Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (109 page)

“So what’s the plan now?” Red asked his
brother.
 
“How long are you staying
for?”

“I have a flight back tomorrow,” Jeb told
him.

“So soon?
 
I would have loved to get another chance
to whip your ass in basketball.
 
We
could do tennis, too.
 
I know you
think you have a shot there, but believe me you don’t.”

Jeb couldn’t seem to force a smile
anymore.
 
“I’d love to, but I can’t
take anymore time off work.
 
I came
to make sure you were okay.”

“Couldn’t be better,” Red said, smiling
happily, patting Nicole’s hand.

“I can see that,” Jeb said.
 
Then, gathering himself, he went
on.
 
“You know, that’s not the only
reason I came to see you.”

“Oh?” Red asked, his eyes narrowing ever so
slightly.

“Mom spoke to me about what happened
during her visit.”

“Of course she did,” Red said, with no
emotion in his voice.

Jeb sighed.
 
“I hate being in the middle like this.”

“Then don’t put yourself there.”
 
Red wiped his mouth with a napkin, crumpled
it and threw it on the table.

Nicole put a hand on his leg and squeezed
reassuringly.
 
In her mind, she was
urging him to calm down.
 

“I have no choice,” Jeb said.
 
“I can’t let you and mom fight this
way.”

“Can’t let us?
 
Who made you the arbiter of peace around
here?” Red asked him.
 
“I resent you
coming to my house with a hidden agenda.”

“Come on,” Jeb said, laughing.
 

“It’s not funny.”

“I didn’t hide my agenda.
 
I wanted to make sure you were
okay.
 
That was my first priority.”

“Well you did that.
 
You found out I’m okay—actually
better than okay.”

“Are you sure about that?” Jeb asked.

“Yeah, I am.”

Jeb shrugged.
 
“And I also wanted to make sure you
weren’t going too hard on Mom.”

Red folded his arms.
 
“She’s obviously roped you in with her
distortions about what happened.
 
I’ve seen and heard this all before. Now she’s sent you here as her
surrogate to try and guilt trip me—”

“She didn’t ask me to come. I wanted to
come.”

“Bullshit,” Red snarled.
 
“You’re being her errand boy, doing her
bidding—like you always have.”

Now it was Jeb’s turn to take
offense.
 
“Errand boy?
 
I’m a doctor with my own practice, my
own life, and my own opinions.”

“That’s why you let her dictate your
romantic interests,” Red told him.

“She does not dictate my romantic interests.
 
And I resent the implication.”

“What did she tell you?” Red asked.
 
“What new lies did she spout this time?”

Jeb shook his head.
 
“She just said that the two of you had
fought horribly, that you kicked her out of the house.
 
She was crying, she felt awful…”

“Bullshit,” Red scoffed.
 
“She didn’t feel awful, she’s a master
manipulator.”

“It’s easy for you to see her that way,”
Jeb told him.

“And it’s easier for you to wear
blinders,” Red replied.
 
“What kind
of mother gives her son an ultimatum in order to force him to break up with a
girl he’s in love with?”

Jeb’s hands clenched and his jaw
twitched, much the way Red’s did when he was angry.
 
“You’re talking about something that
happened years ago.
 
Why would you
bring that up now?”

“It’s totally pertinent to this
conversation,” Red said, pointing a finger at his brother.
 
“She did something completely
unconscionable to you, and you allowed her to get away with it.
 
You still make excuses for her
behavior.”

“I’m not making excuses.
 
She’s our mother.
 
And whatever else she is—she
deserves a little goddamn respect.”

 
Red stood up, pushing his chair back
forcefully and planting his hands firmly on the tabletop.
 
His expression was thunderous.
 
“You’re lucky you’re my younger brother,
Jeb.
 
Or so help me god, I would
beat you like a redheaded stepchild for talking this shit in my house.
 
I don’t want to discuss that
woman—I don’t want to hear her words coming out of your mouth like some
fucking ventriloquist’s dummy.
 
I’m
finished.
 
Got it?”

“Loud and clear.”
 
Jeb stood up and looked at Nicole.
 
“Thank you so much for dinner.
 
I’ll be in my room the rest of the
evening and on the first flight out tomorrow morning.
 
Unless you’d rather I went to a hotel
instead?”

Red folded his arms and refused to look
at him.
 
“I don’t give a shit what
you do,” he muttered.

Nicole wanted to somehow make peace, but
hadn’t a clue what to say.
 
Jeb left
the veranda and she turned back to Red.
 
“I’m so sorry that happened.”

“Yeah.
 
Me too.”
 
He was staring out into the darkness now,
with that same distant and guarded look on his face.
 
She knew he was unreachable in this
state.

Instead of trying to talk to him, Nicole
decided to just let him be.
 
She
cleared off the table and brought everything to the sink, did the dishes.
 
Eventually he left the veranda and went
upstairs, probably to his study.

Nicole had a bit of a sick feeling in her
stomach again.
 
She told herself
that this was a difficult time in Red’s life and as his fiancé she had to be
willing to go through it with him.

But she still felt bad for his brother.

Jeb hadn’t meant to do anything
wrong—he simply had a totally different view on the situation.

When she was done putting the dishes in
the dishwasher and cleaning off the table in the veranda, wiping down the
counter tops, Nicole was fairly tired.
 
She wanted to go up and check on Red, make sure he was holding up okay.

And then she saw Jeb standing in the
hallway entrance, watching her.
 
She
let out a startled noise, put a hand to her chest.
 
“Sorry, you surprised me,” she laughed.

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry,” Jeb said,
coming further into the kitchen.
 
“I
didn’t want to cause a scene here.”

“It’s okay,” she told him.
 
“I get it.
 
I know how it can be with siblings.”

“You have a sister or brother?”

She laughed.
 
“Actually, no.
 
I don’t.
 
But I can imagine.”

Now he laughed as well, and when their
eyes met, she sensed again that he was a kind person.
 
“Ours is a complex family,” he told
her.
 
In that statement, she sensed,
was much more than met the eye.

Nicole nodded, her eyes downcast.
 
“Red is emotional lately.
 
I don’t think he meant to be so hard on
you.”

“No?” Jeb laughed, a brittle, harsh
sound.
 

“I think that your mother is a sensitive
topic for him right now.
 
You
weren’t here when she visited, but I can assure you it was pretty awful.”

“I’m sure it was,” Jeb told her.
 
“But you don’t see the other side of
it.
 
Red is such a loose
cannon.
 
His temper is out of
control and he makes it so that people walk on eggshells around him.
 
My mother’s not the eggshell type.”

“Certainly not,” Nicole agreed,
remembering the comments Erica had made and how she’d found the older woman
sneaking around their master bedroom.

“Look,” Jeb said, leaning against the
counter.
 
“I’m not saying my mother
is the easiest person to get along with.
 
She’s very difficult.
 
She’s
had a tough life and she did the best she could under hard circumstances.
 
But she loves her kids.
 
She loves my brother dearly, and it’s
killing her the way the visit ended.”

Nicole sighed.
 
As much as she didn’t like Erica
Jameson, she also hated to think that her engagement to Red might have been a
contributing factor to a son not speaking to his mother.
 
“I’m sure it will blow over in time,”
she said.
 
“People just need a
little distance to come at it from a new perspective.”

“Red’s not known for changing his mind
once it’s made up.”

“I think he’s got more compromise in him
than you might give him credit for,” Nicole replied.
 

“Well, it’s obvious he’s got a great
woman by his side.
 
That makes me
feel a little better.”

“Thanks.”

He rapped the counter with his
knuckles.
 
“I’m tired, I think I’m
going to turn in.
 
But maybe you
could talk to Red at some point and remind him that there are people who care
about him—people that have the same blood that run through his veins—and
that those people miss him dearly.”

Nicole nodded uncertainly.
 
She realized that she’d just been tasked
yet again with trying to make Red reconsider a decision he’d made.
 
And once again, she’d engaged in a
conversation with someone whom Red was feuding with, and whom he probably
didn’t want to hear much about.

Jeb disappeared back to his guest room
and Nicole slowly made her way upstairs to the master bedroom.

Red was in bed reading a book when she
entered.

He looked up from it and forced a smile.
 
“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”
 
She sat down on the edge of her side of
the bed.

“I’m sorry I made a scene.
 
That wasn’t right,” he said softly.

“I know you were in a tough position
trying to defend your choices to your brother.”

“The guy is just blind when it comes to
my mother.
 
He won’t admit that
she’s completely psychotic and destructive.”

Nicole turned and looked at him.
 
“Are you going to at least talk to him
before he leaves tomorrow?”

Red shook his head and picked his book up
again.
 
“I don’t know.
 
Right now I definitely can’t do it.”

Nicole was torn.
 
Now she was questioning what his
reaction would be when she told him about her and Jeb’s conversation.
 
But she didn’t want to make the same
mistake as she had in Germany, when she’d kept her conversation with Kane
Wright to herself.

“After you came upstairs, your brother
came back to the kitchen and apologized to me,” she said, finally.

Red glanced sideways at her.
 
“He did?”

“Yeah.”
 
She looked at him, her hands clutching
each other nervously.
 
“Please don’t
be angry with me.”

Red took a long, slow breath.
 
“What did you say to him?”

“Just that I understood it was hard.”

Red’s expression darkened.
 
“What does that mean?”

“Come on, Red.
 
What am I supposed to do, tell your
brother to fuck off when he apologizes to me?”

“I never said that.”
 
He put the book aside and looked her
straight in the eye.
 
“At the same
time, it feels like no matter what I do, you’re always second guessing me.
 
I trust you, I listen to you—and
the next thing I know you spin me in circles.”

“How do I spin you in circles, Red?”

“In Germany, you told me to make a deal,
then you told me not to, and then on the flight home you said maybe I should
make the deal again.
 
And now you’re
telling me to go make up with Jeb.
 
Tomorrow you’ll probably tell me that Jeb’s an asshole and I should
never speak to him again.”

“Come on.
 
That’s not fair to me.
 
What am I supposed to do?”