How many times as a teenager had I fantasized about Colby Singer sneaking out to meet me here; however it certainly wasn’t so I could burst into tears and unload my problems. “I’m waiting out my mom, hoping she’ll go lie down, so I can sneak out and catch an earlier flight.”
Although I wasn’t due to return to Los Angeles until Monday, there was no way I could stay here another day. I needed to think, and, evidently, I wasn’t able to do it in the house where I’d grown up without completely reverting. I’d pretty much done as I was told for most of my life and the truth hit me that it wasn’t until moving away that I’d started to feel like I could be my true self. It confirmed that I absolutely could not live at home ever again. I had no clue what I was going to do, but denial seemed a whole lot easier to achieve if I could at least get back to my apartment and be in my own company.
He smiled. “Well, I have good news. I overheard her tell your dad that she was lying down for a nap right before I came looking for you. How about you go get packed, and I’ll drive you to the airport?”
Well that was a relief. “Thanks. I could use a ride.” After climbing down and then walking to the house side by side, I asked, “How did you know where to find me?”
“It’s where you always went when something was bothering you, or you wanted to avoid your mom. And since both of those scenarios seemed in play, I figured I might find you there.” He turned back, looking over his shoulder at the structure. “The tree house has definitely seen better days.”
I nodded. “It has, but I like the memories.”
Once I was back at the house, I was thankful that neither of my parents were around; only the caterers were busy, cleaning up. After I packed quickly and verified there was a flight that evening I could try to go on standby, Colby helped me get my suitcase out to the car, and we set off for the airport.
Although it wasn’t like me to leave without saying goodbye to my mom or dad, I gladly took the opportunity and ran with it. Normally, Colby and I would have had plenty to chat about, but for once, I was completely quiet.
“Did you, uh, talk to your brother before he left?” Colby asked.
“Yeah. He gave me a lame excuse of a work emergency. Do you know what really happened?”
Colby hesitated. “Not really. He feels terrible about leaving early, though. He texted me to see if you were doing okay.”
That was my brother, always looking out for me. One more example of how I was dependent on others. “I told him not to worry about the party. He may not want to tell me what’s really going on, but staying only would’ve made us both miserable.”
“That was decent of you, Kenz.” He fixed his eyes on me.
I shrugged, fighting the tears once more. Dammit, I wasn’t a crier. And there was a good reason; it wasn’t a pretty sight. I knew girls who were sweet when they cried, some tugged at your heartstrings, but nope, not me. Ugly crying was my specialty, with puffy eyes, red blotches on my face, and big gobs of tears. Since there was no way I was going for that look, I put on the sassy, fun face that Colby was used to seeing. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as good of an actress as I’d hoped.
His expression softened. “You going to tell me what upset you at the party?”
I took a deep breath, realizing he wasn’t letting it go and I wasn’t fooling him into thinking nothing was wrong. “My mom is insisting I move home to do my grad school at Georgetown.” There, I’d said it, and without tears.
He looked shocked. “Wait, I thought you were doing a summer internship downtown and then attending UCLA for your MBA.”
“That was my plan, but unfortunately it isn’t hers.” I filled him in on the slip-up by my dad’s golf buddy and the subsequent dialogue with my parents.
“Did you tell Brian?”
I shook my head. “I was going to, but he seems to have enough on his plate at the moment.”
“And in addition to insinuating you’d moved out to LA for me, Rebecca already knew your mother’s plan and was rubbing it in?”
Kill me. Kill me now. “Uh, yeah. You know how she loves spreading misery.”
He continued on. “Pay your horrible sister-in-law no mind. She was only trying to cause trouble.”
“Yeah, I know.” I sighed heavily and let down my long, blond hair from the pins which had held it up most of the day, attempting to alleviate my throbbing headache and feel more like myself. If I was being brutally honest, I had to admit my infatuation with Colby had, in fact, influenced my decision to move to Los Angeles. But four years later, I knew I loved living in the Golden State whether or not he resided there, too. It was beyond humiliating, however, that he’d ever think I had moved or wished to stay for him.
As if sensing my thoughts, he looked at me and took my hand over the console. “I’ve never believed for a second you’d move across the country to be closer to me. For one, you had a full lacrosse scholarship to attend UCLA. Secondly, anyone who knows your mother or has been in the same room as Rebecca for five minutes is well aware of the real reason you moved to the opposite coast of the United States.”
His fingers squeezed, and I wished there was a world in which the contact gave him the same tingle I was feeling.
Hoping to inject some levity back into the conversation, I decided to go for the sarcasm route. “The good news is if Rebecca was right about you feeling an obligation as my babysitter, you won’t have to hold that title for much longer.”
I was unprepared for him to pull off the road into an empty bank parking lot. He put the car in park and turned to me, his expression showing his agitation.
“I come over on Sundays for dinner because I want to spend time with you. Not because I need to babysit or feel some obligation to do so.”
“So then why is my brother texting you asking if I’m okay?”
He flushed slightly. “Like it or not, you’ve always had your big brother and his friends—which includes me—looking out for you. But make no mistake, I’ve never seen it as a burden. Hell, if anything, it means a lot that Brian trusts me with his sister given my, uh, unfortunate reputation that Rebecca so nicely brought up.”
I nodded dumbly.
“Plus you’ve been busy over the last few months on our regular nights. I feel as though I hardly see you anymore.”
Experiencing a twinge of guilt, I let out a breath. I’d purposefully made myself unavailable on some of our regularly scheduled Sunday nights in the hope that I didn’t appear too obvious when it came to wanting to spend time with him. “I guess I needed to hear that you never felt obligated to hang out with me.”
His eyes softened. “You’re my friend, Kenz. Outside of our older brothers being best friends or our families growing up next door to one another. I look forward to Sundays because there’s no agenda with you, and I can be myself. Not to mention, your cooking is awesome.”
I cracked a smile. “My culinary skills are only a slight improvement over boxed mac and cheese, but I’m glad you enjoy it.” For the first time, I felt an affirmation that whatever did or didn’t happen between us, at least we had a very real friendship where we both cared about one another.
He pulled back into traffic and navigated towards the airport while looking lost in thought. Then he hit me with a question I hadn’t been expecting.
“So why have you been busy on our usual Sunday dinner nights lately?”
I was reasonably certain that the excuse of: Because I was hoping you’d miss me, and it would make you want to rip off my clothes when you did see me might make things awkward. “Uh, I had other plans and figured you might want off the hook from coming over every week.”
“Other plans meaning dates?”
His inquiry took me off guard. We hadn’t previously talked about that aspect of our lives. I figured this was mostly a conscious effort on his part to spare me hurt feelings over hearing about the women he went out with, but he’d never asked about my dating life, either. “Sometimes. Why?”
He shrugged. “After my brother
’s wedding in Tortola a few months ago, I felt as though things changed between us and wondered if I had done something to cause that. Then I asked Brian if you had a boyfriend and maybe that’s what had you so busy.”
He’d asked my brother that question? Interesting. During that wedding weekend over New Year’s I’d realized how obvious my crush might be to him and had decided to become a little less available. I’d hoped it would start a spark, but this was the first time I had evidence he’d even noticed the change. “No, nothing like that. I guess I didn’t think you’d miss it.”
“Well, I did.”
A shiver lanced through me with the possibilities of that answer and then sadness overwhelmed me. If I had to move, I’d miss our Sunday nights together greatly. “Yeah, me, too. Maybe before I pack up, we can do one last movie marathon night or something.”
“So you’re definitely moving home?”
“My mom didn’t give me a lot of choice in the matter, threatening to cut me off completely. I mentioned staying the summer for my internship, but as soon as she finds out it’s in the music industry, there’s no way she’d be on board.”
He sighed heavily. “Taking your mother out of the equation, what do you want?”
Great question. I wished I had a good answer. “I have no clue. My grand plan for the moment is to get back to my apartment, turn off my brain, and spend the rest of the weekend in blissful denial—which may start with a strong drink or, like, four, on the plane.” I wondered when he was returning to Los Angeles, but figured with him flying in last night, he probably wasn’t ready to go home tonight.
He glanced over but said nothing.
Once we got closer to the airport, I noticed that we weren’t heading towards departures. “Where are we going?”
“To the private terminal and my plane.” Colby often took his company jet for travel.
“You’re returning to LA, too?” Could I help it if my heart started to beat faster that we might be flying back together?
Flashing those dimples, which in all fairness should be a registered sexual weapon, he shook his head. “Not yet. First I’m taking you to Vegas.”
CHAPTER TWO
Even after all these years of knowing Colby, I couldn’t be trusted to speak full, coherent sentences after happily suffering from his PDG. “Uh, what?”
“If you crave blissful denial, where better to do it than in Vegas? I have to be there for work on Monday anyhow, and after your shitty day, you deserve a fun weekend. Then we can head out to LA, where you can do the serious thinking soon enough.”
I was speechless that he’d do this for me. Briefly I thought of my mother’s reaction if she found out I’d gone off for the weekend with him, but what the hell? As if she needed to know. Wasn’t I entitled to forget about my problems for a couple of days? And wasn’t I a grown woman? How quickly I forgot that fact when I was at home. Most importantly, this could well be the last opportunity to spend alone time with Colby, a final chance to up my game and put things out there once and for all.
“Uh, your silence is freaking me out especially since you always have something to say.”
My mouth curved into a grin. “You’re being serious? We’d fly there now?”
“Hell, yes. My suite has two bedrooms, not to mention a hot tub on the patio. It’s Saturday night, and the three hour time difference works in our favor. If we take off now, we’ll be there by seven o’clock easily and can stay out as late as you wish because the party definitely never stops there. Then tomorrow, I’ll tour you around the city. On Monday I have meetings in the morning, but we can fly back to LA later in the afternoon.”
The tales about Colby in Vegas were absolutely legendary. Not that he or my brother knew half of what I’d overheard throughout the years, but the man had definitely earned his reputed manwhore stripes in Sin City. If I was looking for a mind-numbing good time, rumor was there was no one better to go with.
Once we got out of the car, Colby greeted a man who took the keys and then spoke with another man who evidently was the pilot. He didn’t appear fazed when Colby told him he needed to take off a couple hours earlier than planned.
Finally, after dealing with the logistics, Colby went around to the trunk and pulled out our suitcases. “I’ll call Marcia, my hotel concierge, once we board and tell her your size. She’ll get you a party dress for tonight.”
Sometimes I forgot how wealthy he was. His father had started Gamble Enterprises, which included the advertising agency that his older brother, Josh, oversaw and for which my brother Brian worked. There was also a real estate business, which had started with their flagship hotel in Vegas and expanded to several properties in Mexico. And then there was Colby’s pride and joy: his movie production company based in Los Angeles. I’d once read the group of companies were worth over twenty billion dollars, but to me, the owners would always be the Singer brothers from next door.
Walking over to where we’d board his private jet, unfortunately, Rebecca’s poisonous words started to cause some doubt. I stopped before taking a step up, causing him to turn towards me and quirk a brow.
“Can we come to an understanding about this trip?”
“About what?” He suddenly looked apprehensive.
“Primarily, does it mean I’m your girlfriend?” I deadpanned.
I immediately regretted my joke when the color drained completely from his face. “Kenz, I—”
“Oh, my God, I was only teasing. But this isn’t a pity trip, right?” Because the last thing I needed was for him to feel sorry for me.
“Uh, more like a maybe-you-need-to-clear-your-head-and-think-about-what-it-is-you-want-to-do trip with the assistance of alcohol and yours truly.” He displayed his dimples again. Jesus. How did a girl ever have a chance with those in the equation?
“Okay, so if that’s the case, then you’re saying I’m not getting a chaperone on this trip.”
He lifted his sexy brow again.
“In other words, what if I want to get completely wasted tonight?” I wasn’t typically a heavy drinker, but after the day I’d had, I think I was more than justified in considering the idea.
He smiled mischievously. “Ah, I get it. You want to know if I’m going to let you live it up in Sin City or be a spoilsport.”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
“I’ll even hold your hair back tonight while you puke your guts out, sweetheart. Want to get a tattoo or a piercing? Go for it. I’m totally nonjudging, especially in Vegas.”
Some of my self-confidence was starting to flicker back to life after having taken such blows from my mother and sister-in-law at the party. “So you don’t intend to meet up with hordes of women there and leave me somewhere tonight, right?” There was no way to sugarcoat it: Colby was a player. Women clamored over him for both his looks and his money.
Something akin to regret flashed in his features before he answered. “I shudder to think about the tales you’ve heard, but I promise I’m there with you this weekend. Well, not with you…”
I rolled my eyes, annoyed he’d felt the need to clarify that point. “I get it. But what if I meet a hot guy at a bar, you wouldn’t cockblock me, right?” I didn’t have any intention of doing so, given that I’d have the opportunity to spend time with Colby; however I couldn’t resist wondering what he thought of the idea.
He chuckled. “Technically, I wouldn’t cockblock you, since he’s the one with the co—You know what, girls aren’t supposed to use that term, anyhow. Wait, what are you talking here? Dancing and flirting or taking him back to your room?”
“Dancing and flirting. It takes a guy a lot more than one night to convince me to sleep with him.” Yeah, like a whole lot more. Colby was unaware of my V card, and I intended to keep it that way for now.
He looked relieved, and I tried not to read anything into it.
“Okay, agreed. Anything else?”
I shook my head. “Just a big thank you for this. I’ve never been to Vegas,” I whispered,
hugging him tightly.
His strong arms went around me. “Even more reason to take you, then. And there’s a purpose behind the saying, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.’ So if you want to go wild, by all means.”
Oh, boy. If he could read my mind, he’d see the sexual fantasy starring him running through it. Maybe my school plans were derailed for the moment, but I did have this weekend alone with him in Sin City. With one door closing, maybe I could gather the courage to open another.
***
I would’ve been more than happy to fly commercial, but I certainly wasn’t going to complain about sharing Colby’s private jet. I’d grown up with money, but not the private-jet type. Plus, the wealth belonged to my parents, and if ever I forgot about it for a moment, my mother would be happy to remind me.
Deciding to put off talking to her until after the weekend, I sent my dad a text message saying I’d decided to spend the next couple of days with friends and would call them on Monday. It would go over like a lead balloon when my mom found out, but for once, I didn’t care. She may be able to manipulate me financially into moving home, however my time wasn’t a commodity she could control. So I had every intention of enjoying a couple of days of unabashed fun with absolutely no plan. I’d never done something like this before and found the prospect thrilling.
Las Vegas upon first glance was impressive. Twinkling lights everywhere in different colors against a painted sky of pink and yellow with the sun going down. And that assessment was only from the car window on the way from the airport. The illumination from the city shined brightly as we were driven to the hotel.
Upon check-in we were treated like rock stars, and I received a quick tour of the lobby and casino, both of which boasted beautiful chandeliers and upscale decor. Being with the owner certainly had its perks I discovered when we were handed glasses of champagne. Hotels might be more of his older brother’s gig, but it became clear Colby was proud to be an owner, too.
“This place is awesome,” I breathed as we stepped onto the elevator.
Bet Me Something (Something Series Book 3) Page 2
