The Freeman Brothers: A Secret Baby Romance Collection

by Natasha L. Black

  “I am,” I said. “I actually wanted to thank you again for recommending I get in touch with him. He has been really helpful.”

  “Does he think he’s going to be able to do anything?” Trish asked.

  “Yeah, actually. At least, there’s a possibility. Apparently, he has some history with the investor Justin went to.”

  I gave her a basic explanation of what Nick told me, and Trish narrowed her eyes slightly.

  “That’s a lot for one text message,” she said.

  I shook my head. “It wasn’t all in that message. We had a meeting the other night.”

  “Night?” Trish asked. “He stayed late at the office?”

  “No, we actually went up to the bar.”

  Trish started giggling, and I wished I just went along with a late-night visit to the office.

  “Did you try anything?” she asked.

  “Trish,” I said. “Seriously.”

  “What? I would have.”

  “I know you would have,” I said.

  “Why not? I don’t exactly have the connections to be in a position to, but you should. If you can swing it, you definitely should try and hook up with Nick.”

  “Come on,” I said.

  “Come on, what? He’s rich and he is now the only one of the Freeman brothers who is still single. And have you seen the man? He’s gorgeous,” Trish said.

  I looked at her across the table. She took a bite of her food, met eyes with me again, and nodded like she was emphasizing her point. I considered her briefly, wondering if maybe I should trade that “sometimes friend” for a “never friend” thing.

  Trish rolled up a piece of pancake and dipped it into her coffee. When she pulled it out, part of it had fallen off, and she peered over the edge of the mug in search of it. I had to laugh. So, maybe I didn’t have to click the real-life unfriend button with Trish. She wasn’t harmful. Just sort of vapid. Sometimes there was a use for that.

  “Here’s the thing. I literally just got out of a relationship with a man who stole from me. And not just a little bit, like he swiped some cash out of my wallet. He cleared out my inheritance from my mother so he could try to make money off it, then lost all of it. I’m not really in the mood for a new guy,” I said.

  Trish shrugged and nodded, muttering under her breath. “He’s still gorgeous.”

  “Tell me more about the project you’re working on. Is it going well?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

  Trish worked for a nonprofit organization as a fundraising and event planner. For all the vapid personality traits she showed when she was just having a conversation, she was creative, brilliant, and sharp as a tack when it came to things like that. Her eyes lit up when I asked, and I settled in to finish my food while I listened to her elaborate plans.

  She decided helping one cause just wasn’t enough, so her current project involved several different organizations and causes in the area. It was aimed at each of them addressing a need for the other, while gaining support and funds from the community so they could all benefit. It was dizzying in its complexity and potential for good. It also left me with the thought that adopting a cat might not be a bad idea.

  We finished eating and chatted for a bit longer before Trish checked the time and realized she needed to leave so she wouldn’t be late for her next meeting. I glanced through my emails to make sure there was nothing too pressing I needed to deal with before heading to Nick’s office. A few reply emails were enough to tide everything over for a few more hours, and then I left for the office.

  I started feeling a bit nervous when I got to the office building. Up until that point I had only been thinking about the fact that he wanted to meet with me. It was just another step in my day. But without Trish there to talk to and just my own thoughts to keep my brain occupied, I started thinking about what he might want to say.

  I hoped it was good news. The truth was, at that point I had pretty much accepted I might not get my money back. Of course, I wanted it. If I had my way, there would be some path to take where I could look in my account and see everything was fully restored. But after hearing Nick say that might not be an option and having a long talk with myself, I was resigned to the idea that it might not happen.

  There was a chance, a good chance apparently, that what Justin did was irreversible, and I was never going to see a cent of my mother’s bequeathal to me ever again. I could live with that. Again, I didn’t rely on the money. It wasn’t necessary for my ongoing survival, and there weren’t any huge plans in my future hinging on it. The thought of not having it anymore was upsetting, and it might create some hassle if I wanted to embark on any big expenses sometime in the next few years.

  But that didn’t really matter at that point. What I realized was really important to me was holding Justin accountable and making sure he was forced to face responsibility for the wrong he did and the hurt he caused.

  Alright, so what I actually wanted was for him to have a smackdown. I wanted him to face massive legal issues for what he did. He skated by much too much in his life, and now I wanted him to have to deal with some actual consequences. Even if I never got my money back, just knowing he was dealing with fines, jail time, and whatever else they could do to him, as well as it being on his permanent record, would make me feel better.

  As I opened the door to the office building, my stomach rippled a bit. It wasn’t nerves. Instead, it was a vague, rolling nausea suddenly taking over. I rubbed it to try to settle it down a bit. Brunch must not have agreed with me. A few deep breaths helped to calm it down enough so I could go inside. The sick feeling was lost in confusion and curiosity when the receptionist directed me to a meeting room, and I walked in to see Nick sitting at a long table with two other men.

  8

  Nick

  It really wasn’t supposed to unfold exactly the way it did. From the very beginning, I had the full intention of keeping the whole situation with Bryn to myself. It wasn’t actually work. We hadn’t talked about anything like her hiring me, or me becoming anything more than just somebody giving her some insight into her situation. That was all I was supposed to be.

  And now that it wasn’t, I could only hope that she wasn’t going to be completely pissed at me. She had every right to be, of course. I was pretty certain I had reassured her I wasn’t going to start talking about it to other people. She hadn’t looked exactly pleased when we’d ended up telling Lindsey about it at the bar. But at least in that circumstance, she had taken the initiative to tell her. I hadn’t just blurted it all out. In fact, I had been pretty proud of myself for the restraint I showed and not telling Lindsey everything.

  It had started with Gabe. After the conversation with my old boss about the investor, I had the whole thing on my mind. When Gabe called me just a couple hours after that conversation, I decided he had an actual stake in the whole thing. After all, he worked at this firm, too. That meant anything I was involved in, technically he was also involved in. Also, he would just have extra insight into it.

  Maybe I wasn’t seeing the entire thing. Maybe there was something I hadn’t thought about that would be helpful to Bryn. Maybe I just need to talk about it because it was building up pressure inside my skull and I needed to let it out.

  Whatever the reason, I ended up telling Gabe all about it. That wasn’t so bad. He took it from a professional perspective, and we were able to talk through everything so I could be completely confident in how I was approaching it. It was when I accidentally got my brother Quentin involved that things started to go a little sideways.

  So, there we were. Sitting in the conference room with Bryn at the doorway, staring at the two men she didn’t know. I gestured for her to come inside, and she sat down. I tried to gauge her reaction as I introduced the two men.

  “This is my older brother, Quentin,” I said. “And this is my good friend and business partner, Gabe. I told them about your situation, and they have some input they’d like to give.”

 
“Input?” Bryn asked, sounding unsure.

  “Both have friends in law enforcement,” I explained. “So, they wanted to be sure I was doing everything right.”

  I did my best not to let the aggravation I felt trickle into my voice. In reality, the whole thing rankled me. I understood both men had insight into the situation and really did have friends in law enforcement. They would want to make sure I was handling all aspects of the situation properly. Both from an investment perspective, and from a legal one. But I knew what I was doing. I didn’t need them hovering over me.

  As much as it frustrated me, though, I decided I might as well go along with it and willingly accept the help. Not only did I not have much choice in them butting themselves in, but I trusted both of them. They would do everything they could to help. These were the kind of circumstances that would dig at both of them. Neither responded kindly to crooks. Especially crooks who took advantage of women who cared about and trusted them.

  “I already told you there might be some illegal dealings going on here. Gabe is going to speak with his friend on the police force and see if he has any ideas. Quentin here is going to get in touch with the cybercrimes unit he is friendly with, as well as his contact with the police department. They are going to make sure everything I do is properly documented so there is no question or ambiguity about what’s going on.”

  “This sounds like it’s getting pretty complicated,” Bryn said.

  She looked kind of pale, and I noticed her lean back in her chair and rest her hand on her stomach for a second. It was the same kind of gesture my father did when he ate too much, too fast and got heartburn. I was fairly confident she hadn’t spent the five minutes prior to coming into my office gorging on chili cheese dogs, so I figured it must be the stress getting to her.

  “It could be a pretty complicated situation,” Gabe agreed. “But we’re going to help you figure it out.”

  Bryn glanced over at me, then back at the other two men and nodded. I sat back and let Quentin and Gabe talk. They asked her questions about her relationship with Justin, how they handled their finances, and how she found out about the theft. When she had told them all of that, they asked again, then delved into other elements of their relationship and her life before it.

  By the way she kept glancing over at me, it seemed Bryn wasn’t totally on board with how much they were prying, but after a while she either gave up wanting to be put off by the questions, or figured out they were asking to get a full picture of what was going on. They had been talking and going over everything she knew about Justin and the situation for over an hour when I finally called an end to the meeting.

  “Alright, I think we got some pretty good work done this afternoon, but we should go ahead and wrap this up. I’m starving. Is anybody else hungry? We could order some food in,” I offered.

  “Can’t,” Gabe said. “I really got to get back to Cynthia.”

  “No problem,” I said. “Let her know I’m thinking about her and hope she is on the mend.”

  Gabe said goodbye to Bryn and headed out of the office. I turned my attention to Quentin.

  “How about you?” I asked. “Are you hungry?”

  “I, too, have a wife I need to get back to. She’s been bringing the baby to work, and I need to get back there to take over for a bit,” he said.

  With him gone, all that was left was Bryn.

  “Down to your last resort,” she said.

  I laughed and shook my head. “Actually, I was going to say, ‘save the best for last.’”

  “Much like that burger at the bar, it’s cheesy, but I’ll take it,” Bryn said.

  “Speaking of which, why don’t we go back there? They have some good food other than giant greasy burgers,” I said.

  “As long as you promise not to get garlic mayonnaise anywhere near me, I’m in,” she said.

  We headed for the bar, but rather than perching on the stools, we took a corner booth. She ordered ginger ale, and I noticed she seemed hesitant about ordering anything to eat. Finally settling on a bowl of soup and club sandwich, Bryn settled back into the seat and let out a sigh.

  I didn’t talk about work or investments or Justin or anything else going on with her in that area. It was most of what we had shared with each other so far, but it seemed like she needed a break. Even if she didn’t think she needed one, she deserved it after that meeting with Gabe and Quentin.

  Instead, we talked about our lives and our families. We compared names of childhood pets and favorite vacation memories. It was nothing heavy or important, but I didn’t want it to stop.

  9

  Bryn

  A side effect of my long-term relationship ending that I hadn’t really thought about, but that became abundantly clear very quickly, was that it left my weekends very open. There was no longer the date night I thought Justin was so thoughtful for putting together for me, but now recognized as requiring very little effort. I also didn’t have any of the other couple-y things we would do together.

  At first, that made me angry. It just brought back all the aggravated, betrayed feelings. Suddenly it wasn’t just about being mad that he stole from me. Or that he was lying to me and trying to go behind my back and make a bunch of money for himself, but he was never going to tell me about. It was also sheer embarrassment that he was going to traipse right back off to the same group of people we hung out with, but not have me there.

  Thinking about what he was going to say to them and the kind of spin he was going to put on the story to explain the end of our relationship just made me feel angrier.

  I stomped around the house filling my time with anger-fueled chores. But after a few loads of laundry that involved slamming at the machines closed so hard I was briefly afraid I’d broken one of them and scrubbing the floors with far too much vengeance, I forced myself to sit down.

  Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the positive aspects of the situation. All I could come up with was that now I knew the truth about Justin, and I wasn’t going to waste any more time on him. At least I found everything out now, and it wasn’t a few years down the road when he roped me into marriage and ended up hurting me even more.

  It wasn’t a small positive. In fact, if there was ever a silver lining, that was it. I decided to stop letting the anger control me. That was just giving him more power and letting him take more from me. Doing my best to choose an optimistic and peaceful outlook, I finished tidying up the house, got ahead on some work projects, and realized I was bored out of my skull.

  I tried to look at it as an opportunity to just kick back and relax. That wasn’t something I did very often, and maybe I would enjoy it. Putting on my best lounge clothes, complete with fuzzy slippers, I popped some popcorn and curled up on the couch. Ten minutes and flipping around to change positions twelve times later, I got up with a frustrated huff.

  I was not fantastic at not doing anything. Sitting around at my place watching TV and just waiting for the time to go to bed again didn’t appeal to me. I needed to do something to fill the time. I needed to remember how to function just on my own.

  Getting dressed, I took some extra time to do my hair and put on a bit more makeup than usual. It wasn’t to appeal to anybody, really. Instead, I just wanted to see what it was like to give myself all that attention again. And to feel good about myself while I was out. I had to admit, it was pretty nice.

  It didn’t help me decide what I was going to do to keep my mind occupied, but at least I could feel like I looked good doing it.

  As I got in my car to head into town, my stomach did the slight slip again. I had been dealing with the low-key nausea on and off since brunch. It wasn’t too bad, but I was hoping it would go away soon. Being sick was one of those things that forced you to take downtime, and I wasn’t particularly eager to know what it was like to be sick all alone.

  I strolled through downtown, enjoying the nice weather and window shopping, Crossing the street, I noticed the bakery right ahead. Some of that aft
ernoon slump was starting to kick in. That called for coffee and a pastry. I went inside and stepped up to the counter. Deciding which of the glorious-looking treats inside the glass display case sounded the most delicious was a daunting task.

  Finally, I settled on a strawberry éclair and a large coffee. I turned around from the napkin dispenser and took a step toward a table. Not paying attention, I ran smack into somebody. The coffee tried to jump up out of the cup, but I managed to move it away from me fast enough so it didn’t splash.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  “Bryn?”

  I looked up and saw that the hard, muscled chest I just rammed into belonged to Nick.

  “Hey,” I said. “Good to see you. I’m sorry about the coffee.”

  He shook his head and looked down. “No worries. It doesn’t look like any spilled. You managed that cup like a pro.”

  “I should add that onto my resume under miscellaneous skills,” I said.

  My eyes drifted over to the older woman standing beside Nick, and he followed them, then jumped slightly like he was just remembering she was standing there.

  “Bryn, this is my mother, Minette Freeman. Mom, this is Bryn. I’m helping her out with some investments,” he said.

  I looked at him with slightly raised eyebrows, admiring the way he was able to weave that introduction so that he didn’t spell out my life story to anyone else, but also didn’t lie to his mother.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Minette,” I said.

  “Please, Minnie,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”

  Her eyes slid over to her son like she was expecting him to elaborate. Nick didn’t say anything, and I smiled at her.

  “So, what are you doing?” Nick asked.

  I looked at the coffee and éclair in my hands. “Getting a snack. Mostly, I’m just trying to find something to do. I didn’t realize just how boring my weekends were going to be now. What are you up to?”