Best Laid Plans. Brenda Jackson

to Blade. And what was so sad was she hadn’t denied anything when he’d confronted her. The pain of her betrayal and manipulations had been deep.

      “How have you learned from your mistakes?” Mama Laverne asked him, cutting into his thoughts. “By deciding never to give your heart to any woman again? That’s not learning from your mistakes, Nolan, that’s giving in to them.”

      He tried to hold his anger at bay but found it hard to do so. “Whatever way that I decide to handle my business, Mama Laverne, is my business.”

      “Whatever way you decide to handle your business is a moot point now that you and Ivy will be spending time together.”

      He shook his head. His great-grandmother was so sure that crazy scheme of hers had worked. He had no problem bursting her bubble. “I like my life just the way it is.”

      “You mean dating all those women around town? Trying to make Clayton’s and Blade’s past reputations as womanizers look like those of choirboys in comparison? Oh, I’ve heard all about you, Nolan. I read the papers, you know. I’m aware of each and every time the name Madaris shows up in print. I know you’ve become a skirt chaser of the worst kind. What you do is your business just as long as you’re aware of one thing.”

      “Which is?”

      “You’re messing up my timeline.”

      Her timeline? Now he’d heard everything. “I’m sure Corbin will be glad to hear that.”

      “Corbin isn’t next on the list.”

      Her words gave Nolan pause. “He’s not?”

      “No. I decided to skip over Corbin, Emerson, Chance and Adam for the time being. Victoria is next.”

      “Victoria?” he said in disbelief. She had to be kidding. Victoria, his twenty-six-year-old sister, was no more ready to be any man’s wife than he was ready to be any woman’s husband.

      “Yes, Victoria.”

      Nolan couldn’t believe this. He refused to believe this. He had to talk to someone. Hell, he needed to alert the entire family. Definitely warn Victoria. No one would agree to this. Victoria, who’d been named after their deceased paternal great-grandaunt, was the first female Madaris born in their generation. No one would agree to her being pushed into marriage. They would finally see that Mama Laverne had gone too far in her matchmaking schemes.

      “Victoria won’t be getting married,” he said. As her oldest brother, he was protective of his sister. As were all his cousins and brothers. That protection went doubly so for his baby sister, Lindsay, who was attending college in Florida.

      “Don’t worry about Victoria, Nolan. The guy I have in mind will do right by her. Just like I believe in my heart that you will do right by Ivy.”

      Nolan had heard enough. Coming here had been a total waste of his time. He walked back over to his great-grandmother. He loved her to pieces but at that moment he was more frustrated and annoyed with her than ever for sticking her nose into his business. For trying to manipulate his life. “Mama Laverne, I’m only saying this once more,” he said with as much respect as he could muster. “Ivy Chapman is not my type, and she made it pretty clear today that I’m not hers. There isn’t—and never will there be—anything between us. Please stop concerning yourself with my love life or my lack of one.”

      With nothing else to say, Nolan turned and left. He ran into his granduncle Jake on his way out. “How did it go?”

      Nolan shook his head. “She thinks she has her plans all laid out with no room for error. She even had the nerve to tell me in so many words that I was wasting her time because she needed to move on to Victoria.”

      A surprised look touched his granduncle’s face. “Victoria? What happened to Corbin, Adam, Emerson and Chance? They’re older than Victoria.”

      “She’s skipping them to marry Victoria off. It’s time for the family to step in and do something, Granduncle Jake.”

      “Something like what?”

      Nolan shrugged massive shoulders. “I don’t rightly know. I need to get away for a while and think about it. Friday morning I’m leaving for my place on Tiki Island and plan to be there a week. When I return I’m calling a family meeting.”

       CHAPTER FOUR

      IVY MENTALLY AWAKENED from the ringing of her phone. Without opening her eyes, she reached for her cell phone on her nightstand. There was no doubt in her mind it was past the time she usually got out of bed, but when you were your own boss and worked from home, you had the luxury of sleeping late. Especially after putting in additional hours to finish a project from hell earlier than expected. And she planned to sleep the rest of the day since she didn’t get into bed until daybreak.

      “Hello,” she said in a groggy voice.

      “Congratulations!” a bubbly feminine voice said. “You’ve won a week for two on Tiki Island.”

      Ivy slowly opened one eye. They had to be kidding. She never won anything. Pulling herself up in bed, she pushed back the hair from her face. “I won?” she asked, hoping she was speaking with a live person and not a recording.

      “Yes. You’ve won a week for two in a beautiful beach cottage.”

      “For two?”

      “Yes, so you can include your husband, boyfriend or significant other,” the bubbly woman said.

      Ivy frowned. She had none of those, but she did have a best friend. It would be a great girls’ trip if Tessa was available to go with her. More questions began flooding her mind, like how had she been selected? She didn’t recall entering any type of contest. “How did I win?”

      “Your name was selected from a list of customers who frequent Altamonte Dry Cleaners.”

      Ivy nodded, thinking that explained things. Since she hated ironing, she would drop her things by the cleaners every Thursday. “Is there a time frame that I have to take the week?”

      “You can take it as soon as you like, but it must be taken within the next thirty days.”

      Thirty days? That wasn’t much time, Ivy thought, rubbing a hand down her face. She would love to get away now before beginning her next project for Wonderbelly, a cyberware company in Boston. It would be nice to go somewhere and relax for seven days. If Tessa wasn’t available on such short notice, then she could take her grandmother with her. But then she doubted she would get much rest if she did. Even after their little talk a few days ago, Nana was still tossing Nolan Madaris’s name out whenever she got the chance. Take yesterday for instance. Nana had asked if she’d heard from him. Why would she hear from Nolan Madaris? Obviously, her grandmother refused to accept that the plan she and Ms. Laverne had concocted had backfired.

      She truly hoped Tessa could go with her, but she would go alone if she had to. “Can I claim my prize and go to Tiki Island starting this week?”

      “Yes. We can deliver the winning voucher to you or you can pick it up at our office.”

      “Where is your office?”

      The woman quoted an address that was less than ten miles from where Ivy lived. “I’ll stop by.”

      “All right. Everything you need to know will be in the paperwork you’ll receive with the winning voucher. Again, congratulations.”

      “Thanks.”

      Ivy couldn’t help smiling when she hung up the phone. Seven days on Tiki Island was a dream come true. She’d heard rental property there was pretty expensive and couldn’t wait to tell Tessa. She hoped her best friend would be able to join her.

      She had reclaimed her comfortable position in bed when the phone rang again. Thinking it was the bubbly woman calling