Reality of Love Boxed Set: Books 1-3

by Marika Ray

  Kitty turned to a confused Jasper with her glass of champagne raised in the air. “I’d like to propose a toast. To my husband, Jasper, who’s given me the greatest gift of all: a baby.”

  The collective gasp of everyone in the room echoed loudly, the same time Jasper’s jaw dropped open. Leave it to Kitty to tell her husband of their pregnancy in front of virtual strangers for maximal effect.

  At first, I thought Jasper was joyfully surprised, but his face began to take on an unhealthy red color, which screamed terror, not joy. Natalia had stepped forward to hug Kitty, who was oblivious to her husband’s negative reaction.

  “A baby?” Jasper spat out the words like she’d admitted to murdering his mother.

  The caustic tone got Kitty’s attention, her own smile fading from her face. “Y-yes. I’m pregnant. We’re having a baby, Jas.” She stroked her hand down his arm in an attempt to get him up to speed with the conversation. He whipped his arm away and that’s when all hell broke loose.

  “I’m sterile, you whoring she-devil!” Jasper screamed in her face.

  Rhett wrapped his arm around my waist and tugged me back, putting me almost behind him. I peeked around his shoulder so I wouldn’t miss any of the action. It wasn’t every day a simple dinner party turned into an episode of Jerry Springer. It was like a train wreck you couldn’t look away from.

  “What? Wh-what are you saying?” Kitty’s face was a frozen mask of horror, the bands in her neck standing out to compensate for the face muscles that couldn’t move.

  Natalia rubbed Kitty’s back and I had to give her credit for being willing to be in the fray at that moment. I glanced over at Frank to see him chugging his beer with a look of boredom. Man, those goats of his must really be interesting for this little display not to do it for him. Lavender reached up to John’s ear and whispered something. She probably wanted to know if hugging Jasper was appropriate at the moment.

  The sound of breaking glass had me jumping against Rhett’s back, my gaze refocused on the unhappy couple and the glass of champagne Jasper had dropped to the hard tile floor.

  “You told me you didn’t want kids. So I figured we would make a good match since I couldn’t have kids.” Poor Jasper. He’d gone from mottled red to ghostly white.

  Kitty grabbed at her necklace, scratching her neck in the process, leaving a red streak. “Y-you can’t have kids? You never told me! Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Jasper gestured wildly. “Why would I? You didn’t want kids!”

  “I think that’s something a wife should know!”

  Jasper looked around the room, a wild look in his eye. “Tell me, boys. Would you walk around telling people you’re sterile?”

  Frank looked away and went back to chugging his beer. I didn’t blame him. John hemmed and hawed but didn’t really say much. Rhett tugged at his shirt sleeves again, clearly uncomfortable being put on the spot. Smartly, he didn’t answer.

  Jasper didn’t wait for an answer if one was actually forthcoming. He turned back to Kitty. “Who cares about that? What really matters is whose baby is that?” He pointed at Kitty’s stomach area, the volume of his voice rising with each passing moment.

  Kitty was breathing hard, a deer in headlights. She finally let go of the necklace and stood tall. “I had a moment of weakness and slept with Gabriel. I didn’t think you needed to know about it, but clearly I was wrong.”

  “Wait? Gabriel, as in my best friend, Gabriel?” John stepped forward, his face draining of color. There was a lot of that going on in this room.

  I started giggling hysterically, aware that this wasn’t the time for it, but unable to help myself. I did, however, smash my face against Rhett’s back to drown out the sound. What the hell was going on? Rhett’s head was darting back and forth as if at a tennis match, trying to keep up with this nonsense. I think I was in shock.

  Kitty nodded and John and Jasper gasped together. “I planned his wedding, as you know, and I, um, guess he had a moment of doubt or FOMO or something. I went in the room to give him the corsages for the groomsmen and next thing you know, we’re in the closet up against the wall. I’m sorry, Jasper.”

  “It’s Lord Jasper to you!” Jasper spat at her, looking ready to throw up.

  “Oh my God, you’re having my best friend’s baby?” John whispered. “They literally just got back from their honeymoon.”

  Kitty’s huge bottom lip started to wiggle. Then the tears came, streaking down her face. She covered her face and ran out of the room sobbing, Natalia right behind her. Jasper angrily swept his hand across the highboy table next to him and his plate of mini quiches went flying. Lavender swooped into action and wrapped Jasper in her arms from behind, whispering to him God knows what. He tried to free his arms, but couldn’t. He gave up trying and instead started walking away, dragging Lavender with him, each step a slow go of it.

  I came out from behind Rhett and rushed over to pick up the plate and ruined food, careful not to step on any of the broken glass. Rhett said he’d go get a trash can. Frank wandered over to the stunned bartender to get another beer like nothing was wrong. John stayed planted to the spot, his eyes unfocused as he worked through the issue in his mind.

  The atmosphere was tense.

  When Rhett came back with a trash can and broom, I helped sweep everything into the dust pan. Jasper still hadn’t made it out of the room yet. Hauling Lavender with him on his back was proving more difficult than he anticipated. All that professional hugging had made her strong over the years.

  “I’d help, but I can’t bend down in these pants. I’m afraid the back seam will split,” Rhett whispered loudly to me, making me grin at his antics. “Though I’m enjoying the view from up here too much to do anything either.”

  He ogled my leg, the split seam of the pant leg opening all the way to my hip to expose my entire leg. While still crouched and holding the dustpan, I tried to close the pant leg without much success.

  Rhett let out a low whistle and thrust his hand down the front of his pants to readjust himself. I burst out laughing. This night was turning into a total and complete disaster, along with both our outfits. A rubber band snapped against my left breast and I dropped the dustpan, spilling the food and glass pieces everywhere. That stung something fierce! On a scale of razor burn to a slow agonizing death by fire, I was at a Brazilian wax while sunburned level.

  My hand immediately went to my chest and I felt a bump of something directly under my breast. With dawning realization I discovered the damn sticker on my boob must have come off, the adhesive ripping off my sensitive skin. No rubber band. Just glue.

  “You okay?” Rhett looked down at me in concern.

  “Help me up,” I whispered frantically, scanning the room for anyone looking at me. John was definitely looking, but his gaze was on my legs, so if I hurried, I might be able to wrangle my boob back in before anyone noticed.

  Rhett grabbed me under the armpits and hauled me up, my legs having gone numb from squatting down for too long. Once he had me up, I turned my back to John and reached into my shirt, Rhett’s gaze avidly following my every move.

  “What—”

  I shushed him, cutting him off and focusing on rearranging my sticker bra. I pulled the lump of sticker out of my blouse, the sticky side all folded in on itself.

  “Help me get this flat!”

  Rhett was looking at my mangled sticker bra like it was a foreign object, needing to be held up to the light and examined.

  “What the fuck is this?” he said loudly.

  “Keep your voice down!” I whisper-yelled. “It’s my sticker bra and it needs to go back on my boob!”

  His gaze immediately went back to my left breast, now drooping a bit lower than the right. I wasn’t some nubile twenty-year-old with collagen oozing out of her pores and I wouldn’t apologize for having a bit of a droop.

  Rhett made a strangled sound while his hand reached up, stopping an inch away from my straining nipple. I hadn’t realized she was s
training, but looking down, there she was, popping out to say hello at the most unfortunate time, or maybe she was just pissed that she’d essentially had a Band-Aid ripped from her sensitive skin. The tension in the room melted away and reformed as sexual tension coiling in my belly. All I could think about was Rhett closing that one-inch gap and brushing his fingertips across my sensitive skin. I swallowed thickly.

  Instead, he backed away and handed me the sticker bra while keeping his gaze trained across the room.

  “Just slap it on and let’s get out of here.”

  I grabbed it out of his hand, my eye roll covering for how sexually frustrated I was by his refusal to touch me. “That’s not how it works.” I shoved it in my pocket and went to grab my purse from the table in the room by the front door. Leftie was bouncing like she wanted out of my blouse, which felt super awkward. I was not a no-bra kind of girl. Especially awkward when I saw John tilt his head and stare at my chest like he was trying to figure out what was amiss. Rhett must have seen him too as he rushed to join me, keeping me pressed up against him as we let ourselves out the front door.

  “I don’t know what the hell a sticker bra is, but I’m thinking I could have used it for my fire hose. You were holding out on me,” Rhett cracked a joke as we walked to the car. I snorted but quickly sobered.

  “Not exactly a good time to say our goodbyes,” I muttered. “I’m telling you, these rich people are crazy…”

  Rhett pulled open the passenger door for me. “I’ll call Jasper tomorrow and check in on him. Crazy, but sad too, you know?”

  He closed the door, rounded the hood, and slid into his seat, pausing after he started the car. He stared out the windshield, as did I. I was lost in my own thoughts. Finding out your significant other had cheated on you was painful. I’d been in Jasper’s shoes, and though there’d been no baby, there was still that same shock and devastation. The shattering of trust cuts you where you least expect it. My heart went out to him.

  This was exactly why I didn’t hang out with wacky wealthy people. And this was exactly why I didn’t want to get into a real relationship again. People always let you down and broke your trust. As much as I wanted more nights talking and making out by the firepit—and I definitely wanted the crotch rocket in Rhett’s tight pants—I had to stay away for my own good.

  I’d already learned my lesson with the O’Donnell brothers.

  I didn’t need to learn it again.

  19

  Rhett

  “Do you think we came off okay?” I rubbed a towel through my hair, shamelessly flexing my abs, knowing Gabby would be staring at me. She tended to do that when I walked around without my shirt, so I found more frequent ways to be shirtless.

  The season premiere of Desperate Househusbands had aired last night and all of us couples had gotten together to watch it at Lavender and John’s house in the hills of Coto de Caza. The tension in the air had been palpable. Jasper kept to the back of the room, nursing a bottomless scotch the whole night. Kitty seemed a shell of the woman she’d been, crying softly into her tissue every time the camera showed her and Jasper back in their happier days. We all walked on eggshells, hoping the fireworks of our last get-together didn’t spark into a blazing inferno.

  “Yeah, I totally think so.” Just like I’d called it, Gabby was staring at my abs, her hands still absentmindedly turning the pages of the newspaper as she sat in the recliner in our master bedroom. I was actually surprised she still sat there after I’d announced I was taking a shower.

  She’d been distant the last few days. Not only had we not kissed again, even for the cameras, but she’d completely pulled away from me in every way that mattered. I baited her repeatedly but couldn’t get her to banter back and forth with me like I’d become accustomed to. It was like she’d dialed down her personality and all she had left for me was a surface version of herself.

  I fucking hated it.

  My hand went to the knot in the towel around my waist and for a brief moment, I almost considered taking it off, full Monty style, just to get a reaction out of her. At the last second, I discarded the idea, wanting Gabby’s heart and mind more than her body. Yep. I turned into that guy. Brought to my knees by a woman who didn’t even want me back.

  “What are you doing today?” I asked instead, heading to the dresser to grab a pair of workout shorts and a T-shirt.

  “Um…” Gabby blinked a few times, her cheeks heating, before she looked down at the newspaper like the secret to happiness was written there. “I, uh, just planned a day to relax. My article for Monday is already written, so I’m going to indulge in some reading today after I go see Lily-Marie and the kiddos. You?”

  I stepped into my boxers, pulling them on under the towel, like I’d done a million times after surfing. Her eyes fluttered up to my legs and then back down to her paper. Aha! Not as cool and collected as she’d like me to believe. She liked me. She just had some crazy idea in her head about not wanting to want me. I’d have to figure out what it was and disabuse her of that notion.

  “Well, I’m meeting the guys for tennis, followed by lunch, and then I’ll be home. I rescheduled our dinner reservations from the night Loni was born to tonight. Seven o’clock okay for you?”

  Gabby winced and I had to stop her before she tried to excuse her way out of dinner with me.

  “Elle texted me, super excited to see you again. She’s really looking forward to us coming in tonight.” I whipped the towel off, now decent with my shorts on. Gabby’s eyes flickered up again, clearly wanting to look, even if she was trying to rein them in. Enjoying her struggle, I took my time pulling my shirt on.

  She nodded vigorously, closed the newspaper, and rushed out of the room saying she had to grab some breakfast.

  Gabby always said she wasn’t a quitter, but neither was I. I’d get through to her eventually. I just knew it.

  I pulled up to the country club, my cameraman beside me giving me the hairy eyeball.

  “Relax, Paul. I’ll valet it. Just call it an early birthday present.”

  He still didn’t thank me for not parking down the steep hill and making him walk, but I knew he liked me.

  “You can shoot me from any side. All my sides are my good side.” I winked at him and he snorted, clearly unimpressed. He was a man of few words, but that was okay because I had many.

  “You ever film a Wimbledon match?”

  No answer.

  “Get ready to be impressed. I’ve even been working on my grunt. All the tennis greats have a distinctive grunt. Ready?” I grunted loudly, the noise making him jump and shake his head.

  There was a line to get to the valet. I happened to glance at the guy three cars ahead of me walking away from his car and throwing his keys to the valet while his back was to me. My insides froze. I squinted, trying to look through the cars and people in my line of sight. All I could make out was a dark head of hair bobbing its way into the country club.

  I would have bet my life that was Hewitt.

  Which made zero sense. What would he be doing here? And what were the odds he’d be here the same time I was?

  A knock on the window made me jump.

  “Sir?” The valet was waiting for me to exit my car.

  I rushed to get out and nearly ran into the lobby, glancing left and right to see if I could spot Hewitt. Paul huffed his way behind me, probably wondering what my deal was.

  “Rhett! Glad you could make it.” John came out of nowhere and clapped me on the back. “Heads-up: Jasper knows his way around a tennis court and he’s a little pissed off right now, so keep an eye on him.”

  I pulled my focus back from the mysterious man who could have been my half-brother but was probably only my overactive imagination. “Aren’t we playing partners?”

  John’s greasy smile didn’t make me feel at ease. “Jasper and I are always partners. You’ll pair up with Frank.”

  I couldn’t really picture Frank playing tennis. “Has he ever played before?”

&
nbsp; “Nope!” John started laughing and walked out of the lobby, leaving me and Paul to trail after him.

  Great. Today would be another embarrassing athletic display where Rhett loses on national television. When we got to our reserved court, Jasper had a white headband and two wristbands on, along with an all white outfit that seemed a little snug, even considering how tight my own pants had been the other night.

  “Hey, Jasper. I hear you’re going to mop the floor with us.”

  In answer, he merely hopped from foot to foot and then swung his racket, the thing whistling through the air as it narrowly missed my face. I jumped back, thinking about John’s warning. Good Lord, Lord Jasper was a little unstable.

  Frank ambled onto the court in long pants and a sweatshirt. I was already hot just standing there in my shorts while the morning sun beat down on us. Thankfully I’d remembered to put sunscreen on my sensitive skin.

  “Dude, you gonna be okay in sweats?” I didn’t really want my partner to die of heat exhaustion before we got our asses handed to us by Jasper and John.

  Frank gave me two air pistols and then took off his sweatshirt, revealing a tank top below. The goats must be super heavy because he was sporting a surprising amount of muscle.

  “You been working out, Frankie?”

  He laughed and shrugged like he was embarrassed. But maybe I had that all wrong as in the next second, he leaned down dramatically and grabbed the front of his pants. In one quick tug, he had them flying off, the snaps down the sides giving way. John cheered and Frank took a bow, now in a pair of shorts that reminded me of the ’80s trend making its way back. The shorts were bright pink and a little on the short side, showing off Frank’s long, tan, hairy legs.