The Reluctant Romantics

Chapter Four: The Fire Starts

A/N: Hello everyone! Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend! I just wanted to quickly mention again that while this story happens pretty much along the same timeline as The Mischievous Mrs. Maxfield, I'm intentionally not repeating scenes that had occurred there. My goal is to tell Tessa and Jake's story further without making you read a book that pretty much just copied the same scenes and dialogue from TMMM. This does make it harder for me to write but I wanted it to give you more than what you already knew. Hope you enjoy this one!

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Tessa

"So tell me, babe," Ivy Parker said as she leaned forward as if excitedly sharing a secret. "Your family's close to Jake Hastings and all. Is he, like, single? And you know, looking around?"

I eyed the tall blonde with flat intent. "So you spent fifteen minutes here giggling at everything I said and acting like we're the best of friends just so you can sniff around Jake and put your claws into him?"

So that wasn't very nice of me but I was thin on patience and politeness at this point. I might have also had a few drinks despite Jake's relentless intervention every time I tried to sneak one away. That doesn't excuse it, of course, but Ivy had seriously been hovering on my shoulder like a pet monkey for the last half hour, calling me babe and buttering me up like I was a scone when she'd snubbed me through most of high school. To her and a bunch of other people, who were also here tonight, I was the less-everything sister—less pretty, less popular, less deserving, etc.

Ivy's eyes narrowed. "You don't have to be a bitch about it."

"Well, that used to be my line to you." I smirked and tossed back the rest of my beer. "If you want Jake, go have at him. I'm not his matchmaker. But as a longtime family friend, I can definitely tell you that he doesn't like to sleep with venomous snakes who just want her fangs deep into him and his bank account."

I walked away before Ivy could have a meltdown. I was harsh, yes, but Ivy was a notorious sugar baby who dated older, rich men left and right for a princess lifestyle. She wasn't shy about that specific career. But for all her obvious attractions, I didn't think Jake would fall for her schemes and if he did, I wasn't going to be instrumental to it. Unlike him, I didn't want to stick my nose into his business.

If only he could keep his out of yours.

In the past few hours since we arrived at the party, I had to constantly keep moving because whenever some guy sidled up to me, Jake would show up like an apparition, summoning all the intimidation he kept on reserve. Unlike my brother, Jake's usually pretty easy-going and while I know that running his own company probably required some iron will, I've just never seen him display it with me or anyone else from my family.

"Hey, Tessa. I got you another beer," a slurring male voice said. I turned around and saw Tom Cheng saunter over with a beer bottle in each hand. It must be the dress because like most people who came to talk to me tonight, he was another one who used to pretend I was invisible. "A pretty girl like you should never have to be thirsty."

I fought against rolling my eyes. "Don't know about that. All I know is that a smart girl never takes an open drink from anyone."

Tom feigned an offended look as he thrust the beer bottle into my hand. "I'm not some kind of serial—"

"If you don't take the bottle away, I'm going to smash it against your face."

See what I mean about Jake appearing out of nowhere?