In Her Sights (The Thousand Words Series Book 2) by Tori Brooks Page B

recognizing it didn’t make it any less effective. He realized he was spending too much time thinking about her and not enough time holding up his end of the conversation.
    “Thinking about you actually,” Kenny said, deciding to just be honest and see where that took them.
    “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” The furious exclamation from behind Paige made her jump and knock her wine glass off the table, shattering the fragile glass and spilling white wine on the marble floor. She looked at the glass, then turned to look at the man behind her. The man that looked remarkably like her, Kenny saw. Her brother, he assumed.
    Paige stood with one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the table. Kenny wasn’t sure how unsteady she was, so he stood as well and moved around the table behind her. He put one hand over hers on the table to let her know he was there as a show of support.
    “What are you doing here?” Paige asked her brother.
    “Visiting Mom. What are you doing? I agreed to let you handle things for Mom’s sake, but ...” Preston gestured toward Kenny. “God, you’re just determined to go from the frying pan to the fire, aren’t you?”
    “Preston, you know what? Just stay out of my business.”
    “The thing is, what you do affects the family business. I’d love to just to stay out of it; let you sink or swim on your own. But you mentioned Alastair and the merger, and it got me thinking. I spoke with Hale and wouldn’t you know? Al told his daddy on you. Seems there needs to be a reckoning, Paige.”
    Kenny caught Paige, putting his hands on her waist to hold her steady as she took an uneasy step back into him. She shook slightly, bringing up an all too familiar feeling in Kenny. He stared at Preston and pushed memories of his own father’s indiscretions from his mind.
    “I’ll talk to Al,” Paige said. “I’ll fix it. Hale doesn’t need to get involved. It’s none of his business.”
    Preston shook his head and laughed derisively. “You honestly believe that? I don’t. Hale doesn’t. Al clearly doesn’t because he told Hale to begin with. He was upset enough to go running to his dad with a fifth of Jack for a shoulder to cry on. I was going to take it to Mom after all and not specifically say what you did, just that we had a problem. We need to be proactive.
    “Given everything that’s going on,” Preston gestured again to Kenny, “do you really think now is the time for you to start dating again?
    “No offense,” he added, finally actually looking at Kenny but sparing him little more than a passing glance. Preston thought he was a prop, Kenny realized, while Paige originally thought he was –what? The answer to her problem? Until she decided she might not have a problem. Now he was something else.
    Kenny didn’t have time to analyze what might be on Paige’s mind, her brother was sparing him more than just a passing glance after all. Kenny recognized the concerned scrutiny Preston bestowed on him now. It was the ‘I’ve seen you somewhere but for the life of me I can’t remember where’ look. He got it often when he wasn’t with Jess or Dev and ran into people who would certainly recognize one of them. Kenny could introduce himself and resolve the problem, but Preston was being an ass. Kenny decided he’d rather let him flounder for a bit.
    “You’re in that band,” Preston said finally, pointing an accusing finger at Kenny. “The one on the charity cruise. I read about you in the paper – there was something about you weren’t even planned, you were just in town. You bought tickets – expensive tickets – then went on TV and the radio and announced you were all excited about the event. The cruise sold out two hours later and there was a waiting list. They actually had scalpers for charity tickets because of you.”
    “It was for a good cause.” Kenny gave him a tight smile while mentally cursing Dev. At the moment he couldn’t for the life of him remember