A whole month on the beach sounded fabulous. One of these days she planned on getting a house on the beach herself. It didn’t need to be huge, but it did need to have direct access to the water. For one reason or another, she’d never gotten around to finding the perfect place.
“Katelyn hates the beach almost as much as I do, and she asks to stay with me rather than go with them. The arrangement works out perfectly for everyone.”
How could anyone live in New England and hate the beach? “What types of things do you two do during the summer?”
“She loves amusement parks, so we visit those. Sometimes we’ll head to Boston or New York and visit the museums. We both love art. We often go to the theater together too.”
So far much of what he mentioned involved being indoors. Perhaps that explained his pale complexion. Even though it was only early June, she’d spent enough time outside that she now had a nice golden tan. Trevor, however, looked as though he rarely stepped outside his university office.
“This summer she wants to go hiking. She’s never been before. I promised we’d give it a try one of these weekends.”
Hiking she enjoyed, although not as much as swimming and being at the beach. However, if Trevor enjoyed it, they’d have something in common. So far it didn’t sound like they had many shared interests. “I usually go hiking in the fall. There’s something about being surrounded by the colorful trees. Sometimes I’ll go in the summer too.”
Trevor’s brown eyes widened behind his glasses and he said, “Do you hike a lot? When Katelyn and I go, it will be my first time too.”
So much for finally having something in common. “Not as much as some people, but yes. I’ve always enjoyed spending time outside, especially the older I get. Maybe it’s because I spend so much of my time in either my office or at the courthouse.”
He gave a little chuckle. “It does seem once we become adults all our time is spent in an office. Whenever I need a break or need to release some stress, I like to run. Most of the time I’ll either use the indoor track on campus or the treadmill in my basement, since it’s so convenient. During the nicer months, I’ll run outside if it’s not raining, but not in the winter. I’ve never enjoyed running outside in cold weather or when there’s snow and ice.”
Now that he’d mentioned it, Trevor did look like a runner, or at least he had the body of a runner. Although on the shorter side—she suspected he was only about five foot eight—he was lean with a trim waist, and judging by the way his dress shirt fit him, it didn’t appear as though he spent much time lifting any heavy weights.
“You’ll never see me running unless there is a madman chasing me with a butcher’s knife. Swimming is my thing. I could spend all day at the beach or in the pool.”
“I guess they both accomplish the same goal,” Trevor said. “Perhaps this summer you can join us when we go hiking.”
There he went again. Brooklyn struggled to keep from frowning. Didn’t it make more sense for them to get to know each other much better before they added his daughter to the mix?
“Or maybe not.”
The optimistic tone in his voice disappeared, and she suspected she’d revealed her feelings despite her best efforts.
Trevor placed his fork by his plate and folded his hands. “You’re not interested in meeting Katelyn?” he asked, sounding a cross between disappointed and offended. She hadn’t intended for him to feel either.
“It’s not that at all, Trevor. I just thought we should spend more time getting to know each other first. See where things go before you introduce me to your daughter.”
Across the table, he remained silent for a moment or two, then he nodded. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to rush you into anything. Katelyn and I do so many things together. Sometimes I forget she doesn’t need to be included in every aspect of my life.”
Brooklyn breathed a mental sigh of relief. “You two are close?”
Trevor nodded. “Very. She’s close to her mother too, but we’ve always had a special bond. Perhaps it’s because our personalities are so similar. I’m not sure, but she’s always been Dad’s little girl.”
She envied his daughter. Neither of her parents would ever admit it, but Paris had always been their mom’s favorite. No matter what she did or said when they were younger, she never got in trouble with Mom. Instead, it was always her or Milan who found themselves sent to their bedrooms or grounded. At the same time, Milan claimed the role as Daddy’s little girl. That meant Dad overturned any punishments their mom subjected Milan to, even when it was a well-deserved punishment like the time she added Brooklyn’s favorite stuffed bear to the pile of dog toys, knowing Wrigley, their border collie, would tear the thing apart because he did it to all his toys.
“Do you have any pictures of her?”
He smiled and reached into his jacket pocket. “This one is from our trip to Florida.” He passed the phone across the table. “Snow White has always been her favorite princess.”
“She’s not a typical choice,” Brooklyn said.
“I think it’s because my parents and I always tell her she looks like her.”
Accepting the phone, she glanced down at the picture of Trevor’s smiling daughter standing between him and Snow White. She understood why they’d tell Katelyn she resembled the fairy-tale princess. The girl had dark hair; from the picture it was difficult to tell if it was black or dark brown. Since Trevor’s hair was black except for the gray streaks going through it, she suspected his daughter’s was as well. Like her dad, she had a pale complexion and the same brown eyes as Trevor, and either she had on lipstick or her lips were an unnaturally rosy shade of red. Unlike her dad though, she was tall, or at least tall for a ten-year-old. She already reached Trevor’s shoulder.
“She’s beautiful.” She handed the phone back to Trevor. “And tall.”
Trevor looked at the picture before returning the phone to his pocket. “She gets that from her mom’s side. Laurie’s five foot eight and considered the shortest one in her family. One of Katelyn’s uncles is almost seven feet tall.”
“Wow. Being so tall must come in handy. I’m always in need of a step stool.”
Trevor cracked a smile. “Yeah, but try finding a suit to fit.”
“Good point. I guess shopping would be difficult for someone so tall.”
A member of the waitstaff appeared and removed their dishes and then silently left again.
“The show starts at seven thirty. I thought perhaps afterward we could stop at Ambrosia for dessert,” Trevor said.
Brooklyn spotted their waiter heading toward their table. “Sounds like a wonderful plan.”
***
When he left the office late Friday night, he’d had no particular destination in mind, but Derek knew he didn’t want to go home either. He’d been on edge all week anyway, and then he’d spent the majority of the day cooped up in his office working on a brief for a case. Even when Brooklyn popped in and asked if he wanted to join her for lunch, he’d declined. He’d insisted he had too much to finish, although in truth he could have taken a short break and enjoyed lunch with her. After all, thirty minutes or so wouldn’t make much of a difference.
Instead, he’d had a sandwich delivered to the office, because if he’d gone with her, they would’ve once again disagreed about her evening plans. Already twice this week they’d clashed over her decision to have dinner with Trevor Jones tonight. So rather than risk having her angry at him—it didn’t happen often, but he hated when she was mad at him—he ate the less-than-satisfying sandwich from the deli down the street and kept his office door closed.
With the workweek behind him though, he wanted a way to start his weekend. Often after a long week, he’d grab a drink with some friends before calling it a night. Other times he’d head straight home and get ready for a date with whichever woman he was involved with at the moment. Tonight he realized he’d make lousy company, so even though a few friends had invited him out, he’d
passed. With the foundation’s bachelor auction around the corner, he assumed it wouldn’t be a good idea to ask anyone out for the evening either. Not that he could honestly think of anyone he’d met recently he’d want to spend time with. None of the women he’d dated in the past held any appeal either, even though he’d really enjoyed the time he’d spent with some of them.
Less than fifteen minutes after leaving the office, Derek found himself turning into the parking garage below the Hillcrest, his brothers’ and Brooklyn’s apartment complex. During the week, he often stopped there to visit any one of them. However, he rarely went there to see Trent or Gray on a Friday night unless they’d invited him over. He knew for a fact when Gray’s fiancée wasn’t working they enjoyed going out, and ever since Addie entered Trent’s life, his brother preferred to spend Friday nights at home with her. Brooklyn on the other hand never minded when he popped in unannounced, no matter the day of the week, and he’d never considered she might have other things she’d rather be doing. Thinking about it now, perhaps he should have.
Derek walked through the lobby and past the security desk toward the private elevator for Trent’s penthouse. Although he hadn’t intended on visiting his new nephew tonight, he couldn’t think of a better way to spend a few hours.
“Good evening, Mr. Sherbrooke,” one of the uniformed security guards said as Derek approached.
Even if he hadn’t visited the building countless times, the guard would’ve known he was Trent and Gray’s brother. In fact, he and Trent looked so similar people occasionally mistook him for his older brother despite the four-year age difference between them. And more than once people had said they could be twins.
“Hi, Dion. How are you?” Derek stopped in front of the elevator. With the exception of the new guard he’d spotted on his last visit, Derek remembered the names of all the employees who manned the security desk.
“Well, thank you.” The security desk phone began ringing and Dion turned his attention to it, putting an end to any further conversation.
Derek punched in his brother’s elevator code and the doors slid open.
Unlike Brooklyn, who lived in one of the smaller two-bedroom apartments in the building, his eldest brother and his wife occupied the building’s penthouse, which consisted of the entire top two floors. Although much larger than anything he needed, Derek had to admit the place had a spectacular view of the city. Actually even Gray’s place, a three-bedroom apartment a few floors below the penthouse, had a decent view. If one had to live in the city, having something nice to look at from the bedroom window made it a bit more palatable. While he recognized the convenience it provided since his brothers both worked downtown, he didn’t understand how they survived it every day. He’d keep his commute from Newport into Providence if it meant he could wake up every morning and see the ocean from his bedroom window.
When the elevator reached the top, the doors opened and Derek stepped out. Before he rang the bell, the door opened and his brother Gray appeared.
“Did Kiera kick you out or did you forget where you live in your old age?” Derek asked, unable to keep from giving his brother a hard time.
Gray took a step back inside as Derek approached. “Kiera’s working, so I came up to see Kendrick. What’s your excuse? Couldn’t find a woman who could tolerate your company?”
Derek paused near his brother long enough to give him a light slug in the arm. “Long week at work. Besides, tonight I found an evening visiting our nephew more appealing.” He looked around but didn’t spot anyone else. “Did you bore everyone to sleep or something?”
“That’s your specialty, remember,” Gray answered with a little smirk. “Addie went upstairs to nurse Kendrick again. Trent got a call from work and disappeared into his office. Since everyone’s busy, I figured I’d head back downstairs and find something to eat, maybe put on a movie. Kiera won’t be home for a while. Do you want to join me or are you going to stick around here and wait?”
Most nights he’d take Gray up on his offer. Tonight he was more interested in visiting the newest member of the family. “I’m going to pass for now. Maybe I’ll stop in before I leave.”
“I’ll be up. See you later.” Gray walked out, pulling the door closed behind him.
Left alone, Derek made his way into the kitchen and straight to the pastry box from Ambrosia Pastry Shop and Cafe on the counter. Even if it hadn’t been hours since his last meal, he wouldn’t have been able to resist something from there. Opening the box, he discovered several cannoli as well as some biscotti. He grabbed one of each.
“Derek?” Addie walked into the kitchen with Kendrick in her arms. “When did you get here?”
“Just now. Gray let me in on his way out. Hope you don’t mind more company.” He put his snack down so he could give his sister-in-law a kiss on the cheek before dropping one on his nephew’s head.
“No, but don’t you usually go out on Fridays?”
Unable to resist the tasty treats he’d left behind, Derek retrieved them. “Missed my nephew,” he said before he took a bite of his cannoli and savored the sweet creamy filling. “I’m going to need another one of these.”
“Make sure you don’t eat them all. Trent will kick you out. My mom brought those over this afternoon, and he hasn’t had a chance to have one yet.”
He popped the last bit of the pastry into his mouth and eyed the box. “Only one more. There are at least eight left in the box.” Derek didn’t wait for Addie to comment before he grabbed another and took a big bite of it.
Addie only rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say. It’s your head. But while you eat, I’m going into the living room.”
Derek didn’t waste any time finishing his quick snack. Then, before following his sister-in-law, he grabbed a drink. In his book, nothing went with cannoli and biscotti better than an espresso. Since tonight making espresso seemed like too much effort, he settled for milk instead.
With his hunger satisfied for the moment, he joined Addie.
“I ran into Brooklyn downstairs yesterday when I came back from my walk with Kendrick. She offered her help if I ever need it.”
Brooklyn’s gesture didn’t surprise him. Actually, it would have shocked him if she hadn’t said something along those lines.
“She must have gotten back recently. Didn’t her sister get married last weekend?”
“Yeah, last Friday, and Brooklyn flew home right after the reception,” he answered, dropping down on the couch. “Any chance of holding him tonight?” He touched his nephew’s head, the light blond hair the softest thing he’d ever felt. Now he truly understood what people meant when they said baby soft.
Addie didn’t hesitate to pass the baby off to him and he cradled Kendrick in his arms as both his brother and sister-in-law had instructed the first time he held him. Since Kendrick’s birth, he’d held his nephew several times, but his tiny size still amazed him. Tonight, unlike the last time he’d visited, Kendrick was wide awake, his eyes, which were the same shade as Trent’s and his, gazing back up at him. “Every day he looks more like Trent,” he said, thinking back to Brooklyn’s question about whom the baby resembled more.
“I agree. Looks like there’ll be another Sherbrooke heartbreaker out there in sixteen years or so.”
“Sixteen years? Yeah, right. Try eleven or twelve. Trent asked out our neighbor’s daughter right after he turned twelve. Stacey was fourteen.”
“Really? What did she say?”
“Do you really need to ask?” He glanced away from his nephew. “She said yes. Dad caught them kissing in our tree house.”
Addie laughed. “Somehow it doesn’t surprise me. Actually, it wouldn’t shock me if all of you took girls into the tree house to make out.”
The memory of the times he and Jackie had snuck into the tree house as well as into the pool house surfaced and he cleared his throat. “As far as I know, Gray never did.”
His sister-in-law laughed again. “I guess that means you did. Who was
she? Another neighbor?”
“You know what, let’s talk about something else.”
“You’re no fun sometimes, but okay. Besides, there’s something I want to ask you.”
The last time a female relative made a similar statement, he’d ended up roped in to the foundation’s ridiculous auction. He hoped whatever Addie wanted to ask now didn’t lead to an equally unpleasant evening for him.
“Go for it. I’m listening.”
“Ever since I talked to Brooklyn, I’ve been trying to think of any friends I have who she might get along well with,” Addie began.
He couldn’t have been any more surprised by her choice of topics than if she’d said aliens lived downstairs.
“She seems so sweet. If Tom or Frank lived closer, I’d introduce her to them, but Frank’s in California and Tom’s headed to Texas next month.”
He’d never met either Frank or Tom, two more of Addie’s older brothers, but if they were anything like Rock, he couldn’t picture them with Brooklyn.
“I was thinking about my cousin Shane. He’s a year younger than you and lives in Cumberland. He really enjoys spending time outside. He goes rock climbing and hiking almost every weekend, even in the winter. And he got his certification to scuba dive either last summer or the one before. I wasn’t sure if she’d enjoy those types of activities.”
Addie’s choice of topics had him wishing he’d gone home straight from work after all, because the last thing he wanted was to help her play matchmaker. “She’s afraid of heights and dislikes open water. She has some thing about not being able to see what’s swimming around her. Never understood the big deal, but she insists.”
He didn’t make a habit of lying, but tonight he couldn’t stop himself. Both he and Brooklyn had learned to scuba dive together, and he’d once seen her scale up the wall at the rock climbing gym, so Shane sounded like someone she might enjoy spending time with.
Bidding On The Billionaire (The Sherbrookes of Newport Book 8) Page 4
