One Up: Up Series Book 4

by Robin Leaf

  The door swung open, but what it revealed was not what I expected.

  Oh, it was Kaelyn alright, flanked by my cousins with her arms around their necks; they were helping her walk.

  Panic surged up my throat.

  I rushed over and took Kaelyn from them.

  “What the hell happened?”

  Kaelyn looked up at me and smiled lazily.

  “Oh, hey there, Orgasman, you look hot,” she slurred, patting my face sloppily. “We went to the Lit Pub to see Steph-on-mee.” Wagging her eyebrows, she added, “She gave me shots.”

  “But you don’t drink in public, Kaelyn.” I turned to my cousins. “How did y’all get her drunk?”

  They simply glared at me.

  Weird.

  I walked her over to the couch, where she flopped down, leaning back and slinging her arms over her face. I paused the music on my phone.

  “Twins, tell him the story,” she giggled, falling over to her side, “because I don’t think I can remember it all.”

  Etta practically yanked my arm out of its socket pulling me away from the couch, while Emily crossed her arms over her chest, shooting daggers at me.

  “Jeez, girls. What the fuck did I do?”

  “Kyle McGuinness,” Etta hissed, taking a stance similar to her sister’s.

  “Yeah, tell us about him, Brody,” Emily added.

  “Well, he’s my former friend who fucked my former girlfriend in the bedroom of my former apartment on my birthday, and he just happens to be the same guy who screwed Kaelyn over by selling pictures of her to the press when she was in college.”

  “And he’s the Kyle who went to high school with us,” Emily said, waving her hand between her and her sister. She raised her eyebrow, indicating I should remember the confession she made to me before the wedding at her mom’s house.

  I stepped back, feigning shock. I recently learned that my ex-friend was the same Kyle from Emily’s story, but I didn’t need them to know I knew it. “No fucking way.”

  “Yes,” Etta confirmed. “He happened to be at the bar with your former girlfriend. He collected Heather and left pretty quickly when he saw us, and that was when Kaelyn told her story while Stephanie supplied her with tequila.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “Sounds like he screwed over all of us, so I’m not sure why y’all are mad at me.”

  “He ruined my life, Brody,” Etta whined. “If it wasn’t for him, Emily and I wouldn’t have spent eight years hating each other.”

  “Technically,” Emily interrupted, “I didn’t hate you and I never knew why you were mad.”

  Etta rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever. And Nathaniel and I would probably be married with a couple of kids by now.”

  “Maybe,” I drawled, “but maybe not. In the meantime, you’ve become a highly successful, award-winning kinesiologist, which may not have happened if you and Nate were married, and y’all are together now. That’s all that matters. And that still doesn’t tell me why you are mad at me.”

  “Because,” Emily raised her voice, “you were friends with a borderline sociopathic narcissist, and you let him get away with too much. Stealing your girlfriend… and what he did to Kaelyn.”

  I smiled and rocked back on my heels. “No, ladies, that’s where you’re wrong.”

  They shot each other a quick look and resumed glaring at me.

  I cleared my throat. “I heard a former employee turned him in from inside his financial firm. He’s allegedly been involved in some shady deals, doing some creative accounting. Pretty soon, Kyle McGuinness will have a bit of a nightmare on his hands.”

  “Ooh, will he get jail time?” Emily asked, almost bouncing up and down.

  “Probably not. He’s too smart to leave evidence, but he will definitely get a flashlight up his ass. I’m just glad for Heather’s sake it’s not a jealous ex claiming sexual harassment, but if he is found guilty of anything, it’s what she gets for trusting him. I told her a long time ago that I suspected he wasn’t exactly ethical in his business deals.”

  “Then why were you friends with him?” Etta asked.

  I sighed. “In college, he helped me assimilate. I almost dropped out, and he talked me into staying and took me under his wing. He got me to start working out and lose some of the weight I had gained, and he broke me out of my nerd shell.”

  Emily laughed. “Yeah, you definitely needed a little help to break that shell.” She turned to Etta. “Remember that summer we spent with him when he would only speak in Klingon?”

  “Or that time he pretended he was Yoda and made us go through Jedi training?” Etta rubbed her hip. “I had bruises for weeks when he kept insisting that I try to stand on one hand, screaming, ‘Use the force!’ in my ear.”

  “And then, he got into the video games.” Emily turned to me. “God, at least before, you would talk to us, even if we didn’t speak the same language. After that, all you wanted to do was sit on your couch and yell at your screen.” She huffed. “You wouldn’t even let us play.”

  “Yeah, you didn’t even acknowledge our presence, except to say,” Etta deepened her voice, “‘Come look at the ninety-seven million RGK seventy-seven forty-five graphics on this one,’ or whatever techno mumbo jumbo you called it. Wow, you were so impressed, it’s all you talked about, and we didn’t understand it. It all looked the same to us.”

  Emily nodded, then slapped her head. “Oh my God, remember that time –”

  “Alright!” I yelled to cut her off. “We get the point. I was a nerd.”

  Etta laughed. “You’re still a nerd, Brody. And we still love you.”

  “You’re a fucking sexy nerd,” Kaelyn yelled from the couch.

  Jeez, I thought she’d passed out. I wasn’t too sure how I felt about her overhearing everything.

  I smiled at my cousins, gesturing toward the door. “So am I off the hook?”

  They both nodded, turning to leave.

  “As long as he gets what’s coming to him,” Etta muttered.

  Emily clicked her tongue. “God, I’d really like to tell his girlfriend what he did to us.”

  I shook my head. “It’d do you no good. Heather called and told me that he confessed it all.”

  Etta gasped. “And she’s still with him?”

  Emily opened the door. “Well, then… she gets what she gets. Plus, cheating on you earns her some punishment.”

  As Etta hugged me, I asked, “How’s Nate handling his decision to retire?”

  Nate tried to return to baseball, but his injury was too extensive to fully return to his former glory. After getting released by his doctor to play right before the all-star break, it wasn’t long before he and his team decided he would finish the year as a designated hitter and then retire.

  She sighed. “I think he’s okay. He’s been getting offers from ESPN, but he seemed really interested in the coaching position for St. Pius Episcopal School’s baseball team. It’s close to us, and it’d keep him in town.” She lowered her voice so Kaelyn couldn’t overhear. “Sorry if we ruined your evening. It looks like you planned something romantic, Brody.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “Thanks for getting my girlfriend drunk.”

  “She’s a lightweight,” Emily said as she hugged me. “She only had three shots.”

  “Yeah,” Etta agreed, “before you ask her to marry you, we need to work on her tolerance level so she can hang with the big dogs.”

  I smiled. “She’s not usually a drinker, but when she does…” I wagged my eyebrows and shooed them. “Out.”

  “Bye, Kaelyn,” they yelled in unison before closing the door.

  I turned around to see Kaelyn leaning against the wall of the entryway with a shit-eatin’ grin on her face.

  “Newsflash,” she crooned. “I’m not drunk, but I am feeling pretty relaxed.” She walked over to me and placed her hands on my waist. “They wanted to keep talking the wedding stuff to death, and I wanted to come home. So I played up the drunk thing a little so I
’d get my way.”

  I smiled and grabbed her hand, leading her to the dining room. I held out her chair, and she sat looking pretty impressed.

  “Wow, this is fancy,” she crooned, while I lit the candles on the table. “What’s all this?”

  I winked at her before walking into the kitchen to retrieve our dinner.

  She giggled when I returned with our plates.

  “Street tacos from Marco’s truck?” She dug in, shoving half a taco in her mouth. “Oh my God, you love me.”

  What the hell? That was my line.

  I felt my face get red, but I tried to cover. I should have known she’d figure out my intentions.

  She narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing my face, while I tried to nonchalantly eat my taco.

  Hint: one can never nonchalantly eat a taco.

  “Brody?” she began shyly. “Is that what this is all about? Were you planning to tell me you love me tonight?”

  I threw down my taco. “You always fucking do this,” I blurted under my breath. “Yes,” I declared out loud. “I was going to finally say it to you. It bothered me that we hadn’t said it yet, and I planned this romantic evening so that I could tell you, complete with long speech about how perfect you are for me, but now I have to recalculate and figure out how to get back on track.”

  She stood, moving around the table, and plopped down on me, straddling my lap. Her hands cupped my face.

  “Brody, you don’t have to keep trying so hard to woo me. I am wooed by you all the time. I appreciate it. And as for telling me you love me, you really don’t have to. I know you love me. You show me every day. The words are nice, but as they say, actions speak louder, and yours scream to me.” She kissed my lips sweetly and whispered against them, “I just hope I make you feel the same as you make me feel.”

  I reached up and grabbed her hands, holding them to my face.

  Looking into her eyes, I smiled. “I love you, Kaelyn, with all that I am, with every cell in my body. I am so glad you were on that plane. I’m so grateful for turbulence. I am thankful for Kyle and his traitorous dick for landing in Heather, and I’m beholden to whatever force that led you into Jacoby’s bar. I’m not particularly fond of your handwriting,” she giggled, “but I’m now open to the possibility that fate played a hand in bringing us together.”

  She nodded. “It’s the spirits. The lady in New Orleans convinced me.”

  My grin grew. “Maybe. Whoever it was knew what they were doing. I can’t imagine being with anyone else… loving anyone more perfect for me than you.”

  “I love you, too, Brody.”

  I captured her lips with mine, going for the tender, loving kiss for right now. She was the one who deepened the kiss, running her tongue along the seam of my lips until I opened them for her.

  She pulled back.

  “God, Brody, I have such a dilemma. Finish my tacos or continue where this is going.”

  “The tacos will be here when we’re done,” I rushed out, chasing her lips again.

  “Yeah, but,” she said around my lips, “tacos.”

  I pulled away, chuckling. “One more for you.” I kissed the tip of her nose before kissing to her ear. “Then I’m going to strip you and lick your pussy until you come… twice. Then, I’ll flip you over and fuck you so hard from behind, and finally, I’m gonna pull out and come all over your ass.”

  She jumped off my lap and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the chair.

  “C’mon. The tacos will be here when we’re done.” She looked at me over her shoulder as she swiftly led me to our bedroom. “But after stripping me, you’re gonna take your clothes off while I watch, and you’re gonna unbutton slowly,” she stopped, throwing me her sexy wide-eyed, innocent look, “while I pinch my nipple and play with my clit.”

  I groaned.

  “Yeah, I know how much you love watching me do that.”

  Thirty One

  Kaelyn

  I’ve learned that when you totally like someone, the work you put into the relationship doesn’t really feel like work. Being with Brody was as easy as breathing. Any sacrifices we made were completely worth it.

  He has never gone back on what he promised in the bedroom in Thomas’s house. He absolutely was my shoulder, my supporter, my cheerleader, my sounding board, my partner, my equal, my lover, and my friend. I needed all of that when starting my new endeavor.

  “So, back about five months ago, I got this wild hair,” I told Vanessa, standing in the kitchen in her fucking gorgeous Malibu home. “I can’t even say how I got the idea, but once it took root in my brain, I ran with it. My idea was to start a business planning incentive travel for big corporations. Say they want to offer a group trip for their top salespeople, then they call me to plan it. Or if they want to take their top performers to the Super Bowl or some other big event? I’m their chick.”

  She took a drink of her water bottle. Nursing those babies meant no alcohol for her. “That sounds so cool. Is that what brings you here to L.A.now?”

  “Yeah, although I’m learning that the time right before Christmas is not the best time to meet with hotel managers and scout out other facilities. I’m trying to find more options to offer in the package.”

  “You should talk to Noah,” Darby Cheetwood, Riley’s best friend and fellow actor, interjected. “God knows those boys could use a little planned vacay. Didn’t Brody design his computer setup?”

  I nodded, unsure how I was to form words. I mean, Darby fucking Cheetwood was talking to little old me. I had just gotten over Riley Tate treating me like family, and now I had to concentrate on not going all geeked-out fangirl over the new actor in my life.

  “Speaking of,” Vanessa said, “Where is Brody?”

  I looked down. “He had a meeting in Chicago with LuckJoy and couldn’t come with me.”

  “Aww, I bet you miss him.”

  I smiled. “Like crazy.”

  “God, girls,” Emily gushed, “you should see them together. Brody is so gaga over this chick, it’s like… relationship goals, you know? He treats her like she’s dipped in diamond-encrusted platinum. They’re so effin’ cute together.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s not quite like that.”

  Emily scoffed. “Whatever. Tater is wonderful and all and I wouldn’t trade him for anything, but you are so lucky, sista.” She walked away when Tater motioned her over to him and my mother.

  To make my separation anxiety easier, once Emily and her bestie, Vanessa, learned I would be here in L. A., they planned a white elephant party to make me feel more at home. They invited a bunch of people, including Darby and her man, Jase, and their bodyguard friends. Nate and Etta mingled with the guests. Since Mom was here, too, it almost felt like a real family Christmas, if it weren’t for this big-ass, gaping, Brody-sized hole.

  “Where are the babies, Vanessa? I was hoping to get in some snuggles.”

  Every time we came to L. A., I made it a point to come with Emily to see the babies. They are so friggin cute, with Vanessa’s eyes and Riley’s dimples. With their charming personalities, those babies were gonna rule the world.

  She laughed. “Oh, they are masters at crawling now, and since they are in constant motion, they have not much patience for snuggling. Graciela and Javier are watching them tonight.”

  “Yeah,” Darby added. “They thankfully agreed to take mine, too, since my body-guarding babysitters are all here,” she waved to the crowd.

  I swallowed wrong and choked on my drink. When I could speak, I asked, “Darby, you have a kid?”

  “Yes. Reid is almost five months old. We kept the pregnancy out of the press.”

  I nodded, not sure why that was my response. There were rumors about Darby Cheetwood within the circles of people I associated, but showing up here with Jase, who couldn’t keep his eyes off of her, and announcing she had a kid really put a kink in those rumors. I figured that blurting, “Hey, Darby, aren’t you a lesbian?” wasn’t something I should do.

 
Honestly, it didn’t matter.

  Darby Cheetwood and Riley Tate were under one roof at a casual party, treating me like family.

  Life was good.

  “Guys,” Emily called to the room, “before we do the white-elephant gift exchange, we have a Christmas gift for all of you.” She waited a couple of seconds for the room to quiet before continuing. “Tater and I are making our own addition to the family. We’re due in May.”

  The room erupted into cheers. Dugger scooped Emily up in a hug, spinning her around.

  “I’m going to be an uncle,” he declared to the room, making me smile.

  It took a while, but things had been good between Dugger and me lately, almost back to normal. He started working part time as a bodyguard for the Reed Agency and seemed to be happy. I suspected he might also have his eye on someone new. We never spoke about the kiss or that he alluded to having more than best-friend-of-my-brother-ly feelings toward me; I mean I apologized for what I did that night, but we never talked about it more in depth since then. I think we both decided that letting it fade into the background naturally was the best way to go. He accepted Brody, and that’s all I could ever ask from him. He really was the best.

  I was just about to go to Keaton and Emily to offer my congratulations, but my mother looked a little shell shocked. I headed her direction first.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  She nodded and downed her wine, quietly burping afterward. “Of course I am, Kaelyn. Why wouldn’t I be okay learning my only son will make me,” she wrinkled her nose and curled her lip quickly, “a grandmother?”

  I may have imagined it, but she sounded not okay.

  She walked away from me, plastering on a smile and capturing Emily in a momma-bear hug before pulling away and rubbing her barely-there pooch.

  I found my brother and hugged him.

  “I’m a little hurt you kept this from me, Stoney, but since you’re making me an aunt, I’ll forgive you.” I pulled away. “Brody’s gonna be so sorry he missed the big announcement.”

  Tater smiled sheepishly. “He kind of already knows.”