Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“Come on in,” Whitt said with a sigh.
Mom stepped forward, hugging all the boys and welcoming them inside. Then, with a pointed look, she took her soon-to-be daughter-in-law to another room. I knew they’d be there for backup if I needed them, but the guilty looks on my brothers’ faces told me I wasn’t going to need it.
“Have you all calmed down?” I asked.
“Anyone else get in trouble with their significant other last night?” Whitt grumbled, dropping into a chair across from his twin.
West, Jordan, and Julian all slowly raised their hands. I couldn’t help it; I laughed.
“Perhaps Nora, Annie, and Jennifer also reminded you that you all grossly overreacted, as Eve did to Whitt.”
“We were just looking out for you,” Julian said.
“Looking out for me by punching Chase in the face?”
Julian threw a thumb at Jordan. “He did that.”
Jordan arched an eyebrow. “Throw me under the bus, why don’t you?”
“I threw a punch, too,” West said with a shrug. “And honestly, he had it coming.”
The other guys leaned forward in agreement.
I held up a hand. “I actually didn’t call you here to discuss Chase. So, I don’t want this to devolve into your opinions on our relationship. We’re in a relationship. I’ve been into him since your wedding,” I said, pointing at Jordan.
Jordan’s jaw clenched. “That was three years ago.”
“Well aware,” I said with a shrug. “Why do you think I didn’t tell you?”
“Because you were a teenager!” Whitt snapped.
“Chase did the right thing by not pursuing me then because he knew I was too young.”
“You’re still too young,” Jordan muttered under his breath.
“Anyway, that doesn’t matter. I’m old enough to see that he made the right call and to know that I want to be with him. I didn’t drop Harvard because of him. I did it because I wanted to take the job at Wright Construction. We already talked about that. That was my dream, but it isn’t any longer. I really want to do this, and I have no ulterior motive.” They looked skeptical, so I barreled forward anyway. “The real problem is Owen.”
Jordan tensed. He’d been the one to answer the phone when he called. He’d been the one to give in. He had to feel like a dupe.
“He played us,” Jordan inferred.
“Yep. All of us. Me included.” I sighed. “Because I didn’t just agree to go to Harvard Law if I got in. I did it in exchange for his silence about Chase.”
Julian blinked hard at me. “What?”
“Are you nuts?” West asked.
Whitt ground his teeth together. “Harley.”
But it was Jordan who was silent the longest before exhaling. “Ah, that makes more sense.”
“Does it?”
“He would use it as leverage to get back with you. I couldn’t figure it out before. Why you’d let him back in when you were the one who hated him the most.”
“I didn’t want to.”
“You feared our reaction enough that you’d work with him before telling us,” Jordan inferred.
I bit my lip and nodded. “I mean, that’s the gist of it.”
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’m sorry we made you feel that way. That you had to deal with him without us. And that we proved you right.”
My heart clenched at those words. The apology that I deserved. Even if it was only in my father’s duplicity that I had gotten it. Jordan might still hate that we were together, but there was someone we all hated more—Owen.
“I don’t want this to come between us. I don’t want this to make Owen win. I don’t want him to win in anything. He’s hurt us all too much, and he did this, knowing it would drive a wedge between us. He used this to get back into your good graces, and frankly, he doesn’t deserve it. He never has. And I regret not just telling you so that I wouldn’t have entered into that stupid agreement.”
“Blocking him was the best decision I’ve made,” Whitt said.
West pulled out his phone. “I’ll do it, too.”
Julian wavered and then took out his phone. “If he’d do it to Harley, he’d do it to any of us.”
Jordan came to his feet and pulled me into a hug. “I don’t like this. I hate Chase Sinclair. But I love you, okay?”
I laughed. “Okay.”
Whitt sighed. “His family is scum. But I won’t patronize you and act like you haven’t thought about it.”
“I have.”
West ruffled my hair. “It’s weird to think of you with anyone.”
“It’s almost like you’ve all run off any possible guys.”
Julian laughed. “Then, we’re doing our job.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Look,” Jordan said, “I’ll be cool about this for now. But if he hurts you, I’ll kill him.”
My other brothers nodded in agreement. And I just laughed.
“I can live with that.”
4
CHASE
“Do I want to know why you have a black eye?” Kai asked when I showed up at my house.