Royal (Conner Brothers Construction #5) - Cee Bowerman Page 0,1
sure you’ll be okay doing this? I know you don’t like being alone in front of a crowd.”
“I’ll be fine,” I told him, even though we both knew he was right. I didn’t mind being in a crowd of strangers, even if I was the focal point, as long as I was with my brothers. We drew a lot of stares when we were all together, and that didn’t bother me. It was when I had to stand alone on stage and give a speech or a presentation that made me nervous. When I’d presented this idea to Ronan, I’d decided this was worth it. I’d work through it and do this for him. “But if some weird old lady that smells like cat pee wins, you had better believe I’ll sit right there with your girlfriend while you go on this fucking date.”
“Why in the world would an old lady bid on you?”
“You’re the one that told me you got hit on at a convenience store, asshole. Where do you think I got the idea?”
“Oh yeah. I forgot.” Ronan wrinkled his nose for a second as he remembered.
“Of course you did. You probably blocked it out.”
The backstage area was busy, and I saw a few people I recognized, including the women from Thea’s office and London, our brother Tavin’s girlfriend.
“I owe you one,” Ronan said, serious now. “I just don’t feel right . . .”
“You go sit with your girl, I’ll take one for the team,” I told him as we went behind one of the curtains to change clothes. I pulled off my suit coat and hung it on the back of the chair and started undoing my tie as Ronan unbuttoned his shirt. “You look so odd with a short beard.”
“Really?” Ronan asked with a laugh. “I played it off with Thea. I don’t think she knows why.”
I cracked a grin. “We haven’t switched in years. No one’s going to think anything of it. Just remember not to drop any details that I might not know.”
I handed him my shirt and tie before I unzipped the garment bag. As he got dressed in my clothes, I put on my tux, letting my brother help with the cuffs and bow tie when I was almost finished.
“You better hurry and get out there,” I told him. “Remember - don’t touch her. She’s never absolutely positive it’s not you until I touch her.”
“Okay, got it.” Ronan put his fist up, and I bumped it with mine. “Thanks, Ro.”
“Anytime, brother,” I assured him. He opened the curtain and walked out. I busied myself gathering up the clothes and garment bag so I could leave them with Thea’s assistant while I went onstage.
“Oh, okay.” The woman laughed, and I thought it might be one of Thea’s employees I’d seen earlier. “It’s so easy to get you two confused.”
“Yeah, I know,” Ronan agreed with her. “I better go sit with Thea. She might need my moral support when the auction starts.”
“We’ve got a plan for that,” the woman told my brother. “Whoever wins, we’ll snatch off some of her hair and make a voodoo spell to make sure she keeps her paws to herself.”
“Please do that,” I whispered. “Dear God, please do that.”
“Well, have a good time.”
“I will, Stacy,” Ronan answered. “I’ll see you later.”
“I didn’t know her name, dumbass,” I whispered to myself. “We’re way out of practice.”
When we were younger, Ronan and I had swapped places a million times. There were entire semesters of high school where we went to each other’s classes. We’d taken punishment meant for the other just so one of us could go do what we wanted.
Hell, I’d pretended to be him while he was grounded one weekend, and he’d ended up losing his virginity to the prom queen while I was at home watching old movies with our parents.
The fact that we looked perfectly alike had been funny for years until a few years ago when it wasn’t funny at all. Our mom had always joked that we needed to marry the woman that could tell us apart. As sort of an unspoken test, every time one of us had been even remotely serious in a relationship, we’d tried to trick the woman to see if she’d fall for it.
I’d dated a woman who I was almost positive I’d marry, and while we were out at the bar one night,