BRIAN (The Callahans Book 1) (76 page)

Jason

I was just finishing up at the sink, rinsing the last of the shaving cream off my jaw, when Joey came into the bedroom. She leaned against the doorjamb and watched me, a soft smile on her lips.

“How was your interview?” I asked.

She shrugged. “It seemed to go well, but I won’t know until next week.”

“I’m sure you did fine.”

“From your lips…”

She came over and ran her hand slowly up the length of my naked back. I dried my face and turned into her, tugging her against my chest.

“I’ve missed you,” I said softly against the side of her head.

“Been busy,” she said, repeating my words without realizing it.

I kissed her forehead. “We should take some time, get out of town for a while.”

“And go where?”

I shrugged. “Anywhere.”

“Somewhere warm,” she said.

“Houston isn’t warm enough for you?”

She giggled against my chest a little before peppering it with tiny kisses.

“Why can’t it always be like this?” she suddenly asked. “Why can’t we just hide out here, never go out, never see anyone? Why can’t it just be the two of us and no one else?”

“You’re nervous,” I said, pushing her head back so that I could see her face. “You don’t want to meet my parents?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to meet them. It’s just that I’m afraid of what’ll happen when I do.”

I groaned, as I drew her even closer, pressing a few kisses to her forehead and the tip of her nose, before kissing her full lips. As always, she responded almost immediately, opening to me in that way that she always seemed so ready to do. I turned her around and lifted her onto the edge of the counter, pushing her back until her head hit the mirror. She wrapped her legs around me, around my waist, the weight of her pushing the towel off of my body. I was suddenly naked, and she was fully clothed, her interview skirt sliding up her thighs.

“I want you,” I whispered roughly against her lips.

“I want you, too,” she said, her eyes swimming with unshed tears. “Only you.”

And that made my heart threaten to burst through my chest. I kissed her again, rougher than I’d intended. But she was right there with me, responding to each of my touches with one just as equally full of need. I ran my hand over the back of her thigh, gripping it roughly as I tugged her closer to me. She reached around and tugged at my ass, pulling my hips hard against hers. I scraped my knuckles against the crotch of her panties, and she wrapped her little fist around my cock. Every touch made me want her even more. Just looking at her was pushing me so quickly over the edge that I wasn’t sure I could control myself a moment longer.

I ripped her panties away, literally ripped the material and tugged until they were no longer keeping what I wanted from me. And then I was inside of her, pulling her so far forward that she slipped down on the counter with her back against the water-splattered surface. She held my arms, her legs still wrapped around my waist, as I began to thrust against her. And I watched her watching me as pleasure danced in her eyes.

It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

It didn’t take long for the pleasure to take over. Her eyes closed and her lips twisted, a scream of such intensity that I could feel it deep in my balls slipped from her throat. Her nails cut into the backs of my arms, her grip on me tight enough to tear us both in half. But I didn’t care. I didn’t want her to let go. I wanted to be in that moment with her for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, my moment came too soon, and I was closing my eyes, my own cries undeniable. And then she was just Joey again, just the most amazing, perfect, beautiful woman I’d ever met. Just the girl who was scared to meet my parents.

I cradled her against my chest, smoothing my hands over every inch of her.

“They’ll love you,” I assured her. “They won’t be able to help themselves.”

***

The caterers had done an excellent job setting everything up on the back deck. The dishes were elegant, but not too fancy. The wine a good selection for the meal planned. The flowers subtle, but nice. And the food smelled wonderful.

Joey was upstairs, changing into one of a dozen outfits she’d chosen but couldn’t make a final choice on. I’d assured her that it was a casual dinner, but she kept making the point that casual dinners aren’t usually catered. I would have pointed out that casual dinners in my family always were, but that would just be pointing out the differences between us and she always balked when I did that.

I wished she didn’t feel so separate from my world and me. I understood that I grew up in a world of privilege. But I didn’t think we were all that different. My parents weren’t snobs. I wasn’t handed everything on a silver platter. I was about as far from the so-called “Affluenza Teen” as I could get. But that’s how she treated me, as if I could never understand what it was like to not have something.

When it all came down to it, did it matter? She seemed to think she had to be a certain person to fit into my life. I just wanted her to be the girl who walked into my office that afternoon, the girl who was smart enough to help me catch a thief and sexy enough that I couldn’t think of anything other than her beautiful ass for the rest of the day.

“Your parents are here,” Shelly said, stepping out onto the back deck.

“Thanks, Shelly.” I walked toward her and touched her arm. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“This was mostly Joey.” She looked up at me for a moment. “You’ve got a good girl there, Jason. Don’t let her get away.”

And then she disappeared, sliding down a side hallway just as the doorbell rang.

There was lots of hugging and backslapping when I opened the door. My mother had tears in her eyes when she greeted me, taking in the jeans and button down I was wearing.

“Look at you,” she said with something like awe in her voice, “you actually look relaxed for once.”

I laughed, as I gestured for them to come inside. I glanced outside, expecting to see Sara’s car in the driveway. But it wasn’t there. She must have picked up whatever it was she was looking for earlier. I started to close the door, but then Justin’s car pulled up.

“The baby’s here,” I said.

I barely got the words out of my mouth before my mother rushed down to see her granddaughter. They’d flown home for three days when Alexa was born, but hadn’t seen her since except in pictures. You’d think she was the most beautiful baby in the world the way my mother kept ohhhing and awwwing over her.

“Where’s Sara?” I asked Justin, as we followed the devoted grandparents back into the house.

“She said she’d meet us here.”

I glanced up the stairs as we passed, but Joey wasn’t coming down yet. I was beginning to wonder if we were going to pull this evening off without the ladies.

I poured everyone a glass of wine and settled at the table, watching my mother cuddle the baby against her shoulder.

“Do you miss those days?”

She glanced at me. “Not for all the money in the world. But I’m thrilled to be a grandmother. I can spoil them and give them back.”

I laughed, but Justin groaned.

“Wait until you’re the father the spoiled child has to come back to.”

“It won’t be that bad.”

“It’ll be ten times worse than you can imagine. Sara’s parents already have Alexa sucking on one of those pacifier things—even though Sara made it quite clear they weren’t to give her one. If they can do that…”

I laughed again, shaking my head as I watched my mom stroke the baby’s back with the softest touch. And then my father perked up, tugging at the bottom edge of his golf shirt as if he was trying to cover his bit of a potbelly. I turned, and Joey was standing in the doorway, dressed perfectly in a soft blue dress that made her skin glow. I went to her, took her hands, and trapped them behind her back for a moment as I stole a tiny kiss. Her fingers were trembling, but she smiled softly as she gazed up into my face.

When we turned back to my parents, I caught a little bit of the look they exchanged. And then my mother smiled brightly and asked Joey where she’d gotten her dress. I wouldn’t have thought it would be the right thing to say, but somehow it broke the ice. In seconds, they were lost in a conversation about fashion that was so removed from the woman I thought Joey was that I felt lost. But she was smiling and her grip on my hand loosened. It must have been good.

Sara arrived just as the caterer brought the food out and discretely disappeared, leaving us to serve ourselves. There seemed to be a little tension between Sara and Joey that I didn’t understand. Sara was quiet, but she stole glances at Joey throughout the meal. I was lost. I had no idea why Sara would be so unhappy with Joey.

“Your mother signed up on Facebook,” Dad suddenly announced toward the end of the meal.

Justin nearly choked as he started laughing. I just sat back and slid my arm around Joey.

“It’s about time.”

“I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of Paris on there,” Mom said.

“There’re other places to post pictures,” Justin said. “You can go on Pinterest.”

“Someone told me about that,” she said. “But Facebook seems more interesting.”

“Next thing you know, you’ll get a blog,” Justin popped off. “Just like the one Sara’s been writing on.”

I glanced at Sara and caught her flash a dark look at Joey. Not at Justin, but at Joey.

“You have a blog?”

Sara shrugged. “I did. But I’m thinking about dropping it.”

“What kind of blog?”

Justin sat up a little, reaching for the bottle of wine. “Don’t bother asking. She won’t even let me see it.”

“Blogs are like diaries, Justin,” Mom said. “You don’t have to share them unless you want to.”

“You’ve certainly learned a lot about social media in Paris,” Justin said.

Mom shrugged. “I like to stay informed.”

“Doesn’t hurt that the daughter of the owner of the villa where we stood was bored out of her mind while we were there, so she graciously taught your mother all there was to know about Facebook and blogging and Vine and whatever else,” Dad said. “They spent hours on the laptop, setting up accounts all over the place.”

I laughed. Justin just shook his head.

“Imagine, my own mother has more of an internet presence than I have.”

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, Justin,” Sara said.

“Speaking of which,”—I leaned close to Joey—“my lawyers managed to get the blog publisher to take down
Dear Elizabeth
temporarily.”

“Good,” was all she said.

Somehow I’d thought she’d be happier than that.

The baby began to fuss. Sara took her from Mom and went into the house. Joey watched her go, and I just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something going on between the two of them. And I wanted to get to the bottom of it.

I kissed Joey’s temple lightly and told her I’d be right back.

Sara took Alexa upstairs. I followed the sounds of Alexa’s irritated screams, taping on the doorframe before walking into the guest bedroom.

“Everything okay?”

Sara glanced up at me. “She just needs a new diaper.”

“I meant with you.”

Sara shrugged. “I suppose she told you.”

I didn’t know what to say. I assumed it had to do with whatever was going on between her and Joey, but I had no idea what she was talking about. So I just shrugged.

“I never meant for it to become the big thing it did. It was just a place to get out all the gossip I had to hold in because it wasn’t proper for me to act like a bitch around my friends.”

“But then?”

“But then…” She shrugged again, finishing with the baby and carefully raising her to her shoulder. “Justin deserves to run the foundation. You know he does. I know he does.”

“But Justin doesn’t want it.”

“Justin never knows what he wants until he has it.” She shoved the baby’s things back into her bag and stood. “I couldn’t just sit back and watch him lose out. Again.”

“He has Brooks Oil.”

“He’s your father’s puppet. With the foundation, he could really prove himself.”

I pushed away from the door and watched her move past me.

“What did you do?”

She glanced at me. “I did the only thing I could. I hurt you where it mattered most. Your precious reputation.”

And that’s when it sunk in. I felt like such an asshole. It was right there in front of my face the whole time.

“You’re
Dear Elizabeth
.”

Joey

It was nothing like I’d been afraid it would be. Jason’s parents were more down to earth than I’d expected. His mother was actually funny and his father quite charming. They were a lot like my own parents. I could imagine them having dinner together, laughing over the same things.

I wasn’t sure they liked me. But I was pretty sure they didn’t hate me.

Jason disappeared as Sara went to care for the baby. I watched him go, wondering if she would tell him. I wasn’t sure she would.

“How are things with you and Sara?” Jason’s father asked Justin.

Justin shrugged. “Having a baby changes a relationship.”

Jason’s parents exchanged a glance. Then his mother focused on me.

“Jason hasn’t told us much about you. What do you do for a living, Joanne?”

“It’s Joey,” Justin said quite helpfully. I hadn’t realized he’d paid much attention, but the smile he flashed me suggested he paid more attention than anyone had ever noticed.

“Joey,” his mother said with a polite nod of her head.

“I’m in accounting. But I’m actually between jobs right now.”

“Are you?”

“She worked for Jason,” Justin said. “But they let her go when Frank was arrested.”

“Sad situation,” Jason’s father said. “It’s always disappointing when a trusted employee turns on you that way.”

Justin picked up his glass of wine and swallowed what was left inside of it. “Jason should have seen it coming,” he said. “Frank expected to be equal. That was just his way of punishing Jason for not making him an equal.”

Again the parents exchanged a look.

“I saw it coming. Then I did what I could to make sure things were taken care of.”

I looked at Justin, wondering what he was talking about. He met my gaze and shrugged.

“I suppose Jason already suspects it. But I called that supervisor of yours…what was her name?”

“Mrs. Constantine.”

Justin nodded. “I told her to fire you. It wouldn’t do, between those crazy blog posts, the pictures, and Frank’s arrest, for people to find out that you still worked there.”

“You told her to fire me?”

“That’s your brother’s company,” Jason’s mother said disapprovingly.

“To protect my brother’s reputation. It’s what he would have done—has done—for me.”

I suddenly felt caught in the middle of something I didn’t understand and really didn’t want to understand. The parents exchanged another look and then Jason came back out, dropping into the chair next to me with a sense of finality. He picked up his own wine glass and swallowed what was in it in one, quick gulp.

She told him.

I wanted out of there. I started to stand, but Jason grabbed my wrist roughly and tugged me back into my seat. The only way I was leaving was if I made a scene, and I didn’t want to do that. Sara came to the door a moment later and called to Justin.

“We should go. The baby’s fussy.”

Justin stood and swept his body into a deep bow.

“It was quite an evening. Thank you for the invitation, brother.”

Jason’s parents left a moment later, his mom grabbing my arm and saying, “We should go shopping sometime soon.”

I just smiled and nodded.

Jason made a beeline to the bar, drinking a healthy shot of whiskey as the catering team came back out and cleaned up the remnants of our meal. I wanted to help, but the caterer waved me away with a soft smile.

“You should have told me.”

He was standing in the center of the room, his hands pushed deep into his front pockets.

“What?”

“About Sara.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, my eyes falling to the floor. I didn’t know what to say. What was there to say?

“She told me everything. How she called your friend, Rahul, and found out you worked for me. Called your house, your coworkers. Tried to find out everything she could so that she could publish enough dirt about us to make my parents change their mind about giving me the reins of the foundation.”

“Is that what it was all about?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t even know she cared that much about it. But, I think, it became something else as things went along.”

“Did she say that?”

“She didn’t have to.”

Jason turned away from me and began to pace, his shoulders tense.

“I can’t believe my own family could do this. After everything I did for Sara, everything I did for Justin. I don’t understand how she could turn on me this way.”

“She wasn’t trying to hurt you. She was trying to hurt me.”

“She was trying to hurt us both because she’s greedy and she wants more. She’s never been content with life the way it is. She’s always fought for more and she doesn’t know how to stop.”

“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

He turned, disbelief widening his eyes. “What does that mean?”

I was suddenly exhausted. I just wanted to curl up somewhere and forget about everything that had been happening lately. I wanted to go back to the simplicity of going to work, going home, and starting all over again the next day. But, of course, there was no going back.

I sat on the edge of the loveseat and ran my fingers through my hair.

Jason was immediately beside me, his hand on the small of my back. I leaned into him and sighed.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

“What wasn’t? Talking to Sara?” he rubbed my shoulder lightly. “It had to come out eventually. It was better now than sometime down the road when my lawyers finally identified her.”

“Not Sara. Us.”

“Jo…”

There was a warning in Jason’s voice. I could hear it as clearly as I could feel the tension come into his shoulders. I didn’t like it any more than he did, but maybe it was time for us to face the truth.

“Your brother told Mrs. Constantine to fire me. Did you know that?”

“Why would he do that?”

“To protect you. That’s what he just told your parents.”

“From you?”

“Your reputation is everything, Jason. You know that.”

“My family reputation. And that had nothing to do with you. That was about Frank Thomas.”

“But I was involved because of the estimates I wrote up. If anyone had looked closer into it and began to put everything together…”

“But that’s over now.”

“And what about the next time someone writes a story about my background? What if you take over the foundation and someone decides to write a story about you? About us? And they look into my background and discover that my dad doesn’t even have a high school education?”

“We don’t live in the 1950s, Joanne.”

I pulled away from him, stood, and crossed the room.

“You can’t even call me Joey, can you? It’s not proper enough for you.”

“It’s just a name!”

“No, it’s not.” I crossed my arms over my chest, biting my lip to keep the tears from escaping. “It’s just another part of all of this. Of everything that’s been coming between us. Don’t you see that?”

He stood and came toward me, but I backed up, nearly knocking into one of the caterer’s assistants as he tried to discretely leave the room.

“If your sister-in-law would write those things about me, about us, then what’s to stop someone with nothing to lose from saying something worse?”

“There are always going to be people who want to hurt us.”

“Not us. You. And I’d be the perfect weapon.”

“So what do you want me to do, Joey? Give up my business, my family, my money? I would do that for you.”

I shook my head. “No, you wouldn’t.”

We just stood there for a moment, neither of us able to say anything else because there was nothing else to say. Then I walked away.

He didn’t follow me.