“You really need to get to know Chloe better. You’ll have plenty of opportunity now that she’s back in town.” I laughed. “Particularly since she’s going to be my wife starting tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Kemp closed his eyes and ran his hands over his face. “I guess you’re a big boy and you can figure out what you’re comfortable with. But let it be known that I think it’s going to cause problems.”

“What problems do you think it’s going to cause?” His reaction was so much less enthusiastic, hell, so much graver than I’d expected, I was still trying to understand what he was so worried about.

“Somebody could get hurt. Chloe could get heartbroken. Maybe she has the hots for you, and this is her way of getting what she wants.”

He really didn’t know her at all. “She’s always been married to her career. She doesn’t have the hots for me, and her heart isn’t going to get broken. If I thought Chloe would get hurt, there’s no way I’d do it.”

“Hell, you could get hurt in this, bro.

“How am I going to get hurt?”

He studied me intently for more than a few seconds. “You got feelings for her you’re not telling me about?”

I swallowed and shoved down the thought of kissing Chloe. Ignored all the tension that sleeping next to her had evoked in the past few days. Attraction was something I could handle, and that’s all it was.

“My feelings for Chloe are platonic. She and I go way back. She deserves to have Angelica leave her the reins of Marks International just like you and I deserve to have somebody invest in our business so we can realize our dreams.”

Kemp went quiet for a little longer, finished his beer, and said, “So tomorrow? What, a courthouse wedding? You think people are going to fall for this?”

“Chloe and I are giving it everything we’ve got. We’ve already told her parents and my family. They all support us. Everybody supports us except you. So tell me… is this going to come between us?”

Kemp got up and walked around the breakfast bar. He rinsed out the empty glasses and put them in the dishwasher. “It’s not going to come between us. As long as you have everything wrapped up tight as can be in a contract, something that protects that money, then I’m on board.”

“You can read the contract yourself. I’ll email it to you right now, but it’s tight. Chloe’s lawyer drew it up. Ours went through it meticulously.”

“Send it,” Kemp said.

I took out my phone, accessed the doc, and emailed it to him. I knew he’d read it later, and that was fine with me.