Mack shrugged. “Fine with me, though if you were to ask, I could probably help you sort through all these pesky emotions you’re feeling about now.”
“When did you turn sensitive?”
“Scoff if you like, but I have more experience in this area than you do, big brother. I have shaded the truth on more than one occasion to evade Destiny’s scheming. I’m not especially proud of it, but sometimes I’ve found it to be a necessity.”
“No question about it,” Richard said. “I’m just not sure that’s a plus.”
Mack gave him a knowing look. “You actually believe Destiny is buying all this, don’t you?”
Richard was stunned by the suggestion that Destiny wasn’t being taken in. “Of course. Just look at her. She’s practically gloating at having won so easily.”
“Ha!”
Richard frowned at his brother. “What the hell are you suggesting?”
“That our beloved aunt still has the upper hand, that she knows exactly what you’re up to and that she is playing along till you dig yourself in so deep you’ll never get out. Trust me, this engagement will be real before all is said and done. Destiny will see to it. She’s a pro, my friend, and you are a rank amateur when it comes to this kind of scheming.”
“You can’t be serious,” Richard said, even though it made a convoluted kind of sense. Destiny was sneaky enough to do something like that, to give him and Melanie enough rope to hang themselves or, more precisely, to tie themselves together permanently.
“Have you figured out a way to extricate yourself from this once things get out of hand?” Mack inquired.
Richard nodded, his gaze now riveted on the two women across the room. What the devil were they talking about? For all he knew the two of them were in cahoots, plotting against him. Maybe Melanie had been in on the scheme from the beginning, Destiny’s scheme that is, not his. Good God, he couldn’t even keep the schemes straight anymore. Mack was right. He needed a well-formulated escape plan. Fortunately he’d considered that.
“Of course I have a plan,” he told Mack. “You know I never go into anything unless I have an exit strategy.”
Mack rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a business deal.”
“Yes, it is,” Richard said, then felt ridiculous. “Okay, in a way, it is. Melanie and I have an agreement.”
“In writing?”
“Of course not.”
“So if she changes her mind and decides she likes being engaged to you, that she wants to be married to you, you’re prepared for that? Or do you have lawyers on standby ready to break this verbal contract the two of you have?”
“Yes,” Richard said, then decided that wasn’t an admission he was prepared to deal with. “I mean no. No lawyers. Mack, you’re making my head hurt. This is a straightforward arrangement. Melanie and I give Destiny what she wants, proof that we’re together—”
“It’s an illusion,” Mach reminded him.
Richard scowled and kept talking. “Then we break up. I mope around for a while until Destiny finds some other poor woman to try to foist off on me.” He grinned at Mack. “Or until she decides you’re the better candidate for serious romance.”
Mack shuddered. “Bite your tongue.”
Richard warmed to that scenario. “Yes, indeed. I think that’s the way it’ll go. She’ll be furious that I’ve messed this up, decide I’m totally hopeless, then give up on me. She’ll turn to you, then Ben. Given Ben’s current attitude toward the opposite sex, I’ll be a doddering old man before she gets back to me again.”
“You are so delusional,” Mack said. “Even Ben sees Destiny’s scheming more clearly than you do and he’s oblivious to most of her flaws. He was still laughing his head off when he left here.”
That caught Richard’s attention. “Ben’s gone? When did he leave?”
“Ten, fifteen minutes ago. He slipped out as soon as Destiny’s attention was otherwise engaged.” He laughed uproariously at his own pun.
Richard was not nearly as amused. He was also worried about his brother. “Why didn’t you try to stop him from leaving?”
“Have you ever tried to stop Ben from doing whatever he’s set his mind on?” Mack asked. “He’s the most stubborn of all of us, and that’s saying something. Lighten up. He came today and he actually let down his guard for a while with Melanie.”
Richard wasn’t comforted by the positive spin. “I hate that he’s exiled himself to that isolated farm of his.”