Chapter 3: Forever With The CEO: Chapter 3

On Saturday, I went to my grandparents’ house for brunch. Even though several of us had huge houses where we could host it, my grandparents always preferred we come to their place.

Jeannie and Abe Whitley were both in their nineties but still sharp and agile. Eons ago, my grandmother insisted on preparing elaborate dinners whenever we came over, but since the family had grown over the past few years, we convinced them that brunch was the better option. Everyone could bring something. My contribution today was bacon. I was a lot like my brother Jake that way; we both loved bacon.

I had three pans on the stove because frying bacon for eighteen people was a damn lot. Yep, that was right—eighteen. I had two brothers and five half brothers, and everyone was engaged or married. I was the odd man out. And then came my nephew, Ben, who loved bacon as much as Jake and me. So yeah, I needed all the pans Gran had.

“Do you need any help?” Gran asked, popping into the kitchen. Most of the family had arrived already and were in the living room talking up a storm.

“Do you have any more pans, Gran? This might take a while.”

She laughed. “No. Goodness, what a great problem to have, huh? I love having a full house.”

I knew what she meant. Things in the Whitley family hadn’t always been like this. Just a few years ago, they’d been tense as hell. The reason I had brothers and half brothers was because our dad led a double life. He had a family here in Boston and us back in Maine. He was married to my half brothers’ mother, and our own mom had been his side piece. Neither knew about the other until Jake discovered that something was amiss. Then everything came tumbling down like a house of cards.

My grandparents had been left to pick up the pieces after Dad got out of Dodge. The coward. He left both families to crumble. The company, Whitley Industries, had been in shambles, too, due to his mismanagement. But nowadays, it was thriving, with each of us was running a branch.

Fortunately, the bacon didn’t take as long as I thought it would, and chatting with Gran while we waited for it to cook was always enjoyable. I didn’t get to have her all to myself all that often, so this was a treat.

“All right, bacon’s done!” I put everything on a platter and then grabbed it before Gran could. She was fit, but still, the woman had to slow down.

As we went to the living room, I realized the rest of the group had arrived too.

“My favorite part of brunch: bacon,” Jake said, kissing his daughter’s head. She was at that odd age when she wasn’t a baby anymore but also not a toddler. She loved being carried around by her father.

“I made enough for everyone,” I assured him.

Colton immediately reached out and grabbed one of the crispiest bits. Our relationship with him had been especially strained. Some days it still seemed like a miracle that we could all gather like this.

Colton, Jake, Spencer, Cade, and Gabe were our half brothers. Leo and Maddox were my actual brothers, although I’d always considered Gabe to be my brother too. The two of us had been the youngest of the group when our family life imploded. When we’d met, he and I instantly became friends. Then again, when you’re a kid, you don’t think too much—you just act.

“We have a feast again,” Grandad said. “It’s good to see you all.”

“As usual, it’s best to take turns to grab food,” Gran reminded us.

“Uncle Nick, bacon,” Ben said, running up to me. He looked more like Spencer every day.

My brother was a very decent man. Ben’s mother had practically dumped Ben on his doorstep. Spencer had stepped up to the plate and done a great job raising him.

“Sure! And I’ll tell you a secret. I kept a few bits for us in the kitchen. They’re the crispy ones.”

Colton looked like I’d just committed a betrayal of the highest order.

“Dude,” he said.

“What?”

“You do this every time—snatch the best part.”

Gabe and Spencer laughed. “You really do. You’re a bit of an ass because of that,” Gabe said.

“I’ll get them from the kitchen,” I told Ben.

“No, I get. I big.”

I mean, he wasn’t that big. He was only three and a half.

“I’ll go with you,” Penny said.

Spencer was the luckiest man, I swear to God. Penny had been his temporary neighbor when he met her, and things worked out seamlessly. Then again, they did so for all my brothers. The women they were with were just perfect for them and the family.

“You look wistful,” Gran said. I realized she was watching me intently.

I cleared my throat. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Quick, someone change the subject,” Maddox said.

Thankfully, I could always count on him to have my back, because I knew where this was going.

“Oh, nonsense. Why are you so defensive, you boys?”

“Were you or were you not looking for signs that Nick is ready for you to matchmake him?” Leo asked.

Gran just shook her head. “He hasn’t been ready for years now. But I have a theory about that.”

“And what is it?” I asked. I was genuinely curious.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned after all my experience with your brothers, it’s that no one is truly ready. You just get ready when you meet the right person.”

“There is some merit to that theory,” Colton said, frowning.

“So, I’ve learned that everything happens when it’s supposed to. There’s no reason to start pushing and setting you up with granddaughters of my friends,” Gran concluded.

Leo whistled. “Dude, that’s one of the finer advantages of being the last one to find someone. You don’t have to go through any matchmaking attempts.”

I opened my mouth to say, “Thank fuck,” but then Gran added, “Make no mistake. I will try as soon as I get a whiff that he’s ready.”

Wait, what just happened?

My brothers all started to laugh.

Gran winked, then went to the kitchen. She, Penny, and Ben returned almost immediately with the crispy bits I’d set aside especially for him. I was still in a bit of a daze as I went to the table and loaded some food on my plate.

My grandparents came up to me. “Son, how is that girl coping with Jim’s kids?” Granddad asked.

He’d met Jim a few times when we went together to watch baseball games.

“She’s got a lot on her plate.”

“I’ll say. She’s doing so well after all that sorrow,” Gran said, affection in her voice. “She must be a wonderful girl.”

“Yeah, she is. But she’s got some issues with Jim’s parents. They’ve recently hinted that they want custody.”

“What the hell?” Leo asked, putting some boiled eggs on his plate. I hadn’t realized he was within earshot.

Gabe and Maddox were right next to him. They’d met Jim’s parents a few times. No love lost there either.

“My reaction exactly,” I told him. “So I’ve spoken to Hugo.”

“That’s good. He’s excellent at family law,” Maddox said.

We’d gone to college with him, but he went on to law school. He was one of the best in his field.

“You’ve been stopping by regularly, haven’t you?” Gabe asked.

I glanced at Maddox, who held up his hands in self-defense. Even though I considered all seven to be my brothers, there was, of course, no denying that I was closest to Maddox and Leo. They’d been the only ones I’d told about my comings and goings to Allison’s house. Out of the two of them, Maddox was most likely to blab to Gabe. The look of guilt on his face confirmed as much.

“I try. Twice a week. We have dinner, and I play with the kids. I’m not sure how much help I’m being, though.”

“I’m sure Allison appreciates it,” Gran said. She was looking at me intently with an odd expression that I couldn’t decipher. Maybe it was best if I didn’t.

“What’s everyone doing today?” I asked, deciding to change the topic because I felt like I was on thin ice.

I didn’t know why. It was just an instinct, and I’d learned never to ignore it.

Everyone spoke at the same time. It was hard to keep track, but it didn’t matter. I liked hearing snippets of what everyone was doing. We all got together maybe once a month, though I saw my brothers a bit more often. Each of us was handling a different branch of Whitley Industries. My grandfather had set it up in his youth and had successfully added branches over the years. Then my father took over and started adding even more. The problem was, he didn’t do so profitably, so when he literally left the country, most of them were in danger of bankruptcy.

I’d taken over the fitness branch, which hadn’t been developed at all. It had been mostly an afterthought, but I knew it had potential. Maddox was running a company designing office plans. Leo was the head of Whitley Real Estate. Colton, the oldest, was running the biotech branch. Spencer took over the publishing arm. His mother had been operating that one; she passed away from cancer shortly after finding out about the double life her husband led. Cade ran the coffee business, and Gabe had started with a craft distillery and went on to add a bar. Now he’d opened a hotel with Maddox. We were all successfully growing our grandparents’ legacy, and I knew they were proud of us.

“What are you doing today?” Natalie, Jake’s wife, asked me.

“I’m taking Allison out.”

The chatter died instantly.

“What do you mean, ‘out’?” Leo inquired.

“She hasn’t had any time on her own since everything happened, so I offered to go out with her.”

“Very interesting,” Gran said.

She glanced at Leo, who had a Cheshire cat grin on his face. Gran’s eyes simply lit up.

Fuck. She was going to jump to conclusions fast. I was sure of that.

“Give her our best,” Gran said. “And please tell her that even though we don’t know her, we’re all ready to help in any way we can. I think I speak for the entire family when I say that.”

All right, that was a decent reaction. I really should give Gran more credit. Her mind wasn’t always on matchmaking.

Although, to be fair, Jeannie Whitley had been an actress back in her day. She could fake it if she wanted to.

Leo frowned, clearly just as perplexed by her blasé comment as I was.

Thankfully, no one mentioned Allison or my outing with her for the rest of the day, although by the looks Maddox, Leo, and Gabe gave me, they did want to give me shit about it. I appreciated that they held their tongues.

I left the house early in the afternoon, as I was picking Allison up at five. On the way, I decided I’d call Hugo. Initially, when I brought this all up, he’d asked me a few details about Allison, like what her job was and other information. He had enough to go on, but I put the two of them in contact, as he needed more details. Now I wanted to know if he’d made any progress.

He was excellent at what he did, but he was also swamped with work. I wanted to make sure he was able to stay on top of this, friend or not. Thankfully, he answered after several rings.

“Hey, Nick.”

“Hey. Sorry to call you on a Saturday. Figured I’d have better odds at reaching you.”

“I suppose you want an update on the whole Allison thing?” he said.

“Did she send you all her information?”

“Yes. She was very open about it and eager to cooperate, which is always helpful.”

“So, how does it look?”

“I’d like to know a bit more about the in-laws, but…”

I didn’t like that pause.

He sighed. “Grandparents usually have a good fighting chance.”

“But Nora and Jim specifically wanted Allison to look after the twins. They put that in the will.”

“Wills can always be contested. They can try and prove they’re better candidates. That’s why I said from the get-go that you can’t dismiss it. Several things are taken into account, of course, such as their age and income.”

“They’re around fifty-five. They had Jim very young.”

“All right, so that won’t be an impediment. Do you know anything about the financial situation?”

“They’re well off, from what I know. They put Jim through college, so he didn’t need a loan. They even helped with the down payment on the house he and Nora owned,” I explained.

“Right. I’ll investigate this a bit more before making a recommendation.”

“When will that be?”

“Sometime next week. I promise that I’m on top of this case.”

“Look, no offense—” I began.

“Nick, what do you know about me? I don’t overpromise or underdeliver. I told you I can see Allison through this. At the very least, I’ll come up with some recommendations. Can you give me the in-laws’ full names and as much as you know about them? I’ll look them up. I have people who do that.”

“Excellent,” I said, rattling off their names. “Thank you, Hugo.”

“No problem.”

I didn’t have a good feeling about this. I’d assume this would be a slam dunk, and he would simply tell Allison that if she did A, B, and C, she was going to keep custody for sure.

I decided to push the issue to the back of my mind for now. I was fucking excited about going out with Allison.

My phone rang again. I figured maybe Hugo wanted to add something, but then I saw it was Maddox. I answered right away.

“You’ve been keeping secrets, brother. I’m with Cami and Leo,” he said without further ado. It was silent in the background, which meant he wasn’t at Gran’s house anymore.

“About what?”

“Allison.”

“Hey, you’re going on a date,” Cami, his fiancée, said. “That’s huge news.”

I groaned. “No, we’re not. Jesus, that’s what everyone thinks?”

“Uh, yeah,” Leo said.

“That’s not what this is at all. I’m just literally taking her out. I figured she could use it.”

“Really?” he asked. “She couldn’t just go out by herself?”

“If she’d wanted that, she would have done it already,” I pointed out.

“I see. So that’s the solution you came up with.” His tone was laced with amusement. “Could have offered to just watch the kids so she could go meet a friend or something.”

He had a point. It never even crossed my mind. “Please tell me that you didn’t give Gran any ammunition to harass me.”

Cami laughed. “Nick, you know your gran. She doesn’t need anyone to give her ammunition. She finds it by herself. She was over the moon after you left.”

“You’re all making too much of this.”

“No, we’re not,” Leo said. “Maybe you don’t see it, but we do. This is a huge deal for you. Actually, so are all the things you’ve done since Jim passed away, especially going to Allison’s house.”

“I care about those kids. Don’t be a jackass.”

“I wasn’t implying that you didn’t. But I think that’s not the only reason you keep dropping by.”

“Right. Well, I’m at Allison’s house now, so I need to hang up.”

Technically, I was still two streets away, but I needed to end the conversation. It was making me question myself, and I didn’t like that. I wasn’t prone to introspection or whatever it was called.

After hanging up, I couldn’t help but wonder. Why did I offer to take her out?

Oh, for fuck’s sake, Nick. Get your shit together.

And I did.

I parked right in front of the house. When I got out of the car, Allison’s voice filtered through the windows. I looked up. She was on the second floor, moving around and… singing?

This woman was something else.

My imagination immediately went haywire. I could imagine her nipples peeking through the fabric of her shirt. Or was it a dress?

I realized on the spot that Leo was right. I hadn’t just offered to take her out for her own benefit. It was self-serving as well.