by K. A. Linde
I flushed at his words, coming up onto my elbows. “That could be arranged.”
His dark eyes flared molten. As if he might very well take me up on that. “Don’t tempt me.”
“All day, Wright.”
He smirked and then covered my body. “I like this Jen.”
“How so?” I whispered as he brushed the tip against my wet center.
“Unrestrained,” he breathed.
Then he drove inside my body. I was so wet that I just stretched around him. He felt as if he were always meant to be there.
“Fuck,” he groaned as he pushed the final inch into my body.
We were perfectly joined. His hands wrapped around my waist and drew me in even closer.
“I wanted this all day. Watching you work, watching your joy, it was so hard to contain myself. Linen was not the right choice.”
I laughed softly. He eased out and drove into me again.
“I can’t get enough of you, Jen.” He brushed a lock of my hair out of my face and then finally claimed my mouth.
He still tasted like me, but I was beyond caring. Beyond caring that we were in public and having sex poolside. Julian Wright was thrusting inside of me, bringing us both to the edge.
We came undone at the same moment. My climax driving on his own. Until we were both a tangled mess of limbs against the hard concrete floor. Nothing could be more perfect. Julian Wright was mine. He’d wanted to fuck me all day. He’d even gone to great lengths to surprise me in our resort room. Now, we were here, in a perpetual state of satisfaction.
There was nothing in my life more right than this Wright.
28
Julian
“Hey. Hey,” a voice whispered, pulling me from sleep.
I blinked an eye open, and Jen was draped, naked, against my chest. “Morning.”
“Your phone has been going off for the last ten minutes.”
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Let’s ignore it.”
My hands slid to her waist. We’d barely slept last night. I’d been…vigorous in our activities. Always wanting more. Always taking more. She was probably too sore to even have more this morning…but I’d be gentle. Maybe.
She laughed as I slid a hand down to her lower half. “Phone first. It might be important.”
I sighed and swiped a hand down my face. “I’m not awake enough for this.”
She yawned. “Me neither.”
I pressed a kiss to her lips and rolled out of bed. I was still naked. Right. I tugged on a pair of boxers and grabbed my phone as it started ringing again. I yawned dramatically, taking the call out on the pool, where our clothes were apparently still draped. No one walking by was going to have to guess what had happened here. I smirked. Damn straight.
Finally awake enough, I glanced down at the phone and saw Jordan’s name on the screen.
“Hey, Jor,” I said with a yawn. “It’s early. I’m in Mexico. Is the vineyard burning down? Because I don’t know why else you’d be calling me.”
“Fuck, you’re in Mexico. I forgot.”
“Yep. So…not burning down? I can go back to bed?”
“No, I’m guessing you haven’t checked your email.”
“Was kind of busy.”
“Right,” he said. Then I heard something in my brother’s voice that I rarely heard…fear. Or at the very least, unease.
I straightened and tried to wake up more fully. “What’s going on? Is everything okay? Is it Mom?”
“No, no, Mom is okay. But I got an email this morning. It was sent to you, too.”
“Okay?” I asked uncertainly.
“Just…just go read it and then call me back.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Or I can wait. Whatever.”
He was serious. Jordan wanted me to read this email. I shrugged. “All right.”
I put the phone on speaker and dropped into a seat in front of my laptop. I’d done some work from the resort while Jennifer had been busy. It was already up and ready for me. I clicked over to my email and scrolled through the long list of spam emails that I really should have unsubscribed from earlier.
“See it?” Jordan asked.
I didn’t know what I was looking for, but there was only one email there that looked out of place. Only one that immediately drew a red flag.
“Yeah. I see it.”
From: Weston Wright
Subject: Quick Question…
I clicked on it.
Then, I blinked and blinked again.
“Jor.”
“Yeah,” he said softly.
Hey,
My name is Weston Wright, and I think…you might be my brother.
I stopped reading there. Because…what the hell?
“This can’t be true,” I whispered. “Can it?”
“I have no idea. He sent it to both of us.”
I finished the letter. Weston said that he lived in Seattle and worked as a musician and computer tech. He was seven years younger than me, nine years younger than Jordan. His dad was Owen. He’d had no idea that he had another family. That we could be half-brothers.
I reread the letter and read it again. Then I slumped back into my seat, wishing I hadn’t woken up. “What the fuck, Jor?”
“I really have no idea what to think about it.”
“Did Dad cheat on Mom?”
“I mean, time wise, it might have been when they were separated.”
“Right.”
I’d been young when our parents separated. They were apart for a year or maybe over a year. I didn’t have many memories of it. Jordan seemed to have internalized the whole thing way more than I ever did. I’d been six or seven and Jordan had shielded me as much as he could. As he always had.
“Are you going to respond?” I asked.
Jordan took a minute before saying anything. “I don’t fucking know what to do, Julian. Like, what the fuck do we do?”
“I don’t know.”
“If it’s true, then Dad has had a whole other family this entire time. If it’s not, then what the fuck does this guy want? Why does he think that we’re brothers?”
Jordan had always had a temper, and I could hear it flaring up at this news. He’d been working so hard to deal with his issues with Dad. And they cropped up all over again.
“I don’t have the answers. But I think we should probably talk to Mom and Dad before we do anything. Mom might be able to tell us if she already knew about this. Why they would hide it from us, you know?”
Jordan huffed, “I know why they’d hide it.”
“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t want to add the I told you so, but he must have heard it in my voice.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jordan grumbled. “Just get your ass back to Lubbock, so we can talk to Mom. I’m not going to talk to her or Dad without you. I want to know what the fuck this bullshit is. I’ll look up Weston Wright in the meantime.”
“You mean, stalk him,” I said with a short laugh.
“I want the truth.”
“Me too,” I assured him. “Jen and I are leaving tonight. We can talk to Mom when I get back. When is Dad coming back into town?”
“This weekend,” Jordan said. He sounded like he was grinding his teeth. “It’s Fourth of July. He wants to spend it with us, go golfing Saturday. I think we’re going to have a very different conversation.”
We sure as hell were.
“Enjoy the rest of your day,” Jordan said.
We said our good-byes and then hung up. Have a good day. Yeah, right. All thoughts of crawling back into bed with my girlfriend had vanished. I might have another brother. Weston Wright in Seattle. Had Dad knocked his mom up and not known it? Had his mom given him our last name to capitalize on it one day? I didn’t understand any of it. And like Jordan, I wanted to know.
“What was that all about?” Jennifer asked, padding out of the bedroom in my T-shirt.
“Jordan called.” I shook my head and showed her the screen, displaying the email.
/>
She read the screen and then gasped. “Oh my God, Julian!”
“I know.”
“Is this true?”
I shrugged, running a hand back through my hair. “Fuck if I know. We’re going to ask our parents when I get home.”
Her eyes were round with worry. “Are you okay?”
I reached out and pulled her into my lap. She curled up easily, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to think.”
“Is it possible?”
“With my dad…anything is possible.”
“Okay. Probable?”
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine that even Owen Wright would hide a family from all of us for our entire lives.”
“Did he do work in Seattle?”
“No,” I said. “He ran the company out of Vancouver. Sometimes, he was gone for conferences or board meetings. That sort of thing but rarely Seattle.”
“Huh. Maybe it’s not true?” she asked optimistically.
“I don’t know, love,” I said, burying my head into her shoulder.
“Do we need to go home early?”
I looked up at her in surprise. “Of course not. We’re not leaving until late.”
“Yeah, but—”
I silenced her response with a kiss. She laughed against my lips.
“We get at least one beach day.”
She nodded. “Okay. If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
I could put this behind me for a day. For her, I could do it.
We arrived back in Lubbock late that night. I had Jennifer stay at my place, but when I went into work, she headed home to check on the cats—Avocado was still avoiding her—and to begin work on the wedding edits.
Hollin, Alejandra, and Nora were already on-site when I arrived at the winery. Jordan’s truck was also in the parking lot, which meant we were going to deal with this bright and early. If he wasn’t at Wright Construction working on the soccer complex, then this was serious.
My stomach tightened. I’d been doing a good job at avoiding the topic. I’d reread Weston’s email a couple times. I had become more and more skeptical, the more times I read it. What were the fucking chances that this was even true? And did I want to get to know this guy if it was? It was a lot of unanswerable questions. I just wanted to run my vineyard, be with my girlfriend, and not have to deal with more shit because of my dad.
“Julian!” Nora said as I stepped inside. “I’m so glad you’re here. You look tan!”
“Thanks. I was in Cabo this weekend.”
“Jealous! Sounds amazing. So, I sent you the final information for the Wright Construction party. Morgan had pinged me, and I’d worked on it all weekend. It’s coming up quick. I need you to sign off on it, and then I can work with her directly about the party.”
“Sure. Not a problem. Has Hollin looked at this?”
“He said to talk to you,” she said with an eye roll.
I snorted. “Of course he did.”
“He and Alejandra are working on the tour schedule this week. He said something about hiring some new people.”
“Great,” I muttered. I only had half a brain to deal with this, but I gave her a reassuring smile. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Will do. Are you going to be back this weekend for the game? Because I have to admit that your replacement was not the best.”
“Sorry about that. Who did you get?”
She laughed. “Annie brought in Chase Sinclair.”
I nearly choked. “What? Seriously? And Jordan didn’t blow a fuse?”
“I did not,” Jordan said, appearing by us. “They’re friends. Just friends.”
Chase and Annie had been a heck of a lot more than friends for a long time. But if Jordan trusted them, then who was I to judge?
“But he sucked?”
Jordan grinned. “He did. That part was satisfying.”
“We lost,” Nora grumbled. “Even Blaire and August didn’t make up for it.”
She beamed when she mentioned her boyfriend. They’d been dating seriously for three years now. He was a pretty good forward, if he didn’t ball hog like Hollin did as a defender.
“I’ll be back this weekend.”
“Thank God,” she said. Then she smiled and traipsed away. Little pixie actually skipped, her long ponytail swaying as she went back to work.
“So,” Jordan said, “should we go see Mom?”
“I’m really behind on work.”
“You think this should wait?”
No, I didn’t really think so, but I’d hoped.
“All right,” I said with a nod.
I found Hollin and told him I’d be out until lunch. He didn’t seem happy about it, but I couldn’t tell him the real reason. Not without a conversation I didn’t want to have.
Jordan and I piled into his truck, and we headed north to our mom’s house.
She opened the front door with a wide smile. “To what do I owe the pleasure? Both my boys home at one time.”
We followed her inside. Jordan shot me a look, and I gestured to him. He was the one who always took point. Except at the vineyard, where I was now the point man, and I still found that strange.
“We actually need to talk to you,” Jordan said.
My mom sighed and offered us seats. “You can always talk to me. What’s this about?”
I sat on the couch while Jordan remained standing. I looked at my mom with a frown. We’d just barged in here, but I hadn’t heard from her about her chemo treatments. When I asked, she’d blow me off. As if I hadn’t given up my career be there with her through all of them in the past. She continued to stress that everything was going fine.
Except she didn’t look fine. She looked fragile. Her head was covered by a head scarf. Her skin sagged. Some of her glow was gone. Even with her vibrant smile. I wondered if maybe we shouldn’t do this to her.
But before I could say anything, Jordan pressed forward. “We received an email from a Weston Wright, claiming to be our half-brother.”
Mom’s eyes widened. “What?”
“He said that he lives in Seattle, is twenty-two, and that our dad is his dad. Did you know about that?”
“That’s absurd. What proof does he have of this?”
“None,” I said. “Or at least, he didn’t offer any in his email.”
“It was around the time when you and dad were split up,” Jordan pushed.
“That’s true, but he never dated seriously while we were apart.”
“He wouldn’t have had to date seriously to have a kid.”
“Jor,” I muttered as Mom’s face paled further.
“You’re right, of course,” she said softly. “But…he would have told me.”
“What if he doesn’t know?” I offered.
She shrugged her thin shoulders. “I really don’t know, but I have no knowledge of this. Are you going to speak to your father?”
Jordan nodded. “Yeah, he’s in town this weekend.”
“Good. I’d talk to him before you decide what to do about this Weston. You’ll want to know the truth from your dad’s mouth before making a decision.”
“What if he doesn’t tell us the truth?” I asked.
My mom sent me a pitying look. “He wouldn’t lie to you about this. What would he gain?”
I never knew the answer to that question. But I sure hoped that she was right. And that all of this would be resolved on Saturday.
29
Julian
.
It’s going to be fine. Text me when you’re done.
I checked Jennifer’s text and forced a smile. She was downtown with her parents at the Fourth of July festival. I’d been invited by her parents, who were none the wiser that we’d ever been fake dating, but I had to deal with my dad first and foremost.
Not that I was looking forward to it.
Just got to the course. Hopefully this doesn’t take long, and I can still make the f
estival.
Fried food, carnival rides, and a parade, oh my! But really, you’re not missing anything. Good luck with your dad!
Luck was something I was sorely in need of. Jordan and I had planned how to take this, but I had a feeling that as soon as I saw my dad, I was going to blow up. We’d waited days to have this meeting. Left the email unanswered for so long. Would it even make sense to respond to Weston’s message after this? I was jittery with unspent energy and ready to get it over with.
I pulled up to the country-club entrance in my Audi. Jordan’s truck was already parked out front. He was leaning against the bed of the truck. Our father wasn’t here yet. Big surprise.
I parked next to him. “No sign of Dad?”
He shook his head. “He said he was on his way.”
“Typical.”
Jordan’s face gave away nothing. I hadn’t been able to get a read on him since we talked to Mom. Was he worried? Mad? Had he had it out with Annie, and that was why everything was fine? I’d talked to Jennifer about it, of course, but I couldn’t get over the fact that Dad had done this. He’d done this to us. And I still didn’t even know if it was true.
“Any luck on looking him up?” I asked.
Jordan shook his head. “There are a few dozen Weston Wrights online but none in Seattle. I didn’t get any hits anywhere on social media. He said he was a musician, but I didn’t find anyone with that name. And when I Googled, all that pulls up is some football player. Either he’s lying or he’s not on social media. I don’t know.”
“Yeah. Same,” I muttered.
“I’m sending someone to look into it, but I don’t know. It doesn’t even look like this guy exists.”
That was what I’d found, too. It was strange that all we had was this email.
Ten minutes later, our father drove into the spot on the other side of Jordan. He laughed when he saw us standing there. “Am I late again?”
I ground my teeth together. Things had been going so well with Dad. Too well maybe. We’d gone golfing after our dinner. He’d even been texting us both. Nothing serious, but enough to keep us in his life. I’d been feeling good about it. And now…this.
