What Matters Most: The Billionaire Bargains, Book 2 (20 page)

“Good news,” Tony told Reese. “The caterers are here.”

“Cate—” She stopped. “It’s maybe better if I don’t know. I’ll see you soon.”

“Can’t wait.” He paused for a heartbeat and then said, “I love you.”

He watched the reactions of the people in the hallway. The moving guys didn’t seem to care. But five of his guests seemed quite interested. Two of them seemed suspicious.

“Tony—” Reese said softly.

“I know,” he told her. He did. People weren’t supposed to fall in love this fast, people weren’t supposed to actually
go
crazy over someone else, people weren’t supposed to believe in things like love at first sight.

“I’ll see you soon,” she repeated.

She definitely would. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Chapter Seven

They disconnected and Tony gave the people in the hallway outside the apartment a huge grin. “House-warming party this way.” He stepped back and gestured toward the apartment.

“Who are you?” one of the women with the aluminum-foil-covered plates asked.

“You’re the best man,” the other said.

“
He’s
the best man?” the kids’ mom asked. “The one that—”

“Broke up the wedding,” the guy with the goatee filled in.

Tony frowned. That wasn’t entirely accurate. And how had he not noticed
this
guy at the wedding?

Probably because he’d been too worried about breaking the wedding up.

Tony sighed. “Who’s coming in?”

Everyone stepped forward in unison.

“Where do you want the couch?”

“I hope you like oatmeal raisin.”

“Where’s Reese?”

“We made you macaroni and cheese.”

Everyone started talking at once and Tony gave a happy sigh. Chaos. He was good with chaos. He found that chaos worked for him.

“We’ll put the couch in front of the window, I love oatmeal raisin, Reese is stuck in Salt Lake City and will be here in a couple of hours and thank you for the mac and cheese.”

The movers headed downstairs, presumably to retrieve the couch, and everyone else reacted with either a suspicious frown or a bright grin.

Tony moved toward the fridge. Surely Reese had drinks even if she had cleaned most of the kitchen out.

“You flew home separately?” the kids’ mom asked.

“We did,” Tony said, turning with the two bottles of water that he’d found. “This is all I have.”

“I’ll go grab some stuff,” the guy with the goatee said.

“Oh, we have lemonade,” the older of the Werther girls said, grabbing her mother’s hand and starting for the door.

Tony pulled his phone out and hid it behind the bowl of mac and cheese while the two older women helped get the little kids onto chairs at the table. Along with the oatmeal and raisin cookies there were also frosted brownies, and they helped the kids each pick one and start eating.

He texted Reese
Who’s the guy with the goatee?

“So you were the best man?” one of the women asked.

Her friend elbowed her. “Of course he was. I wouldn’t forget
him
.”

Tony gave her a wink. “Thanks. Yes, that was me.”

Reese’s response came in.
Vincent. Neighbor down the hall. Is he there?

He answered with a simple
yes
.

“And you and Reese went to Salt Lake City?”

He laughed. “Vegas, actually.”

“Oh, I love Vegas,” one said with a twinkle in her eye.

“I’m Tony.” He offered his hand.

“Sylvia,” she said. Her nails were painted bright purple.

Sylvia. Purple fingernails. He could remember that.

He turned to the other woman.

“I’m Connie.” She didn’t shake his hand. She bit into a cookie, watching him carefully. “And now you’re living here?”

The moving men brought the couch through the door at that moment.

Tony smiled. “I am.”

The women were distracted by helping the men position the couch and Tony took the chance to text Reese again.
The kids’ mom?

Holly.
The response came back right away. Reese had clearly been sitting there waiting to hear more.

“That seems strange, you know,” Connie said. “Just moving in like this. All of a sudden after her wedding fell apart. Somebody might be suspicious.”

“Suspicious of what?” Tony asked. “I’m bringing things in, not taking them out.”

Connie squinted at him. “Maybe you’re taking advantage of her emotional state to get her to trust you so you can steal her identity. Or hide out from the cops. Or start a second life because you’re bored with your wife and three kids in the suburbs.”

“You
have
to stop watching
Dateline
,” Sylvia said, pushing Connie to the side. “We know you’re not going to steal her identity,” she said to Tony.

Tony fought a smile. He nodded. “Thank you.”

“Fine, but he’s clearly just crashing here,” Connie said.

“How is that clear?” Sylvia asked.

“He’s bringing that thing in instead of something nice,” she said, waving her hand toward his couch.

His favorite couch. The couch he had to bring to Reese’s place rather than live without it.

“You don’t like my couch?”

“Big couches are like sports cars for men of a certain age,” Connie told him. “It’s a clear attempt at compensating for…something.”

Tony laughed. “I thought I was compensating for my need for more room on the couch.”

Connie raised an eyebrow. “Uh huh.”

“Well, I’m not here to take advantage of Reese, I don’t have another family and that couch cost me a bundle.”

Connie looked over at it with clear dislike. “You got ripped off.”

Tony liked her. “It might help if you knew that Reese and I got married,” he said. “I’m moving in because this is where we’re going to live.”

“You got
married
?” They all turned toward the door where the oldest Werther girl and her mother had come back in with a plastic pitcher.

Connie and Sylvia moved forward to help with the lemonade and Tony faced the mother. “Yes. I’ve been crazy about Reese for a long time. Given even half a chance to spend the rest of my life with her, I jumped at it.”

Holly’s eyes widened. “That’s just…so…

“
Not
like Reese.”

Tony looked over to see that Vincent was back. He was carrying a six pack of beer and three bottles of iced tea.

“It was very romantic,” Tony said.

He sure as hell hoped it had been romantic.

“It was
Vegas
,” Holly said.

“Vegas is a great town,” Tony said. At least the people he hung out with thought so.

“Vegas is Vegas,” Holly said. “It’s not…” She turned to Vincent for help.

“It’s not Reese,” he said.

Tony frowned. “Reese had a hell of a good time in Vegas.” But he was suddenly wondering if that was true. He didn’t remember most of their first night and the second night she’d spent discovering that he hung out in night clubs and casinos. There had been some great moments—naked moments—but other than that…

Fuck.

He knew that Vegas was a city where people went to cut loose and have fun and do a bunch of stuff they wouldn’t normally do.

Like marry virtual strangers.

So his wife wasn’t a typical Vegas girl. That was probably a good thing. It didn’t deter him in the least.

“So what is Reese?” he asked, leaning against the counter behind him.

Vincent and Holly exchanged a look, both pulled out a stool at the countertop and took a seat.

The kids were happy at the table with the mac and cheese and cookies and Connie and Sylvia came back over to join the conversation.

“Why don’t we start with this,” Vincent said. “What do
you
think Reese is?”

Easy. “Reese is smart, sweet, sexy and feisty. She has a great sense of humor and really cares about people. She’s unimpressed with my wealth and wants to make me a better person.”

That last part was probably more him than her. He wanted her to make him better, whether or not she was willing was another story. But she hadn’t bailed yet. And she’d asked him to move in so he could see her world.

Vincent nodded. “Reese tries to make everyone a better person.” He said it with obvious exasperated affection.

“So this
is
you?” Holly asked, slapping a magazine on the countertop.

Tony didn’t need to look at it to know what it was. “Yes.” He’d posed for the cover of the local magazine for their story about the most eligible bachelors in Kansas City. He’d been featured in it for the past four years. This was the first year he’d made the cover.

“I thought so.” Holly didn’t seem impressed.

“The way he proclaimed his feelings to her at the wedding was very romantic,” Sylvia offered.

“He should have done it before she was standing next to her fiancé in front of the minister,” Connie said.

Connie was right.

Tony told her as much. “I definitely should have. But at that moment, I knew that if I didn’t say something, I’d regret it forever.”

Sylvia sighed. Connie harrumphed.

“But marrying her in Vegas?” Holly said. “Was that really a good idea?”

“Best idea I’ve ever had,” Tony said with conviction. “And I’ve had several.”

Holly shook her head. “I can’t believe she did that. I know she had a thing for you, but this is so overboard. She’s so careful and practical.”

“She had a thing for me?” Tony pounced on those words. Satisfaction spread through him. Reese had talked about him.

Holly rolled her eyes. “Yes. Before I heard about Jeff, I was hearing about the hot poker player, Tony.”

Tony grinned and crossed his arms, feeling very smug all of a sudden.

“But she also said that you were definitely not her type,” Vincent said.

“She talked to you about me too?” This was good. This was very, very good.

“Yeah. She talks to me about a lot of stuff.”

Vincent gave him a look that said
you wanna make something of it?
Tony most definitely did not. Vincent would kick his ass. And he didn’t mind at all that Reese had the man as a confidant. She was
his
wife. He was completely confident in his ability to keep her satisfied and happy.

“So you’re all close?” he said. “It’s great to meet Reese’s friends. I thought I knew them after meeting the bridesmaids.”

Holly snorted. “Those bitches don’t know her.”

Tony raised both eyebrows. “Oh?”

“Two were Jeff’s sisters, one was Reese’s sister and one her stepsister.”

“She and her sister aren’t close?” he asked.

Connie shook her head. “You don’t know anything about her? Really?”

Tony realized he could admit it and get some needed information from people who really knew and cared about Reese, or he could fake it and try to get the info out of Reese.

This seemed easier. He knew Reese was going to try to keep throwing walls up between them. He knew she was going to try to prove that they had nothing in common and couldn’t make a long-term relationship work.

“I don’t know a lot of details,” he confessed.

“But you felt good about marrying her?” Vincent asked.

“I have impeccable gut instincts,” Tony told him honestly. “I’m almost never wrong in business and in poker.”

“People aren’t cards,” Connie said with a snort.

“But people
play
cards,” Tony said. “And the key to be a great poker player is to be able to read those people.”

No one had an immediate response to that so Tony put it in the win column.

“Okay, here it is short and sweet,” Holly said. “Reese isn’t close to her family. They’re all…” She trailed off as if searching for the right word.

“Losers,” Connie supplied.

Sylvia elbowed her hard. “That’s not nice.”

“But it’s kind of true,” Connie said, rubbing her arm where Sylvia’s elbow had connected. “Her dad hasn’t worked in years
,”
she said. “Her mom married for money and her sister and brother have no problem milking their stepdad for every penny they can.”

Tony frowned. “Seriously?”

“Reese’s sister won’t talk to her, and whenever Reese gets upset with her brother, he’ll take off and not tell anyone where he is or what he’s doing. He’ll be gone for weeks sometimes,” Vincent said. “It’s been over a month since she saw him this time.”