Free Shut Up and Kiss Me by Madeline Sheehan, Claire C Riley Page B

He happened to like his weekends
—
and his weeks
—
scrutiny-free.
    The short and slim man behind the podium gave him a sparing glance before returning his gaze to his list. Scanning the paper, the man snapped his finger and a waitress hurriedly appeared at his side.
    “Right this way, sir,” she said pleasantly.
    Reaching beneath his jacket, Will slipped his hands into his suit pants pockets and followed along behind the waitress until they’d reached a table in the back, directly opposite a wall of glass that allowed patrons to see directly into the hotel’s lobby.
    “Here we are,” she announced, pulling out his chair.
    About to take his seat, Will glanced over at the woman seated across from him, startling upon realizing that the young blond woman who seated there wasn’t his mother.
    “Excuse me,” he said, smiling. “I must have the wrong table.” He turned toward the waitress, who looked as confused as he felt.
    “Elise Townsend,” he told her, and scanned the room again. From where he stood in the back, he should have been able to spot his mother no matter where she was seated.
    “William?”
    He turned back to the woman, now standing beside her chair, a wide smile on her face. Holding out her hand in offering, she stepped forward. “Michelle Collier,” she said.
    Collier? Collier…
    As Will’s thoughts fell into place and realization dawned, his eyes narrowed and his mouth thinned.
    “The Boston Colliers,” he replied dryly. “Your father is Jacob and your mother is—”
    “Denise,” she finished for him, nodding. “Good friends with your mother. We’re in town for week —
something to do with Dad’s big corporate merger.”
    Will’s shoulders slumped. His mother hadn’t tried to set him up in quite some time
—
not since his college days
—
and he’d assumed she’d simply given up trying to find him a wife. At least he’d hoped she’d given up.
    Thanking the waitress, Will gestured to Michelle’s chair while taking his own seat.
    “I’ll have a coffee,” he said, waving away the menu she offered him. “Black, please. And a plain bagel, cream cheese and lox.”
    “
Café bombón for me,” Michelle added.
    “Anything to eat?” the waitress asked.
    “No, no,” she answered, waving a manicured hand in the air. “I’m trying to lose five pounds.”
    Will fought the urge to roll his eyes. She couldn’t have weighed any more than a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet, and if she didn’t eat something soon she might disappear altogether
—t
hough she wasn’t a bad-looking woman, with long blond hair styled straight, an oval face accompanied by soft brown eyes, and clear, rather radiant skin. In fact, she was a great-looking woman, even if she was thinner than he liked. Only he wasn’t interested, and he never would be. For starters, his mother had set this up, and if his mother liked her, that meant his father liked her…or rather, liked and approved of her family. And if his father approved, then Will was going to go out of his way to disapprove.
    “Is that Brioni?” Michelle asked, eyeing his jacket with approval, a greedy expression that left a bad taste in Will’s mouth. “I absolutely adore their new wool blends.”
    No matter that it was, in fact, a Brioni suit
—
he always dressed to impress for his mother’s benefit, not wanting to hear her speech about the importance of appearance on the off occasions he’d meet her out in plain clothes
—i
t was the simple fact that women like Michelle put actual stock into how much a man’s suit cost. If it wasn’t upwards of five thousand dollars or more, it was worthless to them.
    “Goes well with my shoes,” he said, stretching out his right leg and showing off his well-worn Converse sneakers.
    Michelle glanced down at his foot, her eyes widening just a fraction. Suddenly she was smiling and shaking her head at him, her expression amused. “Elise said you were a rebel.”
    He stared at her, feeling