Cece grinned mischievously. “Don’t make that offer lightly. I know your number.”
Bella, her eyes brimming with excitement, shifted on her heels. “So is everything ready for the sixtieth anniversary bash and the movie preview?”
Jack nodded. “My staff has everything under control.”
Bella looked at Dana. “I can’t wait to see the first cut to see if I did Lillian proud. I mean, I saw the dailies, but…”
Dana touched her arm. “Bella, from what I’ve seen so far, you have nothing to be worried about. And once Max works his magic…”
Bella gave her a quick hug. “The three of us, you, me and Cece, are going to have to do some serious shopping. Oh, and we should probably include Valerie. I want a drop-dead gorgeous dress for this.”
David rolled his eyes. “Shopping. That’s one topic guaranteed to run any man away.” He excused himself and went to his mother’s side.
Max’s gaze followed him and then he turned to Jack once David was out of earshot. “Is everyone behaving tonight?”
“Yes. Your father and mine are keeping it civil. For a change.”
David Hudson did not get along well with his older brother or his brother’s wife. There was a tension between them that Dana hadn’t figured out yet despite the numerous interactions between David and Max. As director and producer they worked closely together.
Max scanned their little gathering. “Hannah said there was going to be a celebration. Anybody know what’s going on?”
Jack shook his head. “No clue. Cece and I have no news. You?”
Dana tensed and waited, holding her breath, but Max shook his head. “Not me.”
Her hopes sank like lead. She’d waited so long for it to happen that she really wanted to share the news that they were a couple. It was practically bubbling inside her.
Dev joined them with Valerie trailing behind. “I can answer your question.” Dev turned to the room and used his key to tap on his glass. “May I have everyone’s attention?”
He waited until the room fell silent. “Valerie and I eloped yesterday.”
Gasps and surprised grunts filled the room. After a startled moment, Sabrina and Markus made their way across the room. Sabrina hugged her son and then her new daughter-in-law. Markus shook Dev’s hand and then briefly embraced Valerie.
“Valerie, darling, welcome to the family,” Sabrina said, and then turned her hurt eyes on Dev. “I wish you’d let me arrange your wedding. Your father and I would have enjoyed sharing such a special moment.”
Dev shrugged. “We didn’t want fanfare.”
“A wedding on the estate grounds would have been nice,” Lillian added.
“Oh, that’s a lovely idea,” Valerie gushed, but then seemed to regret her words. “But Dev and I couldn’t wait.”
Dana thought Valerie looked as if she would have liked some pageantry.
“Are you pregnant?” Bella asked bluntly, but not unkindly.
Valerie’s cheeks turned crimson. She dipped her chin. “No. Oh, no. That’s not what I meant.”
An awkward silence descended. Dana moved forward to hug Valerie and break up the uncomfortable moment. “Congratulations. Perhaps I could arrange a belated bridal shower for you?”
Valerie’s eyes filled with gratitude. “That would be nice, Dana. Although I’m sure we won’t require any wedding presents. Dev tells me he’d like to live here in his suite of rooms.”
“Every woman needs gifts. Sexy lingerie, for example,” Bella said with a wicked smile that made Valerie blush more.
“I’ll call next week and we’ll work out the details.” Dana stepped aside and let others offer their good wishes.
She glanced at Max and found his narrowed eyes focused on her. What was he thinking? From his forbidding expression she’d bet he wasn’t remotely interested in following in his brother’s footsteps to the altar.
All she had to do was find a way to change his mind, because there was nothing she’d like more than to marry Max on the grounds of Hudson Manor and begin her own fairy-tale romance.
Seven
“How did you know?” Max asked Dev after dinner when the men had retired to the patio for cigars and left the women inside to yap about the sixtieth anniversary gala.
“Know what?”
Max divided his attention between the women on the opposite side of the French doors and the far end of the patio where his father and uncle looked to be having another tense discussion. Jack was with them, running interference, Max would guess. “How did you know Valerie was the one?”
Dev puffed on his cigar. He exhaled long and slow as if the answer might be found in the smoke slowly dissipating in the air above their heads. “You’re not expecting something sappy and romantic, are you?”
From his brother the cynic, who seemed to believe women were put on this earth only to procreate and provide entertainment? No.
“I just want an answer. Why Valerie? Why now?”
“I’m thirty-five. It’s time to settle down. Valerie’s well connected. Her father’s a newspaper mogul and that could work in Hudson Pictures’s favor when we need publicity in the future. She and I suit each other, and she won’t give me a lot of backchat.”
Like Karen had. His brother didn’t say it, but he didn’t need to. Max’s wife had been quite opinionated. That she hadn’t been a suck up or a pushover was one of the things Max had liked and respected about her. But she’d had a tendency to get in people’s faces when crossed. Sometimes that had caused friction.
Dana was a hell of a lot more diplomatic.
He nixed the thought. There was no comparing the women and no reason to, especially now when the anniversary of Karen’s death was just around the corner.
His gaze wandered to the woman in question on the other side of the closed glass doors. Her dress tonight had nearly knocked him to his knees. She’d gone from conservative, figure-concealing clothing to the kind that accentuated every curve of her luscious figure.
The wrap top of her black dress cupped her breasts and showed just enough soft skin to make him want to bury his face between the smooth globes and slip his hands beneath the short hem to see if she wore panties.
But he was stronger than that. No woman would make him weak with wanting again. He kept his head these days. No more getting swept away by passion. Reason ruled.
He forced his attention back to his brother and practical matters. “If you’d made a spectacle of the wedding instead of secretly sneaking off, it would have been great PR for Honor. Romance While Filming the Romance, or some similar headline. The press would have eaten it up. You know you wasted that opportunity.”
Dev shrugged. “I know. But Valerie is an only child.You know what kind of production a traditional wedding would have turned into. Months of planning, too many trivial, irritating decisions…You know the drill. You did it.”
Max knew. Karen had been an only child, too. Their wedding had taken a year to plan, and there had been times when the process had spiraled so crazily out of control he’d wanted to say to hell with it and elope. By the time they’d walked down the aisle he’d been relieved to have it over with and not to have to make any more decisions about stupid stuff like the color of the napkins and the like.
“Besides,”