“Oh, really?” Collette studied me with an amused expression, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “It was all good, I hope.”
“He had nothing but the nicest things to say. Your fiancé,” she paused to sketch air quotes, “told me all about the big announcement.”
I glared at Diana. Payback was a bitch. I’d exact my revenge by hiding her stapler and other desk supplies until her OCD-riddled ass cracked. As she accused everyone else in the office, I would sit back and watch the mayhem.
Collette took it with a grain–no surprise there–and laughed. “I think our wedding should have a tropical theme so the monkey can play in the palm trees.”
“After she fulfills her duties as flower girl,” I said, making both women break into giggles. “Or is ‘flower primate’ the politically correct term?”
“Beats me.” Collette shrugged. “Want to come up and see my new digs?”
I glanced at my watch. Technically, I only had five minutes before my hour was up. Screw it. If Darren said anything, I’d get someone from the IT department to print up my activity logs. He wouldn’t have a leg to stand on with how often I stayed late. “Sure, I can come up for a bit.”
The doors opened at the ninth floor, and Diana stepped out. “Nice meeting you. I have a feeling we’ll see each other again.” She turned to me and smirked. “I’ll tell Darren you ate a bad burrito if he comes looking for you.”
“Gee, thanks.” I scratched the side of my head not facing Collette with my middle finger.
The doors slid shut and as we continued upward Collette said, “I don’t want to get you in trouble or anything. It’s just…I’m happy to see you sooner than expected.”
She really needed to give seminars or classes on how to say all the right things to men. Guys everywhere would build shrines to her. I’d lead the charge to have her vetted into sainthood. “No one will care if I get back from lunch a few minutes late. I can’t believe you work in here.”
“This is so freaky. I was going to text you to say hi after I got upstairs and all of a sudden, there you were in the flesh.” There she went again, hitting me a lethal combined dosage of honesty and sweetness.
We got out at her floor and pushed through a set of glass doors into a brightly lit lobby filled with boxes and pieces of furniture. “Sorry for the mess. The movers showed up while the painters were touching up some of the offices. They crammed everything in here and left to get to their next job.”
“No worries.” I followed her into a hallway lined with doors on both sides. The suite was small, only taking up half of the floor, but the layout in this space was way nicer than my company’s. Everyone had an office instead of a cubicle. I’d commit serious crimes for the privacy and silence provided by four floor-to-ceiling walls and a door.
A guy came out of a doorway and clipped me on the shoulder, his cup of coffee emptying all over his chest and my arm. “Damn it!” he snapped, thumping his fist on the wall. “This is what I get for not looking first. I’m really sorry, man.”
“You’re batting a thousand today in the bad-luck department,” Collette said, shaking her head.
“Tell me about it,” he grumbled, lifting his free hand to reveal a deep gash across the palm. His shirtsleeve rode up, revealing a swath of heavily-scarred skin on his wrist. “Got myself on the edge of a box while unpacking,” he explained to me. “You’d have thought I severed a major artery the way it gushed.”
“I thought I told you to cover it up so it doesn’t get infected. There’s a drug store on every other corner around here. Go buy antibiotic cream and gauze before gangrene sets in.” Collette took the cup from him and pointed toward the reception area just as a man rounded the corner.
This guy was one of the tallest people I’d ever seen. I was six-two, and he had three or four inches on me. He chuckled when he saw us and held up a finger, disappearing into the lobby for a moment and returning with an armload of bubble wrap. “Here you go,” he said, holding it out to the other man. “Bad things always happen in threes. Wrap this around yourself before the third one hits.”
“Be nice, Les.” Collette smacked the newcomer on the shoulder. “Accidents happen all the time. You could come in tomorrow and wind up on the floor when the back of your chair gives out.”
Les eyed her warily. “If you mess with it…”
“Please.” She gave him a disgusted look. “Like Neil or I would do something so low. There could be a defect.”
“With my brand-new chair? I don’t think so. Stay out of my office, both of you.”
Collette and Neil laughed. “Stay out of my room!” she yelled in a deep voice.
“Don’t even breathe on my PS2!” Neil bellowed, shaking a fist.
I laughed, and everyone’s gazes snapped to me as though they’d forgotten someone else was there.
“Oh, God. My manners are the worst.” Collette smiled at me apologetically. “Ryan, these two wannabe comedians are Les and Neil. They’re my brothers.”
Ah, yes. She’d mentioned siblings the other night. I offered a hand to Les. “Nice to meet you.”
He studied me as we shook. “Boat Ryan?”
She told them about me? I bit back a grin and went for nonchalance. “Yup.”
The two men traded a look. Les arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “Hurt her, and I’ll hurt you.”
“Les! Knock it off or I’ll hurt you.” Collette glared at him. “He’s kidding,” she said to me.
“The hell I am,” he muttered.
Neil pulled his wet shirt away from his chest. “Much as I’d like to stay and watch her punch you in the nuts, I need to change and head to the store.” He turned to me and said, “Sorry again for earlier.”
“Don’t worry about it. You took the brunt,” I said. “At least it wasn’t hot enough to burn you.”
Neil stiffened, the color draining from his face. Les’s jaw tightened, and Collette’s eyes widened. They glanced at one another with worried expressions before their eyes shifted to Neil. I must have offended or upset all of them, judging by their reactions. Had Neil been burned while playing with firecrackers or matches when they were kids? Damn it, I’d managed to shove my foot in my mouth instead of shrugging off the accidental spillage.
Collette recovered first. “Let me get some water on that stain before it sets in.” She took me by the arm and led me through an opening to a break room. After wetting a paper towel, she dabbed at my sleeve.
“Did I say something wrong?” I asked quietly. “If so, I apologize.”
“No, no. You had no way of knowing about Neil.” She smiled, but it seemed forced with the way her lips stayed shut.
Knowing what? I wanted to ask but decided to not press her for more information. “I have to get back to work. Are we still on for Friday night?” Please say yes.
Her hand stilled. She lifted her head to look at me, those big brown eyes meeting mine. “Look, Ryan, I’m not upset with you. Neither are Neil or Les. There are only two things that would make me cancel on you, and since I don’t see either of them happening, Friday night is definitely a go.”
Christ, she had a real knack for telling it how she saw it. I liked her approach, though. She softened the sting by not rejecting my offer and putting the ball back in my court. “What are the two reasons?” I asked, venturing into playful banter territory.
She righted my shirt, the stain now a faint smudge. “A zombie invasion or a sharknado. I refuse to leave my house during either event.”
“Noted.” I tapped my forehead and grinned.
I saw myself out and took the stairs down to my floor. Diana smirked from where she stood at the copier when I opened the back door and peeked around the edge. “Coast’s clear. What happened to your shirt? Let me guess…you had a nooner on her desk, and her coffee got in the way. Am I right?”
“Say it louder, why don’t you? Has he been looking for me?”
“Nope. Haven’t seen or heard him.”
> “Good.” We walked back to our cubes and settled in. I reviewed the reports for my meeting one last time, making sure everything was in order. Darren was a stickler for proper formatting and misspelled words. His eagle eyes found every misaligned figure in a spreadsheet and every typo in a document. Spellcheck and I were buddies now, and I no longer walked out of his office feeling like a dunce hat sat on my head.
He was in a good mood–practically jovial–and I briefly wondered if he’d had a nooner. The smell of liquor on his breath told another story. He must have wined and dined a client. In any case, it worked in my favor. I was in and out with a gruff “Nice job.” For the first time since starting at the firm, I walked out of his office without feeling the urge to give him the finger.
With a sigh, I hunkered down at my desk and dove into the auditing notes for a law office’s accounts payable for the previous quarter. I didn’t make much progress before throwing in the towel because my concentration was shot. The woman I couldn’t stop thinking about was a mere six floors above me. And despite the reassurances I’d been given, I still felt shitty for upsetting Collette and her brothers. Whatever had happened to Neil must have been serious if it had left scars and caused such strong visceral reactions from his siblings.
The blunder had left a bad taste in my mouth. It also made me wonder if Diana’s argument for snooping had some merit. Maybe doing a background search on Collette wasn’t such a bad idea after all, especially if it helped me avoid another misstep in the future.
Keeping this in mind, I saved my work and opened up a browser window. I typed Collette Russo in the search box. Leaning back, I watched as results filled the screen.
5
Collette
Eleven years earlier
My fingers twisted the hem of my black dress as I stared at the yellow house with dark red shutters. It reminded me of the dollhouse Mom and Dad had given me on my sixth birthday.
Tears filled my eyes, and I blinked hard to hold them in before the social worker caught me crying. Mrs. Ludwig would bust out the tissues again and tell me I had every right to cry and to let it out because no good would come if I held my grief inside.
I’d heard the same thing over and over yesterday and today, during the wake and funeral. My parents’ friends and coworkers fussed over me, treating me like I was made of glass until I couldn’t take it anymore and hid in the bathroom.
No amount of pity and tears would bring back my parents. They were gone. Since both of them had been only children and all of my grandparents had passed away years ago, I was on my own now.
“I really think you’ll fit in well with Mrs. Wright and her boys,” Mrs. Ludwig had told me during the ride. “She adopted her son when he was only an infant. I think he’s fifteen now. The other boy is a foster who has been with them since last December. He’s also one of mine, so I know for a fact he’s the same age as you.”
Great, more boys to pull my hair and try to get a look at my underwear like the ones at the holding center.
If they messed with me, I’d kick them where it counts, same as those other jerks. No way would I be happy in a strange house with two boys out to get me. Why couldn’t I go someplace with no kids or girls only? Then again, some of the girls at the center had been pretty mean, going through my belongings and calling me names. I’d caught them trying on a pair of my mother’s earrings and almost got into a fight.
We climbed out of the car and took my suitcases out of the trunk. The front door swung open before we reached the porch. A woman with shoulder-length blond hair rushed out. “Set those down before you hurt yourselves!” she exclaimed. “The boys can carry them.” She turned her head and yelled, “Stop spying and get out here!”
The tallest boy I’d ever seen stepped outside. He had spiky black hair and looked at me with curious blue eyes while jogging down the steps, stopping by his mother’s side.
A shorter boy with wavy light brown hair and greenish-brown eyes followed. He smiled and gave me a wave.
“Let me introduce myself. I’m Henri.” I must have had a confused look on my face because she quickly added, “Short for Henrietta. This is Les.” She motioned toward the giant. “And this is Neil.” Henri slung an arm around the waver’s shoulders and squeezed him.
“Hi,” I said.
Les grabbed two of my suitcases and lifted them like they weighed nothing. “Want me to put these in her room?”
“That’d be perfect.” Henri guided me inside the house with a hand on my back. Something was cooking, and it smelled delicious. My stomach growled in response. This was the first time I’d felt hungry since the accident.
Neil pushed the front door shut with his foot, a suitcase dangling from each hand. He set them down at the bottom of the staircase and fiddled with the cuffs of his shirt, pulling them down until they covered his hands. Why the heck was he wearing a sweatshirt in July? He had to be sweating buckets in this heat.
“I need to talk to Mrs. Ludwig for a few minutes, Collette, then you can have the grand tour,” Henri said. “Neil can show you to your room if you’d like to change first.”
He flashed me another smile, and I couldn’t help but give him one back. Neil seemed quiet, but maybe he was just shy or reliving his first day in this house. I wondered what had caused him to be here. Had his parents also died in a car accident? Or were they still alive and he was here because they weren’t able to take care of him? The girl who had slept next to me at the center was there because her mom and dad were drug addicts. She had passed out at school from not eating several days in a row, and when she told the truth after waking up, the police went to her house to question her parents and found them passed out with needles sitting on the table in front of them.
“Okay,” I agreed.
Neil led the way up the stairs and down a hallway, stopping in front of an open door. He gestured for me to go inside and stepped back to let me through.
The room was much smaller than my old one, with bare white walls. A bed sat in a corner, and a desk, bookcase, and dresser took up the opposite wall. It was nice enough but just so…plain.
“What do you think?”
I jumped, startled by the unexpected question, and turned to find Les leaning against the doorway. “It’s…all right,” I said slowly, trying to be nice.
“There used to be puke-green wallpaper with little yellow flowers.” He made a disgusted face. “This was my mom’s office, but she moved everything downstairs when she found out we were getting a girl. You’re the first one we’ve ever had, and she’s crazy happy about it. Anyhow, we tore the ugly stuff off and rolled on a coat of white last night. If you feel up to it, she said we can run to a hardware store after dinner and check out paint colors. Got any ideas about what you want to do in here?”
“My room at home was purple on the bottom and light green on top with a white rail in between. I really liked it.”
He straightened and stepped away from the wall, studying the surface. “If we left a strip of white between the colors, it would look like a rail was there. Would that be cool with you?”
“You’re going to paint my room?” I asked, unable to hide my surprise. Most of the boys I knew were glued to their video games and skateboards and complained about doing chores around the house. And why was he so chatty? Henri must have told him to be nice to me. There was no other reason why he’d be here when he could be off doing his own thing.
“All of us are, including you. It’s supposed to help us bond or something.” He headed to the door, pausing to grasp the top of the frame on his way out. “Sorry about your parents,” he said over his shoulder before leaving.
I almost lost it and burst into tears–would have for sure if Neil hadn’t been sitting cross-legged on the floor. He was so quiet that I’d almost forgotten he was there. “You don’t say much, do you?” I blurted, flinching at how rude the question sounded. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to cut you down or anything. Sometimes my mouth opens and stuff just flies ou
t.”
He shrugged and shook his head, indicating it was no big deal.
Henri bustled into the room, her arms full of bedding. “Here you go. This will tide you over until we go shopping.” She set everything on the desk and ruffled Neil’s hair. “Dinner should be ready in twenty minutes. How do you feel about heading to Home Depot afterward to look at some paint chips? This is your room, Collette. You can decorate it any way you like, within reason. I draw the line at black walls and voodoo dolls, but everything else is fair game.”
I liked the way Henri spoke to me, straight to the point with no sugar-coating. Her upbeat and cheerful attitude seemed genuine. She sounded excited to help me settle in. “I want to go. Les already told me about the paint,” I admitted.
Her eyes widened. “Really? He tore himself away from Grand Theft Auto and spoke to you?”
“I heard that!” Les yelled from down the hall. “I’m not deaf, you know.”
“No, you just have selective hearing,” Henri yelled back. “It’s funny how you supposedly never heard me tell you to mow the lawn this morning, but now you can hear through walls over loud gunfire.”
Neil laughed, and Henri’s gaze shifted to him, her eyes growing even bigger. I stared at him too, since this was the first sound he’d made since I arrived.
“We’ll get out of your hair so you can change.” Henri pulled Neil up from the floor. “Let me or one of the boys know if you need anything…or if you want some company. We understand if you want to be alone, but just know that we’re here, okay?”
“Okay,” I said firmly, thankful to her for giving me some space.
I changed into shorts and a T-shirt. Pulling out a few things set off an unpacking spree, which wasn’t a bad thing since it had to be done anyway.
Les poked his head in as I crammed a stack of jeans into the bottom dresser drawer and said, “Soup’s on. Hope you’re hungry because she really went all out for your first meal. Even baked a cake for dessert.”
More than Money (Found in Chicago Book 1) Page 4