“It better not be.” I push my face closer to his, making sure there’s no way he can misinterpret what I’m saying. “She’s mine,” I hiss through clenched teeth just before dropping him.
“Bentley.” Ceci grabs my arm, forcing me to turn around and face her. Her face is crimson red and she’s fiercely scowling at me. “Jason, give us a minute, please,” she asks, clenching her lips tightly.
Jason adjusts his shirt and nods before walking out and closing the door behind him.
“What the hell is he doing on your desk?” I growl before she even gets a word in.
“Are you insane?” she yells, flailing her arms at me.
I close the gap between us. “You are my wife, Ceci. Excuse me for not wanting some guy—some ex you use to fuck—near my wife.”
“God, you’re such a moron sometimes.” She pushes her hands against my chest with all the power she can muster up, but I barely flinch. “He’s not interested in me! He was telling me about another girl he wants to ask out. Had you given more than two seconds for us to explain that, you wouldn’t have made yourself look like such a jackass.”
“That doesn’t explain why he’s always all over you and sitting on your desk. C’mon, Ceci. I’m a guy. And not a blind one.”
“Go ask him for yourself then. Since he came back, we’ve only ever been friends.” She waves her hands behind me, motioning for me to run after him.
My jaw ticks at the thought of having to speak to him one-on-one, especially since I already hate the guy.
“I have nothing to say to him.”
“You could start with an apology.” She crosses her arms, pushing my limits even further.
I adjust my shirt and give in anyway. “Fine.”
She raises her brows at me as I walk out, guilt settling in my gut. Now that I know the situation, I know I crossed a line by grabbing him.
I walk through the locker room and find him in the hallway.
“Jason!” I call out, jogging toward him. He turns around and waits until I catch up to him. “Look, I’m sorry for overreacting. I shouldn’t have laid my hands on you.”
He shuffles his shirt, putting it back in place. “It’s fine,” he finally says. “I know how much you love her. But I’m telling you, it’s not like that.”
“Well, why don’t you start by telling me how it is?”
I see him swallow before cracking his jaw and finally making eye contact with me.
“Cecilia…is someone I knew back in high school, as you know. She was someone very special to me even though we were never able to commit to each other in that way. She’s still that special person to me, but in a different way. She’s matured now. Ever since I’ve been back from overseas, she gives me a sense of…comfort. She’s a piece of the old me that was from before I enrolled in the army. She’s that piece that I want to remember because being over there really fucked me up. I became isolated after a while and stopped contacting my friends and family. Cecilia has a way of bringing out the old me, if that makes sense. She’s the same stubborn, sassy-mouthed girl she was in high school.” He grins to himself. “She’s my security blanket. She’s like home.” I see the vulnerable way he’s looking at me, letting me know he’s telling the truth.
“I hadn’t thought of it like that.”
“I know…I should’ve made an effort to talk to you or at least let you know that getting into her pants wasn’t my intention.”
I smirk. “So whose pants are you trying to get into?” He raises his brows at me in surprise. “What? I thought we were doing that brother-bonding thing, or whatever.”
That makes him laugh and blush.
“Casey. How weird is that?”
“Really?” I rub my finger and thumb over my jawline. “That…I could probably help you with. Casey’s a spitfire just like her sister, so you have to have a plan going in. They aren’t the type of girls you just go after. It’s like a fucking maze.”
Cecilia
I always knew Bentley was overprotective, but I’ve never seen him go at someone the way he went toward Jason. I’m sure the rumors of us had something to do with his speculation, but apparently, it took the two of them to finally talk to ease Bentley’s mind.
“I feel like a dick,” he says softly, standing in front of my desk. I see the vulnerability in his face.
“Good,” I spit out. “At least that’s one less thing I have to call you.”
His lips curve up into a small grin. “Will you forgive me?” He pleads with his eyes and panty-dropping smile. I’m so doomed.
“Why do you do that? You know I’m a sucker for that look.”
He laughs and comes around my desk, kneeling in front of me. “That’s what I was counting on.”
“I’ll forgive you on one condition.”
“Okay, spill.” His hands grasp my hips.
“Get your mother to meet up with me for lunch. We need to settle everything in person. I hate that we have so much to get off our chests and that it’s causing an awkward tension.”
He raises his brows at me in surprise. “Wow, very mature of you.”
I dramatically pull a hand to my chest. “Um, excuse me? I’m very mature, thank you,” I say with certainty laced in my voice.
I follow his eyes to the bottom of my shirt as a smirk forms across his face. “Says the girl with Hello Kitty underwear.”
I burst out in laughter and shake my head at him. “Well, if my husband would stop ripping all my good panties in half, I’d actually have something half decent to wear!” I defend.
“Well, if my wife would stop wearing underwear.”
Chapter Twenty
Cecilia
New Beginnings
I CAN’T STOP fidgeting in my seat as I wait for Ava. The only thing I know about her is that she’s related to me somehow and that she’s flying in from Florida.
I stand up the moment I see her red blazer. That’s our code so I knew who I was looking for; however, she didn’t look anything like I had expected.
She’s wearing a head bandana where her hair should be, but you can clearly see she’s bald. She’s pasty white, which seems odd since she lives around sunny beaches.
“Cecilia?” she asks, the closer she approaches.
I nod and smile. “Yes. Ava?”
“It’s so great meeting you!” She surprises me by swarming me in a big hug. “You look just like your father.” She takes me off guard, but I just swallow and nod in return. We both take a seat, sitting across from each other.
“Are you going to tell me how you know my father? It’s been weighing on me and I need to know,” I ask cautiously, getting right to the point of this whole meeting.
“Of course.” She smiles, adjusting herself in the chair until she’s comfortable. “We only got to spend nine months together.”
“Oh, my god.” My heart begins racing as I draw my own conclusions.
“Yes, nine months in the womb that is.” She chuckles lightly.
“Wait, what?”
“I’m your dad’s twin sister,” she states matter-of-factly.
“I didn’t know he had a twin sister,” I exclaim, shocked that my mother never brought it up.
“Your mother doesn’t exactly…approve of me.”
“What, why?”
“When they first started dating, I got into some trouble. Okay, a lot of trouble.” She laughs lightly to herself. “Your dad had to bail me out a few times financially. After they were engaged, your mother wouldn’t let me borrow anymore money because it all had to go to their wedding. And when I wasn’t invited to the wedding, that’s when I knew I wasn’t wanted. And the last thing I wanted was to get in the middle of their marriage, so I backed away.”
“For over twenty years?” I blurt out. “I’m sure my mom would’ve gotten over it.”
She shrugs. “No, she didn’t. I wasn’t exactly a good egg, Cecilia. I had a little rebellious side to me. Back in my younger years.” She points to her head. “Obviously
, I haven’t been for a while now.” She smiles, accepting her fate.
I swallow, nervous to even ask. “Are you sick?”
She nods simply. “Yes. I have been for a while.”
I swallow as the realization of what that means. “Do you have a family in Florida?”
She smiles wide. “Yes, I have two sons. Jackson and Jamison.”
“Two cousins,” I remark, giddily. My mom’s an only child and up to today, I thought my dad was an only child, as well. “Could I meet them sometime?”
“I don’t see why not. They’re a bit younger than you.”
“Oh, both of them are?”
“Yes, they’re twins.”
“Wow. I had no idea twins ran in the family.”
“Yes, on both sides of the family. So, be careful.” She winks at me. “Fraternal twins can have twins whereas identical twins usually skip a generation.”
“Hmm…I never knew that.”
I offer to buy her a coffee and excuse myself a moment, needing to wrap my brain around everything. There’s something about her that reminds me of myself when I was in high school and college.
I can’t believe my own mother never told me. That’s a long time to hold a grudge on someone.
“So…can I be blunt and ask why, after all this time, you decided to contact me?”
After sipping her coffee, she sets it down with a serious expression. “I wanted to meet you one more time.”
I give her a puzzling look. “What do you mean one more time? Aren’t you getting treatment? I could come down and visit you,” I offer.
“They tried treatment, but it spread.”
“Okay, so you need something more intensive? We have really great doctors up here. There’s a huge specialist hospital in Minnesota. I mean, it’s a drive obviously, but they are amazing.” I know this because I had an assignment in one of my health and fitness classes that lead me to research MAYO clinic.
“Sweetie, it’s inoperable.”
“What about chemo?”
“This is my second time getting cancer,” she admits. “My body is tired. It’s spreading too rapidly. They do surgery and I could die anyway. So I chose against it so I could spend the rest of the time I have with my family. And to see you once again.” Her voice is soft, certainty in her tone.
“No,” I retort, angry that she’s just so easily giving up. “That can’t be right. There’s treatment. There’s ways to fight cancer.”
“It’s not always that simple, darling.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to waste precious time on something that isn’t going to work.”
I finally surrender, nodding my head in understanding. “I would’ve given anything to have just a little more time with my dad. But—” Tears begin surfacing. “It’s really not something you tell someone you haven’t seen in twenty years.” I half-laugh as I wipe the tears away. “Especially, since I didn’t have any family growing up. And the one person you looked up to ended up being someone completely different than you thought,” I say, referencing my dad.
“That’s part of what I wanted to talk about, Cecilia. Your father was my hero.”
I sniff, wiping more tears away. “What do you mean?”
“Your dad put me through my first round of treatment when I first got cancer.” I lean forward, wanting to hear more. “Your dad and I continued speaking even though your mother forbade it. Once he found out I was sick, he said he would do anything to help me.”
Apparently, he literally meant anything.
She takes a sip of her coffee and I just continue to stare at her. Ever since learning the truth about his death, I had often wondered what made him go into gambling in the first place.
“You’re the reason he joined with Ramiro.” It comes out accusingly, but I hadn’t meant it to.
“He just called me up one day and said he was sending me money. And the money just kept coming, which meant I could pay for treatment that my insurance wouldn’t cover. He never told me how he got it.”
I feel my heart racing, the dots finally connecting. “Did you know about Ramiro? Or the gambling? Or the plan?”
“No,” she blurts out. “I read his obituary and only what the local papers said online. I never contacted your mom and figured she wouldn’t care to hear from me.”
“Oh,” I say relieved. “He was addicted to gambling,” I explain. ‘That’s how he got the money.”
“I never knew.”
“Yeah, I didn’t know until a couple years ago,” I offer softly. It felt weird talking about my dad again, but a part of me felt happy that I still could.
“He killed himself,” I say bluntly. “He began losing money and couldn’t pay it.” I lower my head to avoid seeing his reflection in her face. “He killed himself to keep them away from us. He knew they’d come after us if he couldn’t pay up. The insurance money paid them off.” The tears come uncontrollably now, and I don’t even try to stop them. “I miss him so much.”
She rubs the pad of her thumb over my knuckles. “Your dad was a good man, Cecilia.”
I smile as I twirl my empty coffee cup in my other hand. “I know. He really was. I always thought of him as my hero when I was a child.”
“He saved my life,” she says, her words making me lock eyes with her. “However, there isn’t any amount of money in the world that can save me now. But just know, no matter how your dad died, he died a hero. He gave me time and that’s something I could never get back or could thank him enough for doing. My only regret is not being able to come see him more.”
I squeeze her hand in mine, fear obvious in her eyes. “Let’s use the time we have now.”
* * *
One Month Later
Ava spent a week with Bentley and me at our house. We Skyped with her husband and sons so I could ‘meet’ them. I never felt an emotional pain before, but meeting Ava and her family was bittersweet. We promised to keep in touch, but I had an uncanny feeling that this promise wouldn’t last long.
After saying goodbye to Ava, it really made me think how I really need to spend time with the people that are important in our lives. It’s easy to make excuses when you’re busy with work and husbands, but I wanted to make sure I put an extra effort into it now.
Mrs. Leighton and I plan to meet up finally. It’s time to finally put this cat pissing fight to rest. I want her involved in our life.
“Cecilia,” she says my name as if it’s a dirty word.
“Hello, Mrs. Leighton,” I say politely, taking a seat across from her. “Thank you for meeting me.”
“Well, I do enjoy their lobster,” she says blankly.
“Before we order, can I please just say something?” She finally looks at me and nods lightly. “You know I love your son. And I understand you love him just as much. Before I met Bentley or even started thinking of settling down, I never dreamed of a big, white wedding. As you know, I was quite focused on my dad and the past. So when Bentley and I got engaged, we started making plans of what we both like and of what we could combine to each other’s tastes. And well, you had other plans, and I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“What was wrong with my ideas?” she asks cautiously.
“Nothing, honestly. They just weren’t what we wanted. You were going for more extravagant and we wanted something more…simple.” I make sure to keep my tone neutral. “I’m sorry we left you out of our wedding, but at the end of the day, we just wanted to be able to commit to each other and be husband and wife.”
She nods lightly, understanding what I’m telling her. “I’m sorry if I came off as being pushy,” she says, moving her silverware around, clearly uncomfortable. “I wasn’t trying to be malicious.”
“Oh, Mrs. Leighton, I would never think that.” I press a palm to my heart. For the first time, I see her actually showing emotion. “I just never knew how to tell you to…back off.”
“Well, your email was sufficient in letting me know,” she says curt
ly.
My shoulders slump, wishing I could take that back. “I’m very sorry I sent you that. Bentley told me to just be straightforward with you, and I really should’ve told you face to face. I understand you just wanted the best for him and that I didn’t handle the situation properly.”
“Well, thank you, Cecilia. That means a lot to me. I want to have a close relationship with you and Bentley as a couple. It’s important to have a close family.”
I put a hand over my stomach where a small bump has formed. “I couldn’t agree more.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Bentley
“YOU’RE SURE?”
“Yes.”
“How can you know for sure?” I question, pacing the kitchen.
She pulls six white sticks out of her purse and lays them flat out on the counter. “Because six out of six is a pretty good bet.”
I lean over and examine them. All saying the exact same thing. Positive.
“Aren’t you happy?” she asks, a hint of disappointment in her voice.
I round the counter and cup her face in both hands. I lean in and briefly graze my lips over hers. “I’m ecstatic. Are you happy?”
Her eyes close on contact as I brush a finger over cheek. “Yes. Very.”
I just flew back in from L.A. after spending a week there finalizing my contract with several agencies and photographers for Leighton Modeling Co. After discussing my plan with Angie, she went to her boss, who ate the whole thing up. In fact, he even offered to help me get it off the ground with all of his contacts, as well. Now I could work on my own schedule and only have to travel to meet up with joining companies. It’s a dream to be my own boss instead of having to answer to someone else. It’s still new, and we haven’t opened up to prospective clients yet, but we will be in the next six months or so.
“I found out right after you left,” she admits. “I almost told your mother when we met up a couple days ago, but I wore a baggy shirt so she wouldn’t notice.”
“Is it normal to show this early?” I ask with caution.
She scrunches her lips up into a questionable grin. “No, not really. I’d only be about five or six weeks. So, it’s probably just bloating.”
The Intern Serials: Complete Box Set Page 42