He sits on my car with a frown on his face, as if he’s thinking about the idea and not dismissing it like he was a few minutes ago.
The whole thing makes sense. I got my mojo back on because I was away from the lights. Away from the studio telling me that I shouldn’t put on a few more pounds. Away from them all, and it felt good. I don’t want to go back down that miserable road again. Not now. Not ever.
“This is why you came here today?”
I nod.
“It means less for now but more money later on. You understand that, right? You’ll hold on to the rights, and we can cut a deal that way. But, the publicity is where an artist makes their money. The sponsors and products. You’ll be signing that away.”
I try to look disappointed, but I’m not good at acting. Everything will work out fine. Getting the money is great. Sure, it’ll be tied up a lot longer, but I’ll be living on the ranch with Noah.
“I think that the studio’s going to love it.” I’m trying to sell it to him.
“You weren’t exactly in the spotlight that long. Thinking about it now, this arrangement makes more sense.”
Thank you, God.
“Okay, let’s tell them rather than ask them about the agreement. Okay?”
I kiss him on the cheek. “If you can do this for me, John, then I’ll love you for life.”
“I’ll love you for life if you keep writing those fucking songs.”
We go into the boardroom, and everyone’s apprehensive about the change. There’s a moment of silence as John makes his announcement, and then Tracey does the craziest thing.
“Yes, yes!” she shouts out. “I won’t have to do that face again.”
Everyone including me is shocked by her outburst, then I shout out, “There’s nothing wrong with my face—just your fucking makeup.”
I was done trying to worry about her feelings when she didn’t give a fuck about mine.
“Ted, John, are we done here?”
They look at each other and say, “I suppose so…”
“Good, I’ve got to go back to the ranch.”
John asks, “Tonight?”
“Send me the paperwork, and I’ll keep the songs rolling for you. But that’s it.”
There’s a commotion in the room. Everyone’s trying to stop Tracey from ripping me apart. I don’t care. I’ll send a message to Mom and Terence when I’m done. Right now, I need to get back to the ranch. I promised Noah that I would, and I wasn’t about to go back on my word. I’m kind of worried about him. Richard was with him, and he was acting like a big kid. I just hope that he doesn’t do something stupid, like give Candy back her kid.
Chapter Sixteen
Noah
I’ve been drunk for days now, like a spoiled little kid that’s been told to go on a diet and not eat everything in sight. I've taken the whole damn candy store and more. I open the door wondering who's come to tell me that I need to get my act together.
The boys.
Not again.
I told them to let me wallow in my pain. I just need a little more time, and then I’ll be back to my usual partying self. Now, I’m just in self-destructive mode, and it suits me. My brother does it every fucking day of his life. No one bothers him about it. They leave him alone. I tried once until he talked about Grandpa and started guilt tripping me. What the fuck is wrong with the men in our family? They're all greedy fucks!
“What?” I bark as I open the door. I never expected it to be Kylie.
“Noah, what happened?” I walk back into the house.
“If you’ve come to gloat then please don’t tell me. I’m not in the mood.”
“But, why? Because I left? I told you that I was coming back. Why didn’t you listen? It's a long drive, so I had to break it up, and then I was going to come back directly, but I had to sort out my place and put it on the market.”
She’s following me. I hate it when people do that. I'm leaving the room to get away, not to be followed.
“The same woman that told me that I should stay away then tells me that, even though I’ve been doing that for the last three years, she never wanted that. Why should I believe you when you said that you were coming back? Remember, I don’t understand women?”
It was a cheap shot, shooting her words back at her, but she brought it on herself.
“You’ve been looking after Richard in this state?”
She rushes past me and then heads up the stairs to the one place I don’t need her to see. No, I don’t want to, but when you haven’t eaten properly in a few days and drank way over the line, the body’s fucking slow.
It’s pathetic as it trips up a couple of times as I head up the stairs.
“Noah!”
She screams as she sees the mess that I made.
“What is wrong with you?”
I get down on my knees, seeing the damage that I made to his room—his diapers ripped, clothes everywhere, a bottle smashed at the side of the crib.
“Did you do this to Richard when he was in here?”
I’m crazy, but I’m not fucking insane.
“No, I did that when Candy came to take him. You left. He's gone. It felt like a kick in the butt—one that I didn’t need a constant reminder of.”
“Shit, you’re more like Jason than you realize.”
Not the words that I want to hear. My brother has had a few tantrums in his life. He did it at the fucking reception when Grandpa died. He went and ruined the room when we started talking about the inheritance and that fact that Grandpa left everything to him. I accused him of trying to manipulate Grandpa on his deathbed, and that's why he got all the money. Grandma got a reasonable amount, but not as much as Jason.
“I came back. I told you that I would.” She’s holding onto me while I’m on the floor away from the cracked glass and trying to keep it all together.
“I felt as if for the first time I had lost everyone that I had cared about. It was just too much to handle.”
She smiles. “You need to trust someone else apart from yourself once in a while.”
I nod. “I trust the boys.”
Thinking that, I didn’t feel alone all the time. They had my back, and I had theirs, but then they had their lives too. I knew that they’d give it a day or two. They would tell me that I’ve done enough sulking and it was time to get back in the saddle.
“Martin’s kicked Gia out,” I sob as I try to get up. Shit, I’ve treated my body like a temple for years, but a few days off, completely letting it go, and it’s given up. As Kylie tries to steady me, she says, “Good. Now, let’s go and get Richard.”
I shake my head. “He’s better off with his mom.”
She blurts out, “The one who left him for weeks with you?”
I pull away from her. “Thanks.”
“You need to be in that little boy’s life, whether you like it or not. And besides, I’m here to help you both when you can’t see the way.”
“Always?”
“Forever. You can’t keep me away, even if you tried.”
That’s music to my ears. She puts me in the shower, and I need to clean up not only the house but my life too. I love them both, and I shouldn’t have given up without a fight. I wouldn’t have back in the day, but something weakened me. It was the first time that I saw part of my brother in me, and I wasn’t going to let it back in. I wasn’t going to lose Richard and Kylie ever again, and as she started to sing to me, I knew that it wasn't an option.
Epilogue
Kylie
It’s the annual family barbecue that Noah started once I moved in officially. Candy’s invited this year, since I told Noah that it'd been two years since the whole ordeal and he needed to get over it. We all needed to move on, for Richard’s sake.
“Mom.” I smile as she comes to kiss me on the cheek. She looks tired. Her hair’s down and lifeless. I keep telling her to come and stay with us, but she keeps dismissing it.
“You really should come and stay here.
“I’m fine. I need to be alone. This is the first time in my life I don’t have you, a husband, or even a second husband to keep tabs on. Sometimes being alone is good.”
I’m just about to ask her if it’s so good, how come she looks so sad?
“The kids are getting on well.” Martin smiles as he comes over to join us. Mom mumbles something and then walks away.
“Was it something I said?”
I laugh. “No, nothing. I don’t know… I wish that she would come and live with us.”
“She looks like she could do with the support.”
That’s when Gia comes running over. “Martin, I need to pee. Can you take care of the kids for a minute, please? I’ll be back in a minute.”
He shakes his head. “They’re fine. You don’t need to look over them every second.”
She nods. “Okay, if you say so. I’ll just be a minute.”
I think about how much they’ve changed as she runs into the house. She has one eye on the kids and the other on where she's going.
“Whatever you did to her, I need you to do it to Noah!”
“Why? He’s fine. Don’t be too hard on my friend. Besides, I didn’t do anything to her.”
“Noah said that it had something to do with you telling her she had to check herself or stop receiving checks.”
He winks. “Maybe. And you’re right, Noah has a big mouth.”
He leaves me alone as I watch my family playing together and my man Noah acting as if he’s a great chef. I do hope that one day the two brothers can be reunited, but for now, I know that it’s one step at a time. Especially with Terence out of the picture and mom trying to deal with her broken heart, an empty bank account, and nearly ending up being homeless. She’s living in my old apartment after she told me not to sell it and that they were separating. She said that if I had paid off their apartment, then she would have had to share half of the proceeds in the divorce settlement. Luckily, he won’t be able to touch her money anymore and make her homeless. Besides, it looks as if Noah was right, and he was cheating on mom. Noah found out that he had a couple of brothers and sisters, and one of them is even younger than Richard.
I take out my phone from my back pocket.
I laugh at the message from John saying that I wrote another hit. It just flows out of me. I can’t help myself.
“Hey, sexy, are you just going to stand there all day while I do the cooking, looking after the kids, and serving our guests?” Noah asks as he grabs me from behind. I was too busy laughing at John’s message to notice that he had moved from his place by the barbecue.
“No, besides Richard thinks that he’s the big brother and just tries to fan Natalie all day long. Can you see him?”
“Yes, he’s just playing the role of big brother.”
“He needs to get in the practice.”
“Why?”
“Because we have another one on the way.”
He lifts me up in the air and says, “I’m happy, but you need to slow down so that I can put a ring on that finger.”
“Now, you’re thinking about it.”
Dan runs up to us and says, “Here take this!”
He has taken the ring off a Coke can and he gives it to Noah. I laugh at the idea of it, but Noah’s on one knee asking the magic question—the one that I’ve wanted to hear for so long. “Would you, Kylie Green, be my lawfully wedded wife?”
I sigh. “With this ring, how can I say no?”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes… just one thing. You’d better get me a better ring.”
He laughs as he hugs me. “I love you too much not to think of doing anything else.”
Maybe Martin's right. I do have him trained. I love him with all my heart, and I know that he feels the same way about me.
###The End###
Coming soon!
Single Cowboy
Jason…
I was made to stay on this farm.
There was a term in Grandpa’s will that stopped me leaving.
I didn’t want to paint him in a bad light, so I kept that part from my brother, Noah.
He thinks that I’m greedy, that I’m here for one reason.
I’m here to find a bride; I just don’t know where to start.
Until Grandpa decides that he’ll give me a helping hand.
You'll read more about Noah and Kylie in this novella coming out in June 2017.
Continue scrolling, to get my special gift to you :)
Claimed By Her Billionaire Stepbrother
Preparing to marry a man she doesn’t love, getting kidnapped the night of her engagement party is the last thing Ambra Hathaway expects. She hasn’t seen her stepbrother in three years, since the night Ethan Cartwright turned down her clumsy attempt at seduction. Why has he taken her now? Could it really be because he’s been in love with her all this time and was just waiting for her to be old enough to claim as his? She has two days to find out—and do her best to withstand his anything-but-clumsy seduction attempts.
Chapter One
“Excuse me, Miss Hathaway, but Mr. Cartwright needs you.”
Ambra turned to face the severe butler, unsurprised to see Mr. Gibbons without a smile. In the entire sixteen years she had lived in Philip Cartwright’s house, she’d never seen him smile. “Do you know what he needs? I thought he was about to make the announcement.”
Her stomach surged with nausea when she said the word, instantly forcing her to recall the occasion for which all the people were gathered in the Cartwrights’ large home. She struggled to hide her lack of enthusiasm as she awaited the butler’s response.
“He simply said it was urgent, Miss Hathaway.” Without awaiting further response, he turned on his heel, and Ambra knew she had to keep up, because once Mr. Gibbons had a mission, he fulfilled it. She expected him to lead her into a different part of the house, perhaps the solarium, where her stepfather was prepared to make the announcement of the engagement.
She couldn’t even think the word without her stomach churning, but she reminded herself again what was at stake. It didn’t matter that she didn’t love Perry Statler, and he didn’t love her. All that mattered was maintaining the company and jobs for thousands of employees.
To her surprise, Mr. Gibbons led her to the back of the house, through the kitchen, and out the back door. “What in the world is my stepfather doing out here?” A strange smile flickered across Mr. Gibbons’s face, and the sight was so unusual she flinched at the sign of amusement from the stoic man.
“Mr. Cartwright will be with you shortly.” With a small inclination of his head, he turned and left her in the backyard.
Ambra hugged herself to ward off the chill of the late fall evening, wondering what her father was planning. Technically, he was her stepfather, but had married her mother when Ambra was just five, and she had never met her real father. When her mother died three years later, he’d adopted her with minimal fuss and had honored her request to keep her last name as tribute to her dead parents.
She loved Philip Cartwright just like a father, so she was willing to indulge him in most things, including agreeing to a loveless marriage to cement the company merger. However, as much as she loved her stepfather, she wasn’t about to stand out in the cold air all night.
Ambra moved toward the back door, planning to reenter the kitchen and let her stepfather find her inside, but movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. She froze and glanced the direction from which it had come, letting out a yelp of surprise when strong arms enfolded her.
They held her tightly against them, whoever they were. She opened her mouth to scream, and a large hand clamped over her lips. As the person lifted and carried her, Ambra couldn’t quite grasp she was being kidnapped from her own backyard on the night of her engagement party. It was even more of a surprise to have the abductor shove her into the back of a limousine a second later. What kind of kidnapper used a limousine?
The kidnapper had placed her on the floorboard with her face pointed toward the floor, and he didn’t allow her up until the car started moving. Cautiously, her body shaking with fear, she slowly turned.
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell her abductor he was stealing the wrong person if he wanted ransom. The Cartwright fortune had dwindled over the years, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Philip would go crazy trying to rescue her, or meet the kidnapper’s demands, but they simply lacked the funds to do so.
That fled from her mind when she identified who had abducted her. Ambra couldn’t resist the urge to slap his handsome face, though it made her palm sting, and she winced as she pulled away to cradle her hand in her lap “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Ethan Cartwright?” She hadn’t seen her stepbrother in three years, not since that terribly embarrassing night she’d gone to his room, and this was the first contact after all that time? “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you turn around and take me home right now.”
“Sorry, sweet stepsister, but that isn’t in the cards for you tonight.”
She glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest when she abruptly remembered the low cut of her pink evening gown. “What’s going on? Why would you do this? I have to get back before the announcement.”
He arched a brow. “The announcement? Oh, you must mean the great announcement of your engagement to Perry Statler, heir to a toilet paper empire? How appropriate,” he said sardonically.
Her glower deepened, and she refused to allow him to see she’d had the thought herself more than once. “I don’t know why you’re acting so high and mighty, Ethan. You’re heir to a paper goods empire. Your fortune was built on Styrofoam plates and paper napkins.”
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