London Falling (12 page)

“We did. Had a great time, too, but it won’t work.”

She pulled her hair over her shoulder and threaded her fingers through the long blond strands. Her eyes met mine and I quickly looked away. “You had a great time but it won’t work? Why not?”

“Because,” I took a deep breath. “He just…I don’t know.” I shook my head.

“He what? Made you feel something?”

I nodded. “Yeah, too much.”

“Don’t do this to yourself, London. You are not an island. James would not want you to go through life alone.” Her tone was soft and pleading as she gripped my hand.

“I can’t,” I whispered.

“You can, and eventually you will. You don’t have to let your love for James go; but you can’t keep forcing people to stay at arm’s length. It’s unhealthy. It’s been four years now. Time to move on. Let someone in.” Aspen was not only big in business; she had a way of making sense, convincing others to follow her. It made her a great leader in all things.

I shook my head, clearing it, letting the idea of Collier and me float off into the sky. I rolled my eyes. “You’re saying that because you’re happy and in love. Everyone who’s found their soul mate feels that way, Pen. But I already had mine. You don’t get a second shot at it!”

“That is such bull.” Anger and concern seeped into her tone. “When it’s the right person, it will happen. You just wait. Please, just please promise me you’ll try. Let someone in…just a little?” Her gaze pierced mine, pleading and intense.

I wouldn’t back down, the decision had been made. She didn’t need to know that. “I’ll try.”

Images of Collier flashed across my mind. His chocolate brown eyes bored holes into mine as he hovered above me, filling me, completing me in ways I hadn’t wanted or expected.

***

A knock on my door startled me. I paused the rugby match I had DVRd on the telly and went to answer. I was not prepared to see my sister Emma at the door, tears in her eyes.

“Colly!” she screeched and flew into my arms.

I held her petite form as she sobbed. “What happened?”

“Evan. H-he…he…oh, God,” she cried, wetting my shirt. “He cheated on me.” She sniffed and I held her tight.

“That fucking puissant! I’ll kill the bastard.” I shuffled her into the room and settled her on the couch. She pulled the arm pillow into her lap and buried her face into it. I hustled into the kitchen, giving her a moment as I whipped up a spot of tea.

She hadn’t moved when I returned. I eased down onto the glass coffee table sitting directly across from her, our knees touching. “Tell me,” I urged.

Her brown eyes, same as my own, same as our mother’s, were filled with unshed tears. “Baby girl, please.” She closed her eyes and held my hands as she lost the battle and they spilled over the edge. The torrential proof of her pain and suffering was as effective on my big-brother kick-some-arse-nature as a scalding pot of hot water over an ice cube. The wanker was mine, though Nathaniel would want a shot and he’d have his turn too. There was plenty of that cocksucker to go around.

Emma straightened her shoulders as if preparing for battle and took a deep breath. “I went to his work. You know, in Dartford?”

I nodded.

“He’d been different lately. Not wanting to you know…“

I closed my eyes really not wanting to hear what that bastard did with my sister but allowed her to continue anyway.

“…share the marital bed as it were.”

I rubbed her hands back and forth, calming her. “Go on.” The tension coiled tight in my gut and anger seeped into my veins.

“So I showed up in a saucy dress. I’d been working out a lot, trying to get him to look at me the way he used to. And I brought him some supper and that’s when…“She choked back another round of sobs. “That’s when I walked in and saw him!” Tears streaked down her face so fast it was as if she’d turned on a faucet. “He had his face…his face, Collier! B-between his secretary’s legs! All spread out like a holiday dinner!” She screamed and threw herself back into the couch, hands over her eyes.

That’s it. Forget the arse-kicking. Evan was a dead man. D-E-A-D M-A-N. I moved to the couch and pulled my baby sister into my lap, hugging her close.

“Baby girl, it’s going to be okay. You’ll stay here in the States. You can stay with me or Nathaniel or we’ll get you a place of your own. Don’t go back to that wanker. He’s…you’re so much better than him. A man should worship you, not walk out on you. It’s unforgivable.”

She nodded. “But what about work? My life? Mum, Dad?”

“We’ll handle it all. You have a degree. We can put it to use. You can stay in the States if you’d like. Work at our firm. I really need an assistant. Remember those years you helped Nathaniel and I out with our proposals and getting the books together at our first office while you went to school? I’ll pay you twenty times that to work for us. We need someone we can trust. Someone with brains.” She pulled back and looked at me, her eyes a tad less teary.

“You’d do that for me?”

“Baby girl, of course. Besides, you’d be doing us a huge favor. You’re perfect. Would you like to work for Stone, Walker, & Associates?” She tilted her head and bit her lip, so I continued. “It will give you the time to figure out what you’re going to do about the daft prick who’s going to be a dead man when your brother and I get our mitts on him.”

The most beautiful sound came out of her mouth. She giggled. It reminded me of when we were kids. Nathaniel and I would chase our sisters around the house, tackle them and tickle them until they’d wet their knickers or begged forgiveness.

“I’d like that, Colly. Thank you. I’m so glad I came to you first.” She snuggled into my neck. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Shhh. None of that. You are pure and beautiful and sweet. One day you will have real love, the kind they write about in those chick flicks you adore. You know, the ones with that sod, Hugh Grant?”

She laughed.

“I never understood why they paired up a great beauty like Julia Roberts with the likes of him.” I pretend shivered. She continued to laugh, then smacked at my arm.

After holding her for some time, she stopped crying completely. “I’m so tired, Colly. I left the moment I caught him yesterday. I just went home, packed a bag and showed up at the airport. No one knows I’m gone. Will you tell Mum and…you know, everyone?”

I nodded and lifted her to her feet. “Come on now. I’ll get your case, settle you in the guest room. It has an attached bathroom so you’ll have privacy.”

“You’re the best, brother mine. Why hasn’t some great beauty scooped you up since you escaped the queen-beast?”

“Working on that, actually.”

She sat on the bed in the guest room. “Is that so? You met someone?”

Instead of lying to her, I went with the truth. “I did but we’ve only been on one date and she’s very skittish. So we’ll see.”

“I’m glad. After what that bitch did to you, it’s time you found someone who will make you happy.” The waterworks built in her eyes again. “Look at us. Two siblings both cheated on. What is wrong with the sanctity of marriage these days? Is nothing sacred?” She sounded indignant, and with great reason.

I sat down next to her and blew out a long breath, thinking back to when Claire left me. She’d been with the rich hotel entrepreneur for the better part of a year before I’d had a clue she was gallivanting around on me.

“Apparently not. But I will tell you this sister mine, every day it hurts a bit less, until you forget why you even married that person in the first place.”

She nodded. “I hope you’re right.”

“If they were the ones we were supposed to be with, they’d have never left us.”

“I love you. Thank you for…this,” She held an arm out to the room and bed. “And for, you know, everything. If Nate agrees about the job, I’ll take it. Stay awhile. I need time away from Europe. Find myself. Figure out what to do next.”

“Okay, baby girl. I love you, too. I’ll take care of everything.”

“You always do.”

I smiled at my sister. She had bags under her too young eyes. “Get some rest. We’ll talk more in the morning. Things will seem better then.”

Once I’d settled her, I grabbed the phone. I did the time conversion in my head and figured it was around eleven in the evening back home. Mum would still be up. She was a night-owl. The phone rang and then her worried tone came across quick. “Colly, what’s wrong?” She’d obviously read the caller ID.

“Nothing, Mum. Well, nothing that can’t be fixed.”

“What happened? Is it your brother? My Nate.”

“Mum, Mum, no. Stop, don’t worry. No one’s hurt. It’s Emma.”

“Emma, love? What do you mean?”

“She’s here in the States. My flat, actually.”

“Come again?” Her tone was confused.

“Mum, Evan cheated on her. She actually caught him in the act with the tart at his work. That young secretary.”

“Oh, goodness, no.” She tsk-tsked through the line. “How is she?”

“Hurting. Sad. You know the drill.”

“I knew Evan was no good. That boy has shifty eyes.” My mum was ever the good judge of character. “I wish I’d tried harder to get her to wait to marry him. At least she’s still young and doesn’t have children with the wanker.” Hearing my mum cuss stopped me dead in my tracks. Eleanor Walker did not cuss. It was so rare that I wasn’t sure I’d actually heard it.

“Well, I’ve got her here with me. I’ve asked her to come work for me. Be our assistant.”

“Assistant? Colly, that’s beneath her. She’s got a degree in business--“

I cut her off. “Now, now, Mum. This is just for the time being. If she likes the legal field like she did back when she was studying for school, we’ll come up with something more fitting. Maybe our head office administrator. I can’t offer her more than I know she’s capable of. Her mind is not in the right place now. Busy work will keep her…well, it will keep her busy and not worrying about the sod who went out on her.”

Mum sighed deeply. “You’re right dear. Always thinking. My Colly, so bright. Just like your father.” Another long sigh came through the receiver. “He’d be really proud of you.“ She sniffed and I could tell she was thinking back to when she was married to my dad. Even though they didn’t get along well enough to stay together, they always were civil when it came to me. Made sure I was loved and had a good home, wanted for nothing.

“Just, do me a favor. Tell Dad and Ella, okay? And if Dad wants to go say his piece to Evan, that would be brilliant!”

“I fear brilliant is the wrong word. This boy hurt our baby Emma. He’s in for a beating, I’m afraid. Lord on high, I hope your dad doesn’t go to jail over this. Thank you for taking care of our girl. You okay, poppet?” She used the first nickname I’d ever had, one she reserved only for me. I claimed to hate it, but secretly, having anything special with a woman who had three other children screaming for attention made me feel unique.

“I’m good, mum. I’ll call next week after this has had time to blow over a bit. I’m going to ring off.”

“Okay. And Colly?” I pressed my ear tight to the phone.

“I love you, my darling boy.”

“I love you, Mum.”

It had been a long day and an even longer week.

Last weekend I was here shagging the hell out of the beautiful Ms. Kelley. God, I’d give anything to go back to that morning and take back what I’d said to her. I’d love to hear her voice right about now.

Instead, I poured myself a pint and hit the telly once more, unpausing the rugby game. Watching men beat the living shite out of each other while chasing a neon colored ball would help my newly acquired aggression. I wasn’t prepared to call Nathaniel tonight. I’d tell him what occurred when he was back from the case in California.

At least there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Saturday evening I was going to see my Beauty again. Someway, somehow I’d convince her to give me another chance. Everyone deserved a second chance.

Chapter - 8

“Still sulking, I see.” Tripp tugged on my pony tail and sat in the chaise behind me. I twirled around in my office chair, knees tight to my chest, his huge sweatshirt covered me and my legs like a sleeping bag.

“I’m not sulking. I’m thinking.” I tipped my chin up to prove I was perfectly centered.

His eyes assessed me. The moment he saw through my bravado his lips tipped up at one corner. “Yeah, thinking about the sexy Mr. Bond and how you blew it last weekend?” he leaned back and unfolded his long frame onto the tiny chaise. “Why don’t you just call him?” he added for what seemed like the millionth time.

“You know why.” I threw ice cold daggers his way.

This was not the first time in the past week we’d had this particular conversation. My Englishman had been on the regular loop of conversation with my best friend. I could just stay at Dylan’s and avoid Tripp but I didn’t want to do that either.

The client, though sweet, wanted to jump me. Unfortunately, I’d made it perfectly clear in the first couple weeks that I was game for it. Now things were different. I’d changed. Anxiety now filled my head-space when I was at his apartment, giving me the desire to run off to my hideout. Not so lucky for me, I had my very own self-proclaimed six-foot three-inch therapist in residence.

“Bridge, this conversation is tiring.” He yawned for emphasis.

“Then stop bringing it up.”

“I would if you’d stop acting like the dog died!”

“We don’t even have a dog!”

“Exactly. Stop sulking and being down. You chose to ignore him all week. It’s up to you to change that.”

“I can’t!” I groaned, frustrated with the added dose of lying to myself.

“Give me one good reason why and I’ll never ask again.”

Tears swelled and blurred my vision. “You promised, Tripp,” I whispered. “You said we’d never get hurt again. We’d be there for each other…“ The few tears I’d tried to hold back slipped down my cheeks.

“Jesus, Bridge. What the fuck?” He stood and wrapped me around him as he sat back on the chaise. “I had no idea this was so serious. Forget everything I said.” He took a breath and petted my hair. “I just want you to live a little. There’s nothing wrong with starting a relationship with a man other than me, you know?” His strong arms held me as I thought about his words. “We’ll always be there for one another and I will kill any man who harms you, but dating someone isn’t unusual. Having feelings for the opposite sex is okay. It really is.” The way he worded it made me feel he was convincing himself as much as me.