Overnight Wife
By: Penny Wylder“Your father,” Greg replies, and my stomach sinks. In an instant, the happy mood I manage to whip myself into on the test track evaporates, like a bubble popping in midair.
Not that my old man and I don’t get along. Quite to the contrary. I work for him, I spend every day helping build the family business—testing our latest models of cars, suggesting improvements or modifications to the designs, marketing and selling them on the front end… I have a hand in every part of our company, and Dad’s been grooming me to take over for him since I was about sixteen years old. I love this job, love my life, and I love my dad too. There’s nothing I’d change about my life right now.
Well. Except for one tiny thing…
Dad’s current mood. Because even without seeing his face, I can already guess what he’s going to be on about today. The same thing he’s been on about for the last several years. The same thing he railed at me over when I broke up with Karen, a friend-with-benefits who lasted a grand total of a month. The same thing he freaked out about again when I stopped seeing Meghan. Then Brooke. Then… who was that girl with the horses?
I can’t even remember her name, truth be told.
What can I say? I’ve never been the dating type. Or the relationship type. Or the anything more than casual sex type. And who cares? Certainly not the girls I hook up with—I make it clear up front that things will only ever be casual between us, and none of them have complained. Well, except Stacey, who smashed the taillights of my car when I broke things off. But, well, you can see why I had to break off our casual arrangement, given her temper and possessive streak.
No, that one anomaly aside, nobody cares that I’m not the settling down type… Nobody except my father.
And with our family reunion looming on the horizon, an enormous affair he hosts every five years, he has grandbabies on the mind worse than ever. This reunion will be the biggest of all, because at this reunion , Dad’s announcing his retirement. His retirement and the appointment of the new company CEO. The future heir apparent to Quint Motors. Me.
But with all the reflecting Dad has been doing on the company’s history, it just makes him more sentimental than ever about what’s still missing in his life. Namely, grandchildren.
“I’m suddenly feeling really dizzy,” I tell Greg. “Think I’m coming down with something. Head cold, maybe? Flu? Isn’t it still flu season?”
Greg narrows his eyes at me. “Your father is already waiting out front in the Andromeda.”
Ah, the Andromeda. The first car our company, Quint Motors, ever released, way back in the 1970s when my dad was barely old enough to drive himself. He loves that thing. Not only because his father gifted it to him on his (way too young, if you ask me) wedding day. But also because it reminds him of family. If there’s one thing that’s more important to my father than our business, building cars, and putting the best product we can out into the market—it’s the family behind all that.
“Family is the most important thing in the world,” he’s always saying. “Even when you want to strangle them.” He usually adds that last line while he’s glaring at me over a cup of coffee, having just learned from Greg (who, for being my personal assistant, can definitely be a real narc when it comes to sharing my extracurricular activities with the old man) about one of my exploits or another.
What can I say? It’s my job to keep this family interesting.
I just wish it wasn’t my job to listen to hours-long lectures on how interesting I make it. “No chance of talking my way out of this, huh?” I sigh and square my shoulders. “All right. Time to face the music.”
This novel contains a hot alpha billionaire who NEEDS a wife. He won't rest until she's locked down with his ring on her finger. NO cheating, lots of kindle-melting actions, and always a happily ever after!
