That was not going to happen. Over my dead body would he be in a confined space with my Beauty for any length of time. That tidbit of information could be discussed at a later date. First priority, get the bird to dinner. Next, get the woman in my bed. Lastly, convince her to give us an honest shot at something more.
“All sorted.” Nathaniel pocketed his phone and stood. I held out a hand. He shook it and smiled. I gave him one of my own.
“Dog’s bollocks, brother.”
“As the Yanks would say, now don’t screw it up!”
“I don’t intend to.” I looked at my desk and took a seat as Nathaniel reached the door. He held onto the door-handle and stopped.
“She’s special this one. True?”
I slid on my spectacles, clasped my hands in front of me, elbows on the lacquered surface and looked over the rims of my glasses at Nathaniel. He wasn’t only my brother, he was my best mate. His tall built frame filled the space, though the daily swimming he did kept his body from being too bulky. He waited for my response. I took a deep breath and let the air flow slowly through my too dry lips.
His gaze met mine. A hundred thousand words were said, ones only brothers, kindred spirits, could express without speaking. The word slipped from my lips, heavy with a deeper meaning.
“True.”
Chapter - 7
Aspen yanked my hand so hard she almost pulled my shoulder out of socket.
“Ouch! Stop it already!” I tried and failed to smack off the vice-like clamp she had on me.
Her grip tightened on my hand as we made our way into the sitting room in my parent’s mansion, a posh and prestigious nightmare of social grace. Everything perfect, nothing out of place in the Bright-Reynolds home. The couches were sparkling white. The type that made you afraid to sit on them if you weren’t careful. Holding a glass of wine or cookie from the gold tipped china plate bought to show off mother’s expensive taste was a risky move, one I constantly enjoyed making. I loved freaking mother out. Grabbing a cookie as I sat, I made a point to bite hard, allowing the crumbs to fall onto the floor. Her perfectly sculpted brows knit together in clear disdain. Point one for me.
My sister slowly sat next to me, crossing her long pale legs with grace. Her blond hair hung like a golden sheet across her back. Aspen was a magnificent woman, not only in beauty but in all things. Her stature was strong, she was poised. Her gray-blue eyes assessed our mother with a twinge of distaste. One of the things we had in common was our dislike of our she-devil mother. The woman was insufferable. But today was the day I was waiting for. Aspen was going to drop the bomb and I couldn’t wait. I was barely able to contain my glee. Mother would flip over this information.
“Mother, I have news.” Aspen adjusted her suit, carefully pulling the blazer over her swelling breasts and stomach. Tension rippled the air around her. Poor thing. Even though mother was a bitch on wheels, Aspen still wanted to please her. She had always hoped our mother would give a shit about someone instead of social niceties and the who’s who of New York City. Fat chance. Nothing my wildly successful and model-beautiful sister could do would change Vivian Bright-Reynolds.
“You’ve come to your senses and dropped the silly relationship with that construction worker?” She sipped her tea and tipped her chin up, a mocking gesture if I’d ever seen one. She held her pinky out as she drank, the pale pink polish of her manicure catching the light for a moment.
“Quite the opposite actually,” Aspen said, taking a slow calming breath.
“Oh?” Mother’s eyebrow pointed to the sky.
“Hank’s asked me to marry him and I’ve agreed.” Mother’s hand shook. The teacup clacked against the tiny saucer. It was the only indication she felt anything. Her face stayed stoic, unmoved, still pinched in her usual reserved pout. I was practically bouncing out of my seat with joy as the wall of angry emotions flooded my way from the woman sitting opposite us.
“Is that so?” Mother’s voice was tight and held no emotion.
“Yes. We’ll be married next month at Hank’s ranch in Texas. I’d love for you and Daddy to come.”
“A month?” The first hint of stress entered Mother’s tone. “Why so soon? Shouldn’t you spend more time getting to know one another?”
I had to give it to her. Mother pretended to be concerned for her daughter’s well-being but both Aspen and I knew she had other reasons. More time, meant she had longer to meddle and attempt to break off the engagement.
Aspen reached for my hand and I held it tight. Sister solidarity.
Our Father took that moment to enter the room. His dark suit jacket flapped as he bounded in. William Reynolds was a force of nature. His dark, good looks, salt and pepper hair, accompanied with our same gray-blue eyes were dominant traits that had women everywhere falling at his feet, though he stayed true to the she-bitch. Never could understand why. Tripp was convinced she had a golden pussy. No man could handle such a stuck up bitch unless she was a tiger in the sack, he’d said.
“Girls! Sorry I’m late. Business. You know how it is.” He leaned down and clasped my cheek and kissed the opposite then did the same with Aspen. “Stunning beauties. To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit,” Daddy said happily.
The way daddy just sat heavily next to mother and put his hand high on her thigh, much higher than her social graces would normally allow, made me think Tripp could be right. Blech.
“Aspen’s getting married, William,” Mother answered before my sister could. The tone that slipped from Mother’s lips was dead-cold, clearly showing her true feelings about the pending nuptials.
Our father hopped up out of his seat and pulled Aspen into a big hug. “Pen, my darling. Congrats are in order. We should have champagne!” Daddy and Aspen’s happiness filled the room as they hugged, essentially putting a blanket over mother’s negative vibes. Point two goes to Daddy.
“Tell him how quickly you’re marrying, dear,” Mother encouraged.
“Next month, at Hank’s ranch in Texas. Really small affair. Just close friends and family. I want you to walk me down the aisle,” Pen said, tears in her blue eyes.
He swiped them off her cheeks. “I’d love nothing more to give your hand to Hank Jensen. He’s good man. Solid. Hard-working.”
Aspen’s smile glowed so bright it was blinding and infectious. I could feel my own cheeks splitting the seams with my wide smile, watching my sister and our father embrace. Not to mention how disgusted and angry mother was. She hadn’t even told them the best part. I could hardly contain my excitement. I tugged on Aspen’s white blazer.
“Pen, you forgetting something?”
She wiped her eyes then took another breath. “There’s more.” Her voice was a little choked. Daddy went back to his seat and put an arm over mother. He gripped her to him, a huge smile on his face.
“What more?” he asked happily. Clearly our father approved of Aspen’s decision to marry the hot cowboy.
“You’re going to be grandparents!” Aspen’s tears fell down her cheeks and I stood and gripped her shoulder, comforting her while our parent’s took this information in.
Dad’s smile went from happy to utterly ecstatic. Mother’s eyes were so wide, I worried they’d pop right out of her head. Her mouth was open in what could only be shock.
“You’re pregnant!” Dad jumped up and put a hand over Pen’s waist to feel. If anything, she only had a tiny miniscule bump. I’d know. Every chance I’d had, my hand was feeling that belly, measuring its elasticity. Hank was convinced he could feel his baby growing. I was bound and determined to not be left out. This was probably the only time in my life I’d experience a pregnancy, not ever planning to go that route myself.
I’d wanted children with James. We talked about it all the time, how they were going to have his green eyes, my black hair and be the most precious things in the world. One girl, one boy. James William Jr. after him and my father. Collette Aspen after his mother and my sister. Now, it was another thing I threw into
the never-to-be box of unfulfilled dreams.
“Isn’t it amazing? We’re going to have a baby running around the mansion!” I squealed, throwing my arms around Dad and Pen. Mother sat stewing, trying desperately to find a way to make this information untrue.
“Are you sure it isn’t Grant’s child?” Mother asked, hope tinting her tone.
All three of us looked at Mother as if she’d just lost her mind. Which she had. Sick bitch.
“You were together almost a year. How would I know you weren’t still seeing him when that cowboy fella was off gallivanting back in Texas with his ex-girlfriend? I heard the story. Very uncivilized if you ask me.”
“I didn’t. It’s obvious you didn’t hear much of the real story,” Pen said, biting back her anger. “Hank pined over me the entire time we were separated. His ex made a play for him that I misinterpreted. Almost lost the man of my dreams over it!”
We all sat down. I held her hand, trying my best to put all the love and support possible in my touch. “Don’t ever mention Grant to me or my fiancé again. He’s liable to go insane. Hank is very protective of me and our child. I would hope you could support the decision I’ve made to marry and have his baby, Mother. So help me God…“ She choked back a sob. “…you’ll never see or know your grandchild.” She stood up abruptly, pulling my hand. “London, time to go.”
I nodded and grabbed my purse. Daddy stood and took ahold of Pen. “Darling, my darling Pen. I am through the moon over this news. You tell me where to be, what to wear and where to stand. I’ll happily do it.” She nodded, tears pooling in her eyes.
“I love you, Daddy,” she whispered as he hugged her.
“I love you, too. Both of you.” He let Pen go and embraced me. His long arms pulled me into the warmth of his chest. His essence washed over the situation, coating it with love.
“Me, too, Dad. Please talk some sense into her.” I tilted my head to our mother. She squinted. Her irritation clear in the tight way she held her shoulders and pinched her lips together.
“I always do,” Dad laughed.
Aspen and I made our way to the limo. Sadness flowed over me as I hugged her. She cried into my shoulder.
“Why can’t she be happy for me?”
I shook my head and petted her hair. It felt like the finest silk. “You can’t make someone happy who isn’t happy with themselves. She had a plan for you, me and Rio. Wanted you and me to marry some rich, pompous asshole and have the perfect three socialite kids. Just like she did. Remember how angry she was when she found out James and I were getting married?”
Aspen’s shoulder shook and I could tell her tears turned to laughter. Pregnancy hormones made normally calm people a bit wacky. “She was so angry. You’d just turned eighteen and James claimed he was marrying you and that was that.”
We both giggled as I thought back to that day. James had bought me a thin gold band. Like Hank, he didn’t come from a family with money. Love, but not money. We were both college bound and he wanted us married and living together, going to school and coming home to one another each day. At the time, it was everything I’d ever wanted.
James got down on one knee at an ice-cream parlor the day we graduated high-school. His brown hair had flopped over into his green eyes and he shook it off in that way that made my knees weak. Daddy paid for us to get married in a garden wedding on our estate, much to Mother’s chagrin. She pretended like a perfect actor that day. Daddy made certain she was on her best behavior. There were more people at our wedding that I hadn’t met than had. James and I didn’t care. As long as we had each other, nothing else mattered.
We barely finished college when the accident happened. I was twenty-two, a design school graduate and a widow. Without mother’s knowledge, Daddy paid for my schooling and ensured James had gotten scholarships approved from New York State University. Then it was all over.
Pen and I stayed silent, remembering James. “He was a light in a dark world, London.”
“Yes, he was. My light. It’s still hard to accept he’s gone.”
Aspen hugged me tighter and we both cleared our eyes of our tears. “But you’re moving on, right? Did you have a date with Nate’s brother Collier?”
Collier. I hadn’t seen the gorgeous Englishman in a week. Staying away from him had been harder than I expected. My body yearned for him, for his touch. But I fought it. Had to or he’d get hurt.
“We did. Had a great time, too, but it won’t work.”
She pulled her hair over her shoulder and threaded her fingers through the long blond strands. Her eyes met mine and I quickly looked away. “You had a great time but it won’t work? Why not?”
“Because,” I took a deep breath. “He just…I don’t know.” I shook my head.
“He what? Made you feel something?”
I nodded. “Yeah, too much.”
“Don’t do this to yourself, London. You are not an island. James would not want you to go through life alone.” Her tone was soft and pleading as she gripped my hand.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
“You can, and eventually you will. You don’t have to let your love for James go; but you can’t keep forcing people to stay at arm’s length. It’s unhealthy. It’s been four years now. Time to move on. Let someone in.” Aspen was not only big in business; she had a way of making sense, convincing others to follow her. It made her a great leader in all things.
I shook my head, clearing it, letting the idea of Collier and me float off into the sky. I rolled my eyes. “You’re saying that because you’re happy and in love. Everyone who’s found their soul mate feels that way, Pen. But I already had mine. You don’t get a second shot at it!”
“That is such bull.” Anger and concern seeped into her tone. “When it’s the right person, it will happen. You just wait. Please, just please promise me you’ll try. Let someone in…just a little?” Her gaze pierced mine, pleading and intense.
I wouldn’t back down, the decision had been made. She didn’t need to know that. “I’ll try.”
Images of Collier flashed across my mind. His chocolate brown eyes bored holes into mine as he hovered above me, filling me, completing me in ways I hadn’t wanted or expected.
***
A knock on my door startled me. I paused the rugby match I had DVRd on the telly and went to answer. I was not prepared to see my sister Emma at the door, tears in her eyes.
“Colly!” she screeched and flew into my arms.
I held her petite form as she sobbed. “What happened?”
“Evan. H-he…he…oh, God,” she cried, wetting my shirt. “He cheated on me.” She sniffed and I held her tight.
“That fucking puissant! I’ll kill the bastard.” I shuffled her into the room and settled her on the couch. She pulled the arm pillow into her lap and buried her face into it. I hustled into the kitchen, giving her a moment as I whipped up a spot of tea.
She hadn’t moved when I returned. I eased down onto the glass coffee table sitting directly across from her, our knees touching. “Tell me,” I urged.
Her brown eyes, same as my own, same as our mother’s, were filled with unshed tears. “Baby girl, please.” She closed her eyes and held my hands as she lost the battle and they spilled over the edge. The torrential proof of her pain and suffering was as effective on my big-brother kick-some-arse-nature as a scalding pot of hot water over an ice cube. The wanker was mine, though Nathaniel would want a shot and he’d have his turn too. There was plenty of that cocksucker to go around.
Emma straightened her shoulders as if preparing for battle and took a deep breath. “I went to his work. You know, in Dartford?”
I nodded.
“He’d been different lately. Not wanting to you know…“
I closed my eyes really not wanting to hear what that bastard did with my sister but allowed her to continue anyway.
“…share the marital bed as it were.”
I rubbed her hands back and forth, calming her. “Go on
.” The tension coiled tight in my gut and anger seeped into my veins.
“So I showed up in a saucy dress. I’d been working out a lot, trying to get him to look at me the way he used to. And I brought him some supper and that’s when…“She choked back another round of sobs. “That’s when I walked in and saw him!” Tears streaked down her face so fast it was as if she’d turned on a faucet. “He had his face…his face, Collier! B-between his secretary’s legs! All spread out like a holiday dinner!” She screamed and threw herself back into the couch, hands over her eyes.
That’s it. Forget the arse-kicking. Evan was a dead man. D-E-A-D M-A-N. I moved to the couch and pulled my baby sister into my lap, hugging her close.
“Baby girl, it’s going to be okay. You’ll stay here in the States. You can stay with me or Nathaniel or we’ll get you a place of your own. Don’t go back to that wanker. He’s…you’re so much better than him. A man should worship you, not walk out on you. It’s unforgivable.”
She nodded. “But what about work? My life? Mum, Dad?”
“We’ll handle it all. You have a degree. We can put it to use. You can stay in the States if you’d like. Work at our firm. I really need an assistant. Remember those years you helped Nathaniel and I out with our proposals and getting the books together at our first office while you went to school? I’ll pay you twenty times that to work for us. We need someone we can trust. Someone with brains.” She pulled back and looked at me, her eyes a tad less teary.
“You’d do that for me?”
“Baby girl, of course. Besides, you’d be doing us a huge favor. You’re perfect. Would you like to work for Stone, Walker, & Associates?” She tilted her head and bit her lip, so I continued. “It will give you the time to figure out what you’re going to do about the daft prick who’s going to be a dead man when your brother and I get our mitts on him.”
London Falling (The Falling Series) Page 9
