Stand Close 1 (7 page)

A
lec
and I exchange a charged look, both of us straightening our clothes and running our hands through our hair. “Hang on! I’m not decent.”

Sean’s muffled voice answers immediately, “Oh, of course. Take your time.”

I point to the bathroom. Alec, shaking his head and angry with himself, barrels in with long strides. I run to the front door, unlock it and open it, but not all the way. Sean glances to my dress, his eyes narrowing in confusion. “It was right there, so I just slipped it back on,” I explain with a strange laugh. “Dresses. Only one piece. We’re so lucky.”

He smiles. “I just wanted to say I saw your face when I left, and I know you felt badly we were going out without you. Like we were trying to get rid of you.”

With my mind on that amazing kiss, I say on a laugh, “Oh, no. I was fine with it. Really.”

Sean leans on my doorframe and cocks his head to the side. “No you weren’t. And it was rude of me to tell you we were going out again. We weren’t getting rid of you. It’s just we’re going gambling, and it’s a guy’s club.”

I blink at this, momentarily surprised. “They still have those?”

He gives a small chuckle, looking to the side. “Yeah. Anyway, it wasn’t about you. Okay?”

Touched, I smile at him. I’m trying to take this sweetness in, but the obvious cause for distraction is really making that a challenge. “That’s really nice of you. I’m okay.”

“We want to get to know you, Rue.”

“We?” I ask, knowing the answer.

“I want to get to know you. Jack will come around.” He pushes off the doorframe.

Impulsively, I grab Sean in a big hug. He laughs and awkwardly hugs me back, which ain’t easy with how I’ve got his arms trapped in a vice grip. “Thank you, Sean. Really. Thank you.”

He laughs and when I release him, he says, “You still smell like Alec. I’m going to have to tell him to knock off that cologne.”

With my best attempt at a chuckle, I say, “Ha ha. Yeah.” Just as I’m about to close the door, he stops it with his foot.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’m fine. Really, everything’s…”

“Fine?” He smiles, and I laugh, but then his eyes get very serious and his voice deepens as he touches the doorframe, peeling off a bit of old paint. “Look, Rue, it may not be my place to say anything. I know this brotherly kind of stuff is earned, but I don’t know. I feel protective of you. It’s weird, I know. And Alec… I know him. I know him very well. He’ll break your heart. And not just break it…it’ll be so brittle when he’s done with it that if you dropped it on the ground, it would shatter. He’s a rockstar, Rue. Everything you’ve heard about them is true. I love him, but he’s not ready for anything real. I don’t know if any of us are, but he most definitely tops the list. He wouldn’t be faithful. That life wouldn’t make you happy.”

My stomach feels like someone’s squeezing it. I look at the floor so as not to look toward the bathroom, hoping desperately that Alec can’t hear this. Defiantly, I ask my new brother, “How do you know what would make me happy?”

Sean frowns. “What person is happy with infidelity?” I meet his eyes, resisting the truth, but knowing he’s right. “I’m just trying to warn you. Steer clear of him, before it’s too late. Understand?”

I nod. “Yeah. Okay, g’night.”

“G’night.” He turns around and walks away as I lock the door again, haunted by what he said as I walk to the bathroom. But the door opens and Alec appears, clearly having heard all of it. He doesn’t look at me as he heads for the window, peering out the curtains and watching as they drive off. “Well, now I know what he thinks of me.”

“He wasn’t
trying
to be cruel; he was just being protective of me… and I…” I stop on his abrupt shift of profile. It’s become steel-like–his jaw tight, clenched, angry.

He walks to leave. “This is the worst thing I’ve ever done.”

I cry out, surprising both of us, “Don’t say that!”

He lays his forehead on the door and closes his eyes, just like I did earlier. His knuckles are white, gripping the doorknob. “You know how you said he wasn’t trying to be cruel? The thing is, words are only cruel if they’re true.” He turns the knob and leaves.

I catch the door before it closes, and call after him, “Alec!” but he doesn’t look back, and with a few more long, quick strides, he becomes the darkness that surrounds him. I stare after him long after he’s gone, wondering from the pain in my heart if Sean was right. But the depth I saw in Alec’s eyes was beautiful. To be on the road all the time, never really connecting. Alec needs someone to love. That’s what I think.

S
till sleepy from
a night of bad dreams, I rub my eyes and take a deep breath.
Tap tap tap
on the keyboard. The home page for Wells Fargo Bank springs onto the screen.

I leap off the couch! Running around the room like there’s a spider on me, I stare at the laptop. I know the balance was $858.32, last time I looked, with a savings account of exactly $2,540.00. I was really proud of those twenty-five hundred and forty bucks. But now? I don’t know how I’ll feel if that’s all there is.

“Okay, you can do this. Get your head out of the sand and take a look.” Determined, I march to the computer and pick it up.

I sit down.

I put it on my lap.

Username:
dancingqueen11
.

Password:
Iwillmakeit33.

The screen changes.

“$50,000,858.32,” stares silently back at me.

A scream rips out my lungs. Then another scream. I poke at the screen, tapping out the zeros to wrap my brain around it. Don’t I have to pay taxes? I must! Into Google I type,
What is the inheritance tax in California
? The answer comes up at once, and I scream again. There are only seven states that collect inheritance tax: Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

I burst into tears, stand up, and throw the computer across the room. It breaks, but I don’t’ care. It was falling apart anyway. Dancing around like a crazy person, I whoop and holler and make strange squeaking noises I’ve never made before.

My phone rings and I catapult myself across the room to answer it. I’m so glad it’s ringing! I have to share this! I have to tell someone what’s going on! Not recognizing the number, I swipe to answer, “Hello?!”

“Rue Calliwell?” a female voice asks.

“Yes?”

“Your mother was a filthy whore!” The phone goes dead.

Staring at it, I stand here, stunned. It’s only 6:18 a.m. It’s way too early to hear your mother’s a whore. Shaken, I dial Jenna’s number. As I wait for her to pick up, I get angrier and angrier. “Come on, Jenna. Pick up!” I dial it again and again until finally she answers in a very groggy voice.

“Hey. What’s up?” I can practically hear her scratching her nose.

“Jenna, get up. Something just happened and… Oh fuck it! You know what? I’ll tell you about it when you get here. Come over. Now. Because guess what? We’re going shopping.”

She pauses, still half asleep at the time. “The stores aren’t open yet.”

“They are, in New York.”

Silence. Then she gasps, waking up more. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“What do you think I’m saying?”

“That we are flying to New York to go shopping??!!”

“Then yes.”

“I’ll be right there!” She hangs up.

I’m about to throw the phone on the bed so I can pack, when I get a better idea. I go through the recent-call list and assign the name
Evil Bitch
to the unknown caller who just tried to ruin my morning. “There. Try and surprise me now.” I toss the phone and run to pull out my suitcase, yanking it out of the pile of crap in my closet. Time to dust this baby off.

One thing I’ve always fought against is caring how others perceive me. It’s been too much a part of my life, wanting to blend in and not be judged.
The desire to ‘fit in’ is in our evolutionary DNA
, one biology teacher told us in high school. It’s still engrained in us from the days when, if we were thrown out of the cave, we’d be dinner. But I hate it.

I don’t want to fit in.

And I really,
really
don’t want to hear it from ANYONE what they think of my mom, this whole situation, or me.

Alec’s face pops into my mind and I stop in my tracks on the way to the dresser, the soft carpet squishing between my toes. Talking aloud to myself, I mutter, “The only problem with going to New York is that he’s here. If I stayed here, maybe I’d go out with the brothers again and run into him. You know, by purposeful accident. Maybe I could tell him I don’t care what Sean thinks. That if I’m going to get my heart broken, I want it to be by him.” A shudder passes over me and I shake out my head. “You’re being crazy, Rue. You can’t just lay yourself at a guy’s feet like that. Especially when that probably happens to him all the time.”

Sighing, I pull open my top dresser drawer, and grab my favorite underwear, socks and bras, tossing them into the suitcase from where I stand. The bank balance jumps in front of my eyes again and a grin spreads on my lips. I just found out I’m a fucking millionaire. For real. Running into the bathroom, I say, loudly, “I just want to be happy.” Excitement racing the blood faster in my veins, I grab my must-haves and run out to throw them in the suitcase, too.

I want to stop listening when people say these words: You shouldn’t… You can’t… You’re too… What makes them think they have the right to impose their rules or inhibitions on me?

We have one life.

We get to do what we want.

As long as we don’t purposefully hurt people… we should follow our hearts and dreams and search for joy wherever we can find it.

I want to laugh hard. I want to cry hard. I want to dance!

New York… here I come.

O
ne brother wants her gone
. One wants to help her, maybe even love her... but that help included a warning to stay away from their best friend, Alec. And that kind of help she does not want. 

With the world waking up to the news that the Stone family has a secret-sister, Rue's facing the advantages and pitfalls to her inheritance. After receiving a call slandering her mother's good name, she phones her best friend and hightails it all the way to New York City. But you can't run from fame. And you can't run from Alec Gabriel, either. 

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A
lpha-male Brendan Clark
is a gorgeous 'uncatchable' Annie's loved since day one. After getting the brushoff, she changes herself to become the type of woman he'd want. When he doesn't recognize her and invites her up to his penthouse, she decides to keep her identity a secret. What could go wrong? Now Part 1-6 are available in one box set.

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S
abrina Lacey lives in Hollywood
, California. She’s a big fan of full-bodied red wine, chocolate malted crunch ice cream, and sitting out in the yard with her friends underneath the moon to exchange details of what’s going on in their lives. She published her first erotic romance book, I Love My Breakup, on July 8, 2013 and hasn’t stopped since. I Love My Healed Heart hit #1 on Amazon in Romance, Romantic Comedy, Erotic Romance, and New Adult Romance. She believes a little laughter is needed for any story to be truly complete.