Star of His Heart - Brenda Jackson [29]
“And what was that?”
Syneda smiled. “That when you love someone, truly love someone, nothing else matters because together the two of you can work out anything.”
Netherland sighed deeply. “I’d never ask Ashton to give up military life for me.”
“Then there has to be another way, Nettie. It has to be a way that the both of you are comfortable with. But first you have to decide if what you feel for him is worth it.”
“And what makes you think I feel anything for him?”
Syneda tilted her glass of milk to her lips and took a leisurely sip before saying, “Woman’s intuition along with what I’m seeing with my own eyes. I noticed Ashton’s reaction to you but I noticed your reaction to him, as well.”
“What you saw was sexual attraction.”
Syneda chuckled. “Yeah, I know all about that, too. Trust me. That’s something Clayton and I still have plenty of. I didn’t get pregnant because we didn’t have anything better to do at the time.” Her smile widened. “The biggest question in our minds is not when I got pregnant but where I got pregnant. We think it was the time in the elevator.”
Netherland placed her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. “You and Clayton are simply scandalous.”
Syneda shared Netherland’s amusement. “No, we’re in love first and scandalous second. Clayton is the type of man who needs a woman who keeps him on his toes…and his back. He needs excitement in his life, and I make it a point to give him all the excitement he can handle and then some. I can see us still making out in an elevator when we’re in our eighties.”
Netherland shook her head as she pinched tears of laughter from her eyes. Knowing Clayton and Syneda, she could see it, too. They were perfect for each other in every way.
A few moments of silence passed before Syneda said, “I’m curious, Nettie, on just how you plan to handle next week.”
Netherland raised a brow. “Next week?”
“Yes. The Brothers Auction. Ashton is the headliner, and you know women will be bidding on him right and left. Do you plan to bid on him?”
“Why would I?”
“Because if you don’t, some other woman will be spending a weekend in New Orleans with your man. Do you want that?”
Netherland didn’t say anything for the longest time before she finally admitted, “No.” The thought of another woman spending time with Ashton didn’t sit well with her. Although she knew the two of them didn’t necessarily have to become intimate, a weekend was a weekend. A lot could happen in two days.
“Then I think you should come up with a plan to do something about it,” Syneda whispered. “If that was Clayton being bidden on, the only woman he would be spending a weekend with is me. I’d make sure of it,” Syneda said, smiling tenderly. “And maybe that’s just what you and Ashton need.”
“What?”
“Time alone somewhere. To talk and come up with some solution to your problems.”
Netherland looked at Syneda thoughtfully. Maybe she was right.
The men sat around Clayton’s living room talking. Trent Jordache, the man who recently married Corinthians’s best friend, Brenna, was telling them how he had met and fallen in love with Brenna when she had taken a three-week cruise to Africa aboard the cruise ship he owned.
Ashton sat listening attentively as all the other men then recalled how they had met their wives and subsequently gotten them to the altar. He was glad to know that none of them had had it easy. All of them had faced some kind of challenge from their spouses during the courtship. He sighed with relief, knowing that at least he wasn’t the Lone Ranger. Netherland wasn’t the only stubborn woman in the world.
“Excuse me, but can we change the subject? All this talk about love and happiness is boring me to tears,” Alex Maxwell said, frowning before he took another swallow of beer. At twenty-nine he was the youngest among them and evidently the least likely to be hauled to the altar anytime soon.
“Don’t mind him,” Trask Maxwell said in defense of his brother. “He’s pissed because there’s a good