Lana’s composure finally slipped, shock filling her voice. “This is absurd—”

“Your mother and I don’t like it either, Lana,” Langston said. “Unfortunately, fulfilling our obligations to the group doesn’t stop because we’re in the middle of a family crisis. You know that better than anyone.”

“And you don’t believe that’s a little harsh? Killian—”

“Killian wrapped a quarter-million-dollar sports car around a brick wall because he never put the family first,” her father said firmly. “I am brokenhearted at his prognosis and sick to my stomach at how much this is hurting the family, but we all know this call was coming. The boozing, the women, the fast cars.”

“We kept hoping he’d settle down,” Jessica added sadly. “Apparently, he took too long to grow up.”

Lana didn’t know how her parents managed to say those things and still sound compassionate.

“Go to your party,” she said, bristling. “We’re going back to the hospital.”

Lana’s mother sighed. “Silas said you might feel this way. We’ll manage without you if we have to. Silas can stand in for you if he must. He’s been the family’s rock throughout all this.”

The fact that those words were spoken without a hint of sarcasm made Lana’s blood run cold. Of course. Of course Silas would take advantage of a tragedy to ingratiate himself with her parents. He couldn’t have been less subtle about his intentions.

Langston caught her eye, and Lana knew without saying a word that she wasn’t the only one aware of Silas’s machinations.

And with Moose Springs on the line, the less power Silas had, the better. Langston patted her shoulder.

“It’s only an evening,” he promised. “A Montgomery can withstand anything for an evening.”

* * *

“One of these days, I’m going to figure out how to not look like an idiot in a tie,” Rick told Lana as they dressed in their borrowed finery. This time, Rick was fighting with a bow tie, one of the most complicated objects he’d been forced to deal with in his adult life.

He missed his simple snowflake tie dearly.

“Did this have to be a tie-on? They make clip-on bow ties.”

“Yes,” Lana said from inside the largest closet Rick had ever seen. It was almost the size of his living room. “Montgomerys never clip on.”

“Hardings always clip on. Black works, right? I tried on the white one, and it looked stupid.”

“The black will be perfect. Stop fretting; you look good in anything.” Lana stepped out of the closet, and Rick’s ability to breathe simply stopped. He stood there, staring, knowing he should say something and unable to force his tongue to move, let alone make a coherent sentence.

She was wearing the kind of gown he’d only seen in movies.

“I’ve missed this dress,” Lana said to herself, running a hand down her hip. “It was always one of my favorites.”

“You should wear that all the time.” Running through his memory, Rick couldn’t remember ever seeing a woman look as beautiful as Lana did right now.

She flashed him a quick grin. “Even when moose catching?”

“Especially when moose catching.”

Her parents had already left for the party, so Lana and Rick took a separate car. At least that saved Rick from the distressingly low-cut gown Lana’s mother was wearing. Few first impressions were as bad as checking out his date’s mother…even if accidentally done.

The drive through Chicago was surreal. Rick had toured the lower forty-eight while playing billiards, but it had been a long time since he’d been surrounded by skyscrapers. Where Anchorage felt crowded, this city was overwhelming.

Lana wasn’t the only one nervous about tonight, but Rick tried his best not to let it show. He didn’t want her to have to help him or worry about him. She had enough to worry about.

He could tell by her reaction to her cousin’s name that Lana wasn’t happy with Silas…not that anyone could be happy around the noxious man. But Rick didn’t understand how Silas’s presence was enough to make Lana leave her cousin for the evening. There was more to her worries than she would tell him, and Rick was having a hard time not asking.

He wanted her to be open with him, but he wasn’t going to push. But damn, it bothered him that she was pulled between her job and her family, and it made him wish there was something more he could do.

Maybe Lana didn’t need his comfort and support, but he was going to make sure she had it. And if he needed to help her deal with Silas, then Rick was all in. He’d dump the twerp in a punch bowl if she wanted him to.

They pulled up to the mansion where the party was being held, a four-story midcentury modern monstrosity that could have held the entirety of his town within the sleek concrete walls. When Rick stepped into the mansion, Lana on his arm, he had a brief feeling of being in someone else’s life. This certainly wasn’t his. His life was a pool hall that was always too cold in the winter and too warm in the summer. A mortgage that wouldn’t go away, even when he wished it would. A grumpy kid on the couch, lamenting both their love lives.

Rick’s life wasn’t crystal glasses of champagne, ball gowns, or chic tuxes, surrounded by professionally designed wintery floral arrangements and diamond-crusted ornaments on Christmas trees suspended on nearly invisible wires from the ceiling. The white tuxedo, black bow tie, and black shirt she’d given him for the occasion left Rick feeling like an inverted penguin. But with Lana in the deepest, richest red gown next to him, Rick knew it didn’t matter one bit what he wore. No one was going to be looking at him.

All eyes were on her.

“I’m going to have to mingle,” Lana warned him. “If you get sick of it, squeeze my hand twice, and I’ll ask you to get me a mixed drink.”

“I’ll be fine,” Rick told her. Boy, was he wrong. On the twenty-second repeat of the same conversation, Rick conceded defeat and went to get her a drink. With each reiteration of “how was her poor dear cousin, what a shame, would she want to set up a meeting with them to talk business?” Rick had to keep biting his tongue harder. Silas kept interjecting himself into the conversation, reminding Rick of a toy-sized dog jumping up and down to be noticed.

Lana introduced him to each newcomer, and initially Rick worried maybe Lana’s colleagues would think he wasn’t good enough for her. But the reality was, to them, he wasn’t even there. Even Silas was ignoring him. Lana handled everything like the professional she was, deflecting requests with compliments and somehow remembering everyone’s name.

Only Rick knew how uncomfortable she was with it all and only because her thumb never stopped drumming against her hip.

“Scotch, neat,” Rick told the bartender, grateful to be away from the masses. “And a second for me.”

He almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. Waitstaff were passing around caviar on actual silver platters, but this was a cash bar. Of course the fancy fish eggs were free when all Rick wanted was a stiff drink.

One wouldn’t hurt. Not on a day like this.

“My daughter is beautiful, isn’t she?” Jessica’s voice pulled Rick’s attention. He’d been so focused on Lana, he hadn’t noticed her mother leaning against a table near the bar. Like Lana, Jessica had picked a rich red for her gown, although with a plunging neckline Rick was trying very hard to avoid glancing at.

“Lana’s stunning,” Rick agreed.

“She’s the heir to one of the most powerful real estate conglomerates in the world. She could be cross-eyed in a burlap sack and everyone would tell her how amazing she looks.” Lana’s mother took a sip of her scotch, breaking from the rest of the room’s choice of champagne. “But you’re right. She’s stunning. You’d have to be blind not to notice her.”

He didn’t know what to say, so he paid for a third scotch instead, nodding to the bartender to give it to Lana’s mother.

Jessica’s eyebrow arched as she accepted the new drink. “My daughter lets you pay for her?”

“When I’m lucky enough,” he said. “It took some convincing.”

“I’m sure. Are you in love with her?” Jessica smiled slightly. When Rick blinked at the question, she added, “I know the answer. I was just wondering if you do.”

Rick didn’t know this woman, and to be honest, she radiated a sort of intimidation that made part of him want to find anywhere else to be right then. But she was Lana’s mother, and that meant something. So Rick set his glass, untouched, to the side.

“Yes. I’m in love with her.”

Acknowledging that out loud to Jessica and to himself wasn’t easy…but it was freeing. He was in love with Lana. How could he not be? Saying it to Lana’s family instead of her first felt wrong, but Rick wasn’t going to pretend he was something he wasn’t, no matter how many bow ties the Montgomerys tied around his neck.

Jessica swirled her scotch in the glass, eyeing him. “Why?”

Frowning, Rick wasn’t sure how to answer. “Why do I care about her?”

“If you loved her for her money, then she never would have brought you here to meet us.” Jessica licked a drop of amber from her lips. “So I’m curious as to why you love my daughter.”

The challenge in her eyes was clear. There was nothing Rick could say that would justify his place at Lana’s side, and he knew trying would only leave him a crushed ant beneath this woman’s thumb. And because she loved Lana too, Rick didn’t blame her.

He didn’t think he was good enough for her either.

Straightening, Jessica turned and looked out at the ballroom.

“There are men in here who would marry her in a heartbeat if she agreed to it. She’s rich and she’s powerful and she’s beautiful. And one day, she will own more than anyone else in this room ever will.”

With an indelicate snort, Jessica took a sip of her scotch. “Lana knows that’s what they see when they look at her, so I’ve never worried about her falling for the wrong person. My daughter has never been the type to let her feelings blind her to reality. Usually.”