Diversions

by Leanne Davis

  She shifted her weight, sliding one of her heels forward. She cleared her throat and tapped her toe; she seemed to be debating how to answer. Why was she here? And why would an Andrews ask for him specifically? It made no sense.

  “No,” she said softly, and then a moment later, in a firmer tone, she continued, “I’m… actually engaged to Trent Gallagher. I just found out that makes me your future sister-in-law. The thing is, until a few days ago, I didn’t know you existed.”

  He stepped back in shock. She was engaged to Trent? Holy shit. His gaze traveled over her, this time with interest. He kept the smirk off his face as he came to the obvious conclusion: she completely resembled the kind of woman Trent would marry. Trent, the wimpy asshole, would get the richest heir in five hundred miles to fall for him. His charming, upper-crust act would probably fool most any woman. Few were exposed to the real Trent. The Trent he had spent his life avoiding and trying not to react to. The real Trent made sure Jason knew exactly who he was not. And who he was not, was Trent’s brother. Still, why was she here?

  “I don’t speak to Trent much. And vice versa.”

  She nodded, her curls catching on her shoulder. “I am just starting to figure that out. What made your existence curious to me is the strange contract Trent told me about. I can’t make any sense of it. They bribed you to simply keep quiet that you are Terry Gallagher’s son?”

  He jerked his head back. Okay, right to it. “Agreement. We had an agreement.”

  Her eyes clouded over and her eyebrows dropped. “Why? Why would you let them do that to you?”

  He blinked in surprise. What the hell did she care? What did any of this matter?

  “Why wouldn’t I take it? We already didn’t speak, and have never had a relationship, so this agreement simply provided payment to me for that. What the hell did I care if they needed it formalized? I wasn’t all that interested in exposing I was related to them, mayor or not. But that wasn’t something they could believe. So they came up with this agreement. Why do you care?”

  Her lips twitched. She glanced down at her feet, as if considering his explanation. When she looked back up, her expression was confused. “Because…I think it was wrong. I can’t believe anyone would do such a thing to their son and brother, for any reason. I don’t understand why they did it. What is so bad about your relationship with the Gallaghers that would let you sign such an abhorrent contract?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Why don’t you ask your fiancé?”

  She bit her lip and ran her hands down the front of her coat, as if wiping sweaty palms. An action that didn’t jive with the rest of her polished, put-together, sophisticated appearance and demeanor. “I realize this is a lot to come at you with. I am a complete stranger to you, and yet I possess extremely private knowledge. I apologize for coming here out of nowhere. I didn’t really intend to. I was crossing the intersection and noticed the sign for Kelso’s Auto Garage, and I remembered you worked here. I found this file of you in Trent’s desk. I asked Trent about it, and he admitted he has a half-brother, and that they had executed that contract in order to keep that fact a secret. Even from me.”

  “So you decided to come ask a complete stranger about it?”

  Her brown eyes crinkled in a warm smile. “I did. I mean, I shouldn’t have, but…well, here I am. I can’t believe Trent has a brother and in all the years I’ve known him, he never once mentioned you to me. And yet, you live in the same town.”

  “And?”

  “And…what?”

  “And what did Trent tell you in response to why he wanted to keep me secret?”

  She was back to biting her lower lip again. She shook her head. “He didn’t really. That’s what has me so confused. He said you were the result of a one-night stand from years ago. That you were not raised with him.”

  “No. I was never part of their family.”

  “Still, thirty thousand dollars worth? They actually paid you cash not to admit you are related to them?”

  He straightened his spine and scowled. “Yeah. Thirty thousand dollars worth.”

  “It’s an awful thing they did to you. And from the sound of it, why wouldn’t you agree to it? They are usually so open and honest. I thought I knew them so well. This strange, odd thing they did to you has me completely confused and unsure. I don’t even know how to react to this. To the secrets, and to the fact that they would do this. It goes against everything I know about them.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t know the Gallaghers very well, do you?”

  She lowered her head. “Trent’s been my father’s assistant for several years, and Terry has been my father’s lawyer for a dozen years.”

  “Dozen, huh? And you didn’t know he had another son. Maybe you should rethink how open and honest they are.”

  She frowned and she shuffled her feet around again. “Have you ever had contact with them?”

  “Hardly any.”

  “Because…?”

  “Because why would they? I was an unhappy reminder of Terry betraying his wife and ethics. You can imagine how unhappy they were I was the result.”

  “Peggy. Of course.” Christine narrowed her eyes.

  “What? You don’t like her?”

  “Peggy? I find her…capable of this.” Peggy was married to Terry, and she was Trent’s mother.

  “She’s a big part of what happened. But Terry didn’t want me either.”

  “Did he support you?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “So then, out of nowhere, they offered you this confidentiality agreement, you took it and the thirty thousand dollars, and that’s the end of it?”

  “Yeah, pretty much. You’re late to the party, and there’s nothing left. Every once in awhile Trent shows up here and reminds me of the agreement and what will happen if I break the terms of the deal.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Trent does that?”

  “Trent does that.”

  She furrowed her brows. “So you and Trent don’t get along because of how Peggy and Terry have set up the dynamics between you all?”

  Jason paused. Yeah. Maybe that was why. All he knew was he and Trent had hated each other their entire lives. “I don’t know, we do a pretty good job of hating each other on our own.”

  “And neither of you ever felt compelled to meet each other as brothers?”

  “Brothers.” He said the word, and wanted to spit out the distinct bad flavor it left in his mouth. “Yeah, we’re not brothers.”

  “You should be. There isn’t anyone else you know. There are no grandparents or cousins or aunts and uncles. There are only you four. Have you two ever spent any time together as adults to see if maybe this is all a reaction to Terry and Peggy’s issues, not your own?”

  He straightened himself off the door jamb. She was serious. Her eyes were flashing, her lips set in a thin line of disapproval. “What do you propose? A play date?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “No, of course not. But, maybe, you could meet for coffee. Say hello, have a conversation that doesn’t revolve around Terry or Peggy.”

  “No, thanks. They are the last thing I need in my life.”

  She watched him. “You know, you look just like him.”

  “Who?”

  “Trent. You and Trent look just alike, and both of you hold a strong resemblance to Terry.”

  “No. I don’t.”

  “Yes. You do. You have the same exact color of eyes, the dark hair, and the same body-builds even. From the back even I could mistake you for Trent.”

  “Except for the oil stained coveralls. Trent’s never even had a sliver in his hands, let alone oil, grease, or dirt on them. Prissier, pretty boy I’ve never met. He’s almost as pretty as you.”

  She sighed. “That’s not helping.”

  “Which part? That you’re pretty or Trent might be prettier?”

  She straightened her spine. “He still looks like you.”

  “No, he doesn�
��t.” He stepped into the room, closer to her. She stepped back. She didn’t like him in her space. She was a small girl, under five-foot-five. She was skinny and small-boned. She was easy to intimidate with his six-foot-two height. “But if you like his type, his looks, then what are you trying to tell me here?”

  She gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes. “I get my showing up here like this, about this stuff, probably wasn’t the wisest way to handle you. I simply wanted to understand what my fiancé was doing and why.”

  He stepped back, properly chastised. “Why? I don’t get why.”

  “Because hiding you is an awful thing to do. I just don’t understand a family who pretends a son and brother doesn’t exist. You might not care or think it’s wrong, but I know it is wrong and I do care.”

  He regarded her. She was really serious about this. Her eyes were bright with conviction and her body taut with nerves.

  “Not my problem. Take it up with Trent.”

  She paused, head lowered. She seemed to make a decision about something when she lifted her face and asked, “Will you have coffee with us? Just one time. What could it hurt?”

  “A lot. And it’s a waste of my time. No thanks.”

  She hesitated and started with the lip biting again. “What about with me?”

  “Coffee with you? Why?”

  “I don’t know. To see if maybe there is more here, to you and Trent than has ever been allowed.”

  “At least you don’t hide what you want out of me. Not something my family is good at.” He eyed her, and then sighed. “Okay. I’ll have coffee with you. No Trent. No Terry.”

  She nodded. “No Trent. No Terry. Good. How about Friday at five?”

  “I don’t get off until five. Make it six.”

  She smiled, chagrinned. “How about the small café down the highway, Nancy Rae’s?”

  He shrugged. “Whatever. This is your show.”

  She nodded, apparently satisfied. “Okay, I’ll see you then.”

  Chapter Two

  Jason was sitting in the booth when she entered the diner. She shook the rain from her coat and took down her umbrella. Water dripped from her. He took up half the booth. He had enormous shoulders, broad and strong, with arms that rippled anytime he moved. He obviously worked out. When she said that he and Trent had similar figures, she meant if Trent had ever worked out.

  Jason didn’t smile when he caught her eye. In fact, his mouth turned down in a frown. He wasn’t glad to see her. He leaned back in the high-backed booth and crossed his arms over his impressive chest. She forced her gaze down.

  Trent’s estranged brother was hot. She hadn’t expected it. When he had walked in from the doorway of the garage into the waiting room, she’d been stunned. He was huge; tall and muscled, with dark brown hair and a face that stopped her breath. He thought Trent was too pretty? He should look in the mirror. Sure, Trent was a handsome, well-put-together man, with a nice sense of style. But my God, he didn’t stop a woman’s heart. He couldn’t be the advertisement for a strip club, not the way Jason could.

  And nobody had eyes like him. They were big and bright. The color was so piercing and blue she had almost forgotten how to speak when he’d unleashed the full power of them.

  Jason had a manliness, an arrogance and macho-ness that Trent couldn’t begin to pull off. It was more than the setting of the auto garage and the oil stained hands and grease streak just under his chin. It was an aura around Jason. He walked different than Trent. He talked different. He was totally controlled in his movements, down to the way he watched her and the way he didn’t react to her. His face could be carved of granite. There had yet to be any indication of what went on inside him, if indeed anything did. The only emotion he hinted at was in the slight change of his tone when he mentioned Trent or Terry’s name.

  She still could not believe her fiancé had a brother. The anger that unleashed in her sent her blood boiling through her system. He had omitted the fact that he had a sibling for the entire four years she had known him and the two years they had dated. What the hell? Who did that? It was so weird a fact to not tell her. Why would Trent even consider not telling her? It was seriously disturbing. What else had been hidden from her? If the entire family was capable of hiding the existence of a human being, what else did they hide? She couldn’t fathom why Trent would simply not tell her he had an estranged brother.

  She had readdressed the subject with Trent on three separate occasions and they ended up in the same round-robin argument they’d shared in his office. He’d clammed up and acted like she was the problem. She was odd for needing to know this. Trent portrayed it as nothing and none of her business. It didn’t sit well with her.

  What was she doing meeting with Jason? She didn’t know exactly. She just knew it was wrong to have a signed agreement paying someone to not say they were your son. It was seriously, morally wrong. And that the Gallaghers didn’t simply know that, had her rethinking what else they wouldn’t consider wrong.

  She slid into the booth opposite Jason. He nodded at her. She smiled back. She set her coat beside her. She ordered a coffee from the waitress. Jason ordered a beer and nachos. He leaned on the table, resting his elbows on the edge.

  “Nice car. Yours?”

  She glanced towards her red sedan. He’d seen her park and dash through the streaming rain and puddle-soaked parking lot.

  “It was a graduation present.”

  “High school?”

  She frowned, offended. “College, obviously. I didn’t just get out of high school. How old do you think I am? I’m engaged to your brother, not the normal thing for eighteen-year-olds.”

  He smiled, a crooked lift of his lips. She was sure he’d been trying to insult her. Her heart simply punched her in the chest. Holy Christ. His hotness level was ridiculous. “So, not eighteen?”

  “No, twenty-two I just graduated college. You really thought I looked like a high school student?”

  His smirk offended her. Here she was, almost incoherent, struck deaf and dumb by his pure physical beauty, and he thought she was in high school?

  He leaned back and sprawled in the booth. “So you’re the next CEO of Andrews Enterprises? Or will it be Trent?”

  She sucked in a breath. She often got that question. But it was never any easier for her to answer. Andrews Enterprises was her father’s entire life. It had been hers too, until this spring, as her graduation date had drawn near. Suddenly, she wasn’t just proud of her dad; she was supposed to join him. They had talked and dreamed of her working there her entire life. She had often vocalized how she wanted to until it had become a very real proposition that was going to happen, not just a someday aspiration that might happen. She knew, of course, that Trent wanted nothing more than to keep rising in rank, status, and pay in her father’s company. She couldn’t blame him. Of course that was his end goal. She did not believe he had asked her to marry him as part of that pursuit. But of course, it didn’t hurt it either. And many, many times had people asked if they were going to end up working together, taking over for her father. Only…she could not imagine every single day of her life going to work with her father and her husband.

  “It’s way too soon for thinking about that. I will be starting there soon. I’m just not in as much of a hurry to get on with it as everyone else is. Trent included. It seems overwhelming to me, going to work each day and seeing my father and my fiancé.” She pressed her lips together to shut herself up. Why was she telling Jason this stuff? Stuff that she hadn’t even hinted to anyone else about? Why was she choosing her fiancé’s estranged brother to confide in? What was wrong with her?

  “Then don’t.”

  She zeroed in on his face. “Don’t what?”

  “Work there. Work somewhere else.”

  When he said it, it sounded easy. When she thought it out in her own head, it seemed so complicated. She could get a job doing anything, anywhere. Why, then, didn’t she do that? Tell her father no thanks, and then find ou
t what she wanted to do with the rest of her life? But she knew why: she couldn’t stand to disappoint her father. Nor could she find the resolve to stand up to him and simply say, I’m not ready for all this yet.

  Jason kept his gaze on her. She fidgeted under his intense scrutiny. “I don’t know. I just can’t. It’s hard to explain,” she mumbled, unwilling to articulate how she felt.

  “Money isn’t exactly an issue, is it?”

  “No. It’s just not that easy.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugged. She didn’t imagine he’d understand the pressures living up to a family’s expectations could cause. He, for obvious reasons, probably would gloat over getting to thumb his nose at his family. For her, it was the opposite. Her entire life was about trying to live up to the unlivable…yet she couldn’t make herself quit trying. “There is a lot of pressure on me from my family. And Trent. He and I have made lots of plans for our future, which includes us working together. How could I disappoint everyone?”

  “So, it’s better to disappoint yourself?”

  She shrugged. “It’s easier to disappoint myself.” It was way better to disappoint herself than to contemplate disappointing her father. He was everything she judged herself by. She could not, would not, disappoint him.

  “Yeah, but, what do you want?”

  She smiled softly. She knew that answer down to her toes. “I simply want a break.” Freedom, to breathe, to think, to feel. Freedom from Andrews Enterprises, her parents’ success, their life and friends, their attempts to finagle a wedding date from her, and freedom from planning her upcoming engagement party.

  “Then take a break.”

  She snorted at the thought. “No. I’d never be able to do that. I wish I could. But with the wedding and everything, so much is expected of me. People rely on me.”

  He considered her for a moment. “When are you getting married?”

  She glanced at his face, surprised he’d asked. “I don’t know yet. They…all really want an answer to that too.”

  “Who?”

  “Trent, Terry and Peggy and my parents. Even the damn wedding coordinator my parents already hired seems to exert pressure over me.”