Page 13 of Matched By Mistake
“No.” But then Alisha gave him one of her knowing looks and he realized that fooling his family wasn’t going to be any easier than fooling himself. He was pretty sure he should leave now before he ended up revealing more than he wanted to.
He headed toward the back door.
“Oh, no,” Mom said. “You’re not getting out of this that easily.”
“Oh, f—”
“Watch your mouth.”
“I was going to sayfudge, Mom.”
Alisha snickered.
“Breakfast is ready,” the housekeeper said.
They entered the breakfast room together and Jericho was glad to see his father, younger sister Tiffany and his brother Trey along with Trey’s eight-year-old son, Dez. Maybe it was just him but it seemed like everyone was watching him with heavy stares. He went to Dez at the buffet table and stooped down to hug his nephew.
“Sorry I missed you onNintendo Sportslast night,” he said.
“That’s cool. I played with Dad and beat him.”
“That’s not really hard to do,” Jericho said.
“Uh, it’s hard. I was distracted by the app mess,” Trey said as he joined them at the far end of the room.
Dez chuckled as he started making his breakfast plate from the buffet.
“Yeah, about your app...”
“I didn’t write the programming. Sorry. I saw your interview and you handled it like a champ but that had to be awkward.”
“It’s cool. Misha made sure we were all comfortable and even offered to say it was a glitch and try to do another match. But Maggie and I both thought that wouldn’t look good for the app.”
“You’re not wrong. In fact, there’s been a lot of online chatter about it. I wanted to talk to you before I make a push to the family, but I think you should do some dates with her. People aren’t sure if it’s an actual match or just a publicity stunt.”
Since he planned on seeing Maggie again, he just nodded at his brother. When they were all seated at the long breakfast table and after they’d eaten and Dez had gone off to check TikTok or whatever he did, his father folded his hands together and looked over at him.
They’d talked about the Mavs and their chances earlier, but Jericho knew it was time for the discussion about Maggie Del Rio and what was next. He’d better start before his dad got rolling.
“Maggie and I talked last night and are going to do the dating thing. I know that given the tension between our families, neither of us is going to feel comfortable unless we lay down some ground rules,” Jericho said. Having decided to see Maggie again, he needed to take control of this runaway car and start steering.
“And?” his father said.
“I’ve reached out to Jack Chowdhry to ask him to mediate something between us. I think given our family history, having something on paper would be good,” Jericho said. Though, as Maggie was reluctant to get married, he wasn’t worried about being left at the altar, but at the same time, her family had a history of coming out on top in personal skirmishes with his.
“Good idea. I’ll phone our lawyer and get him to come along,” his father said, pulling out his phone.
“That’s going to be awkward. I don’t want her to feel like I’m pushing her into something. I’ll call Brian instead. He’s a great lawyer, but he’s also my friend,” Jericho said.
He saw his mom give his sisters a look and Alisha shook her head at first and then sighed. “I’ll go with Jericho so the girl doesn’t feel weird.”
Maggie arrived at her parents’ house just after ten. She saw Preston’s car in the driveway and was glad to see he was already there. She wore a pair of wide-leg trousers and a simple fitted blouse. Her mom opened the door as she walked up the drive and Maggie hurried to hug her. They’d always had a close bond and today she had a feeling she was going to need someone by her side.
“You’re late. Did you do that thing I told you about setting every clock thirty minutes ahead?”
“No. That’s silly. I’m trying to just...”
“Not be you?” her mom asked with a laugh. “You’re not late, by the way, we asked everyone else to come at ten thirty.”
