Page 42 of Matched By Mistake
“I am.”
“I’ve been impressed with the work you’re doing,” he said.
“Thank you, sir. Creating environmentally friendly buildings has long been a passion of mine,” Jericho said, realizing he was nervous, almost like he had been when he’d first gone to the bank to a get a loan for his business. He hadn’t wanted to use the Winterses money because he wanted to stand on his own.
“Glad to hear it. We have to look to the future, right? Preston has brought a lot of ideas to the table about making our business more environmentally friendly. At first, I wasn’t too keen on changing things,” he said.
“I get it. There are times when it would be easier to just draw the plans for a building and add on some solar panels or a field of wind turbines, but that isn’t aesthetically pleasing,” Jericho said.
“Damn, boy, you sound like my son,” Fernando said. “Let’s get a drink. I want to hear more about the energy-saving features you’ve been using in your designs.”
Jericho followed Fernando out to the porch, where music was blaring and Maggie and her mom had already poured themselves a glass of summer sangria and were seated near the waterfall side of the large in-ground pool chatting away.
Fernando went to the built kitchen and bar, lifting the lid on the grill to check the heat. While he did so, Jericho glanced over at Maggie, who lifted her eyebrows at him and he just smiled and nodded. He assumed she was asking if he was okay.
He didn’t really know if he was but talking about business was his comfort zone. And he could talk about his ideas for making the environment a priority in new and existing architecture for hours.
“Do you want sangria or tequila?” Fernando asked.
Noticing the other man had two rocks glasses on the bar, Jericho asked for tequila. The other man nodded, and something seemed to ease inside him. He’d been thinking of Fernando as the big, scary Del Rio monster that featured in a lot of his family tales, but instead Jericho realized he was just Maggie’s father. And that was something else that he could deal with.
They talked about building and new environmental initiatives and measures that had been put in place and how it was impacting both of the family businesses for a while until it was time to start grilling and Maggie moved to help her father. He found himself sitting across from Gayle, who was watching him quietly.
“Ma’am?”
“Just trying to figure you out. So far, you’ve been everything that a Texas gentleman can be, and I’m wondering if it’s real or not.”
Given what Jericho knew of Maggie’s former fiancé, he didn’t blame Gayle for questioning him. “All of it. The environment is a huge part of every design I create so talking shop with Fernando was easy. And I like your daughter, so I want you both to like me.”
She nodded, giving nothing away, and it suddenly occurred to him that she was going to be the harder one to gain approval from. “We’ll see about that. Tell me about you. I heard you date around a lot.”
“I did,” he said. “I can be a bit of a workaholic, and my brother Trey and I were really focused on the expo center and getting that open. So I kept things casual.” But he could tell that wasn’t doing anything to appease her. He wasn’t sure what she wanted and maybe he wouldn’t be able to win her over tonight.
“I get it. Fernando is a workaholic, too.”
“I can hear you, dear.”
“I know, that’s why I said it,” she said in a teasing tone. “Why did you sign up for the dating app? Doesn’t seem like you needed it to find a woman.”
“I didn’t. My brother is an investor and I joined to support him. Family is important to me,” he said.
“It is to us, too. Maggie said she did it for Misha.”
“But you think there was another reason?”
She hesitated, and he realized that whatever else she may be, Gayle was a protective mama bear at heart and didn’t want to see Maggie hurt again.
“We both have been very honest with each other. I think we knew, given our families’ history together, that our match was going to draw a lot of outside interest. And we both have committed to being a team.”
“Good,” she said. “That’s all I wanted to know.”
Maggie hadn’t seen her dad so engaged in dinner conversation when Preston wasn’t there in a long time. Normally her father kept his eyes on his phone until her mom made him put it down, but tonight he and Jericho had spent most of their time chatting. She’d noticed her mom had been grilling Jericho earlier or though she hadn’t been able to hear all of the what her mom had said, she’d guessed that was what she’d been doing because of the way she’d been talking to him.
So when the evening eased down and it was time to go, she wasn’t sure what to expect from Jericho on the car ride home. He was quiet until they were out of her parents’ neighborhood.
“How’d I do?” he asked. “I feel like all I did was talk to your dad but your mom seemed cool with that.”
“Yeah, I think she was. Honestly, I don’t think Dad minded. What did you think about them?”
