by Nicole Casey
“I knew that I’d heard that name before. That’s where.” I thought about Sadie and how much she wanted to be friends and help me out. Surely if I asked her to tell Dante to back off, she would. “We could ask her for help with this Dante situation. We’ve started talking more and meeting up for coffee. I think she’d help.”
Huxley put his hand on my lap. “That’s a good thought, but unfortunately, I don’t think she’d help. She’s taken a strictly ‘uninvolved’ position in Dante’s business because it’s a conflict of interest for her.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Sadie has made Dante promise not to ever use any of his contacts or resources to help her in her career or life in general,” Harley said. “Dante agreed, but said that then Sadie couldn’t weigh in on any of his business decisions.”
“But I think--”
“I tried,” Rogan cut in. “When we first started working with Sadie I asked her if she could convince Dante to see reason, but she said that he would never go for it and that even suggesting it could hurt her family. Our business is a big part of their business, so Dante is determined to keep his hooks in.”
“Besides, it seems like you and Sadie have a real chance to be friends,” Quentin said. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we wouldn’t want you to risk that for us.”
There were different types of affirmations, but they all seemed to be in agreement. That they would be willing to leverage themselves against my ability to have a friend was chivalrous to say the least. If they didn’t think that Sadie was the way to go, then I would listen to them for now, but if they were ever in any real trouble, I was glad I had something I could at least use as a final ditch effort.
The car pulled around the small cul-de-sac type entrance to the back, glass doors, and stopped. “Alright,” Maverick said. “Time for you to meet our old man.”
“Any advice?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Devlin said, grinning at me. “Just be yourself and he’s sure to adore you.”
I could feel my face warming. I may not have slept with Delvin that night that I ended up hooking up with the twins, but that hadn’t stopped him from complimenting me every chance he got. In fact, all the guys had been that way; above and beyond sweet since after I slept with Huxley and Harley. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the twins told them, creating some sort of expectation that they’d all get attention at some point, which of course wasn’t true.
That being said, I couldn’t really shake the ‘being brought home to dad’ feeling of this first meeting. Having slept with the twins, and getting all the advice and family history from the rest of the guys, I did kind of feel like a girlfriend going to meet her boyfriend’s parents for the first time.
We climbed out of the limo and walked up to the door. Before any of the Foxx siblings could knock on the door, it flung open, and a stunning woman with long, sandy brown hair and lavender eyes came running out.
“I miei ragazzi sono a casa!” she sang in a language I didn’t understand.
“Buongiorno, Sienne,” Delvin greeted. “È bello rivederti. Come siete stati tu e papà? Siamo più felici di vederti di lui, sai?” The words spilled out of his mouth like they were his natural tongue. I was astounded.
“Stavamo semplicemente contando i giorni fino a quando voi ragazzi finalmente siete venuti a trovarci di nuovo. Spero che resterai per due settimane intere questa volta.” She looked over at me with a grin. “Chi di voi è responsabile di questo gattino?”
“Con un po 'di fortuna, sarò io.” He winked at me. “È la nostra nuova società di collegamento e capo ancora, Alexa. Lei non parla italiano.”
I heard my name amongst the fray of words I was unable to make heads or tails of and held my hand up. “H-hi.”
She walked over to me. “Hello, Alexa.” Her accent was thick, but I could still understand her. “I’m Sienne. Welcome to the family.” She gave me a huge hug.
I eyed Delvin, unsure of what he’d said to her or if I should call him on it right now. “Thank you.”
Sienne giggled and looked back at Delvin. “I helped.”
Delvin laughed. “Yeah you did.”
I shook my head at him, but he just turned around and walked into the house. The rest of the brothers greeted Sienne with warm hugs and kisses and led me inside the estate. It was like walking into a museum of fine art. Beautiful sculptures and artwork lined the walls and hallways, and an extravagant, expensive looking chandelier hung down from the center of the ceiling.
“Jeez,” Maverick called out, his voice echoing through the foyer, “we only come once a year. The least you could do is be down here to greet us!”
“You don’t have to scream. He’s in a meeting with Dante.” My skin-crawled at the sound of the voice I heard, and if the way the guys’ expressions all turned sour, our sentiments were shared. Even Sienne developed a look of disgust. Malia walked around the corner from one of the rooms off to one side of the foyer. She had her hair up in a bun and wearing nothing but a two piece swimsuit with a sheer sarong around her waist. She took one look at me and a wide, evil smile grew on her face. “Well, if it isn’t Miss Storm. What an unexpected surprise.”
“Part of the job we offered her is an inside look on our family,” Huxley said quickly, making me nervous. Did she know I’d slept with him and Harley? “Hopefully that’s okay with you.”
Malia put her hands on her hips. “Why of course, why wouldn’t I be okay with a brilliant journalist covering my big day?” Her eyes bore into me as if lasers were going to shoot out any second. “Looks like our family vacation is going to be even more fun than I first anticipated.”
17
Alexa
I scanned the different family portraits that hung above the stone fireplace in the Foxxes great room. Apart from one gaudy painting of Richard Foxx sitting in a literal throne in a royal blue suit with Sienne standing at his side in a bright pink evening gown, a lot of the images were of the Foxx family. Harley and Huxley in their caps and gowns graduating college, the other boys holding their varying degrees and accolades throughout their lives, and one in particular, with Quentin holding up a peace sign and sticking out his tongue. I giggled at the sight.
“What’s so funny?” I looked over my shoulder and Huxley was walking up to me.
“Just Quentin. This picture seems so him.”
“Oh, and what exactly do you know about him?” Huxley asked. He closed in on me fully, wrapping an arm around my waist and bringing his face close to mine.
I shrugged. “I mean he’s got the whole ‘don’t care,’ vibe. I know he graduated from Yale, but he’s got the DUIs and is into all that adrenaline stuff like skydiving and free climbing. I bet his childhood was filled with fun. You know, before it wasn’t.”
“Good guess,” he stared at the picture of Quentin pensively, “but wrong.” He sighed. “The only ones who had good childhoods were Harley and I. The rest of our brothers were plucked from the brink of destruction by my dad.”
It shocked me to hear it so frankly. “Really?”
“Yeah. Quentin, his dad just bailed and his mom battled with depression, among other things. She accidentally lit their house on fire, with Q in it. Burned him up bad.”
I thought about how Quentin always wore clothes that covered his entire body other than his face, and how even it had a notable scar. “That’s why he’s so into death-defying stuff.”
“Yeah, because he literally defied death, though if you ask me, he secretly hopes one of them kills him one day.” Huxley looked truly sad. “He’s never really recovered from that.”
“I never would have guessed.” It broke my heart to imagine Quentin in so much pain. It made me feel like I needed to make it a point to tell him often how happy I was to know him. “What else?”
Huxley pulled me down the line of photos, telling me about each of his brothers as we passed them. “Maverick’s dad left when his mom got really sick. His aunt and uncle took him in, but b
etween his own siblings and cousins, he got lost in a sea of people. Like no one could see him. He started playing music as a way of amplifying himself, but they were poor, so he had to build everything from scratch. The way he repurposes stuff we think we can’t use anymore, it’s crazy.” Maverick hated being called ‘Tiny.’ Now I knew why. “Jett, he was just dropped at an orphanage at age 7. He never knew why; has no memory of his parents. All he knew was that he was stupid smart. He met my dad while he was sitting in a college level course… at 10.”
“Ten?!” Jett’s absolute need for order popped into my mind. If he was a child genius, it made sense.
“Kids really hated him for it. He got bullied a lot, until Rogan started looking out for him. He grew up in the orphanage, so he knew how to work the system. There’s not a more logical man on this planet. He could play the people around him masterfully, like a game of chess. With words alone as a weapon, he would get kids to leave him and Jett alone. When my dad wanted to adopt Jett, he refused to go without Rogan.” I remembered Rogan telling me how close he and Jett were. He sometimes made me feel miniscule, but it was just his sharp tongue taking over.
“Keaton, he plays this whole ‘bro’ act, but he’s actually a bandit, or a ninja. I don’t know. Sneaky, sly, not often showing his true colors.” He pointed at Keaton in a picture we were standing in front of. “Of all of us, you probably know him the least. The Keaton you know is not the real man.”
That made me intensely curious. I wanted to know the real Keaton, the one Huxley spoke about. “How do I bait him out?” I asked.
“You don’t,” Huxley responded. “When he trusts you, he’ll show you his real self. Once you’ve met that Keaton, there’s no looking back.” We continued down the row of pictures. “Delvin.” He chuckled. “Delvin’s nickname is ‘Devil.’ I don’t know that I’d go that far, but if you think there’s anything he hasn’t seen, you’re wrong. He’s hyper-observant with a built in tuning fork. His folks died shortly after he was born, so he lived with his classical pianist grandpa until he died too. He’s a control freak, and always likes things to go his way.”
“I would be too if it felt like things were always out of control for the first six years of my life.” I imagined Delvin in his apartment, telling me that he had lost track of time working out. I had a feeling it was a ruse, but now I had confirmation.
“These are the Foxxes,” Huxley said. “Are you sure you still want to get to know us?”
I turned until I was facing Huxley and looked up into his eyes. “I promise you I do. If you and your brothers will let me in, I promise not to betray that trust.” Huxley’s eyes shimmered as he looked down at me and my heart raced. “What about you? You and Harley are just the perfect twins in a crowd of broken brothers?”
Huxley smiled. “Yep. Nothing wrong with either of us.” In our connection it was evident that we both knew that wasn’t true, but I didn’t press the issue. Two boys who’d never known their mother, had a revolving door of step-mothers, and suddenly gained six brothers over night. It was no longer a shocker why Harley acted like the head god of Olympus while Huxley constantly acted out for attention. “What?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Just… I can’t wait to learn more.”
Huxley tipped his head in and gave me a kiss, and I didn’t deny him. Something in me was shifting towards Huxley, Harley too. I could see myself being with either of them, but did one mean both? How would I ever manage something like that?
“Take my cart,” Huxley said, pulling out his keys and handing them over to me. “Go hang out with them. See who they really are.”
18
Alexa
Huxley explained to me before leaving the main house that it was rare his brothers were in their own homes on the property. They all mingled amongst one another’s, but when winding down for the day, they could typically be found in their natural pairings, Huxley at Harley’s, Keaton at Quentin’s, Rogan at Jett’s, and Delvin at Maverick’s.
I knew that the twins were going to be holed up trying to figure out how to solve the wedding dilema, plus I’d spent the most time with them. I wanted to get to know the other six brothers better. I scanned the property and noticed that there were two golf carts parked at the one nearest the main house, one with an ‘R’ and one with a ‘J.’ I drove over to where they were parked, in front of a white, modern style house, and parked alongside them. I got out of the golf cart and walked up to the front door. I could see straight through the glass front doors into the foyer of the house, and through into the backyard where two bodies were splashing around in the pool. The sun was setting and the pool was glowing in a variety of neon colors.
I pressed the small button to the right of the door and jumped a little when a large gong, much louder than I was expecting, roared through the house. Both men in the pool stopped and looked over towards the door and I could clearly see it was Jett and Rogan. When they noticed me, I waved my hands and I had never seen two men jump out of a pool faster. It was actually flattering to know they would jump up and come over so quickly.
As they were walking around the pool, headed towards the door, Jett suddenly turned on Rogan, put both hands on his shoulders, and pushed him into the pool. When he turned back towards me, he had this huge grin on his face. It was so childish and innocent that I instantly felt warmed towards them. At the end of the day, they were just brothers. They’d been through so much and were just trying to enjoy a life that, statistically, neither of them should have had.
Jett opened the front door, still dripping wet. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I said with a chuckle. “Cheap shot.”
Jett waved his hand. “He’ll be alright. How are you?”
“Lots to take in, but I’m doing okay. I, um, was wondering if I could hang out for a while?” Jett’s eyes widened and his smile got even bigger. “Yeah. Come in.”
He stepped aside and I walked past him, into the clean, bright house, and continued through to the back yard. Rogan was sitting on the edge of the pool, slicking back his blond hair. He looked over at me. “I want you to know that he got the jump on me. I could kick his ass any day.”
“Sure you could,” Jett said. “Can I get you a drink?”
“I’d love one.” I pulled my phone, wallet, and Huxley’s keys out of my jeans pocket and set them on a nearby table and then started to roll them up from the bottom. “I didn’t come prepared for a pool party.”
“We can fix that.” I only heard Jett’s voice behind me for a second before I was thrust forward, falling face first towards the water’s surface.
I crashed into the pool with a massive splash. I heard a commotion above the surface, followed by a sploosh next to me, and an arm pulling me up a few seconds later. When I finally got my bearings and got all the water wiped out of my face, I saw that Rogan had a hold on me. His blue eyes were filled with concern.
“Are you okay?”
I sputtered out a few snickers and then started laughing outright. I put a hand on Rogan’s cheek. “I’m okay.” I pointed at Jett. “But you will pay for that.”
Jett held out his arms. “I look forward to it.”
Rogan’s arms around me, floating amongst the warm water felt nice, but I knew I was too close. I pulled away a few feet and then grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it up and over my head, chucking it at Jett. He ducked just out of the way with a laugh. I unbuttoned my jeans next, and worked them off my legs and tossed them over to the edge of the pool. Were my back lace bra and matching underwear a swimsuit, no, but they would have to suffice. Last time I checked, walking around in soaked jeans wasn’t comfortable.
“And you said there were consequences for my actions,” Jett commented, looking at me with a hungry gaze.
“This is a consequence,” Rogan replied. “It’s just a good one.”
Jett used the nearby stairs to step down into the pool, handing over a small glass with a single, perfectly round ice cube, filled with a light brown liquid.
I tipped it to my lips and winced at the taste of straight whisky sliding down my throat. I wasn’t typically a hard drinker, but when in Rome, er, Venice.
“What brings you to our neck of the billionaire’s estate?” Rogan asked.
Both he and Jett standing around me in nothing but swim trunks was almost sinful. The Foxx brothers each looked good on their own, but when they teamed up, it was downright unfair. I tried to keep my head cool, but my body was already heating up, and not from the pool. Jett and Rogan were looking at me like I was a walking t-bone steak from a cartoon, and if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t hate it.
“I guess I just wanted to get to know you guys a little more. I was talking to Huxley about your… history.”
“Oh yes,” Rogan said. “We are sad little orphans who were scooped up by the billionaire.”
“You guys made a family out of several broken ones,” I responded. “There’s nothing wrong with that.” Both Jett and Rogan’s more confident expressions dissipated into surprised ones. “What? Did I say something wrong?”
“No,” Jett responded. “It’s just that, that’s not usually how people react to us. We’re the poor, unfortunate orphans who were ‘rescued’ by Richard. Don’t get me wrong, our dad saved us, there’s no question, and I wouldn’t give up my family for the world. People just don’t see it that way.”
“We’re seen as a publicity stunt,” Rogan explained. “No one takes us seriously. The only ones who are recognized as true Foxxes are Harley and Huxley.”
I could hear the resentment in his voice as he spoke. There was more than one reason the brothers tended to pair up, one I don’t think the twins were entirely aware of. “That’s not your reality though,” I said. “I can tell by the way your dad dotes on all of you that he loves all of his sons, and he was smart to invest in all of you. You’re not just great businessmen, but wonderful men.”
