Chapter 5
Lexi
My heart is beating so fast I’m slightly woozy as I follow Gray out of the locker room. I mean, the first time we met and I flat-out lied to her, and worse yet, she knew it. I don’t even dare to look over at Roman as we leave, afraid to take my attention off my half sister lest she give me even the slightest hint as to what I can do to make her like me. Given her terse greeting, which wasn’t more than a hard handshake where I swear she was trying to crush my bones, coupled with the obvious disgruntlement on her face, I figure I’ve got a major uphill battle on my hands.
This isn’t unexpected. Brian, I mean Dad—well, shit…I don’t know what to call him, as we didn’t discuss it—told me that Gray was having a hard time with the news. He was brutally honest with me as well that she was skeptical of the timing of my arrival into their lives, and that it might take time for her to come to terms with what’s going on.
That’s fine.
I can understand and deal with that.
But for now, I need to study Gray very carefully and do my utmost best to reassure her that I want nothing more than to build some type of relationship with her and Brian. It might never be a close relationship, but they are my blood—I just know it—and I cannot pretend that they don’t exist to me.
Gray walks in long, brisk strides, not in the slightest slowed down by her pregnancy. Brian told me she was five months pregnant and expecting in May. She’s probably walking so fast to discourage conversation, but that’s okay by me. I’m uncomfortable about her finding me in a sort of compromising position with Roman Sýkora, which is so not the first impression I wanted to make with her.
And oh man…Roman Sýkora. He’s even more gorgeous up close, and infinitely more attractive the more I talked to him. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a bit rattled by just how good- looking he is. He wears his dark hair in a short buzz cut, and he can get away with this because his face is about near perfect. His eyes are hazel, framed by thick lashes, and let’s not even get into how amazing his lips are. They alone would inspire fantasies. But it’s more than his looks. He’s witty, a total bad boy, which is right up my alley, and persistently domineering. I can’t help it…I love an alpha man. Always have.
And that slight accent? Oh my God…so damn sexy.
But now is not the time to fantasize about him. I have a sister to win over.
Gray leads me to the elevators and we ride in almost virtual silence. I try to break the awkwardness of us standing beside each other in close confines and compliment her shoes. I don’t know what they are and I bet they are way out of my price range, but they are very pretty and I tell her so.
She merely says, “Thank you,” and thankfully, no more than ten seconds later, the elevator doors open to the executive offices. Gray steps out first, I follow, and she comes to an immediate halt as Brian is there waiting for us.
“You two ready to go?” he asks as he smiles first at Gray, then to me. I see him holding my purse in his hands, as I’d left it in his office a bit ago when he’d offered to give me a tour of the arena.
I return the smile, but it slides when Gray says, “Slight change of plans, Dad. I’ve had to fit in an important appointment that’s due to start in half an hour, so I won’t be able to go to lunch today. I thought perhaps Lexi and I could just hang out in my office and get to know each other. Some alone girl time.”
My eyes stay keenly on Brian and there’s no hiding the disappointment on his face. I’m disappointed as well, not to mention apprehensive, as Gray’s just made it clear to her father that she doesn’t intend to spend time with a casual lunch and isn’t willing to give more than half an hour to get to know the sister she never knew she had. The fact that Brian is being pointedly excluded leaves me feeling bare and vulnerable. While we don’t have the DNA results back yet, Brian’s made it perfectly clear to me over the past two days through phone calls and one very lovely dinner together that he believes me to be his daughter.
I watch as Brian immediately gives an acquiescent nod to Gray and leans forward to kiss her on her cheek. “Okay, looks like this old man is on his own for lunch today.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Gray says as she pushes past him to head to her office, not offering me a backward glance. It’s rude and Gray knows it, and as I watch Brian’s eyes narrow after his daughter, I see that he knows it too.
Still, I’m surprised when he says to Gray’s retreating form, “Makes me happy to see you two together.”
My body actually jerks at his proclamation, as we’d sort of decided we would not make an announcement to anyone until the DNA results were in, and here Brian Brannon is announcing it to the world. Well, really just to the receptionist, who sits just ten feet away and is now trying to look extremely busy as she peers at her computer screen with laserlike focus. But it’s a bold statement by a man who is not happy with his oldest daughter’s behavior right now. While he didn’t come out and call me his daughter, there’s enough inference there that should have the receptionist wondering what the hell this is all about.
Gray doesn’t even falter in her step, nor does she look back, but merely says, “Well, come on, Lexi. We don’t have much time and we have a ton to talk about.”
Brian hands me my purse, and with his other hand reaches out and squeezes me on the shoulder, and murmurs, “Good luck.”
I don’t say anything, but I reach my left hand across my chest, lay it on top of his hand, and give him a return squeeze.
“I’ll check in with you later,” Brian tells me, and his voice sounds very dadlike. Well, what I would imagine a dad voice would sound like. I wouldn’t know since I never had a father figure in my life. My mother just never found the one, although she had dated some very nice men throughout the years. Regardless, this is very new to me.
“Okay,” I murmur as I release his hand and pull away from him, following Gray to her office like I’m on a death march.
My sister’s office sits at the end of the hall that extends from the lobby. It’s not posh and opulent the way Brian’s is, but rather cluttered with books, binders, and loose papers all over the place. It’s large and expansive, but it seems like every piece of furniture holds stacks of stuff, giving it a slightly cramped feeling. About the only nod to the fact that Gray is something other than a high-powered general manager of a professional hockey team is that the credenza and hutch behind her desk has framed photos of her family. A brief glance and I see a photo of her husband, retired goalie Ryker Evans, as he hoists the Stanley Cup above his head. There’s another photo of just her and Ryker together, him standing behind her with his arms wrapped tightly around his wife, and both of them beaming at the camera. Finally, I see a larger picture of Gray and two little girls, and I have to assume they’re Ruby and Violet, Ryker’s daughters from a prior marriage. Brian filled me in on his newly acquired granddaughters and talked about them as if they were meant to be his all along.
“You can just clear one of those chairs off,” Gray says briskly as she sits behind her desk, which I take to mean she sees this as a business meeting first and foremost.
Just before I turn to the nearest chair, I see a small black-and-white picture, maybe four by four inches, unframed and propped up against a row of binders on the hutch. I can’t help the slight smile that comes to my face as I realize it’s an ultrasound picture, presumably of Gray’s baby she’s carrying.
I nod toward the picture, which I figure is an early one, since it looks like nothing more than a blob. “When was the ultrasound done?”
For the first time, Gray’s face softens while in my presence and she turns to look back at the picture. “Just a few days ago.”
“And how far along are you now?” I ask, although I know the answer to this based on my conversations with Brian. He’s only far too happy to talk about Gray and her first child.
“Twenty weeks,” she says as she turns back to me, and the softness is gone. So is the hardness, but her gaze is determined as she nods toward the chair again and takes hers behind the desk.
I turn quickly as I let my purse slide from my shoulder to the ground. Pulling a stack of four books off a chair, I bend to set them on the floor before I sit down. Just as my butt hits the cushion, I try to keep the personal conversation alive as I meet her gaze again. “Do you know what you’re having?”
I also know the answer to this, but I’m struggling to make a connection.
“We’re going to keep it a surprise,” Gray says matter-of-factly, and in a way that lets me know she’s done talking about her pregnancy.
Still, I try one more time. “Guess you’ve got a lot of gender-neutral baby clothes at this point, huh?”
“Mmmmm,” is how she acknowledges that, and then she makes it absolutely clear that the warm and fuzzy conversation is over when she says, “I’m curious as to why you lied about Roman Sýkora helping you with a contact.”
I wince slightly, and that’s just fucking great. I’m really starting this relationship off with a bang. “I’m sorry. I knew he was late to practice and I just sort of blurted it out before I thought. He was just being nice and making conversation. That’s all.”
Gray studies me a moment, and I can see when she decides to let that go, because her gaze becomes more focused.
More intense.
“I’m not ready to accept who you say you are,” she says briskly. Almost formally.
“I understand” is all I can say to that. Because I totally understand where she’s coming from.
“Assuming that the paternity test that you and my dad have taken,” she says with pointed emphasis on the word my, “what are your intentions?”
“Intentions?” I ask, confused.
“What do you want from us?” Gray says as she crosses her forearms and leans them on her desk. She doesn’t sound skeptical but merely resigned, as if she’s trying to head off an extortion attempt or something.
“I don’t want anything,” I tell her honestly. “Well, except to get to know you and Brian.”
She arches an eyebrow at me. “You don’t want anything? Not a job here with the organization? Or with one of the other Brannon companies? You don’t want a part of your legacy if you are who you say you are?”
I really wanted to play nice with Gray, but I need to nip her slanderous thoughts toward me in the bud. “Why don’t you just say what you really are trying to say, Gray? You want to know if I want money, right?”
“Well, do you?” she asks.
I stand up from my chair, grabbing my purse as I do so and sliding the strap over my shoulder. “The only thing I want is to get to know you and our father. If that’s not something you’re interested in, I completely understand. But I’m not going to sit around and listen to you interrogate me, because let’s be honest…if I had nefarious motives, I’d never admit them to you.”
Gray’s eyebrows rise in surprise, but she doesn’t say a word.
So I give her a smile and say, “It was really nice meeting you, Gray.”
I move past the chair I had been sitting in and start to walk toward the door, but before I take three steps, Gray huffs out an exasperated, “Wait a minute, Lexi.”
Turning slowly, I find her watching me with a guarded expression, but her face has softened. I don’t say a word, because I’ve said all I need to.
Gray extends a hand back to the chair and her voice is almost pleading when she says, “Please don’t go.”
I immediately walk back to the chair, drop my purse once again, and sit down. “I swear, Gray, I only want to get to know my new family.”
She studies me critically for a moment, and then her shoulders drop in such a way that I hadn’t realized how stiff they’d been prior. Her gaze falls down to her hands, now clasped on the desk, and she says softly, “I’m sorry. I’m not dealing with this very well.”
“I really do understand that,” I reassure her. “I can’t imagine how shocking this has all been. And you don’t know me. Hell, you really don’t even know for sure I am who I say I am. I mean, none of us will know for sure until the test comes back.”
“My father is convinced,” she says as she looks up at me. “He’s absolutely convinced that you’re his daughter.”
“I sort of am too,” I tell her bluntly. “My mom wasn’t with anyone else during that time. Only your dad.”
“If she was telling you the truth,” Gray murmurs, not in a rude way, but to merely let me know that it is a possibility.
And I know that means she still has some doubt.
“I choose to believe my mother,” I tell her simply. “If the test proves wrong, then so be it.”
Gray nods, then pushes from the desk to lean back in her chair. She crosses one leg over the other, her baby bump not encumbering her elegant grace in the slightest. With her elbows resting on the arms of the chair and her hands clasped over her belly, she tells me with gentle candor, “I never wanted a sister. Or a brother for that matter. Growing up, that is. It was just me and Dad, and I never felt I was missing out on anything, you know?”
I nod, because I do know. I was an only child too and never felt cheated by that.
Gray then gives me her first smile, and it’s filled with apology. “I’m not prepared to share my father. Never thought I’d have to. He never fell in love again or remarried. It was just the two of us for as long as I can remember. And now that you’re here, and I see how happy he is to know you, well…I’m just downright jealous of you, Lexi.”
My body goes tight and I blink at her in surprise. “But you can’t—”
“I can be jealous,” she assures me. “I’m a woman, I’m pregnant and I’m hormonal. There are two men in my life I love unconditionally, and my father I’ve loved the longest. I’ve always been secure in my life knowing I had his undivided attention and one hundred percent of his love. You’re going to have to bear with me, Lexi…because it’s a hard pill for me to swallow that I have to give that up.”
“Gray,” I say softly, leaning forward in my chair. “I’m not here to steal him from you.”
“I’d like to believe that,” she says in an almost defeated voice. “I really do. But I don’t know you. I don’t know if that’s true.”
“How do I make you see that?” I ask her, my heart actually squeezing in pain for her pain at this moment.
I get another smile from Gray, this one a little bigger. She holds it a little longer. “I guess I’m just going to have to get to know you, right?”
And my lips break apart and my teeth flash at her in a huge smile of relief. “I would love that. Really, really love that.”
“Good,” she says, and this time—actually for the first time since I’ve met Gray—she sounds relaxed and genuine. “Then why don’t we set up a time for you to come and have dinner at my house.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but my smile gets bigger as my heart contracts with relief, and then swells with happiness. “That would be awesome. Truly awesome.”