a river. I haven’t seen her hair straightened in years.

My mother is beautiful. Drop-dead gorgeous, in fact.

“Welcome to the family, Jasper.” She eyes him up and down, and whistles. “You make a fine husband.Peoplemagazine wasn’t lying when they said you are the sexist man alive.”

I shoot her a glare. “Mother.”

“Poppy. Please, this is our proudest moment. My daughter has settled down with the right guy.” She loops her arms with mine and steals me away from Jasper. My stepfather goes up to him, patting Jasper on the back with a smile. Mom and I are swept into the crowd, and we stop in front of a group of young women. They look about my age, some a little older, wearing elegant designer dresses.

“So… has Prince Charming decided when he wants to set up a business meeting with your stepfather?” my mother asks.

I crinkle my nose. “I thought Jasper gave you a check for his winery business.”

She glances at the grass and back at me. “Oh no… that was for something else.”

She’s hiding something from me.

“I don’t know. You will have to ask him yourself.”

She doesn’t respond, and I set my champagne glass on a nearby table.

“These ladies are part of the country club,” she tells me before looking at them. “My daughter is married to one of the wealthiest men in the world, Jasper Bennett.”

They gawk at me in awe, and I hate this. The way my mother dotes on me as if she’s the best mom in the world, when just a short while ago she was disappointed in me because I broke things off with Link. Yet now she’s acting like a proud mother. It pisses me off. And I don’t know why. I never had any problem with it until now.

They went through all this trouble to bring their friends and colleagues around to show the world their daughter is marrying honorably. If I never married Jasper, I wouldn’t have heard from them. My relationship with my mother has always been strained. She was always an absent parent to me, leaving me while she worked two jobs before she got married again. Our relationship did get a lot better when I became an adult, and I guess she feels she didn’t have to raise me anymore. She told me countless times how my half-siblings and I messed up her body from childbirth, and she had to endure liposuction, but yet, she’s my mother and I still love her.

I still want her approval, so if her being happy that I’m marrying a wealthy man gets me love then I shouldn’t be complaining. She had to work horrible jobs to put a roof over my head and had to marry a wealthy man to get me the life she envisioned for me. I guess she didn’t expect my stepfather, Richard, to be so bad with money. The money problems started when I was seventeen years old.

One of the ladies eyes the rock on my finger and squeals. “Your ring is so beautiful, he must have spent a fortune on it.”

And the two other women gush. “Does he have a brother?” the one with her blonde hair in an updo says. Her eyes are the color of midnight, and she wears a dark gown.

“I’m getting married and you’re welcome to come to my wedding. Me and my fiancé are tying the knot at Vaux-le-Vicomte in France.”

These women wouldn’t want to hang out with me if they knew I was living on the poor side of New York City not too long ago.

I shake my head, turning away from them. “Mother? Who is here?”

I glance around the crowd, and I realize I don’t know half of these people. I wish this was more of a private affair than a big celebration. I just wanted to spend time with my mother, but she obviously doesn’t care to.

I should have known this would blow up in my face.

“Editors fromTime, andForbes, andWall Street Journal. And a few other people are here to interview you two on your love life.”

Anger grows inside of me. This isn’t a cocktail party; this is more of an ambush to boost their image. She is trying to ride my gravy train. I didn’t marry Jasper because of his image, I married him so he can help my stepfather with his business. I didn’t think about how it would make them look to the public.

I exhale loudly, glaring at my mother, and she rolls her eyes as if she senses what I’m thinking.

“Don’t be dramatic, Poppy. This is what we need to help our image. There are professional photographers here to take pictures of us as a family, so they can go inVoguemagazine.”

“Why didn’t you tell me all this before?”

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