Chapter 1: Forever With The CEO: Chapter 1

“I’m heading out,” I said to the receptionist as I passed the front desk of my fitness club.

“Hey, brother,” Leo greeted me. He was just coming in. “You’re leaving already? Short day, huh?”

“Yes. I’m going to visit Allison and the kids.”

“Right. Okay.”

All of my brothers trained at my flagship gym, and I usually liked to hang around with them after the training to catch up. But I’d promised those kids I’d see them today, and I didn’t want to disappoint them. Ever since my best friend, Jim, and his wife, Nora, passed away, I tried to see the little ones as often as possible.

“How’s Allison doing?” Leo asked. Allison was Nora’s sister. She immediately took the kids in, moving them into her home to live with her.

“Coping.”

“Still as hot as I remember her?”

I frowned at my brother. “You’re engaged.”

“What’s one thing got to do with the other? I wasn’t asking for myself, obviously.”

I groaned, shaking my head. “Whatever, bro. I said I’d drop by with dinner, and I don’t want to keep them waiting. Have a good workout.”

With that, I left. Leo knew me too well. If I lingered, he’d figure something out.

Obviously, I’d noticed Allison was hot, but I’d never had much to do with her over the years. I saw her maybe three times total before the tragedy. These days, I saw her at least once—sometimes twice—a week.

The first time I met her was at Jim and Nora’s wedding. She’d looked stunning, so of course she caught my eye. But I’d always been a player, and she was Jim’s sister-in-law. Therefore, she was off-limits. These days, even more so.

I helped out whenever I could and tried to keep the ogling to a minimum. I focused on the kids as much as possible when I visited. Damn, they’d been through a lot.

Allison owned a house in South Boston. It was supposed to be a starter home—“plenty of space for one person,” as she put it. But with two small kids, it became a little crowded. Annie and Jack were four-year-old twins. They’d been everything to Jim and Nora. The whole situation was just gut-wrenching.

I dropped by the pizzeria two blocks from Allison’s house and ordered everyone’s favorites. Annie liked cheese, and Jack loved a lot of bacon on his pizza. Allison favored the extra mushrooms.

A half hour later, I pulled up in front of the house. It was a two-story building plus an attic and a basement. The lower part was painted white, the upper part exposed red brick. There were three wide windows on each floor and two in the attic.

As I walked up the stairs to the front door, I heard Annie’s and Jack’s voices, which meant they were in the backyard. I went back down the steps and around the house, heading straight to the back.

“I come with pizza!” I announced.

The twins yelled with joy and immediately came to me, hugging my knees.

“Cheese?” Annie asked.

“Of course, and extra bacon for Jack.”

“You really are their favorite person,” Allison said. Her voice was soft and melodic. She was always calm and composed, which totally amazed me. With all that she was juggling now, Allison took things in stride. No wonder the kids felt so at ease around her.

As usual, I took in a deep breath before looking at her. Yeah, that was right. I’d been coming to this house with dinner twice a week and still had to brace myself to look at this woman because she was that damn hot. She had long, thick brown hair. Usually, she wore it loose down her back, and it reached all the way to her ass. I’d fantasized more than once about fisting her hair and tugging her head back just so. Tonight, she’d pulled it up, so it only hit her shoulders. Her green eyes were large and enchanting. You could easily tell that Annie and Allison were related, as they looked so much alike.

“You know, they’re starting to think that Wednesday is pizza day,” she said, taking the boxes from me.

“Isn’t it?” I asked.

She laughed, throwing her head back.

“Or if inviting myself over every Wednesday’s too much, you can just tell me and I’ll fuck off.”

Allison winced and looked at the kids, but then she waved her hand. “They hear me swear plenty, so I don’t think there was any harm done. They’re still too young to really know what we’re saying.”

We moved toward the wooden table and chairs she had out here and set everything down on it. As she got things ready, the twins ran around the yard with a balloon they were using as ball.

“Hey, it’s dinnertime!” she called to them, but they didn’t respond right away. “I think they want to finish their game first. They’re going to be late for bedtime again.” She sighed, her shoulders drooping. “My sister wouldn’t be happy.”

“Allison,” I said, stepping closer to her. It was truly impossible not to be smitten with how gorgeous she was. She had freckles on her nose, and her fragrance drew me in. But that’s when I noticed her beautiful sage-colored eyes were a bit red. She’d obviously been crying, and I hated that they all were going through this. Losing a sibling would be unbelievably hard. If something happened to one of my brothers, it would cut me deep.

“You’re doing a great job,” I told her.

“Let’s see how long I get to do it,” she whispered.

“What are you talking about?” I fixated on her freckles again and then cast my gaze away. She even had freckles on her cleavage.

Nick, whatever you do, don’t hit on her. I’d been repeating this mantra ever since the first time I came here—which was two days after the funeral.

“Bob and Sophie’s lawyer contacted me.”

They were Jim’s parents.

“Why?” I questioned, maybe a bit too harshly.

I’d met Jim when we were in college, and we hit it off right away. I’d only met his parents a few times, and they weren’t the warmest people I’d ever encountered. In fact, they were more academic and snobbish and totally different from the upbringing I had with my mom. Plus, they’d never approved of Nora, and they hadn’t been too happy about him marrying her.

“They want custody of Annie and Jack!” Allison’s voice shook as she told me.

“What the fuck?” I said a bit too loudly, and the twins looked up. “Shit,” I whispered.

Allison said nothing.

“Have they mentioned anything like this before?”

“No. I’m not even sure why they’re bringing it up now. I never got the sense that they wanted to spend too much time with the kids,” she whispered and then grabbed her hair. She pulled at something, and it fell to her waist. She needed to play with her hair, I realized as she took a strand and wrapped it along her fingers. The impulse to reach out was even stronger.

“Did they see them that much? I mean, even before the accident?” I asked.

“No, not really. That’s the thing. Mostly just on Christmas and Jim’s birthday. That’s the only time they came to Boston. And even then, they didn’t really spend time with the kids, so this is very out of the blue.” She shook her head. “Nora rarely spoke with them, and neither did Jim, so I’m guessing phone calls with their grandkids were minimal too. I don’t know. I’m still trying to process this.”

She pulled at the thin straps of her dress, rearranging them, and I caught a glimpse of her breasts. I nearly groaned.

“They don’t have a case.” I sounded far more confident than I was. I was extremely good at business—I’d grown a failing company into the most successful chain of gyms in the country—but I was no lawyer.

“I don’t know. I’ve asked a colleague at work. He doesn’t specialize in family law, but he said it all depends. It’s circumstantial.”

“What the hell is circumstantial? Your sister passed away, and she and Jim specifically put it in their will that they want the kids to be with you. And you didn’t even hesitate in taking them to live with you.”

She was a fucking amazing human being. Not many people would do that. Some people, like my own father, even had an issue taking responsibility for their own damn kids.

“You have a fantastic job,” I continued. “You own this house. How could you possibly not be fit to have custody?”

In addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, Allison was also a brainiac. She was a CFO of a huge fashion label.

“Yes, I do. But as the lawyer pointed out, I have a great income for myself, not necessarily for myself and two kids.”

“That’s bollocks,” I said.

She laughed. “That’s actually a British swear word.”

“I know. I was hoping they don’t know what that means.” I nodded toward the youngsters.

“You’re right, they don’t.” But then her smile fell again. “So… back to the lawyer. He insisted that I don’t discard their demand as baseless. I wonder if the fact that I moved the twins out of their parents’ house can count against me.”

“What’s going on with the house?”

“The mortgage is simply too large, so I rented it out as fast as possible. Jim and Nora had a good life insurance policy, but they wanted it to be used for the kids’ college, not the mortgage. I’m executor of the estate until the twins come of age, and then the house belongs to them. Renting it out takes care of the mortgage.”

Jim and Nora’s house was a sprawling mansion in Beacon Hill. Jim had made a lot of money as an investment banker, but even he complained once or twice that the mortgage was eating up most of their money.

“Oh, Nick, I can’t lose them.” Her face crumpled, tears threatening to spill over.

Besides the funeral, this was the first time I’d seen her inconsolable.

“You won’t. Now come on, let’s eat. Then we can put our heads together and think some more about this.”

She nodded, wiping her eyes. “Annie, Jack, come on,” she called after a moment. “The pizza’s getting cold.”

“Yes, Auntie Allison,” Annie said. She spoke a bit more than Jack, who understood conversations but would only reply with yes, no, or very short sentences after Jim and Nora passed away.

While they were eating, I asked how their daycare was going. Annie dutifully filled me in on her favorite toys. Mr. Beagle was still up there, holding the first spot.

Allison was looking at them like they were her whole world. Who in their right mind would take these kids away from her, and why?

After we finished the pizza, Jack started to wail. He was obviously tired. Then Annie followed suit.

Allison sighed. “Nick, I think it’s best if you go. Putting them down for the night will take longer than usual.”

“I can help,” I said even though I didn’t know jack shit about the kids’ bedtime routines. I had a nephew, Ben. He was my half brother Spencer’s kid. We spent a lot of time together, but I’d never been with him in the evening.

She laughed. “Trust me, you don’t want to do that.”

“Listen, I know a family lawyer. He’s a friend of mine. I’ll talk to him.”

Her eyes brightened. “That would be amazing. I started to look for one, but work is madness. I have zero time. My day is divided between drop-off at daycare, my job, picking them up from daycare, and then bringing them back home.”

“I have no fucking clue how you do it,” I said. Damn it, I should have asked her in more detail if she needed help with day-to-day things. “What can I do to help?”

“Dropping by with dinner twice a week is amazing,” she said.

Annie’s wails became even louder, so Allison picked her up on one hip. Then she took Jack by the hand as they went up the steps.

I was rooted to my spot, watching her.

Would there ever be a day when I wouldn’t look at Allison Holmes and immediately think inappropriate things?

I didn’t think so.