Claimed by a Rich Younger Puppy

My mom swears the whole family laughs at her because I won't get married.

So at three in the morning, after driving a hundred and twenty miles, I stood over her bed, peeled her eyelids open, and asked her to name names.

In my family, being the oldest single woman makes you public property. Everybody gets a vote on when you'll finally get married. My mom said the stress was keeping her up at night.

So I opened the family group chat and tagged every last one of them. Me: [My mom says everyone's laughing at her because I won't get married. Serious question.

Who's actually laughing at her? @everyone] My cousin answered first. Then he started a chain. Cousin: [Not laughing at her.] And the rest fell right in line.

Aunt: [Not laughing at her.] Uncle: [Not laughing at her.] Cousin: [Not laughing at her.] Dad: [Not laughing at her.] […] Chapter 1 "Sloane, what is this garbage you just posted in the group chat?

Delete it. Now." My mom's voice climbed high enough to crack glass.

She smacked my dad's arm without even looking. "And what were you doing, jumping in there?" My dad swallowed whatever he'd wanted to say.

I ignored her and tagged her in the chat again. Me: [See, Mom? Nobody's laughing at you.] My phone kept buzzing with DMs. My cousins were dying.

Cousin: [Did you get smacked yet lol] Cousin: [Hold the line this year!! You're tanking all the damage for the rest of us] I'm the oldest unmarried one on both sides of the family.

The marriage talk started when I was twentyfive. It began gentle. It got worse every year. I'm thirty now. Thirty and thriving. Best I've ever felt, honestly. Solid career.

My own place, a nice car, and all the freedom in the world. Years back, when they first pushed me to date and settle down, I had no clue where my life was headed.

Then came years of nonstop nagging. In those same years, I got promoted. I got raises. No idea where this man was supposed to come from. But my paychecks? Gorgeous.

The message was long past the window to unsend. My mom launched in, one line after another. "I must've done something terrible in a past life to deserve you two.

Neither one of you gives me a second's peace." "Sloane, I'm your mother. You think I'd ever steer you wrong?" "I push the marriage thing so you'll have someone when you're old.

What happens when your dad and I are gone? Who takes care of you then?" I looked around our condo. Prime downtown, worth well over a million. I thought about my parents' pensions.

Then my own salary. My own savings. I really couldn't picture the sad, lonely future she kept painting. My dad picked that moment to chime in. "Your mother's right.

Marriage has plenty of upsides." "Okay, Dad. Name them. Specifically." He answered like he meant every word. "You come home to a hot meal.

Someone keeps the house running, inside and out. And kids. You've been remarkable since you were little, and your mom and I are proud." "Dad. Mom cooks those meals.

Mom runs this house, inside and out. And Mom's the one who had me." My dad froze. Something in his face went slack. Like the math had finally caught up with him.

In this marriage, I was never going to be him. I'd be my mother. All those wonderful perks? At least the way this family saw it, I'd be the one paying for every one of them.

Chapter 2 To be fair, my dad wasn't a man who never lifted a finger. He didn't smoke or drink. His whole paycheck went straight to my mom. He pitched in with chores.

Never once barked orders at her. By oldschool standards, a good man. And still. All these years, I'd watched the quiet resentment stack up in my mom's marriage.

But my dad was an educated man, and he found his angle fast. "Sloane, you're an executive now.

If you want to move up, a stable marriage really does help." He knew how much my career meant to me. He'd found the soft spot and pressed. "Times have changed anyway.

You outearn most men," he said. "Find yourself a homemaker type." My mom pounced. "Exactly. I'll find you one who cooks and keeps house.

Go meet him?" "Mom, I don't just want one who does housework. I want him hot. Good body. Loyal.

No more than three years older than me." I paused, then added it slow. "Oh, and he has to make at least half what I do." My mom blew up. "Handsome doesn't put food on the table!

And now you want him pulling six figures too?" I wasn't the shy girl I'd been a few years ago. I said what I meant now. "Can't kiss an ugly man. No attraction, no drive.

I'd end up cheating." My mom opened her mouth. Nothing came out. I can run my mouth at anyone, any day. But it was the holidays, and she went ahead and set up the date anyway.

Still. She's my mother. She'd built the guy to my exact specs. God knows how she managed it. She'd actually found a single man who checked every box.

That's rarer than a unicorn, and I'm not exaggerating. The setup was at a restaurant. Over the holidays it was packed and loud. My mom texted me the table she'd booked.

She swore up and down it was the only date she'd spring on me for a while. That's the only reason I came. Inside, I found the table fast.

From my angle, all I could see was the back of his head. Black trench coat. Not heavy. Decent taste, from what I could tell.

I walked straight over. "Sorry to keep you—" The rest died in my throat. Because I'd gotten a look at his face. I had to hand it to my mom. She'd really done her homework.

The man across from me had sharp features. A clean, quiet kind of handsome. And he was familiar.

Way too familiar. "Long time, old classmate." Surprise flickered through his eyes too. Then he smiled and said hi. Nathaniel.

My mom had dug up a guy I went to high school with over ten years ago. You had to hand it to her. "Long time," I said. Nathaniel hadn't changed much. Still goodlooking.

More magnetic now, if anything. "Last time we saw each other was that graduation dinner, right? Right after finals.

Never thought you'd be my setup." "Didn't figure it'd be you either." I raised an eyebrow and just said it. "What, nobody wants you either?" Nathaniel huffed a laugh. "Yep.

Getting old. Past my sellby date." "…" I didn't love hearing that. We'd sat in the same classroom. Same age, him and me. But Nathaniel?

Back in our day, he'd been the golden boy of the whole school. Chapter 3 Grades. Looks. And a high school girlfriend.

He was the guy who tutored his girl all the way into a topranked school.

A total legend. "I remember you had a girlfriend." I smiled. "Figured you two would be married by now." Probably poking at the exact thing I shouldn't have.

Nathaniel took it in stride. "I'm out here on a blind date. Pretty sure you can connect the dots. We broke up." I looked at the man across from me.

The cocky teenager he used to be flashed through my head. The kid from back then and this grown man weren't quite the same. Maybe my taste had changed.

Either way, he looked better to me now. His girlfriend. Ex now. I sort of knew her too. Over the years, I'd picked up bits of gossip through mutual friends.

Last I heard, they were still together when they graduated college. But this wasn't the moment to grill him about it. So we stuck to small talk. Catching up.

Then he mentioned his job. I blinked. Then I laughed. "Sloane. What's funny?" It took me a while to stop. Then I told him.

The list of requirements I'd handed my mom. "I didn't think she'd take me this literally." I was still grinning.

Nathaniel's income had to be right up there with mine. "So," he said, out of nowhere. "I officially meet your standards now, classmate?" Classmate.

A throwback I hadn't heard in years. Two thirtyyearolds, still using it. There was something faintly flirty about that. "Your qualifications are that good, classmate.

If you didn't make my cut, I'd just look ungrateful." We're adults. Some things you don't spell all the way out.

Normally, after a setup like this, if both people want to keep going, you swap numbers. But I already had Nathaniel's. Senior year, half the class had added each other.

Most of us never actually talked after that. Nathaniel and I were exactly that. I'd scrolled past his loveydovey couple posts once.

Liked one, buried in a pile of likes from the rest of our class. Dinner was easy. We talked and laughed the whole way through.

Afterward we walked out together. "Let me drive you—" he started. Before he finished, my Audi lit up a few steps away. Nathaniel paused.

Then a soft laugh. "That was presumptuous of me." I smiled. "I appreciate the thought.

Let's grab dinner again sometime." The second I got in the car, I called my friend Naomi. "Did you know Nathaniel and Chloe broke up?" Old habit.

Any tea on an old classmate, and I have to share it. "What? They broke up?!" The shock came through loud and clear. "How do you even know that?

I figured they were married with kids by now!" I kept it short. "My blind date today was Nathaniel." "WHAT!" Naomi's voice jumped another level. "You little brat, your family sets you up with guys this good?" "…" Off track.

She circled back fast. "I'll do some digging," Naomi said. Naomi sat next to me senior year. We'd stayed close ever since.

She's warm, everybody likes her, and ninety percent of the class gossip I hear comes straight from her. By the time I got back, the house was still buzzing.

My uncle and aunt were there, kids in tow. I walked in on my mom, midrant to her brother and sister. Chapter 4 "This little brat.

I told her your dad and I can't sleep at night over her not getting married. So what does she do?

Drives a hundred and twenty miles overnight, and at three in the morning she's standing over our bed, peeling our eyelids open…" My uncle and aunt were doubled over.

My cousins hid in the next room, cracking up. The second I walked in, every eye snapped to me. "Sloane's back!

How'd the date go?" My mom got there first, a little smug. "Sloane, did I lie? Top school, a real catch, six foot one, freshfaced kid.

And I snatched him right out from under somebody else. Word is, the boy doesn't sleep around, either." "…" My mom had good taste. I'd give her that. Naomi got back to me with intel.

She said Nathaniel and Chloe had been onandoff for a solid ten years. He'd only ever been with one person. They'd split six months ago. My cousins dragged me into a room.

They wanted an allnight karaoke run. They needed a reliable ringleader. Both my older cousins were married.

That left me, the oldest cousin, for the job. "So, the guy Auntie set you up with. Is he hot or what?" I thought about it, then gave it to them straight. "Pretty hot, yeah.

He was the official heartthrob of our whole grade back in high school." That got them going. "For real?? You got a picture?" Of course I didn't have a recent shot of Nathaniel.

His profile only showed the last few days. So the little goblins camped out in my room and dug up my old high school yearbook photos. "Damn, this guy's kind of hot?

Almost on my level," my cousin said, so full of himself that another cousin kicked him. "He hasn't gone soft or bald yet, has he?" "…" I took the crew out and didn't drag back until past three in the morning.

The age is catching up with me. I can't pull allnighters like I used to. Before bed, I found a message from Nathaniel. Him: [Sorry, I don't know if it's my place to say this.

But if you're open to getting married, and you're happy with what I've got going for me, maybe we start as friends and see where it goes.] I didn't reply right away.

But the message worked its way into my dreams. I dreamed about high school. Nathaniel showed up crystal clear. Cocky in just the right way, the kid every teacher was betting on.

And me? I was the one always fighting him for the top spot. One time I beat him by two points.

Between classes, he swung by my desk and tossed out a bright, easy line. "Not bad, brainiac." Youth went by too fast. It buried a lot of things a teenage girl never said out loud.

A little regret, sure. But life buried me in school, then work. I dated other people. Bit by bit, he faded out of my head. Nathaniel asked me to dinner.

When I saw him, a laugh slipped out. "What, family really breathing down your neck?" His eyes crinkled. "Can't a guy just want to catch up with an old classmate?" Catch up?

Spare me the fairy tale. Nathaniel was funny, quick. Talking to him was easy, actually. A guy with his whole package?

Finding someone to marry wouldn't be hard at all. "I head back to Chicago in a couple days. You?" he asked, out of nowhere.

I paused. "Around the same." "So once we're both back home. If I ask you out to dinner again, will you still come?" Chapter 5 His question made me pause.

I looked up and met his smiling eyes. "Once the holidays are over," he said, "and there's no blinddate excuse anymore.

You still gonna give me the time of day?" The man knew how to flirt, I'll give him that. "Can I ask you something?

You don't have to answer." Nathaniel made a low sound. "Go ahead." "How did you and Chloe end things?" A real moodkiller of a question.

But like his question about seeing me again, mine was a signal too. A signal I was thinking about it. About keeping this going. Nathaniel went quiet for a while.

When he answered, his voice dropped. "We were on different timelines. Stuff you can ignore while you're dating. It all started surfacing." "I wanted a stable marriage.

She wanted freedom. No way to square the two. So we ended it." Nathaniel was decent enough. He didn't trash his ex. But I could hear it. He was leaving a lot out.

Adults keep some boundaries. I didn't push. The answer didn't matter that much anyway. Everyone's entitled to their past. Back in Chicago, my mom kept tabs on me and Nathaniel.

When she found out he was an old classmate, she practically applauded. "Someone we already know all about. Your dad and I feel good about that." I smiled. Know all about him?

I'd had a frontrow seat to a whole decade of his love life. Back at work after the holidays, I was slammed. Nathaniel and I kept it to texting.

And besides my mom, one other person was very invested in my love life. Naomi. "Girl, Nathaniel was every girl's dream back in the day.

All these years later and he hasn't gone soft or greasy? If I weren't married, I'd take a shot myself!" "You're single anyway.

Go for it!" "…" Maybe you really can jinx things by talking about them. I wrapped up, clocked out, and got a call from a number I didn't know. "Hello?" "It's me.

Nathaniel." The voice caught me off guard. "You off the clock, boss? I'd like to take the boss to dinner." The title made me laugh. "Aren't you busy, Mr.

Engineer?" Nathaniel was a principal engineer at a bigname company now. For his age, the title came early.

And it carried real weight. "Busy or not, a guy's gotta eat." The ease in his voice pulled me back, just for a second, to the way things used to be. "I'm downstairs from your office.

You gonna do me the honor, boss?" At that point, there was no real reason to say no. That first dinner back in the city cracked something open.

We started grabbing meals here and there. On weekends, we'd catch a movie, or a gallery show. Nathaniel made a solid date. Thoughtful. Knew where the lines were.

Always wearing some cologne that smelled good. It wasn't the flutter from back when we were kids. But a grown man who's careful and attentive?

That can make you lose yourself for a little while too. I could tell Nathaniel actually liked me. Twoplus months of this, and we stayed parked at friends.

Another weekend, Nathaniel took me to a bar with live music. Warm gold light. Up front, a band played something slow and suggestive in English. "Sloane." Nathaniel said my name.

His voice was warm. Easy to listen to. "I…" He looked at me differently than before. Opened his mouth like he was about to say something. Chapter 6 A call cut through all of it.

His phone lay faceup on the table. One glance was all it took to catch the name on the screen. Chloe. The girl Nathaniel had been tangled up with for over ten years.

She'd been in the class next door