Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Brock, I’m not a bitch.” Thayla stood over him like a pissed off deity with a score to settle. “But so help me, if you come after me again, I will end you. Do you get what I’m saying?”

  “I get it,” Brock wheezed. “But your big brother won’t be here to rescue you next time.”

  “Who says I need him to rescue me?” Thayla snorted. “You think you’re so big and bad. You really want to try me?”

  I walked toward the door to see the last of this scene playing out in front of me. My sister looked stronger and more secure in herself than I had ever seen her before. There was no hesitation in her words or her manner. I was proud of her. And in that moment I realized that I hadn’t known my sister before. I hadn’t known her at all.

  I slipped my arm around Eleanor’s waist and held her close to me. I nuzzled her neck and whispered three words into her ear. She turned and she smiled at me. I had her to thank for this. I had her to thank for lots of things. And yet I was planning to leave her behind and go back to Kansas City sometime next week.

  What is wrong with me?

  “Buh bye, Brock!” Thayla sang out. “And don’t forget to go and check in with you friendly neighborhood parole officer. They said you’re in violation of some of the conditions of your parole. I told them that it was really none of my business because you and I are through.”

  I don’t know how long my family stood there and watched the full retreat of Brock Mortensen. But when it was over, we all went back inside the warmth of the house. My mother looked at the clock and declared that the turkey would be ready in just a few minutes. My sister and Eleanor ran to help because that is what women seem to feel the need to do for holiday meals.

  This left me and my father in the living room together. I was rather surprised when he didn’t sit down immediately. Instead, he looked at the chair and then he looked at me. “Guess I shouldn’t sit down. I’ll just have to get right back up again to go and at in the dining room.”

  “Guess so, Dad.” I smiled at him. I felt the urge to smile at him. It had been a long time since I’ve felt like sort of kinship with the man. “I’m glad that you’re up and around though.”

  “I’m sorry that I haven’t been,” Dad said quietly. “I guess I got so upset when things didn’t go the way I wanted when I retired that I sort of went through this very teenager kind of pouting thing.”

  “Pouting thing?” I tried to understand where this description was coming from, but it seemed strange to me. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that I was a grown-ass man who didn’t get his way and that I’ve spent nigh on ten years pouting about it,” Dad said suddenly. Then he gestured at the front door. “So then I sit there in front of that loser who wants to try and marry my little girl. Mine! And I feel like he’s nothing but a…”

  “Loser?” I suggested. There were too many words that could apply here. Far too many. “Sponge. That works too.”

  “But I could stand there and I could see myself in that bastard’s behavior,” Dad said quietly. “I could see the way that I was acting reflected back at me in the way that he was acting. It wasn’t flattering.”

  “No. I imagine it was not,” I murmured. “But you’re not him. You worked hard all of your life. He’s never worked a day.”

  “It’s just a fine line,” Dad told me. “A fine line between a man who works and a man who waits for other people to work for him. And let me tell you, kid. I’ve been too far on the other end of the line for too long.”

  I put my arm around my father and the two of us hugged. It was surprising and startling. But it felt good. And when I saw my Eleanor peeking out to wave us into eat our dinner, it felt even better. This was what Thanksgiving was all about. Family and loved ones.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Eleanor

  The words Open House have to be the most generic pieces of an even more generic phrase. What does it mean? The house is just open? To what? Stealing? Free estimates for new floors and windows? Does it mean free food? Who came up with this idea and why is it a thing anyway?

  Of course, my sister and her future husband live in a gated community complete with a little tower-shaped brick building at the single entrance to the development. The gatehouse is manned by a uniformed guard who carries a gun twenty-four hours a day. The home owner’s association hires off-duty cops to staff the gatehouse so as you can imagine, they’re almost too comfortable with using their weapons.

  “Wow, this is intense,” Kevin murmured as he pulled his SUV up to the gatehouse.

  The guard looked annoyed when he leaned toward our window. “IDs please?”

  Kevin handed him both of our state-issued driver’s licenses. The man then proceeded to look at a list on his clipboard with the heading Alvarez Party. He flipped through, checked off two names. Craned his neck to make sure we weren’t hiding anyone in the back of the SUV, and then nodded.

  “All right, you’re clear.” The guard nodded his head. “You’ll have to stop to check out on your way back through.”

  “Check out?” I whispered as Kevin eased the SUV up the hill and into the palatial subdivision where my sister made her home with the wealthy multimillionaire owner and CEO of Gateway IT Staffing.

  Kevin snorted as he looked around at the incredible homes on their sprawling five-acre estates. There were only thirty-five homes in the entire development. “I feel like Mr. Moss would absolutely lose his mind if he knew that someone else in this city was making this kind of money doing the same kind of work.”

  “Until he realized how much work it really takes,” I argued. “Then he would go back to fishing and say he didn’t need money to be happy.”

  “So, how can you call this an open house when it’s obviously not open?” Kevin wondered out loud.

  I started laughing. At least Kevin got it. But then he got most things about me. The two of us pulled up to Lena and Damion’s house. The driveway was empty save for a big pavilion where people were dropping off their cars. I gaped when I realized that my sister and her bigwig husband had hired a valet service.

  Kevin shrugged and reached over to take my hand. “Are you ready, sweetheart?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  He got out of the SUV and ran around to open my door before the valet could get there. I appreciated the gesture. Sometimes I think I forgot just how handsome Kevin Landau really is. He leaned down and offered me his hand. I felt a tingle shoot through me as I took it and got out of the SUV.

  “My lady,” Kevin murmured. He lifted my hand to his lips and I giggled like some lovesick idiot.

  We had been spending a lot of time together. I kept telling myself that the reason we were hanging out twenty-four-seven was just because he was going to have to leave the fifth of December to go back to Kansas City. Then the long distance relationship would begin.

  No. I didn’t want to think about that. Not right now. Maybe not ever. At least not until the fifth of December. I was still job hunting here in St. Louis. This was where my house was. My sister was here. My friends… Well, not that friends were really a barrier. Thayla and Lena were really my only close friends. I just didn’t do the whole hang-out-with-girlfriends thing. I preferred a few close relationships, and lately Lena and Thayla had been spending a lot of time together.

  Before the two of us walked up the stairs and into the monstrous house, Kevin leaned back and stared, up, up, and up at the portico with its cut fan-shaped glass and exquisite brickwork. “So, are you wanting to live in a place like this?”

  “Are you out of your mind?” I slipped my arm through his and pressed up against his side. “First of all, can you imagine what it would cost to heat and air condition this place? And cleaning it… No! I would spend all weekend trying to clean it. Besides, we don’t want children.”

  He glanced over at me in surprise. “You remember that conversation?”

  “Of course.” One did not forget a conversation like that. The two of us—at nineteen and twenty-two—
had laid out this glorious plan for world domination. And it did not involve kids. “I still remember the part where you promised me a little house on a beach somewhere.”

  “Bora Bora,” he said with a smile. “I remember.”

  The two of us were still chuckling about that when we walked into the house. My sister and Damion were standing in the foyer greeting their guests. Uniformed catering staff moved about the rooms with trays laden with goodies and I could even see a bar at the far end of what was usually a wonderful front room with a sweeping view of the yard.

  “You came!” Lena held her arms out and grabbed me into a hug that was practically strangulation. “I wondered if you would. You know, since Kevin is leaving in two days and all.”

  “Thanks for the reminder, sis,” I muttered. But I did hug her back. “We couldn’t miss the open house that isn’t open.”

  Damion Alvarez had been shaking Kevin’s hand. Now he raised an eyebrow at me. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know of any open houses that involve guards telling you to check in and out. It’s more of a come as you want between the hours of sort of thing. You know?” I moved toward my future brother-in-law and gave him a hug as well. Surprisingly, it wasn’t quite as awkward as I expected.

  “Well, we had to keep Karl and Trinity Kitson off the guest list, now didn’t we?” Damion confided with a smile. “So unfortunately open house doesn’t really mean open to anyone. It just means free food for anyone on the list.”

  “And booze,” Kevin mused. “That should make you the most popular people in the neighborhood.”

  “Oh good,” said a voice from behind us. “I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough alcohol to make this a tolerable experience.”

  Kevin grinned at the man who had just walked in the door. “Thanks, Val.” He clapped his brother on the back. “It’s always so nice to know that you enjoy my company.”

  Just then, Tansy Economides walked in the front door. She looked more than a little harried. Her dark curls were flying all over and her outfit was kind of askew. She nodded hastily to me and to Kevin, but then she was grabbing Lena’s hands.

  “Lena, you have to help me.” Tansy huffed out a huge breath of air. “My car is dead in front of your driveway.”

  Lena looked confused. “Excuse me?”

  “Dead!” Tansy moaned. “I don’t know what happened! It just crapped out right when I stopped to get out! I didn’t even have to turn off the key. I put it in park and the thing just died. It’s blocking the valet stand! I’m so embarrassed!”

  I felt bad for Tansy. Who hadn’t had a similar embarrassing experience of some kind? But before I could suggest she just call a tow truck, Damion’s brother, Valentino, exhaled a huge sigh.

  “Please?” Damion asked his brother.

  Valentino shrugged his massive shoulders. “Guess I should wait to start drinking then, huh?”

  “Excuse me?” Tansy did not look convinced. She glanced over at Lena. “Is this the mechanic brother?”

  “Yes, Tansy.” Lena was struggling to hold back a tidal wave of laughter. I could tell that she was about to bust a gut. “Valentino owns and runs an engine repair shop. I’m pretty sure he can handle your car.”

  “I don’t know.” Tansy was giving the guy a look that obviously didn’t sit well with the burly, dark-haired mechanic who looked bizarrely like some other version of Damion from an alternate reality. “My car is kind of special.”

  “Special, what?” Val frowned. “Foreign?”

  “No. Old.”

  “I can do old.” Val grunted and turned to walk back outside. He waved over his shoulder without looking. “I’ll see you all later. Great open house by the way. I especially love how not open it is. You’ll get my bill.”

  “Wait. Bill? What bill?” Tansy was following him a few feet behind as though she weren’t entirely sure she wanted this mechanic to look at her car at all.

  “Now,” Damion said eagerly with a clap of his hands. “Val will take of that. And now I can finally take care of the thing that’s been bugging me.”

  Kevin looked suspicious. “Bugging you?”

  “Well, yes. Bugging me.” Damion put his hand on his chest in a way that made me want to roll my eyes. He was always so over the top. At least that was my take on him. Lena never seemed to see it. “It occurred to me the other day that I had made a very selfish offer to you.”

  “Excuse me?” Kevin growled the words. He was now practically glaring at Damion even though Alvarez did not seem to mind or even notice. “You offered me a job. I took it. How is that selfish?”

  “Several reasons actually,” Damion said hurriedly. “So here’s the thing. I offered Kevin Landau a job setting up and running a brand new office in Kansas City. That’s a great idea. It’s going to make me happy. Even if that office doesn’t bring in as much money as some of our other offices, it serves several purposes all at once. The least of which is that I want those pompous Hopper brothers to realize that they pissed in the wrong yard here in St. Louis.”

  I cleared my throat. “Great analogy.” Then I made a face at my sister. “He must be so romantic in the bedroom.”

  Lena made a face right back at me. “Romantic enough for me.”

  I wasn’t going to touch that. I just snuggled in closer to Kevin and thought about how lucky I was. Yes. Lucky. Charmed. Blessed. Whatever.

  Damion wasn’t done though. He cut Lena a sideways look. “Then I realized that I was taking Kevin away from St. Louis, which he probably had mixed feelings about, and I was putting him in the middle of an office where there was absolutely no support. I hadn’t provided him with anything.”

  “I can figure it out,” Kevin insisted.

  “I’m not doubting that,” Damion told him. Then to my surprise and no small amount of discomfort, Damion gestured to me. “But I have here an unemployed individual who was a very successful recruiting manager. She’s smart, driven to succeed, and I think you probably work well enough with her. Right?”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I held up both hands and started waving them frantically at the men. “I don’t need a handout.”

  “It’s not a handout, Eleanor,” Damion told me patiently. “Do you really feel like you aren’t competent? Do you feel like you belong working for someone like Lawrence Moss? Or do you think that with better company infrastructure you could be truly successful?”

  I bit my lip. The words were pounding against my head and longing to fly off my tongue. Of course I didn’t believe that I belonged under a manager like Lawrence Moss! I knew I was good at my job. I was confident in my own abilities. I just wanted to make it on my own.

  “Ellie,” Lena said softly. “You’re good at what you do. Why can’t someone like Damion, who is also good at what he does, recognize that and utilize it? It’s not a favor. He’s not doing you any favors. I don’t know much about starting an office from the ground up, but I know that it’s not easy. The fact that Damion wants you involved has nothing to do with you being my sister. It’s that you are available and absolutely qualified.”

  “What if I’m not available?” I asked suddenly. The words were stupid because they weren’t true, but my pride was stinging.

  Kevin glanced over at me as though he were wondering if I had been keeping something from him. “Eleanor, don’t you want a chance to come to Kansas City? If you are really that committed to staying here in St. Louis, then I won’t argue with you, but I hope you’ll change your mind.”

  Was I committed to staying in St. Louis? Wow. Had I ever even asked myself that question? It was just the only place I’d ever lived. The city has this weird gravitational pull. People who are born here will change towns or counties or sometimes they visit other places, but for the most part they are born and die within fifty miles of their freaking high school. It’s just how things work out.

  I didn’t want to be one of those people.

  “No.” I swallowed back a lump of something I honestly believe was my pride. T
hen I nodded at Damion. “If you’re honestly willing to put me at a fair wage in your new Kansas City office, I would be flattered to take the job.”

  “And I will be absolutely thrilled to guarantee that you won’t go back to your old job and that Dan and Todd Hopper suddenly have nobody to run this office here.” Damion’s smile was huge and he looked far too pleased with that idea. “I know it’s petty. But they’ve caused me no small amount of irritation over the last few months and I think I’m ready to return the favor.”

  “I suppose I just need to find a place to live, then don’t I?” I bumped Kevin with my hip. “Know of anyone renting a room?”

  Thayla appeared beside us. She had just come in through the front door and now she looked confused and worried. “What do you mean you have to find a place to live?”

  Lena put her arm around Thayla. “Eleanor is going to take a job in Kansas City. That way she and Kevin can live closer.”

  “Oh!” There was no other way to put it. Thayla looked bummed. “I know I should be happy, but I’m going to miss you!” Then she made a face at her brother. “Maybe even both of you.”

  Then I had a thought. A really good one. The kind of thought that would turn Thayla’s frown upside down. “If I’m moving,” I began slowly, “then I’m going to need to rent my place, probably furnished too.”

  Thayla froze.

  “So, you know, if you wanted to rent my house from me, I would set you up with a really good deal.” There. Somehow that felt like closing the circle. And Thayla must have thought so too because she was squeezing me so hard around the neck I was a bit afraid she was going to pop my head off.

  Thayla grabbed Lena and the two of them were immediately in raptures talking about possible ways to utilize my space now that I apparently didn’t need it. Damion muttered something about going out to check on his brother. And suddenly Kevin and I were alone in a room chock-full of people.