Chapter 26
“I’m sorry to bother you again, Lexi, but we need you at work today,” my boss said. “We’ve got four people waiting here to discuss parties, and all but one of the event planners called in sick. Could you come help?”
“Of course. I’ll be right in.”
I rolled out of bed and quickly threw on clothes. Courtney was putzing around in the kitchen, and she sighed when she saw me in my work clothes.
“Seriously? They’re not letting you have vacation time at all, are they?” she asked.
“I mean, it’s a bad thing and a good thing. I can use this overtime to save up money, and doing this work helps me position myself for Jeremy’s former job. That comes with a salary instead of working hourly like I am now, which means I can negotiate health benefits and things like that,” I said.
“I mean, I guess that’s fine. I was just hoping to spend some time with you today.”
“Everything all right?” I asked.
“Just wanna talk to you about something, but it can wait.”
“Courtney, are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes. Yes, I’m fine. We’ll talk later, I promise.”
“What’s it about?” I asked.
“Just what we’re gonna do after this is all said and done.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lexi, go to work.”
“No. You opened this can of worms and now I’m worried about you. What’s on your mind?”
This was the first time I’d ever seen Courtney unwilling to talk about something. Her eyes weren’t meeting mine and her hands were playing with the edge of her mug. For a split second, I thought something had happened to her, that Jeremy might’ve frightened her or something like that. I wanted to make sure everything was okay with her before I left for work.
“Knock, knock.”
The door to our hotel suite opened and the Castle brothers stepped in. Their tan skin and rugged jawlines caught my stare for just a second, and I heard Courtney sigh. I ripped my attention from their deep, dark eyes and poured it back onto my best friend, but I could tell something had bothered her about the interaction.
“Talk to me, Court,” I said.
“Everything okay in here?” Logan asked.
“Lexi’ll need a ride to work today,” Court said.
“Not until we talk for a second. Could you guys give us some space?” I asked.
“Sure. Liam and I can go downstairs and pull one of the cars around,” Logan said.
“Thanks.”
I turned my attention back to Courtney, who sipped her coffee. I walked over to the coffee pot and made myself a travel mug, but my patience was wearing thin. I was on edge, constantly looking over my shoulder, and the last thing I needed was to be pulling shit from my best friend.
“Court, just spit it out,” I said.
“I, uh—look, Lexi, I don’t wanna be roommates after all of this is over.”
I looked at her and could see her face was wracked with guilt. My best friend no longer wanted to room with me. I brought my coffee to my lips as I leaned back against the kitchen counter, but all she did was continue to stare into her black cup of coffee.
“I can’t say I blame you,” I said, “but I’m gonna ask anyway. Why?”
“I just need a place of my own,” she said. “The renter’s insurance is going to reimburse me for all the things in the apartment of mine that were destroyed, including the money that was stolen. I was thinking about what to do with the check they cut me, and I figured it was time for me to get a place of my own.”
“That’s great, Court. I’m really happy for you.”
“I just didn’t want you to think that it was because of all this Jeremy bullshit. This decision isn’t because of any of that. It’s because I just—”
“Need a place of your own. I get it,” I said.
“You do?”
“Yeah. I mean, we’ve been roommates for the past three years, but we have separate lives, separate ways of dating and living. I’ve been thinking about a lot of things since all this shit blew up in our faces, and I can’t honestly say that living in my own place wouldn’t be nice.”
“You’ve been saving up for it,” she said.
“And having something I could call my own would be a step in the right direction.”
“And considering the fact that most of our shit was destroyed by your twat-head ex, a fresh start for both of us might be good for the soul,” she said.
I looked at her as a smile broke out on my face. She buried a smirk as a giggle burst from my lips, and before I knew it the two of us were laughing our asses off. Tears lined my eyes as she doubled over at the waist, and for a moment it was only the two of us.
Just like it was before Jeremy happened.
“What was that you just called him? A ‘twat-head’ was it?” I asked, chuckling.
“It was the only thing I could think of,” she said, laughing.
“It was so perfect! They should put that shit on his mugshot,” I said, giggling.
A knock came at the door again before the Castle brothers opened it and entered. I wiped the tears from my eyes and grabbed my coffee before hugging Courtney’s neck and kissing her on the cheek. I was happy for her. I really was. Courtney had always been the kind of person to branch out and do her own thing, but she’d never had the money to do it.
Maybe this mess I’d gotten myself into would help her out after all.
“I’m working tonight, so I probably won’t be here when you get off work,” she said.
“Then I’ll see you whenever I get in from my date tonight.”
“Oh, shit. The Wolf brothers. That’s right. Well, maybe we could sit down and look at places together on our phones while you give me the dirty details of the evening,” she said.
“Sounds good to me. If I make it home that is.”
I gave Courtney a playful wink as she snickered and shook her head. I could see the confusion on Logan and Liam’s faces as I turned toward them, and I wondered how much of the conversation they had heard. I headed down to the car with them towering behind me, but once we pulled out of the hotel, I noticed the convoy of black cars behind us. Two more cars had pulled out and were following me to the hotel, and I realized that all the guys were coming to work with me.
I hit the ground running the moment I got into the Beacon-Ansley. People were placing calls and trying to make last-minute changes to their parties, while others were seeking original consultations and pricing. One was even trying to change their wine listings when the bottles had already been ordered and stocked. By the time lunch rolled around, I was ready to drop.
I flopped down onto a couch in the back break room and sighed, leaning my head back on the cushion. One by one, I heard the men silently file into the room and sit in the chairs beside me as I closed my eyes. My stomach rumbled with hunger, but food was the furthest thing from my mind.
All I wanted to do right now was sleep.
“You all right, Lexi?” Kevin asked.
“You don’t have to use your doctor voice with me, Kevin. I’m just fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” Kyle said.
“That goes for you, too, Dr. Jameson,” I said.
“What were you and Courtney talking about this morning?” Liam asked.
“This isn’t a fire you can put out,” I said.
“Are you going to use our jobs as puns when addressing us all day today?” Logan asked.
“Depends. Does it stoke your fire?” I asked, grinning.
The six of them chuckled, and the sound relaxed my bones. I sank deeper into the couch as I felt someone sit down next to me, and before I knew it I was being scooped up into the very familiar arms of Cameron Oakley.
“Talk to us,” he said.
“What’s on your mind?” Cole asked.
“Courtney doesn’t want to room together after this is all said and done,” I said.
“Is it because of all the Jeremy shit?” Cole asked.
“She says it’s not, and I believe her. It just leaves me trying to figure out what to do, I guess.”
“Have you given much thought to what you might do?” Kyle asked as he adjusted his glasses.
“Not really. Right now I’m still jumping every time my phone rings. I keep hoping it’s the police saying they’ve got Jeremy, like that’ll somehow give me permission to let down my guard and continue with my life.”
“Are you concerned he’ll find you if just rent somewhere new?” Kevin asked.
“Petrified of it really,” I said.
“You know we’d protect you,” Liam said.
“Yeah. The fire chief would be willing to work with us,” Logan said.
“With the way we all seem to congregate around you, it’d made more sense if we just all lived together,” Cameron said, chuckling.
“No joke. That way we wouldn’t all have to compromise our careers just to see her,” Cole said.
“We could each have a bedroom and she could just sleep in a different bed every night,” Liam said, laughing.
“Poor Lexi would end up calling all of us by different names,” Logan said.
“My mom used to do that shit,” Kyle said. “She’d fucking call me by the dog’s name before she’d get mine right.”
“No shit! Your mom did that, too?” Cole asked.
“I think all moms do that. We had a pepper plant named Pico, and she’d fucking call me that before she called me by my real name,” Liam said.
“Shit, I’d forgotten about that,” Logan said, chuckling. “Pico.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Liam threatened.
“I mean, it doesn’t sound that far-fetched, does it?”
My question stopped them in their tracks. I was taking slight offense to the way they were joking about it. Living with all of them sounded like a dream. And Courtney was right, we had to branch out and think about what we were going to do after this was all said and done. The idea of living with all of them and staggering their various schedules and caring for each of them in turn warmed my soul, but all they were doing was making fun of it.
It was like they were making fun of my happiness or something.
“What do you mean?” Cameron asked as I slid from his lap.
“I mean, why does that type of thing have to be a joke?” I asked. “Why couldn’t we all live together?”
“Well, we all have our settled lives, Lexi,” Kevin said, “our own spaces and houses.”
“Plus, it’s a bit odd, don’t you think?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t think so at all,” I said, shrugging. “I mean, I care about all of you.”
“But you’re gonna eventually pick, right?” Logan asked.
“Yeah. You can’t just keep bouncing around between us all the time,” Liam said.
“Why not?” I asked. “I enjoy you all and care for you all equally. Why is that such a bad thing?”
“So you’re not gonna pick?” Cole asked.
“I-I don’t know.”
I sighed as I watched their faces slowly fall. I guess I had been imagining a perfect world for me and being selfish. I figured with all of them around one another, they would take to each other’s company. Maybe I had this whole idea built up in my head that we could all live together as one massive, happy family.
Maybe that was just the childish whim of a scared little woman, but that didn’t mean I was going to choose. I couldn’t. And I wouldn’t give in to their pressure.
I walked toward the door, and a hand reached out and grabbed my arm. I looked down at Kyle, his innocent blue eyes shimmering behind his glasses. His hair shone in the lighting of the room, and I dipped down to press a kiss to his cheek before I wiggled away from his grasp.
“A girl’s gotta make money,” I said.
I left them all in the room as I headed back to work. I tried to push the hurt their jokes caused out of my mind, but it was hard. Everywhere I turned, someone was standing there to make sure I was all right. The only place I could really get away from them was in the bathroom, so every time I felt tears rising from their mocking jokes, I would dash down the hallway.
Of course, a pair of them would always be standing there when I got out, but at least they didn’t follow me in.
I tried to turn my mind to my date with the Wolf brothers tonight. I’d be able to dance my worries away in their arms while wearing the beautiful silver dress they’d had made especially for me. It was a spaghetti strap dress with a built-in bodice that hoisted my boobs up perfectly. It accentuated the deep dip in my waist before flaring out around my hips, the fabric slowly trickling to the floor. It had a few rhinestone accents that fit into the silken fabric and a silver and gray fur wrap that buttoned around my shoulders.
I was looking forward to being the belle of the ball tonight, and that thought alone helped me forget about my disastrous lunch break.
After work, we all made our way back to the hotel suite. I told them all to simply stay outside, but they tried to interject. They were all trying to apologize for earlier and explain that they’d been simply making jokes, but I didn’t want to hear any of it. I simply walked into the hotel suite and shut the door behind me.
The eerie silence of the room helped to calm my mind and prepare me for my date. I was really excited to see them. The Wolf brothers were classy and refined, straight out of one of the romance comedies I remembered watching as a teenager. Something in their voices told me this wasn’t their first time courting the same woman, which meant their skills would be unmatched. I shivered at the thought of being in the hands of skilled men such as these.
I wondered what the other twins would think when I walked out of the hotel suite arm in arm with the Wolf brothers.
I pushed them all out of my thoughts as I stacked my hair on top of my head. I wanted my neck bare for them, just in case they got any ideas while we were dancing. I wanted to feel their noses pressed against my skin, sniffing in the perfume I was now dabbing along my pulse point. I wanted them weak at the knees, putty in my hands. I wanted them ready and waiting for me to make the first move that would allow them to unleash their greatest desires.
But nothing could have prepared me for the whirlwind evening I was in store for when I walked out and saw them standing in my hotel suite.