“An early birthday present,” I say as I lean in to kiss her.
Dad moves to the fridge and pulls out beers. It’s always been Iron City for our family, and they’re passed out in can form. Bottles are way too fancy for us.
“Where’s Brian?” I ask as I take a sip.
“Down in the basement playing Xbox,” Mom chirps, sounding as if she’s almost proud of that accomplishment.
Laney shoots me a look, and I roll my eyes. She shares the same frustration when it comes to our brother’s lack of ambition.
“Actually,” Mom says as almost an afterthought, “I’m just about ready to serve. Can someone go get him?”
Laney does nothing more than open the door that leads from the kitchen down into the basement and yells at the top of her lungs, “Brian… get your ass up here to eat.”
“Coming,” he yells back.
Which knowing Brian and the time clock he’s on, will be in another ten minutes.
Laney and I set the table and help Mom move the bowls and platters of food. The kitchen is small, with a round table that seats five. It’s always cramped, so our dinner plates hang pretty much on the edge when we eat. Still, all of us crammed in together, elbow to elbow, while we talk, laugh, and eat good food will always be some of my favorite memories.
We’re all seated and passing plates to be filled when Brian bounds up the stairs. He moves to me first, bends to kiss my cheek, then does the same to Laney. “And how are my two prettiest sisters today?”
“We’re your only sisters,” Laney points out.
“Well, if I had other sisters, you two would be the prettiest,” he assures us with a charming wink, and we can’t help but laugh. Brian’s the funny one. Always with a smile on his face and good intentions in his heart. It’s why, despite our frustrations, he’s still very much loved.
For the next half hour, the clanking of utensils on plates mix with conversation and laughter. Dad passes out another round of beer, but I decline. I never drive after drinking more than one, but Laney accepts, stating her intention to stay and watch the four PM Steelers game with Dad and Brian. I’d love to do the same, but I have some reports to catch up on this afternoon.
“Have another beer,” Brian encourages me. “And stay and watch the game with us.”
I shake my head, intent on telling them that I have work obligations, but Laney totally throws me under the bus. “She probably has plans with her new man.”
Utensils still halfway to mouths, it goes deadly quiet as all eyes turn to me. Mine move over to Laney in a death glare.
“A new man?” my mom inquires, her eyes lighting up. She thinks I’m getting in that range where I should be getting serious and start thinking about marriage. Not that she thinks a woman has to be married to succeed in life, but she wants grandbabies and she does believe people should be married before they come along.
I’m not prepared to tell my family about Cage yet. True, Laney met him, but that was just the circumstance of being in the same place at the same time.
But given how new our relationship is, I’m almost afraid if I dare to acknowledge us as a couple, it will jinx the whole damn thing.
“Who is this boy?” my dad asks, his voice going an octave deeper as he prepares to show his overprotective side.
Laney answers for me, looking to my mom. “His name is Cage, and he’s unbelievably gorgeous.”
That’s about the extent of her knowledge, though.
“What does he do for a living?” my dad presses.
My gaze moves across the table. “He sells cars.”
“Seriously, Jaime.” I look over at my brother, who’s smirking. “A car salesman? You can do better than that.”
“At least he has a job and is independent,” I snarl back.
Brian’s face goes beet red, but he doesn’t retort. He can’t because he doesn’t want the spotlight shining on him. I think his greatest fear is my parents will wise up to the fact they are enabling him to be a lazy bum, and they’ll force him out one day.
“Is it serious?” my mom asks with an eager smile as she leans in a little. She was disappointed when I broke up with Terry because he was an attorney, and she envisioned little attorney grandbabies one day.
Of course, when I told her he cheated on me, she was ready to send Dad and Brian out with a baseball bat to handle the situation. I assured her it was handled with a book to the bridge of the nose, and my dad and brother beamed at me with pride.
Mom asks a good question, but I don’t have the answer.
Besides, “serious” is such a subjective term. I mean, I thought I was serious with Terry, but I wasn’t heartbroken over our relationship’s demise.
I like Cage so much better than I ever did Terry, yet it’s so new, I don’t know if I can say it’s serious. This past week, both of us were busy with work we only got to see each other twice. Cage more than made up for it by whisking me up north of Pittsburgh to a little rental cabin he found, and we had a blissful weekend together. There was a lot of relaxing, good food, and well… a lot of damn good sex.
We left there closer, I think. Not that we actually said words to that effect, but we were both regretful the weekend was over. We lamented our work schedules for the upcoming week before the Thanksgiving holiday. That must mean something, right?
Except… I never did ask Cage what he was doing for Thanksgiving. And he never asked me either, so it’s not serious to the point we would consider spending the holiday together.
So confusing.
I decide to be vague, hoping it satisfies. “It’s new, Mom. We’ve only been dating for a few weeks.”
“Well, invite him to have Thanksgiving dinner with us,” she demands.
I don’t argue with her. She’ll expect me to extend the invitation, although I’m not sure what Cage would think about it. We hadn’t talked about the upcoming holiday because I don’t think either of us is looking too far into the future at this point.
Luckily, the conversation actually steers to our Thanksgiving dinner, which is only four days away. We finish our meals, and I serve up the lemon cake. Mom and I have coffee with ours while Laney, Dad, and Brian drink beer with theirs.
So gross.
When it’s time to clean the kitchen, Brian starts to make a beeline for the basement, but I nab him by the arm. “You’re staying to help clean while Mom, Dad, and Laney go relax.”
“Why does Laney get to relax?” he asks. She has already darted out of the kitchen and into the living room to claim her favorite end of the couch. They’ll watch the current game until the Steelers start.
“Because you and I need to talk. Unless you want her to be privy to that, she gets a pass on the kitchen.”
“Fine,” he grumbles, and we both start putting the food into smaller Tupperware containers that I’m convinced were made in the seventies. Brian scrapes plates while I rinse them before they go into the dishwasher.
It’s only when we’re standing side by side at the kitchen sink, washing the pots and pans, that I start the conversation with Brian.
“You’re overdue paying me back the money I lent you,” I say quietly. I truly had no intention of letting anyone else in our family know I let him borrow it. It’s Brian’s private business, and I wouldn’t out him.
“I know,” he says with a sigh of frustration. “I’m having a hard time getting the guy who owes me money to pay up. It could be another few weeks.”
I just stare at him, my eyes hard with anger.
His shoulders sag. “I’m really sorry, Jaime.”
When Brian gives me that hangdog look, nine times out of ten, I’ll feel sorry for him. But not tonight.
I take the opportunity to tell him how I truly feel. Drying my hands on a dishtowel, I turn to face him and keep my voice low. “Brian… it’s time you grow up. You’re thirty-one years old, for God’s sake, and you live in your parents’ basement playing Xbox all day. You should have a full-time job, and, at the least, contribute
to the household expenses here. Ideally, you should be out on your own and living your own life. Don’t you want that for yourself?”
Rather than look more piteous, Brian lifts his head, eyes flaring with anger. “Oh, stop being so damn self-righteous all the time, Jaime. We can’t all be as perfect as you.”
That felt like a slap in the face. “I never said I was perfect.”
“No, you just act like it when you try to preach at me like I’m a child.”
“Well, you act like a child.”
“What’s going on?” Laney pipes up as she enters the kitchen, her gaze moving warily between the two of us.
“Nothing,” Brian growls, tossing the dishtowel he’d been holding down on the counter. “I’m out of here.”
And he slinks back down into his basement hole.
“Fuck,” I mutter, and Laney’s eyebrows go upward. It’s not a word either of us use often. When we do, it’s for a good reason.
“Want to talk about it?” she asks.
I shake my head. “No, not really. Besides, I have to get out of here. I do have a ton of work to get done before tomorrow.”
Laney leans into me with a leering smile. “Does that include working on a gorgeous man by the name of Cage?”
“I wish,” I mutter. “He’s working, too.”
“Too bad,” she commiserates.
Definitely too bad, because the truth is, I really miss him when I can’t see him. Does that mean what we have is serious?
I just don’t know.
♦
Later that evening, I’m lying in bed, reading a book. I had finished my reports, laid out my work clothes for the next day, and gave myself a mini facial. A smile comes to my face when my phone rings and I see it’s Cage. He told me he’d call tonight when he finished work, and I’d trusted he would. He’s never blown me off yet.
“Hello,” I answer softly.
He gives an exaggerated groan. “That voice… you sound all sexy and tucked into bed. Is that where you are?”
My laugh is husky. “You would be right about that.”
“Christ… I wish it weren’t so late, or I’d come over there right now and wring a few orgasms out of you.”
Damn. I wish it weren’t so late, too.
“How was work tonight?” I ask.
“Boring but productive. How was family dinner?”
“Great except Brian and I got into a fight over his lack of ambition and the fact he hasn’t paid me back yet.”
“Want me to have a talk with him?” Cage asks, his tone dead serious.
“What?” I exclaim. “No. He doesn’t even know you. That would be weird.”
“I could beat him up instead,” he suggests.
I laugh because he’s joking. At least, I think he is. “That’s all right. I can handle my brother. Also, Laney sort of dropped I was seeing a new man, and my family got all nosy. Bottom line, it transpired into my mother demanding I invite you over for Thanksgiving dinner. So, there you have it… a formal invitation if you don’t already have plans. I mean… we really haven’t discussed it.”
Cage chuckles over my stammering. “I love that she invited me. I would absolutely come, but, as it stands, I would disappoint a whole lot of folks in North Carolina if I bailed on Thanksgiving this year when I already promised I’d visit.”
Even though I’m a bit disappointed he’s leaving, it also warms me that family is as important to him as it is to me. “Good for you,” I say softly. “You should be with your family during the holidays.”
“I’m going to miss you,” he says, but before I can even express the sentiment back, he continues. “And I just found out I have some traveling coming up they kind of threw on me at the last minute. I have to go to San Francisco from North Carolina for a trade show. The following week, it’s on to a seminar in Vegas.”
“They have seminars on how to sell cars?” I ask, intrigued. Trade show, I understood. Seminar, I did not.
“You’d be surprised at the things salespeople can learn.” He chuckles. “I’ll be back in Pittsburgh for a few days in between those trips. I’m hoping we can spend them together.”
My heart squeezes, both in dismay he’ll be gone, but also with hope because he still wants to see me.
“And I hope you won’t get sick of me calling and texting,” he adds, which causes my belly to flutter.
“As long as I can call and text you as well,” I counter.
“You better,” he says, his tone a little dark. “Or else when I get back, I might have to spank you.”
Of course, our conversation turns sexual. Cage insists on FaceTiming me, where he has me do some dirty things so he can watch. That is a first for me, but Cage promises it wouldn’t be the last while he is traveling.
CHAPTER 10
Cage
My apartment at the Jameson building is small but well-appointed. When Kynan had them built and decorated, he put in nice hardwood floors and crown molding. The appliances are top of the line, and the furniture is plush. He even stocked the kitchen with pots, pans, plates, and utensils. The only thing I had to supply myself was linens and towels.
It’s an amazing perk to working here—I don’t pay rent or utilities—and is perfect for a single guy. On top of that, there’s a communal living area with a huge kitchen if we want to have group meals, which we often do. There’s a massive eighty-inch TV on the wall complete with Xbox and unlimited games, or if we want to watch a movie in style, there’s a small theater. The gym is state of the art. We even have our own soundproofed indoor gun range on the third floor.
Yeah… this place is perfect except for one thing.
It’s a part of my life I haven’t shared with Jaime, and I’m swimming in guilt and regret. The problem is, the deeper I’ve immersed myself in the lie, the more convinced I am there’s no way out of it.
If I tell her the truth now, she’ll dump my ass.
I continue to lie and she eventually learns the truth and still dumps my ass.
While logically, I know I’m probably wrong, my gut is telling me to just ride this out, enjoy my time with her, and brace for the fallout when it occurs. Besides that, a good part of me is still convinced I’m going to tire of this eventually. I know this because Jaime is not something I ever wanted or aspired to have.
I mean… while I have her, it’s something far better than I could have ever imagined, but it wasn’t on my bucket list of things to accomplish in my life.
A relationship.
With an amazing, smart, beautiful, and sexy woman.
Shit, I’m fucked.
As if to prove just how fucked I am, I nab my phone from my kitchen counter and shoot her off a quick text. I had stayed at her place last night, left her not more than two hours ago, yet I’m compelled to check in. How is your day going so far?
Depending on her schedule, she may or may not respond right away. If she’s at her desk, doing computer work, she will. If she’s doing an intake for someone seeking assistance, she won’t.
I don’t hover over my phone waiting, though. I have actual work to do, and I’m only in my apartment for a quick shower after my workout. One of the requirements to work at Jameson is we maintain peak physical performance, which means we are expected to utilize the gym and utilize it a lot. It’s part of our workday, and I like knocking mine out first thing in the morning.
Before I head to my desk on the second floor, I pull up my contacts and make a quick call to Bodie. He’d texted to let me know he had finished his background check on Jaime’s brother, Brian.
I suspect if Jaime knew I was doing this, she’d be pissed. Not just because she’d learn what I actually do for a living, but also because I was snooping into her brother. While I know she has doubts about him, I also know she loves and is protective of him.
I also know there’s a part of her that doesn’t want to know if he’s into something shady.
Bodie answers on the first ring. “You’re calling awfully early,” he g
rumbles.
“Whatever, dude.” I laugh. “I know you’ve been up for a while now.”
“That’s true,” he admits. Bodie is an early riser, just like his wife, Rachel. He doesn’t hesitate to jump right into business. “So this guy you had me check out isn’t into anything too deep. Looks like some low-level fencing of stolen goods.”
Illegal, but not too nefarious.
“He doesn’t have a criminal record,” Bodie continues, and I can tell he’s reading from something. “But he’s on the local PD’s radar.”
“Is he fencing for the mob?” I ask, knowing that could turn serious fast.
“Looks more like a small-time Irish gang, but hell… they could be working for something more organized. That’s all I got.”
“That’s good enough,” I reply, my mind racing. It could explain why he needs money and can’t come up with the repayments to his sister. He’s got a kink in his supply chain.
“Why are you even dealing with some low-level thug?” Bodie asks curiously.
I hesitate, wondering how much to reveal. Anna’s the only one I’ve told about Jaime, because I wanted a female perspective. But Bodie’s my best friend, and he has been for forever. We’ve endured life-and-death battles before.
“I’ve been seeing someone.” My words are tentative.
Bodie breathes into the line. “Holy fuck. It’s end of days.”
“Shut up,” I snap. “Anyway… it’s her brother. He’s been borrowing money from her, and he’s pretty aimless. She’s worried about him, and I thought I’d check it out for her.”
“Gotcha,” Bodie replies, accepting my explanation. “Now tell me what type of woman has lassoed a man who notoriously decries monogamy and relationships.”
I spend a few moments updating him on Jaime. How we met, what she does, and, most importantly, that I truly do like her.
“That’s great, Cage.” I can hear the affection and pride in his voice. As a man who is happily married, deeply in love, and a great father to his son, Tony, he sees this as a wonderful rite of passage for me. “Hey… you should bring her to the San Francisco conference so we can meet her.”
I had told Jaime I was going to a trade show in San Francisco. It was partially true. I’m definitely headed to San Fran, but it’s for a security conference where Rachel and I will be giving presentations. Of course, though, I couldn’t tell her that.
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