Swirl: The Complete Collection (BWWM Interracial Romance) (Books 1-3)

by Lexi Lewis

  The fact that nothing had happened yet was making him a little nervous, and he didn’t like that at all.

  So once again, he was camped out in the kitchen with his computer, trying to figure out if there was some way to narrow down his list.

  His mother was taking one of her rare days off while his father worked in his office, and she was sitting in the living room working on something on the computer in there when she called out to him.

  “Do you know someone named Chris Hamilton?” she asked, sliding her reading glasses up her forehead.

  Reese frowned and leaned back in his chair until he could see her. The name sounded very familiar, but he couldn’t remember why. “I think I might? Why?”

  “There’s an article here about how he might be making his triumphant return to the games, and I thought you might be interested to read it. I can email it to you, if you’d like.”

  The name was tickling something in the back of his mind, and he knew that he’d met or competed against someone with that name before. His focus was broken by the fact that it was his mother mentioning it to him, though.

  “Where’d you see that article?” Something like that wasn’t likely to have been on the front page of any news sites, considering it was probably for the semi-pros anyway.

  “I have a feed,” she said, shrugging.

  “You have a feed. Of sports articles?”

  “Not general sports, obviously,” she replied, and she sounded impatient. “Just ones that might pertain to you or things you’re interested in.”

  This was news to him since she’d never mentioned anything of the sort to him before, and he couldn’t even really imagine her looking for articles about him or extreme sports or anything like that.

  “Since when, Mom? I thought you hated what I do and thought I was an idiot for doing it.”

  She sighed and he watched her drag a hand through her hair. “I may not be a fan of it, Reese, but you are still my son, and I still like to know when people are saying good things about you. Your father reads all the articles, and I used to get the information from him, but then I decided that I wanted to get it myself. Is that a problem?”

  “No. Of course not. I’m just surprised, I guess. You never seemed to…” He shook his head. “Never mind. Can you send me the link to that article? I’d like to read it.”

  “Do you think it might be relevant to what’s going on?” his mother asked, always perceptive.

  “Not sure yet. That name sounds so familiar, but I can’t remember if I know that guy or not. But someone coming back to the games after quitting or being dropped by their sponsors or agent is kinda unheard of, so I’m interested either way.”

  His new email notification popped up, and he clicked on the link in the message, frowning as he read.

  Christopher Hamilton, 24, has announced today that after a lengthy hiatus, he will be getting back into the game. If you don’t remember Hamilton, that’s okay. You’re not alone. His first foray into the world of competitive extreme sports was not very noteworthy, and following a very disappointing showing in the Go Cola BMX competition last year (video below), he was dropped by all of his sponsors.

  When asked what is driving this desire to get back into a sport that hasn’t treated him so well, Hamilton said that “it’s a new year and things are different. There are definitely going to be fewer distractions now than there were before, and I think the playing field will have leveled off some.”

  Seems like the competition of some of his peers was one of the things that kept Hamilton from shining, but there have been major changes to the top line up of competitors since Go Cola, most notably the fact that rising star Reese Abbot, who took the gold in the Go Cola comp, (watch Abbot’s Up and at ‘Em in the Morning interview here) is out until he heals up. So this might just be the perfect time for Hamilton to put his best foot forward.

  We’ll certainly be watching.

  Go Cola…

  Reese sat back in his chair with a frown. He remembered that competition. It had been back in April of the year before, and he’d come in first. There had been talk of one of the riders getting dropped by his sponsors after that, and he even remembered being asked about it in an interview.

  He hadn’t said anything bad, really, just that he understood that sponsors wanted people who were going to be good publicity for them and that it was easier to do that when you were on the winner’s stand and not somewhere in the dirt.

  So, okay. Not the nicest thing he could have said, considering the circumstances, but he’d been fresh off the high of placing first, and not really thinking.

  “So, what do you think?” his mother asked, jarring him out of his thoughts. “I did notice that you were mentioned.”

  “I think…I think it’s enough to move him up the list some. I mean, we were both in the Go Cola competition clearly, and he said that thing about the playing field being more even now. It’s awfully convenient for him to decide to come back right after I have to take a hiatus,” Reese said.

  “And maybe Paul is helping him get back into it. He seems to know the ins and outs of dealing with sponsors and making the right moves,” Carolyn pointed out.

  Reese swore under his breath. It made a lot of sense. He didn’t think that Paul would be Chris’ agent, not if it was money he was after, but if they were working together, then it made sense to think that Paul would be using his influence and knowledge to help and probably getting something out of it for himself to make it worth his while.

  “This is so messed up,” he groaned. “I don’t know where to even find this Hamilton guy, and I’m definitely not gonna call Paul up and ask if they’ve been working together.”

  “Let me do a little digging,” Carolyn said, and Reese could hear her fingers flying over the keys of her computer. Apparently today was just going to be a day for bizarre surprises because never in a million years would Reese have assumed that his mother would know where to find someone like Chris Hamilton. But then, she did have a lot of contacts all over the city, so maybe it wasn’t too out shocking.

  Either way, he was grateful for her help and surprised that they were getting along so well right now.

  “Thanks,” he said. “That would be really helpful, actually.”

  She smiled at him, glancing up and through the kitchen door. “You’re welcome. I… I’d like to help you in whatever way I can. I know this is important to you, Reese, and I’ve seen the level of dedication you’re willing to go to so you can keep doing what you love. Your father told me that I could either keep trying to get you to see things my way or try to help you be safer, and I figured this was the easiest thing for both of us.”

  Reese laughed at that. It was definitely typical of his father to try and play mediator. “Sounds like Dad.” He hesitated before speaking again. “Mom, I never… It wasn’t me trying to go against you back then. You know that, right? I wanted you to be proud of me, but I also wanted to be happy and proud of myself. If I could have done them both at the same time, then I would have, but it didn’t seem possible. So I had to go with what made me happy.”

  His mother was quiet for a moment, and Reese wondered if they weren’t ready to have this conversation yet. It had been brewing in the back of his mind since he’d come here after his injury, but it had never seemed like the right time.

  Now felt right, but when his mother was quiet, it meant she was either upset or thinking very hard. He wasn’t sure either of those were good things in this case.

  “I know,” she said finally, and Reese pushed up from the kitchen table to go into the living room. If they were doing this now, then he at least wanted to be looking at her while they did it.

  “I know that you were doing it for yourself, but I’m your mother. Of course I had all these grand plans for you and things that I wanted to see you accomplish, and it seemed like you were just throwing all of that away. Your dad told me it wasn’t personal back then, too, but I suppose I thought you were just having a phas
e or something.” She shook her head. “Which was sort of stupid considering how you’d never been interested in anything that had to do with sitting still and not putting your life in danger.”

  Reese snorted. “If it wasn’t dangerous, I didn’t care about it, I guess. I wondered if I’d grow out of it, too. You seemed sure that I would and that I’d regret not having a job or an education one day. But it’s what I love, Mom.”

  “I know that now. And I see how good you are and how much people want to see you succeed. I’m… I’m sorry I didn’t support you more when it counted. I’m sorry that I made you think I wasn’t behind you.”

  For a minute, he didn’t know what to say to that. His mother didn’t apologize for things as a general rule and the fact that she had just done so was more shocking than anything else that he’d found out that day.

  On impulse, Reese moved toward her and leaned down to give her a hug. She stiffened in surprise and then patted his arm, laughing softly. “I love you, Mom. You know that, right?”

  “Yes, I know,” she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. “Even if you nearly give me a heart attack often, I know you love me.”

  Reese was always so shocked at how good things could come out of terrible things, and this was no exception. The last thing he’d been expecting when he’d come here was to reconcile with his mother, but there it was. The two of them would probably never be extremely close, and he was sure he hadn’t heard the last comment about how dangerous the things he did were or how he’d be safer if he got a solid job, but knowing that his mother at least understood why he was doing what he did made it better somehow.

  And now he had a somewhat solid lead on who might be working with Paul on this, so his day was definitely looking up.

  CHAPTER 7: NO SHOULD MEAN NO

  One of the best things about working in the hospital were the days when they were over staffed. Usually, she would have to be there anyway and do hours in her clinic or something, but she’d been called that morning and told that she didn’t have to come in if she didn’t want to. The prospect of having a day off was too good to pass up, though, especially since it was Friday, and that meant that not only would Devin have to go to school, giving her plenty of time to herself, but she also got a three day weekend.

  So it was with a bright smile that she went through the routine of getting her brother ready for school, dressing herself in jeans and a sweater instead of her usual scrubs and ushering him out to the car.

  It was an unseasonably warm day that spoke of spring on the horizon, and Eve drew in a deep breath of the mild air as she made sure Devin was strapped in and then got him to school.

  As usual, there were plenty of looks from the employees milling about outside, but Eve wasn’t bothered. Things had seemed to calm down when it came to how much they didn’t like her and the bullying Devin was experiencing, and she could only hope that it had been a short lived phase or something.

  Seeing her brother sad was one of her least favorite things, but having their aunt around seemed to be keeping him in a lively mood.

  Actually, it made her pretty happy, too. Michelle had always been level headed and easy to talk to, and even though there was no way she would ever replace her mother in Eve’s head, it was nice to have family around.

  “Speak of the devil,” Eve murmured as she parked in front of the apartment building and saw that her aunt was calling. “Hello?”

  “Hello, dear. I don’t mean to disturb you if you’re on your way to work, but I was wondering what time you’re getting off tonight. I’d like to do something nice for dinner tonight since I’m leaving on Sunday, and I need to go to the store first.”

  Eve smiled. “Actually, I’m off today. Over staffed at the hospital, so I took the day off. Do you want to head to the store before Devin gets out of school just to get it over with?”

  “That sounds good, yes. Let’s do that. I can come pick you up, if you like. Say, half an hour?”

  That would give her time to actually eat breakfast, so she agreed before hanging up and heading back up to the apartment.

  Half an hour was actually enough time for her to have breakfast and clean up the dishes from the night before, and she was humming under her breath as she worked. Even though there were a lot of things still up in the air that might come crashing down to make their lives a living hell, things seemed to be going alright for the most part.

  When she’d talked to Reese earlier that week, he’d told her about having a lead and about pretty much reconciling with his mother, and his good mood had been infectious.

  Eve was happy for him. Reese was a good person, and he deserved good things just as much as anyone else did. She hoped that he was able to track down this Hamilton guy and figure out what was going on.

  She’d even been able to put her father out of her head a bit. Michelle had talked to her about how she planned to handle things if he showed up while she was around. Having someone else to be righteously indignant that the man would even dare to show his face again after all that he’d done helped a lot, and Eve had been in a good mood for the last few days.

  She was still smiling and humming when Michelle showed up. Her aunt had rented a nice car with a hatchback, so they could get plenty of groceries.

  Eve had protested at first that she didn’t need her aunt to spend her money filling the refrigerator in her apartment, but Michelle had stood firm, saying that she was family, and that she had enough money to help, so she would.

  In the end, it was the way Devin’s face had lit up when there was pie for dessert one night that made Eve shelve her pride. She wanted her brother to be happy, and if accepting help from someone who loved them and truly wanted to give it was the way to make him happy, then she could do that.

  Still, her own list of things to get was small, and she insisted on paying for some of it, even though the extra money she’d saved so far helped a lot when it came to paying bills on time.

  Michelle didn’t argue, just let Eve get her own shopping basket as they walked through the aisles of the super market.

  “I was thinking about doing some kind of casserole,” she said as they headed to the meat section. “Chicken and broccoli or something like that. Something filling and warm.”

  “Casseroles are good,” Eve agreed, picking up a pack of ground beef that was closer to its expiration date than she would have liked, but three dollars cheaper than the newer stuff. Michelle pursed her lips, but didn’t say anything, so Eve sighed and went for a newer pack, placing it in her aunt’s cart.

  That repeated itself with a few other things as they walked through the store, and eventually Eve just surrendered. In truth, she’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone who wanted to take care of her. She had spent so much time trying to take care of herself and her brother that it was second nature to be self-reliant as much as possible.

  But there was nothing wrong with letting her aunt help out while she was in town, and once she stopped fighting against it, the trip to the store went so much more smoothly.

  They were standing in the grain aisle, debating between different kinds of rice, when Eve saw something out of the corner of her eye that was definitely threatening to ruin her day.

  Unless she was seeing things, her father was standing right there at the other end of the aisle, looking for all the world like there was nothing wrong with him being there.

  “Eve, what do you think about doing yellow rice for the casserole, but getting some brown rice for some other dish…” Michelle trailed off when she noticed that her niece was glaring in the opposite direction, and she turned her head to look. “Well. He has some nerve,” she said.

  “You’re telling me,” Eve replied. “What does he even want?”

  “Well, I imagine that he has to buy groceries like the rest of us, but still.”

  And Eve knew that she had a point. This was the biggest supermarket in town, and it made sense for him to be there, but god. Just being within ten fe
et of him had anger spiking through her, and she wanted to go over and demand that he leave.

  “I wonder how much he has to piss me off before I can get a restraining order,” Eve muttered, and Michelle laughed, which attracted Jason’s attention because he turned his head, and his eyes widened when he saw them standing there.

  He seemed to hesitate, which didn’t seem like him, but it was definitely a few seconds before he made his way over, smirk growing as he walked.

  “Michelle,” he said. “It’s been a while.”

  “Not nearly long enough of a while, I can assure you,” she replied dryly. “But then, you are the reason why I’m here.”

  “You came all this way just for me? I’m flattered.” He looked at Eve, and his smirk faltered. “Hi, Eve.”

  She glared at him and folded her arms. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

  “Right. Of course not. Look, whatever you may think, I didn’t follow you here or anything. I just got paid this morning, so I’m here to buy food. I want to talk to you, but I’m not stalking you or anything,” Jason explained, and Eve noted that there was sincerity in his voice that she hadn’t expected.

  Didn’t matter all that much, though, since she knew he was good at lying. “I don’t care,” she said. “I don’t want to talk to you, so you can go on about your business now.”