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“Go do? On a woe “Go down in fla about?”

“You’ll be the first to fall in love with a wo her to marry you,” Matt says

My htened around ht,” I finally e to choke out

“You two are so daure you’ll both be slapped upside the head and fall hard And it’s going to happen sooner rather than later,” Matt says, his voice full of confidence

That s tone irritates the hell out of me

“There is no way I’ll fall in love anytime soon,” I say

“Me either,” Gage agrees

“If you guys want to believe that, then cool Live in your world of denial, I don’t care” Our friend is trying to piss us off And it’s working

“You wanna make that bet you just mentioned? Because I’m in I’ll prove it to you I don’t need a woman or a relationship” I cross my aretting a rise out of the both of us Drives me crazy

So let’s see if he goes for it Always running that mouth of his Time to put up or shut up

Gage snorts “Don’t just bet hiet in on this one”

“How uy is loaded We’re all loaded; we cohborhood during high school When we all turned twenty-one within a fewbig raduated college and got real lives, we had to stop that shit I still miss it Sort of

“A e throws out, a triuleam in his eye He acts like he’s already won the prize

“Aout of his head Asshole acts like he’s not good for it despite having to recently bow out of a lucrative pro baseball contract due to a career-ending injury—and he didn’t lose a dollar of that contract either The guy has buckets full of money He recently invested some of it in a winery not far from where I live just so he could claim a loss for his taxes

He’s definitely not hurting financially Neither is Gage He’s one of the top real estate investors in all the Bay Area, right behind his father They both have theand turning them around for a tremendous profit

The hotel industry claiic touch as well, despite my father’s irritation at that particular assertion I can’t help that I saw a need and filled it with the loser hotel he gave me He firmly believed I’d fail

I proved hi ready to expand And he hates that

It’s al me fail

“What, you scared?” I say this because I know there is no way in hell I will lose this bet No woman can sink her claws into me so deep I can’t escape

No way, no how

Gage laughs and shakes his head “Don’t be such a psy, DeLuca A e in your bank account”

“Not really,” Matt mutters “Not that I’m worried I’ll win”

Ha Mattthat confident of a state “You really think so?”

“I know so” Matt srand the next wo”

“Sucker bet, bro Take hi my shoulder hard “Give us a break, Matt I can’t think of one woman in this entire room Archer would want to talk to, let alone marry”

I re to Spend tie sense, because hell no, that’s not in my future I’d make some poor woman a terrible husband and I know it Which is why I leave her alone

She wants that sort of thing A husband and kids and a white picket fence around the pretty little house she decorated I know she does She’s a dreamer, a romantic, a woman who deserves to be treated like a queen I’d only end up hurting her and I couldn’t live with e wouldn’t let me live either

He knows her well, considering I’ to his baby sister

Once upon a tiht of her like a baby sister too But then she blosso thoughts every tiot near her Seventeen-year-old Ivy made me feel like a pervert Didn’t help that every time I tried to avoid her, she wanted to talk to et under hed at h me

And when she grew into this beautiful, sexy, confident woman, I kneithout a doubt I had to avoid her at all costs I wanted to be with her in the worst damn way She’s the first woman I ever truly cared for I don’t want to hurt her, because I would I hurt all the woht she had a fleeting chance at being with me

“Maybe you could go babysit Ivy for a little while,” Gage suggests

I turn to hihts? Fucking scary how he just did that

“What do you mean?” I ask warily

“You want to win an easy fifty grand? Go be with Ivy Like she’d h I don’t Why am I a sorry ass? Yeah, I know I’m not worthy of Ivy, but damn, his words still hurt