“And that you’re okay.”
I lifted my gaze to my brother who’d said the words, his head tilted.
“That’s what’s most important, Colt. To Miami,” Griff said, nodding. “To everyone.”
He meant to him, himself and our family, and I could read between the lines. They may have not all been here, but he was, and the way the reps were letting him take the lead on this, like he had anything to do with the negotiations at all let me know exactly what this was. Griffin vouched for me with these people, their golden boy.
Another person to save me.
“So what do you say, Colt?” Joe pushed, putting his finger to the paper. “You want to give this all another shot? Move forward? Miami’s willing to give you all the time you need, and if you do need more, that’s okay.”
“It’s more than okay.” Griffin again, Griffin taking care of me.
Panning, I did little to watch four pairs of eyes before grabbing a pen in front of me. Clicking it, I quickly signed the documents. I could give them the tour they wanted and I was okay with that.
Because I was okay.
Cami
“Cami?”
Colton shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on me, my back turned to him in Joe’s office. I’d been in deep thought trying to figure out next moves.
I’d been in deep thought trying to figure out him.
Gaining, Colton pressed his hard body up against my backside, my response apparently not quick enough for his liking. Sneaking his fingers to combine with mine, he intertwined our digits. The maneuver had been quick and too easily conducted. He’d gotten too close to me so rapidly.
What made it all worse was how much I liked it.
I liked him this close, his body warm and his fingers heaven with mine. It was like we were an actual thing or something.
A thing that shouldn’t happen.
But we were, his fingers squeezing from his position behind me. He lowered what I knew to be massive height.
“Can we talk?” he asked me, his voice a whisper. It traveled so much heat along my earlobe. His swallow was audible. “Please. I need to—”
He never got to finish the statement, and in only moments, his fingers let go of mine. He backed away, and I knew why before I even turned. His brother had said his name.
I saw his brother Griffin when I did turn, the man just as massive as Colton.
“You’re not getting away that easily,” Griffin said to Colton. Grinning, he wrapped a long arm around his little brother’s shoulders. With their expansive heights, the pair resembled gladiators, two sizable men, and I knew this was consistent in their family. Colton’s brother Brody was also quite large and could probably pull a semi if met with the challenge. They also had another brother Hayden who may have lacked in build but was tall just the same. I figured this all came from their dad, a Texas man with an intimidation factor just as present as those I’d come across from my time living in New York. It was in a different way, but still there whenever I’d seen him at events with Colton. He wasn’t just big, but talented too. He owned a furniture business that all his sons were heavily involved in.
Griffin brought his hands down Colton’s shoulders.
“This one was a rock star in there,” Griffin said about Colton, and one could definitely tell the pair were brothers with their smooth jawlines and handsome physiques. Colton almost looked like a before picture to his older brother’s after. Griffin had the polish and grace of a defined athlete, a maturity not just from his dress and the way he carried himself but his personality and overall attitude. He had some life experience under his belt and I wondered if I was staring into a detailed scope of who Colton would be one day. Griffin clearly had himself together and it showed anytime I’d come to find myself around him. It only matched what his wife put off, a woman I did aspire to be like one day. She too had herself together. They both did.
“I’m sure he was,” I said to Griffin, knowing when Colton was put in professional situations he had no problem enacting his Texan charm. “And I hear congratulations is in order.”
They’d given him a second chance, and Joe had let that slip before the meeting.
“Like there was any doubt,” Griffin said, shaking him, and Colton’s bright blue eyes veered away. Clearly his brother’s fawning was putting him on the spot.
I also knew his attention was preoccupied with something else moments ago. It’d been preoccupied on me when his focus should have been on something else more important.
Ignoring my thoughts, I made myself smile. Griffin’s arm dropped from Colton’s shoulder, and when it did, Griffin squeezed Colton’s arm.
“Lunch,” Griffin said to him, his grin wide. “I’m buying. And, Cami?” Griffin paused, looking at me. “Join us, please. We need to celebrate what this guy did today.”
For the first time during this conversation, Colton’s attention pricked. His gaze in all its intensity zoomed in my direction, a hope within it that resembled what I heard in his voice only moments ago.
I also witnessed it in his text messages even before that.
I saw his messages as they came in and ignored them all. They should have never happened. We shouldn’t have happened, and I was grateful for what happened this morning with one of his girlfriends. Sometimes a girl needed a reminder.
If anything for herself.
My smile forced, I tried not to let that show, shaking my head.
“You two should have your time,” I said to them. “I’d just be in the way.”
“You wouldn’t.”
Colton’s protest came before even Griffin’s could, more of that desperation easily noticeable. This went unbeknownst to Griffin. The man merely smiled before panning to me.
“He’s right, Cami. You wouldn’t,” Griffin said. “I’d love to have you along if you want to come.”
But the thing was I didn’t want to come. I didn’t want to drag something on or lead Colton and myself down a path that only got more and more confusing as the time went by.
Lowering, I grabbed my purse from the office’s coffee table. “I think I’ll pass this time, but you guys have a good time.”
“Cami…” Colton’s frown followed my name.
I shook my head.
“Please.” I urged them to go with a push to the air. “Seriously, have a good time. I have some things to finish up here.” After all, I was his assistant.
Or had he forgotten that?
I could see he had in his eyes, his brother’s arm once again coming around him.
Guiding Colton away, Griffin got out a pair of keys, saying he’d drive as he had a rental car. The pair left down the hallway, intercepting my assistant, Tommy, as he came in. He’d left to get us some coffee and handed me mine.
“Things all good?” he asked me, noticing my stare in the direction where the men left.
I shrugged him off. “Of course,” I lied. He really didn’t want or need to know about all my drama.
I only wished I could be so lucky.
Chapter Ten
Colton
“I come all the way over here to save your little tail, and you repay me by trying to dip out on me?”
My brother Griff had his hands on the wheel, cruising his rented Range Rover amongst what had come to be my playground over the years. The streets of LA ran hot today, millennials everywhere rocking their shorts and little dresses. Living here had been a sharp contrast from the way I grew up, the epitome of lower middle class. We’d sometimes traveled into an even lower rung when my family was in the rough of it. We’d all been raised to value what we had with our hardworking father, so when I went off to college and eventually made my way here, the opulence had been more than unnerving. I’d gotten overwhelmed by it and still did on the daily, my actions reflecting that more than I liked sometimes. This place was easy to give in to.
Especially when you got everything you wanted.
Those initial years were rough, and though I was still tryin
g to get a handle on it, I was making my way. It helped to have someone who traveled that road before me, my brother Griff basically forging a path not many years before me. Each step I made had only been ventured before, and I often used him as a reference.
Maybe I should stop after what he said.
“No one asked you to do that,” I said to him. I suspected he helped me secure my spot with Miami, and now he confirmed it. He got me back in with those guys, put in an obvious good word for me. I shook my head. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I know I didn’t have to,” he said, turning to me. “But it never hurts to have a little help.”
Gazing away, I faced the road, watching those locals again. We remained silent for a little while before he spoke again.
“What do you want to eat?” he asked me, always doing that grin. “I’ve been to LA a million times, but I’d like to see it through your eyes.”
It was hard to continue being mad when he did shit like that, being all genuine or whatever. He shook my leg, and my smile couldn’t be helped. I told him to take us to In-N-Out Burger.
His grin only widened.
“That’s why we’re brothers,” he said, navigating that way.
He traveled the streets through my eyes like he said, taking the paths I told him to choose, and I guided us to my favorite chain branch. This one in particular had a great view of the ocean and a place for us to go without being pestered by the paparazzi. Being by myself, I’d get swarmed, but getting burgers with my all-star brother was basically a sure-fire bet we’d shut down the place. We called in our order ahead, and after the staff slid it to us in the back, Griffin took us to see that ocean, the sun at its highest that day.
“I’m fucking ravenous,” he said, taking a big ole bite out of that chargrilled goodness. The succulent juices I had my way with as well when I unwrapped mine and the cabin of the car filled with the smell. Eventually, we put down the windows and just let the day in.
Griffin threw an arm out the window. He’d taken that stuffy suit jacket off and now just looked like my brother, his sleeves rolled up and casual. It was hard to believe we used to be those innocent country boys once upon a time, and now, we were men taking on the world. We’d both come a long way. Especially him and that wonderful family he had on the other side of the country.
“Jackson and Roxie get home all right?” I asked him, not sure if he’d actually seen them since I knew he’d been in Texas while they visited me.
The guy’s face lit up at the reference of his family. “They did. She called me,” he said. “And Pop says hi, as well as Ann, Hayden, Karen, and the kids—”
“Brody?” I asked. I had to say I didn’t hear a lot from him besides the occasional phone call or text on his end.
I think that had to do with the twins.
The little wonders had hit their terrible twos, and he and his wife, Alexa, had their hands full. Alexa also ran a dance studio, and with Brody doing his truck driving for the family business like I knew he did, I was sure my big brother was still all over the place like he always was.
Griffin’s lips lifted as he stared out into the ocean.
“Always running,” he said, facing me. “I didn’t see him or Alexa there, but the twins were with Gram and Aunt Robin when I stopped by. They’re all doing okay. Asked about you.”
Of course they did, my gaze turning away. Crumbling up my wrapper, I made a ball then tossed it out the window. The wrapper circled the rim of the trash can I’d been aiming for and when it went in, I figured I’d get some nods of acknowledgment from Griffin.
Not a damn frown.
In all honesty, the expression set me back a bit. My older brother was always grinning. Well, he wasn’t grinning now, and he was shooting the disapproving expression right at me.
“What do you want me to say, Griff?” I said, shrugging as I lounged in my seat. “I mean, tell them what they want. Tell them that I’m fine.”
“And are you then?” he questioned, his expression serious. “Fine? Because you know I won’t be lying to our family. Lying to Pop and Gram. Colt, if you need help—”
His aim at an intervention caused my laughter, the chuckle dry in my throat. I faced him. “I got help remember. I’m cured of my drug and alcohol addiction. The clinic said.”
“I’m not talking about that,” he responded with, and my attention shot to him. It unsettled me what he said, and suddenly, I wasn’t happy he drove.
If he didn’t, I could have peeled off.
I could have ran, dropped him off at the closest airport and been done with all this talk. Of course it wouldn’t have all settled there, though. He’d come back, come for me.
They all would.
My family was incredibly close, and Griff and I had even stronger ties. We were like the same person, bonded as we were the youngest. He was like me so he got me, different in the sense that Brody and Hayden were closer to Pop. Griffin had taken care of me personally in ways the others hadn’t. He looked out for me, the epitome of a big brother.
He was doing that presently, his swallow hard in his throat.
“I didn’t come over here to ream you or rattle you,” he said, pushing his hand behind his neck. “Whatever you’re going through is obviously personal, but don’t continue to hide behind the bullshit of drugs, alcohol, and an addiction when you’ve never shown any signs of that behavior before. It’s condescending, and none of us are stupid people, Colt.”
His words made it hard to breathe, made it hard to think, and I really needed to get out of here. I aimed for the door, but Griffin grabbed my arm.
He wouldn’t let me run away.
Squeezing me, he waited until I faced him, only then did he let go.
“Like I said, whatever’s going on—if there is something going on—is all you,” he said. “Just know we’re not trying to get in your business. We’re just concerned, and that’s not even the reason why I came to LA today. Yeah, I spoke to the team about you, but I had other reasons for making my way to the city. Things outside of everything that happened with you.”
Confused, I shook my head, and things only got more intense the longer he went without speaking. Griffin placed his arm out the window again, and that tension stiffened his jaw.
“I heard from Momma, Colt,” he stated, what he said pinning me to my seat. “Mom. Our birth mom.”
It was as if the record scratched and the scene had paused. He hadn’t said what I thought he had.
He hadn’t mentioned our birth mom.
His nod at my shock told me he did, an understanding between both of us. We’d been raised by a single father who had help from family—her family, our mom.
“Wait. What?” I questioned, my thoughts trying to catch up. “Our mom—”
“Momma, yeah.” She was “Momma” to him, as he was old enough to remember her. I’d only been a baby when she left us. Pop said things got too hard for her and she took off. Outside of that, I’d only heard the stories from my brothers, stories about addiction in our family.
Our mother was the center.
“What did,” I started, swallowing hard. “What did she say or…”
I didn’t know what to say or what to question him about her.
I couldn’t because I didn’t know what he knew.
I sat stark still in my brother’s rental car, waiting, and eventually, he pushed a hand down his face.
“I didn’t actually see or interact with her,” he said, breathing deep. “She just tried to reach out to me, but apparently, couldn’t get to me so she went for Roxie. She approached her in a shopping mall. Can you believe that shit—”
“When?” I asked, and his gaze shot my way. I shook my head. “I mean, why? Why would she do that?”
His expression hardened. “Because she’s selfish,” he said. “She’s a wrecked woman and wants to disrupt people's lives. You know she used to take us to bars as kids and lied to Pop about where she took us?”
I did know,
hearing the stories. Again, I’d been too young to be aware of what was going on firsthand.
I put my hands in my lap. “What did she want?”
His shoulders lifted with his shrug. “No idea. Roxie wasn’t having that bullshit. She had her security team with her. Momma explained who she was, and Roxie promptly had her escorted away. It was probably money, though. Wouldn’t surprise me.”
I said nothing, silent, and his hand cupped my shoulder.
“I just wanted to warn you,” he said. “She came for me, so I wouldn’t put it past her to come for you too. Roxie and I have dealt with stuff like this before. People coming out of the woodwork and wanting stuff. It’s not foreign to us, but thankfully, our situation righted itself. It might not be so lucky with Momma, so if she does come around, I don’t want you having anything to do with her. You don’t know her like Brody, Hay, and I do. You were too young, and she could take advantage of you.”
“I can handle myself,” I told him, and he nodded.
“You’re a Chandler,” he said. “So I know that, but even still, it doesn’t hurt to have a warning. Hayden and Brody know what happened, but we’re trying to keep this on the DL from Pop. It’ll just mess him up, hurt him, and that’s not necessary.”
It would hurt him. My hands wrestled in my lap.
“Anyway, hopefully it won’t be a problem with you being over here for a little while yet,” he said. “I would have told you sooner, but you went away. Didn’t want you to have to deal with that.”
That was good looking out on his part, I supposed.
Griffin started the car.
“But let me know if something ever happens,” he said, resting an arm on the wheel. “We didn’t hear from her that long ago. Actually, right before you went away.”
I nodded and he placed a hand on my head, shaking it before putting the truck into drive and pulling away. He made no more mention of the topic as we drove and I knew he wouldn’t.
Colton (Found by You Book 7) Page 8