“His mother took him away from me,” he groused.
“You did nothing to get him back,” Connor argued.
“I didn’t need him when I had you. I wouldn’t need him if you would have agreed to take over the business.”
“Have you ever considered that I told you ‘no’ to the business so that you’d be forced to contact him? That maybe I wanted to know my brother? Consider that while Kalen was in Scotland with Bailey months ago and you were in the hospital, I ran my business and yours just fine.”
I thought Royce might blow a gasket when he yelled, “You gave it all away to a man that hates me. You are the only one I can trust to have my best interest.”
“Maybe it’s time to consider that Kalen doesn’t hate you. He hates that you weren’t there for him. That you didn’t care to be there for him. He assumed you’d written him off not knowing that you care more about your businesses than your sons.”
“That’s not true,” Royce blustered.
“Isn’t it? You shipped me off to boarding school and you left your firstborn in Scotland without trying to find him.”
“Moira left me and took our son. She made her choice.”
“One you regret. And if you don’t change your attitude, you may regret how you’ve treated Liam.”
“He’s not my son.” Royce’s adamant words bothered me more than I was willing to admit. Though I learned my brothers didn’t fare well as his sons either. I had this story all wrong.
“On the chance that he’s not, he’s likely your nephew. I would have thought you’d learn by now how important family is.”
“Family? All that boy wants is a piece of my money. He could be nobody to us. But you’ve given him a job. Forcing us together like you apparently did with your brother. I can’t believe you.”
“Just shows how little you know me, Dad.”
It was time to set down and I muted their conversation so I could completely focus and not make a mistake.
Connor and Royce were still arguing as they got out of the helicopter. A hospital porter was there with a wheelchair, not giving me a chance to question Connor. I hadn’t determined if that conversation should have been private or if it was for my benefit. I did get one answer. My hatred for the brothers and the life I presumed they lived was over.
I considered the empty elevator a good sign. So far my day had been shit. I pushed the button for the ground floor so I could exit the building. There was little chance I’d run into Natalie as her afternoon shift hadn’t begun and I was glad for that. I’d yet to get over her betrayal and I wasn’t ready to talk to her.
Only the elevator stopped on the way down and a man I didn’t want to see entered.
“Liam.” Doc Love sounded as surprised as I felt.
I pointed to the floor buttons because he hadn’t chosen one. He glanced that way. “I’m headed down too. I am glad to see you.”
There was no good reason why he and I needed to talk.
“It’s about Natalie.” When I didn’t respond, he continued. “It’s just, I sensed the two of you had unresolved feelings. I really like her, but I don’t want to get in the middle of anything messy.”
Messy? He didn’t know the half of it. I could have told him that Natalie was in my bed this morning, but I didn’t. Despite it all, I still wanted the best for her. I managed these words right before the door opened on our floor.
“You have my blessing. Good luck.”
I didn’t linger for more conversation. I walked briskly out the same doors where I’d officially met Natalie for the first time with no destination in mind. From all the pictures I’d seen, it was weird to see that the sidewalks weren’t crowded at all though I’d expected it.
An hour later, I was flying back to the King residence with Connor and Royce when my phone buzzed. After landing, I glanced to find a text from Natalie, but I didn’t read it. It wasn’t until later, back at my temporary apartment, that I did.
Natalie: Can I give Christy your phone number?
As I considered my answer, a lot of thoughts went through my head. Until that moment, I hadn’t fully appreciated having my own apartment. I’d gone from Mom’s house to the barracks. When I returned home, within weeks I was here in New York.
I also hadn’t given it much consideration that I’d had my own place when Natalie came by last night because she’d felt like home. I’d started off my time in New York with her.
Christy was another matter. Maybe it was time to utilize my space to the fullest. Wasn’t that what Natalie and the love doctor would be doing this weekend? I furrowed my brow, not wanting to picture my sweet Natalie underneath another man.
There was one way to forget. I sent her a one-word text.
Me: Yes
Twenty-Three
Natalie
Gaping at the text I received from Liam wouldn’t change it. There was really no reason for my surprise. I blamed Christy’s scathing looks for why I didn’t immediately pass on the message and the number. When our shift was over, she’d disappeared. I resolved to give her his number tomorrow before my day off, assuming she wasn’t off.
By the time I made it to my rented room, I was dead on my feet. I fell back on the bed with the lights off. Ms. Allen worked mornings and was probably already asleep for the night.
I texted Jody and she was up. I video called next.
“Have you been using the face mask I gave you?” she asked.
“Are you trying to tell me I have bags under my eyes? Thanks.”
She laughed. “No, but you do look tired and a bit pale.”
“That would be the bright light from my phone so you can see me. We are not all blessed with a year-round summer tan.”
“Are you Black shaming me?” she teased.
“No. But I am jealous. This is one time I wish I’d gotten more of my bio dad’s gene’s.”
“Yep. That skin of yours is all thanks to your Nordic goddess of a mother.” Mom had gotten her blonde hair and blue eyes from her Scandinavian ancestry. I wasn’t as pale as she was. Dad’s Spanish heritage had given me some color to my skin, but not the beautiful caramel color Jody had. “You didn’t call me so we could talk 23andMe, did you?”
23andMe was a company that would give you an idea of your ancestry from a blood sample. “No. I really want you to tell me you’ve met the man of your dreams and I can finally be a maid of honor,” I said.
“Well, the asshole with a fiancé hasn’t given up.”
I perked up, rolling on my side so I could hold the phone better and get all the details. “Really. What was his excuse?”
She sighed. “He says he’s not engaged. That his father made that announcement to tie his hands.”
“What about him rushing to leave on the date?”
“He claims he saw the headlines and wanted to confront his father before he went to sleep.”
“Do you believe him?” I asked.
She ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know what to believe. He wants to take me to a fundraiser this weekend to prove to me he’s telling the truth. One of those black-tie affairs.”
“Are you going to go?”
“Part of me doesn’t want to. I don’t want to be a pawn in whatever family drama he has.”
“And the other part?” I prodded because Jody was far more decisive than I was when it came to men.
“The other part is attracted to him. Like the kind of attraction where you know he’s bad news, but you don’t care.”
“Yep.” I popped the p when I said the word because I could so relate.
“Oh, that’s right. Mr. Bipolar Hottie. You still want him.”
Boy, did I. It was like the more he said no, the more my body said yes. “For the record, I don’t think he’s bipolar. I think he’s fighting his attraction to me.”
“Because of your dad?”
I tapped a finger on my chin, playing it out in my head. “No, I don’t think that either.”
“Please don’t
tell me you’re becoming one of those psycho girls who’s reading tea leaves when they should heed the words of the man telling them they aren’t interested.”
“You know if I didn’t love you, I’d give you the middle finger.” She laughed. “And no, I’m not one of those girls.”
“Really? How would you know?”
“The way he looks at me. The way he kisses me. I’m not crazy. He feels it too. I just don’t get why he’s pushing me away,” I said.
“Okay. I believe you, only because I’ve known you practically your whole life and you’ve never gone psycho girlfriend on anyone.”
“Thanks,” I said, sarcastically.
“You’re welcome,” she said it so matter of fact, I giggled. “But even if you’re right, you said it yourself. He’s pushing you away. Maybe he has a girlfriend or wife.”
“He told me he didn’t.”
“And guys don’t lie about that stuff?” She spoke slowly as if I were dense and needed the time to process.
“Yes, guys do lie about that, but—”
“But what?”
“But I don’t think that’s it. I don’t know, Jody. I have this insane attraction to him. And I’d like to think I’m a better judge of character. Am I that gullible?”
“No. But what about the doctor?”
“Are you dismissing Liam?”
“No.” She rolled her eyes. “Maybe it’s time to do a comparison. Pros and Cons.”
“That’s not fair. I don’t know Brian well. Though he asked me over this weekend.”
“Yet,” she added. “I’ll start. From your description, they’re both gorgeous.”
“True.” I added in the conversation I had with Brian earlier.
“Nice and considerate,” she said. “But you still want Liam. Classic bad boy syndrome. Don’t worry. We all fall for it at some point in our lives.”
“Liam’s nice too.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Bad boys would leave the stranger in the cold. Not take them to their hotel, especially when they don’t try to have sex with them,” I said.
“Bad boys play nice, Natalie. They’re assholey most of the time and draw you back in with a nice boy move. It’s a game.” She blew out a breath. “I get you haven’t dated a lot. Take it from me. Give the doctor this weekend. Who knows if he’ll blow your mind if you give him half the chance.”
She was right. I hadn’t given Brian as many chances as I’d given Liam. “Fine.” Though I said the word, I didn’t feel it.
“Good. Now my work is done, I have to get some sleep. I have class in the morning.”
I didn’t know how she did it: juggling school and work. She did so effortlessly. “Don’t think I’m letting you off the hook for your bad boy problem,” I joked.
“I never said I was immune. I’m just better at spotting danger and exiting the situation than you are.”
“You don’t have to worry. Liam is seeing someone else. It doesn’t matter how I feel.”
What I hadn’t told her was how Liam practically dared me to show up at his place with condoms. Had his response to my text been to incite me to be jealous or move on? As much as I wanted to give Jody’s advice a try, was it really fair for me to see Brian when my heart was, for better or worse, somewhere else?
I woke up to bright skies and a new purpose. My time in New York was short. Would it really be fair to date Brian when I would be leaving in a few months? It was probably best to cancel the date. He was a really good guy and he deserved to find the one. I wasn’t that one. We’d gone out and the spark wasn’t there.
Jogging used to be my outlet. A way to get all the frustration out of me. I pulled on a pair of leggings and a long sleeve workout top, hoping I wouldn’t burn up. The weather had warmed up above freezing. More likely I wouldn’t get far, as I felt out of shape.
I walked out the door, prepared to reach a goal of a mile, if I could. Only I was stopped short.
“Natalia.”
There, parked right in front of the building, was my father.
Twenty-Four
Liam
There were so many reasons why I hadn’t called my uncle. He called me about a job, and it was silly not to call him back.
“It’s about time you called,” Uncle Ted said.
“I should have called sooner,” I admitted.
“Damn right. Though I don’t approve, I wouldn’t have stopped you. How did it go?”
“As expected, he said I wasn’t his son and expected me to go away.”
“I warned you Roy was an ass.”
It was funny to hear my uncle refer to his brother as Roy and not Royce. “You did.”
“It’s not an I told you so. You did what you needed to do.”
“How could the two of you have grown up in the same household?” I asked.
“Roy was the golden boy and wanted to please our father. For that reason, I was mostly allowed to do my own thing. I also have to say he’s not all bad. He shielded me from a lot of shit growing up.”
“You don’t hate him for forcing you to sign away the family business.”
“He didn’t force me. Besides, it was his anyway. He put in the time and it didn’t mean to me what it meant to him.” We both mulled that over for a moment. “I remember when he brought Moira home.” I heard that name before. “My father nearly shit himself.” Uncle Ted chuckled to himself. “She didn’t come from a wealthy family, your grandfather argued. Hell for the first time I admired Roy for once doing something he wanted to do. And Moira was a stunner.”
“Moira is Kalen’s mom?”
“Yeah. His first wife. He loved her, that’s for sure. But he gave in to the pressure after he brought her home.”
“Pressure?” I asked.
“She was Scottish. Her accent was very thick. And while that would be accepted of a man without family money, people looked down on her for not having money and not being American. Because Roy didn’t want anyone to think he’d been pussy-whipped, he cheated on her often and openly.”
“No wonder she left.”
“I would have helped if she’d talked to me.”
“Why didn’t she?”
This time his laugh was humorless. “Roy did love her despite his actions. Because of what he was doing, he didn’t let any man get near her for fear they’d steal her away. He kept her in a gilded cage. I was shocked to learn she’d left him without him knowing. That came at a high price. She left with nothing in order to leave.”
I sat thinking about it. Mom had dodged a bullet with that man. Burrowed deep in thought, it was my uncle who spoke again.
“I know you had to do this, but don’t break your mother’s heart over this.”
“Break her heart? I’m doing this for her.”
“Are you really?”
I was tired of everyone doubting my motive. “Yes.”
“Money can be seductive, my boy. Your mother is afraid they’ll lure you away.”
“It won’t happen.”
“Yet, you’re still there in New York.”
“I have a job.”
His sigh was heavy. “Have I ever told you the story about my ex-wife?”
“No. Grant’s told me some.”
“I met her a short time after Roy brought Moira to town. I figured if he could fall in love, maybe I could too. Our parents weren’t the shining beacon of love.” He paused. “Anyway, I met her in college. We clicked. She’d grown up as the daughter of caretakers. I was the son who hated money. Together we could blur the lines of wealth and poverty.”
All I’d ever heard about the woman had been bad. Grant hated his mom with a passion so deep he vowed never to fall in love.
“What I didn’t know or failed to see was her deep desire to be one of the people being waited on and not the one doing the waiting. She thought my idea of moving her to start a business was just a temporary thing I needed to work out to be my own man. I’ll give it to her. She hung on playing the long game, I guess.
But when I told her my brother wanted me to walk away from the family business, she made other plans. The right man showed up at my airstrip at the right time and whisked her away.”
“You don’t sound mad? Grant still seethes when her name comes up.”
“I’ve had a lot of time to get over it. There’s also the fact that I let her go. I cared about her, sure. But I realized I was in love with the idea of her. I was sad for my boy. He was the one who lost when she walked away and never looked back. But she regrets that now.”
That was a surprise. “You still talk to her?”
“Occasionally. I sent her pictures of Grant every year on his birthday. I wasn’t going to let her forget. And when she gets them, she calls.”
“Grant never mentioned that,” I said.
“That’s because she didn’t call for him. She wanted to tell me what a mistake she made. That I was the better man. She’d say that all her husband wanted was someone to put on his arm like a prop.”
“She didn’t ask about Grant, though?”
“No. When I’d ask if she wanted to talk to him or know how he was doing, she’d have to get off the phone.”
“What a bitch!”
“Like Roy, she’s not all bad. Guilt kept her from talking to him. If she did, she would have to acknowledge that she’d chosen money over him.”
“A selfish bitch. Are you defending her?” I asked.
“Hell no. I told you the story as a cautionary tale.” He shifted gears. “You’ve got an apartment, I hear.”
“Mom told you,” I said, stupidly. No one else could have told him unless he’d spoken to his brother.
“She did. And she’s scared. She doesn’t understand why you don’t come home.”
I hated feeling like a shit son. “It’s not just about them. I’m trying to figure out what I want to do.” I kept the possibility of me reenlisting to myself.
“I get that too. Just call her or text her more often. She feels every passing day she doesn’t hear from you as a step towards losing you. While you were enlisted, she worried something bad would happen. She gets you back and you disappear. And I get it. You’re a man used to your space. You don’t want to be under the foot of your mother. But think how you would feel if something bad happened to her and you hadn’t kept in touch.”
King Me (King Me Duet Book 1) Page 12