My little brother is not exactly indirect. If I’ve learned anything about him in the last few weeks it’s that he speaks his mind. And he’s a very curious twelve-year-old.
“Um, no, Scott. I have a job.” She looks over at me with sad eyes. I’m wondering if this is the first time she’s thought about it. We haven’t talked about what happens next. About what happens when I leave for spring training in February. About what happens when my life isn’t my own for well over half of every year.
“A darn good one, too,” her mom says. “Must pay well, because even before she got her promotion, she was able to pay off every single one of her medical bills.” She turns to Murphy with prideful eyes. “I’m proud of you.”
“What?” Murphy questions her mom with raised brows. “But I never even got a bill.”
“They came to me,” her mom says. “But they were marked as paid.”
Murphy’s unamused eyes snap to mine.
Shit. This is not exactly the right time to get into this.
She walks up to me and puts an angry finger on my chest. “You paid them, didn’t you?” When I don’t say anything, she shakes her head in irritation. “Caden, I told you not to do that. You did enough.”
“It was my fault, Murphy. It’s only right that I should pay for it.”
“It doesn’t matter. I asked you not to.”
I put my hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down. “By the time you told me that, I had already paid. I guess I didn’t know what to say or how to tell you.”
She shrugs my hands off. “And you thought, what, that I’d be okay with it once you were sleeping with me?”
I glance over at Scott, who is trying not to laugh. “No. Of course not. I wasn’t even thinking about you that way back then.”
“Great. That makes things so much better,” she says, turning to walk away.
I follow her.
“Please don’t,” she begs. “I just need a minute.”
She walks into the kitchen, leaving me a confused, guilty, stupid son-of-a-bitch.
Chapter Thirty-eight
Murphy
“Ugh! Can you believe that?” I say, fuming my way over to the far end of the kitchen.
“Believe what?” Lexi asks, pushing the turkey back into the oven after basting it.
“I know he’s your brother and all, but he can be infuriating. He paid all my medical bills, Lexi. After I told him not to.”
Lexi laughs. “The way I heard it, he paid them before you told him not to.”
“You were listening,” I say.
She rinses off her hands and walks over to the kitchen table, taking a seat and patting the one next to her. “Yes, my brother can be infuriating. Most men can be from time to time. And yes, he paid your medical bills. But, Murphy, he was the cause of your injury and paying those bills was much less of a burden for him than it would have been for you.”
I plop down in the chair beside hers. “I can’t stand rich people who throw around their money.”
She eyes me as if I’m being a petulant child. “He throws around his money, huh? How has he ever done that? Tell me how my rich brother flaunts his money, Murphy.”
I shrug thinking about how the man lives modestly even though he’s making millions. I finally think of something. “The park. He rented a ball field in the park.”
She smiles. “Yeah, he told me about that. But try again, because he said he only had to pay a few bucks for a permit.”
“What about the VIP tickets. And the phone—he bought me a new phone.”
“He’s a ball player. You don’t think he has to pay for those tickets, do you? And a phone. Really? You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“So, you think he’s right and I’m wrong?”
Lexi puts her hand on mine. “It’s not about being right or wrong, Murphy. It’s about finding a balance. It’s about not letting the little things turn into big things. Because big things can ruin you.”
“You say that as if you have experience with it.”
She nods. “You’ve no idea just how alike we are, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
Kyle comes into the kitchen to check on us. He leans down and gives his wife a kiss, looking at me with empathetic eyes. “Everything okay in here?”
“Everything is fine. Just give us another minute,” Lexi says.
When he leaves, her eyes follow him. I can tell how much she loves him just by the way she looks at him.
“He did the same thing, you know,” she says, looking back at me. “Kyle paid my hospital bills when I had Ellie.”
I look at her, confused. “That’s different. He’s Ellie’s dad.”
“Not biologically,” she says. “Kyle didn’t even know me when I showed up pregnant at his hospital.”
“Really?”
Lexi and I have gotten close and we know a lot of things about each other, but this comes as a huge surprise.
“Really,” she says. “And when I found out he paid my bills, I freaked. It almost ruined us. It did ruin us for a while.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say.
“It’s fine. We’re fine. I just don’t want the same thing to happen to you and Caden. Your relationship is fragile and new. He told me yesterday that you’re officially a couple. I think that’s wonderful, Murphy. You’re the one for him. I know it.”
“How do you know it, Lexi?”
She smiles. “Are you kidding? You should see the way my brother looks at you. It’s as if you are the Mona Lisa. The game-winning home run ball. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
I roll my eyes. “Caden does not need any more pots of gold.”
“Give me a break,” she says jokingly. “I was on a roll.”
Sawyer comes into the kitchen, looking around. His eyes dart awkwardly over to me. “Uh, can I grab a beer?”
I know full well there is a beer fridge under the bar in the living room. I snort petulantly. “Did Caden send you in here to check on me?”
“No.” He looks guilty as sin. “Okay, yes. Hell, I don’t know how to do this shit. Your boyfriend is on the edge out there, Murphy. Throw the guy a bone.”
My mother walks in and I shake my head. “More reinforcements?” I ask.
“We’re all worried about you, honey.”
“And we’re hungry,” Sawyer adds, making us all laugh.
“Fine,” I say, getting up from the table. “Let’s get things moving then.”
My mother puts a hand on my arm, stopping me from helping. “I think Lexi and I can handle this. You have something more important to do.”
I look at Sawyer. “Is he still in the living room?”
“He’s on the balcony.”
I nod, leaving the kitchen and grabbing a throw blanket off the couch on my way to find him.
I wrap myself up and open the sliding door, frozen air assaulting me as I walk through to the outside.
Caden turns around and sees me, worry etching lines across his forehead. “Murphy, I’m sor—”
I hold up my hand to stop him. “There can’t be any more secrets,” I say. “I know you had good intentions, Caden, but we have to be able to talk about everything or this isn’t going to work. First you withheld the fact that Tony was going to break up with me, and now this.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” he says guiltily. “It won’t happen again.”
I pin him with my stare. “Are you sure, Caden? Because you said that once before. I need to be able to trust you.”
“You can,” he says, his eyes imploring me to believe him. “I screwed up, Murph. And believe me, I won’t do it again. More than anyone, I know about three strikes and you’re out. I’m not about to strike out with you. I promise.”
“Okay.” I walk over to him. “You will always have more money than me. That is something I’ll have to deal with. I know you can pay for things that I can’t. But in the future, we need to agree on what those things ar
e.”
He sighs in relief at my mention of the future. “What if I want to get you a birthday present?” he asks with a smirk.
“That’s different. Presents are fine. Well, unless you buy me a car or something.” I look at his face that is breaking into a smile. “Do not get me a car, Caden.”
“But anything up to a car is fine?”
“You can be infuriating, you know that?” I swat his chest, causing the blanket to fall off my shoulders.
He picks up the blanket and walks around behind me, pulling my back to his chest as he wraps us both up. “No more secrets,” he whispers in my ear.
We stand like this, pressed together and keeping each other warm. And as I look over the city, I realize this is our first holiday together. I turn around and thread my arms around his waist. “When I was little, every Thanksgiving my dad would make us go around the table and say what we were thankful for. I would always say something stupid like how I was thankful for my bike or my new dress. It wasn’t until after he died and we stopped doing it that I realized the only thing he ever said he was thankful for was me.”
Caden leans down and kisses the top of my head. “It appears your father and I have a lot in common.”
“I wish you could have met him,” I say, looking up into his eyes.
“Me too. You know that nobody can ever replace him, don’t you?”
I follow his eyes as they look into the living room where his father is helping my mother bring a platter of food out to the dining room table. “It’s crazy, don’t you think? Your dad and my mom?”
“If by crazy you mean perfect, then yes, Murphy Brown, it’s crazy.”
I have a horrible thought and pull back from Caden. “Oh, my gosh. What if they get married? You’ll be my step-brother. We can’t let that happen. It’s gross.”
Caden laughs, winking at me as he pulls me back to his chest. “We’ll just have to beat them to it, then.”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Caden
After my workout, on my way back to the locker room, I see a familiar face walking towards the front desk of the gym.
I hurry my steps and head him off before he gets there. “Anything I can help you with, Fields?”
Tony steps back and looks around me to the desk. “I was looking for Murphy. She not working here anymore?”
“What’s it to you?”
He laughs, handing me a tabloid. “Of course she doesn’t. Why work at all if she has you to take care of her?”
I look at the magazine. Plastered on the front cover is a photo of Murphy and me at the club last week. I was afraid this would happen. But since she’s wearing a baseball cap, you’d have to know Murphy to know it’s her in the picture. You’d have to know her like Tony knows her.
My blood starts to boil. This asshole has been with her. He’s had more of her than I’ve had. And it more than pisses me off.
I throw the article back at him. “Not that it’s any of your business, but she got another job.” I lean close to him so I tower over his smaller stature. “But make no mistake, that doesn’t mean I’m not taking care of her.”
“What’s going on here?” Murphy says, coming from the back office.
Shit. I was hoping that wouldn’t happen.
“No longer works here, huh?” Tony gives me a death stare.
“I didn’t say she no longer works here. I said she got another job.” I put my arm around Murphy and pull her close. “She’s the membership coordinator now.”
He laughs snidely. “Bet it doesn’t pay as much as modeling.”
“It pays more than enough,” Murphy says. “Now what do you want, Tony?”
“Good, I’m glad you’re rolling in money, because Kirsten needs you to cover rent until they can find another roommate.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. I saw her post a picture on Facebook about her new roomie.”
“You saw wrong,” he says. “They haven’t found anyone yet.”
Murphy studies Tony. “He’s lying,” she says to me.
“Am not.”
“Tony, we were together for four months. You don’t think I learned a thing or two about you? Like how you chew on the inside of your cheek when you lie?”
“Whatever,” Tony says. “I’m not lying, Murphy. Call Kirsten. Find out for yourself.”
She laughs. “Oh, like she would tell me the truth—the girl who was screwing my boyfriend behind my back.”
“It’s not like you and Richie Rich here can’t afford it,” he says.
I turn to Murphy. “What kind of agreement did you have? Was it in writing?”
“There wasn’t a formal agreement. I think the rental is in Kirsten’s name. She let the rest of us pay on a month-to-month basis. She was always telling us, or me anyway, how replaceable I was.”
“Well, there you go,” I tell him. “She paid through the end of last month. She isn’t obligated beyond that.”
“Really, Murphy? You going to hang her out to dry? Make it so she can’t pay rent? She’ll be evicted and then all four of them will be out on their asses. I thought you were better than that.”
“How much is rent?” I ask him.
Murphy puts a hand on my arm. “Don’t, Caden.”
“It’s not that big a deal,” I tell her.
“But he’s playing you.”
“I’m not playing anyone,” Tony says. “At least not any more than the wanna-be model is playing you.”
I look at Murphy to see if his words hurt her. They didn’t. I’m glad to know he doesn’t have that power over her anymore.
“I tell you what,” I say to him. “You get Kirsten and her other three roommates to come in here and tell Murphy they haven’t found someone to fill her bed and that they can’t afford to pay the rent. If they do that, I’ll cover one month myself.”
“Caden,” Murphy scolds me.
“It’s okay, Murph. It won’t happen. You said yourself Jamie was nice enough. I highly doubt this scam-artist can get four women to come beg for money.”
Tony shakes his head. “There’s no way they can all come in together, they have different schedules.”
“I didn’t say they had to come together, Fields. They can come in anytime, each one by themselves. If they all verify what you claim to be true, I’ll pay Murphy’s portion of the rent.” I hold up a finger. “For one month. Got it?”
His jaw twitches as he eyes Murphy with disdain. Then he throws the magazine at her feet and turns to walk out of the gym.
“That’s what I thought,” I say to his back before the door closes. I turn to Murphy. “I want you to watch out for that guy. Tell me if he starts bothering you. He’s out for an easy buck and right now, you seem to be his target. If he tries to hurt you …”
“He’s harmless,” she tells me. “Once, we almost got mugged on the subway and he hid behind me. Some other guy stepped up and ran the attacker off.”
“What?” I shake my head in disbelief.
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, in hindsight I should have dumped him on the spot.”
I look at the door the asshole just walked through, wondering how he can even call himself a man.
Murphy picks up the tabloid and studies the photo. She hands it to me. “Why did they have to take one of me laughing? I look like I have a double chin. Now everyone will think you have a fat girlfriend.”
I expected her to freak out. Or at least react like she did when she found out our picture was on ESPN. But she doesn’t. In fact, she’s smiling. “You’re joking about it?” I ask.
“It’s a tabloid, Caden. Nobody takes those seriously.”
“So, you’re not upset?”
“No. I’m not. I’m going to have to get used to people taking my picture when we’re together. No point in fighting it. It is what it is. If we can’t laugh about it, it will eat away at us.”
“Okay then. If it’s going to happen, why not make it happen on our terms?”
“What do you mean?”
she asks.
“Tomorrow night. Let’s put on something fancy and go out to a nice place. Announce our relationship to the world when we’re dressed to the nines.”
She starts to smile before catching herself. “Are you sure you want to do that, Caden?”
“Sweetheart, I’m about to take you on our fourth date. You might as well tag me and brand your name on my ass.” I pull her close to my side. “I’m sure.”
She giggles and my dick twitches.
“Then it looks like I have some shopping to do,” she says, laughing. “But first, I need to get back to work. And you need a shower.”
“I’ll pick you up at seven,” I tell her. “And in case you were wondering, my favorite color is blue. Keep that in mind when you’re trying on dresses.”
“Are we talking light blue? Dark blue? Carolina blue?” she asks. “The possibilities are endless. You need to be more specific.”
“Just look in the mirror, Murphy Brown, and you’ll have your answer.”
Her face pinks up before I smile and walk away.
Damn. I can’t wait for it to be tomorrow at seven.
Chapter Forty
Murphy
I look out at the view again. I can’t keep my eyes off it. I’ve never been in a restaurant at the top of a tall building before. It’s incredible looking down on the city I love. It’s like I stepped right into an episode of Sex and the City.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying the view,” Caden says, looking all handsome in his suit. I don’t miss the fact that he wore a tie that’s the exact shade of my eyes—and the dress I’m wearing. We haven’t failed to garner looks from everyone here. Even if he wasn’t recognized for who he is, he’d be noticed for how he looks.
I feel guilty for staring at the view and not him. “I’m sorry. I should be looking at my hot date, not out the window.”
He smiles. “Look all you want. That way you won’t notice the fact that I’m staring at my hot date and all her amazing curves.”
I look down at my cleavage, once again questioning my decision to go more low-cut than I normally would. But Lexi insisted. She helped me pick out the dress. I’ve been nothing but self-conscious tonight with all the photos that have been taken of us. I would venture a guess, however, that that’s precisely why she wanted me to wear this exact one.
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