He blows out a breath. “I mean, I’ll marry the guy if you really don’t want to.”

I bump his shoulder with mine. “Pretty sure you’re not his type, Mav.”

He sighs dramatically and scrolls to another picture, then shouts, “Holy shit!”

“What?” I peer over his shoulder, but he clutches the screen to his chest and looks up at me.

“Did you know he has four brothers, and they’re all insanely hot?” He holds the phone out, and I examine the picture of Nathan standing with his brothers and father at some charity gala. “Even his dad is fuckable.”

“Ty!”

“What?” He shrugs. “He is. Those are some good genes, baby girl. If you’re gonna have a kid with someone, at least this guy pretty much guarantees beautiful babies.”

“All babies are beautiful,” I remind him.

His nose wrinkles. “Nuh-uh. Remember when Ashley was born? She looked like one of those troll dolls.”

“She did not!” I suppress a giggle. “She was adorable.”

“Yeah, she is now. But damn, she was an ugly baby.” He grins at me.

Glancing at his phone again, I take in every detail of the enigmatic Nathan James. “He is very handsome. So you see why I wonder what the hell he’s agreeing to marry me for? He must have some hideous secret.”

Tyler wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Are you shitting me? You are smart, kind, beautiful, and funny, and he’d be damn lucky to have you. You’re the whole deal, baby girl.” With his free hand, he scrolls through more pictures. “Not like these fake-ass models he’s always pictured with.”

“Yeah, not making me feel better, Ty.”

He kisses the top of my head. “You’re the best person I know, Melanie Edison, and don’t you ever fucking forget it.”

Chapter

Four

NATHAN

“Jesus fuck, Nathan.” My oldest brother, Elijah, shakes his head after I finish recounting what our father said to me earlier this morning. I left out the crap about me being the only one of us capable of having it all. What a load of shit.

I take a sip of my beer and signal the waitress for three more. “Yeah, you see what happens when you two fucks don’t turn up for Sunday brunch.”

“Sorry, bro,” Mason says sheepishly. “I had a hell of a date last night.”

I roll my eyes. “I thought you were dating the catalog model. Carter, was it?”

“Nah.” He shakes his head. “That kind of fizzled out. You know I like to keep my options open, and besides, he was way too clingy for me.”

“Yeah, way too pretty too,” Elijah adds. Mason and I stare at him with matching grins on our faces. “What?” Elijah blinks at us. “I can appreciate a man’s good looks. He just didn’t seem your usual type is all. You usually go for guys a little rougher round the edges.”

“Mmhmm, the rougher the better.” Mason licks his lips.

I roll my eyes, feigning my disgust, when I’m only jealous that my little brother isn’t jaded by the endless monotony of making the same small talk with a different person every week all in the hopes of a good fuck. And even that is losing its appeal.

“Shall we get back to my problem?” I remind them.

They mumble their agreement as the waitress delivers fresh beers.

“So he’s already got this wife picked out for you?” Mason asks.

“Yeah.” I nod, recalling how ridiculous the conversation was. “He even has a meeting set up with her family lawyers for Thursday.”

Elijah frowns. “Jesus fuck, Nathan!”

“Yeah, you already said that, asshole,” I say.

“I know, but I think it’s worth repeating.” He’s rarely this animated, and his reaction reassures me that our father’s proposition to me earlier today was as outrageous as it seemed.

I take a long swig of my beer. “So what the fuck do I do?”

“First, who is this chick?” Mason asks.

“Well, she’s a woman, and her name is Melanie Edison.”

Elijah’s eyebrows shoot up. “Luke Edison’s daughter?”

I nod. “The one and only.”

Mason grins. “She was two years below me in high school. My buddies all thought she was hot.”

She doesn’t have much of a social media presence, and the few pictures I did find online were from various animal rights and environmental charity functions. She appears to be impeccably turned out—brunette, curves in all the right places, a beautiful smile—but the photos gave the impression that she hated the camera. I sure know how that feels. There was no hint of a smile in the posed shots, but a couple of candids showed her laughing. Those were the ones that intrigued me most. “She’s still hot,” I tell them. “But that’s beside the point.”

Mason’s brow wrinkles like he’s deep in thought. “I heard she works as a vet’s assistant or something now.”

I nod. “Yeah, that matches what I found. She volunteers for a shelter too.”

Mason nods. “That rings true. She was always fundraising for the local animal shelter in high school.”

Elijah takes a swig of his beer and nods approvingly. “Seems like she’s a nice person, then. At least there’s that.”

Mason sucks air through his teeth. “I’m sure I recall something about her dropping out of college to do a few months in rehab. Not that it makes her a not-nice person, and that could have just been a rumor.”

I nod my agreement. “Yeah, she took a year off, and all the reports I found alluded to rehab.” I spent four hours after I left my dad’s house researching all there is to know about her. She has a college degree from Ohio State, has an unhealthy obsession with jelly donuts, lives in the meatpacking district with her cousin, Tyler, and has a twenty-year-old sister who’s currently studying at Harvard. Melanie Edison is an interesting woman. Not half as interesting as her brother though.

Elijah’s brow furrows. “So Dad wants grandkids. A legacy. But what does Melanie Edison get from this?”

“Um. She marries a handsome billionaire, fuck-knuckle,” Mason retorts.

Elijah shakes his head. “She works as a vet’s assistant.”

“Veterinary nurse,” I correct him.