The Wright Choice

by Kristy Gibs

  By her reaction, she was just as surprised as I was to see her here. I wanted to sit and talk with her and her friend, but she quickly ran off before I could get the chance, making me think of the night before in the garden when she took off just as I was about to kiss her.

  “Don’t even think about.”

  I turned toward my friend, who had a scowl on his face. “Think about what?” I knew what he meant, but I wanted to hear Jax say it.

  “My sister. I saw you checking her out. She’s a good kid.”

  She was anything but a kid, I thought. I’d have to broach this subject carefully, and not when his sister was half-drunk at a bar. I kept my distance, for now. Jax was one of the few friends I trusted, and if I wanted a chance with his sister, I would have to do it the correct way.

  “Look, Beth just walked in. I am going to talk to her about the gallery.” I walked over to my best friend and pulled her into a tight hug. I hadn’t seen her in months; she was busy trying to get her gallery off the ground, and our schedules just never lined up.

  “Missed you,” she said.

  “Missed you too. How are you?”

  “Tired but great. The gallery looks amazing; it’s exactly what I envisioned when I decided to open one, and things with Samantha are getting serious.”

  Jax teased me constantly about my relationship with Beth, but the truth was, she wasn’t into guys. After a bunch of failed relationships with men, she discovered her true attraction was to women. She wasn’t completely out, so it wasn’t my place to divulge her personal life. So anytime Jax made a comment, I just laughed it off and moved on.

  I motioned her toward the bar and ordered us each a drink. After the bartender placed our drinks in front of us, I tossed a twenty on the bar and we walked over to two empty seats near one of the fire pits.

  “I am happy for you, Beth. You deserve it all.” I held up my glass to toast her and took a long swig. “So, about the gallery, are you looking to hire anyone?”

  She tilted her head, studying me curiously before she answered, “Actually, I just put a listing for an assistant. Why? Do you have someone in mind?”

  I glanced over to where Ella was sitting with her friend, Lucy, before turning back to Beth, who smirked at me.

  “What?”

  “Who is she?”

  I took another swig of my whiskey. “Jaxson’s sister.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, she burst out laughing.

  “And why would I hire her to work for me? Does she even know anything about art, or are you just trying to get in her pants?”

  I didn’t like Beth asking me if this was just about sex. I mean, yes, I would love nothing more than to worship Ella, but this was about helping someone who has amazing talent get her foot in the door. These days, especially in her industry, jobs weren’t easy to come by.

  “She just graduated with her fine arts degree and returned from a year-long study abroad program. I don’t know much more, but I did see some of her paintings, and they are good. Really good. I am not just saying it to get in her pants.” I winked at my friend.

  She glanced over toward Ella before rummaging through her purse and pulling out a card. “Here, give this to her. Tell her to send me her resume, and if she is as good as you say she is, the job is hers.”

  “Excellent.” I took the card and tucked it in my pocket to give to Jax.

  I spent the next hour talking with Beth and a few other coworkers. It wasn’t late, but it was dark, and when Beth said she was heading out, making sure she made it to her car was the perfect excuse to leave. Telling her I would be one minute, I walked over to Jax and handed him the card.

  “What’s up?” he peered down at what I just handed him.

  “Job is your sister’s if she wants it. She has to send her resume to Beth.”

  “Thank you so much, man. Tell Beth thank you too. Ella is going to be thrilled.”

  I hoped so.

  “See you at work.” I turned and walked toward the exit of Shorty’s, wondering if I should have said goodbye to Ella.

  7

  Ella

  One by one, Jax’s friends left. I don’t know at what point Ash left, but I hadn’t seen him or the redhead he was talking to in over an hour. They probably left together, not that I cared. Lucy and Jax played their flirt game, so that left me to indulge in vodka tonics and thinking about Preston marrying my sister. For the rest of my life, I would have to watch the man I loved be with my sister. Holidays, birthday parties—he would be there. They would go on and have perfect little babies, and I would sit in the corner, alone most likely, watching their happily ever after.

  Maybe I should get a cat.

  “So, sis, how was Italy? We didn’t get a chance to talk when you got home yesterday?” Jax asked. Just the three of us were left in the cabana, and I was starting to see double.

  “Sooo much better than being here. I wish I never came home,” I slurred. I didn’t miss the exchange Lucy and Jax shared. Lucy leaned over and took the glass from my hand.

  “Hey! I was drinking that.” I tried to grab it back, but she was quicker.

  “I think you have had enough for one night, El.” She pushed a glass of water toward me.

  “Tssh...” I gulped the water, missing half of my mouth. Using the back of my hand as a napkin, I wiped myself.

  “I think it's time to call it a night, Elle-Belle,” Jax suggested

  “No, I want to have fun. I want to go find a guy to dance with.” I stood up and swayed back and forth.

  Lucy pulled me back down into my seat. “You’re wasted, Ella. I am not letting you out of my sight.”

  “You’re the one who told me I needed to spread my legs, Lu. It’s been so long since…” I was a lot louder than I should have been, and my brother’s face turned bright red.

  “Elle!” Lucy gasped.

  “What? There has to be someone.” I scanned the thinning crowd. We had a perfect view of the dance floor from where I sat.

  “I do not want to hear this. Come on, Elle, let’s go home,” Jax confessed.

  “No, thank you. I don’t need to see Manic Mia and Preppy Preston.” I crossed my arms.

  “Um. Okay?” my brother said with a questioning look on his face.

  The alcohol fogged my senses, and before I knew it, I blurted everything out. “We had something. For six months, we talked every day. Preston told me he missed me and couldn’t wait for me to come home. He was supposed to stay with me for a week in London. An entire week, just the two of us, and then BAM! Out of nowhere, he ‘met someone’.” I slouched in my seat, feeling drained. “And that was the last time I spoke to him.”

  Jaxson's eyes widened, and he turned toward Lucy, who only nodded.

  “A little warning would be nice, but no, let’s keep it a secret so Ella is blindsided on the day she comes home to a house full of fucking people I don’t know. All he had to say was, ‘Hey, El. I’m fucking your sister and I'm going to marry her.’ But no, not one single person thought I might want to know my sister was with the man I have been pining over since I was twelve.”

  Lucy gasped, and I looked over to a very uncomfortable Jax before I burst into tears.

  I woke up with a pounding headache, and my mouth felt like sandpaper. I slowly opened my eyes and adjusted to the blinding light coming from the window. I realized I was on Lucy's couch. I tried to sit up, but the explosion in my head had me immediately lying back down and pulling the pillow over my head.

  “Make it stop,” I mumbled. I felt a dip on the other side of the couch and peeked out from under the pillow.

  Lucy held a glass of something that looked gross. “Afternoon, sunshine!”

  Afternoon? I sat up instantly, and a jolt of pain shot through my head. “Oh, my God.” I groaned.

  Lucy shoved the glass in my hand. “Drink this.”

  “What is it?” I asked, disgusted at the thought of ingesting this. I’m never drinking so much again.

  “Don’t ask...
But it will make you feel better.” I’d do just about anything to make the pain go away. Plugging my nose, I tipped my head back and gulped the murky concoction that smelled like rotten eggs. After gagging a little bit, I waited until it settled in the pit of my stomach before I spoke.

  “What happened last night?” Lucy’s smile faded to a frown.

  “What did I do?” I hunched back onto the couch, resting my face in my hands.

  “You don’t remember?” If Lucy thought something was bad, it had to be terrible. “Well, Jax knows you are in love with Preston.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “You did. Not only did you tell your brother you‘re in love with your sister’s fiancé, but you told him you were on the hunt last night to have sex with some random guy.”

  “Was he pissed?” He had to be.

  “Of course not. Uncomfortable as hell, but he feels terrible actually.”

  Here comes the pity party. “He has nothing to feel bad about.”

  “He would have warned you. He wondered why you were so weird at the engagement party, but he assumed you were overwhelmed from just getting back.”

  That was an understatement.

  Sitting there, I tried so hard to remember what happened at Shorty’s, but everything after going to the bathroom with Lucy was fuzzy. My phone on the table began to vibrate; reaching down, I grabbed it.

  “It’s been going off all morning. Jax sent a text to your parents last night from your phone saying you were spending the night at my place so they wouldn’t be worried.”

  I scrolled through several missed calls from my mother and a few text messages from Jax.

  Jax: Coffee?

  Jax: Lunch?

  Jax: For fuck’s sake, Elle-Belle. You can’t avoid me forever. We're siblings.

  Ella: I'm not avoiding you. I just woke up, and I'm pretty sure I'm dying.

  Immediately, he responded:

  Jax: No one told you to drink six vodka tonics. Get ready, I’m picking you up.

  Knowing I couldn’t avoid a conversation with my big brother, I conceded and attempted to get myself together. After a quick shower, I borrowed a clean shirt from Lucy and put on the shorts I had on yesterday when we went shopping. Tossing my long hair in a knot on the top of my head, I pulled on my large, dark sunglasses and met him at his waiting car.

  “You look like shit,” he said the moment I got in.

  “Why, thank you, Jax. You sure know how to make a girl feel good,” I replied sarcastically.

  He laughed and pulled out of the complex Lucy lived in and onto the highway. We sat in silence while I took in the sights of the Pacific Coast, some band playing on the radio. A few minutes later, we pulled into a diner we frequented when I was younger.

  “You need some grease.” Jax killed the engine and got out of the car. I followed behind him into the small, hole-in-the-wall diner. The hostess sat us immediately, and I pretended to look over the menu although I knew what I was going to order: chocolate chip pancakes with a side of bacon and home fries.

  With our orders in and a fresh cup of coffee in my hands, my brother finally spoke, “What are your plans, Elle-Belle, now that you’re home?”

  Plans? I thought. I’ve been home for two days, and so far, my only plan was to get as far away from California as I could. “Go back to Italy and pretend the last few days never happened?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Be serious, Elle.”

  I was. “Well, I guess I need to work on getting a car and maybe an apartment, but everything is so expensive. I probably need to find a roommate, unless Lucy lets me...” I was mumbling when my brother held up a hand.

  “Slow down, Elle. That’s all great but not exactly what I meant.”

  “Okay...”

  “Ashton, you met him the other night?”

  I swallowed hard, wondering where this conversation was going. “Yeah. What about him?”

  “The redhead, Beth? Do you remember her from last night too?” I nodded. How could I forget? She was the woman Ash probably went home with.

  “She just opened a gallery and is looking for an assistant. I had planned on introducing you, but she left before I got the chance. Ash told her you just graduated from Stanford and talked you up.”

  My ears perked up.

  “If you’re interested,” he took a card out of his wallet and slid it across the blue linoleum table, “all you have to do is send her your resume, and the job is yours.”

  I read the card. I had never heard of Artscape, but that didn’t matter. I was jumping up and down inside at the thought of working in a gallery. I figured it would take me months and a thousand resumes all over the US to even land an interview. I looked up at my brother. Tears welled in my eyes. “I don’t even know what to say? Thank you.”

  Jax smiled. I tucked the card in my purse, already anxious to get my resume to her.

  “You don’t have to thank me. What are big brothers for?” He laughed and our food was delivered. My hangover was almost forgotten. When I cut into my pancake and was just about to take a bite, Jaxson asked, “Now, tell me about this Preston shit, Elle-Belle?”

  Stopping mid-bite, I sat my fork down. “I said things last night...”

  He shook his head. “Don’t bullshit me, Elle. You used to tell me everything. How did I never know this?”

  I shrugged. No one other than Lucy knew my feelings for Preston. It wasn’t something I went around screaming from the rooftop. “I don’t know. It was a stupid crush. I never stood a chance.”

  “Obviously, it wasn’t stupid, not after all you confessed last night. What happened?”

  I had two choices: play it off like it really wasn’t a big deal or be honest. Deciding to go the truth route, I filled him in on how I ran into him on campus, and we started hanging out and getting close. “You’re too good for him, Ella.”

  “That’s not nice considering he’s marrying your real sister.”

  He flinched, and his face fell. “Real sister? Come on, Elle-Belle, you’re better than that.”

  I was. But as close as Jax and I were, Mia was his blood sister. I was just the kid that came along when his dad remarried. I didn’t really think she would ever come between us, but I still had some doubts. If something were to happen, I would lose Jax.

  “Look,” he folded his hands together, “despite her... personality, Mia is my sister. I do love her, and I want her to be happy, but she and I will never have the relationship like you and I do. We’re too different. She cares about vanity, money, prestige… the list can go on and on, and Preston— well, that is how his family is, and it’s what Preston wants— or is being forced into from what you tell me. So, when I say you are too good for him, I mean you don’t give a shit about any of that. You're a dreamer; you have big goals. The only goal Mia has is to get her mansion in LA, and she will get it with Preston, but you, you wouldn’t be happy. He couldn’t make you happy, Elle.”

  Clearing my throat of the emotion that was lodged in it, I thought about what he said. I didn’t want the mansion on the hill, my days dedicated to personal trainers to make sure I didn’t gain an extra pound around the holidays, or shuffling our 2.5 kids to music lessons and sporting events while my husband worked more hours than he was home, because that is what was going to happen with Preston. He would join his father's firm, and he would become him. Despite his insistence he didn’t want that life, if it were true, he wouldn’t be engaged to Mia and he wouldn’t be in law school.

  “Thank you, Jax.” He placed his hand over mine.

  “Don’t ever doubt your worth, Ella. You're one of a kind, kid, and I fear for any future men in your life because they are going to have to prove to your big bad brother, they are good enough for you.”

  I laughed.

  “Now, eat.” He pointed to my plate.

  I ate what was left of my meal and couldn’t wait to get home and send my resume to Beth.

  Jax dropped me off, and I saw my mom's car in the garage. Hesitating
, I decided to go talk to her to clear the air. It wasn’t her fault Mia was getting married in Italy, and my mother wouldn’t do anything to hurt me intentionally.

  My mom was exactly where she usually was, bustling around the kitchen. When she heard me, she glanced up from the cookbook she had been flipping through.

  “Oh, Ella.” She moved around the large island and enveloped me in a tight hug. “I am so sorry, sweetie. I wasn’t thinking...”

  “It’s okay, Mom. I’m sorry I got mad at you.”

  “No, honey, you had every right. I really wasn't thinking. I was just so happy Mia was involving me. You know her and I haven’t had the easiest relationship all these years...”

  “She called you her wicked stepmother for the first five years.”

  We both laughed.

  “Ugh, remember all the stories she made up when she came home on the weekends? Telling everyone I made her sleep in the basement and forced her to clean the entire house while the rest of us watched?”

  My poor mom. The first few years of her marriage with Connor were not easy. “I can talk to her if you want... I don’t know if it will do any good, but I can try.”

  Shaking my head, I responded, “Absolutely not, Mom. Let her have her wedding. When and if the time comes, Italy is big enough to have more than one wedding.”

  She smiled, but I could see relief in her eyes. She tried so hard to have a relationship with Mia, and no matter how hard she tried, Mia always treated her poorly.

  “Anyways. Again, I am sorry, but please, tell me how Italy was?” She walked to the other side of the large kitchen, lifting the glass lid that covered a freshly baked pie. “Big or little?”