Chapter 45

MIGUEL

“Where were you yesterday?” Austin looks at me in the rearview mirror.

I didn’t leave Charles’ apartment until eleven at night. For two reasons: Jasper and Jasper. Don’t trust that fool for anything.

I wish Charles would just grow up and see people for who they truly are. Austin clears his throat, stopping my train of thought.

“Dude?” Austin raises his eyebrows at me.

“Charles,” I say, and the SUV gets very quiet. “What?”

Chase is sitting to the right of me, and I’m bracing myself for the worst. I’m not a fan of fighting a friend, but if he swings, I’m going to lay his ass out.

He turns slightly towards me, and I do the same. His eyebrows come together as he looks at me. There he goes with the whole confused boy look.

“You what?”

“I chilled with Charles yesterday, and good thing I did. Your brother made a surprise visit to her place with pizza and roses.” I give him a challenging look.

“What did he want?” Chase pulls out his phone, and I stop him from whatever mistake he is about to make.

“To blow her back out,” Tristan answers, and I throw him a look to not start that shit now.

“Bruh, you have to know when to shut the fuck up.” Darren looks at him sideways. Tristan is the only one in the group who just can’t chill the fuck out at times.

“I’m just saying what everyone is thinking. So, fuck y’all.” He puts his headphones back in and closes his eyes.

“What did he want?” Chase asks me again.

“Something along the lines of what Tristan said, unfortunately. I took the pizza and closed the door in his face. Charles was upset at first, but I was trying to get her to see Jasper isn’t someone she should get involved with.”

I exhale deeply. “But I think you—no, I know you should tell her everything that’s going on.”

“Yeah, Charles will stick her nose into stuff she has no business in, and then we will have to clean it up,” Vincent says from behind us.

“It’s complicated,” is all Chase says, and I want to choke him as well.

“This is your fiancé we are talking about here. What if she encounters Jasper alone in a not-so-public place? She looks like Lily to him, and from what you told us Lily was everything to him.”

Vincent looks back from the passenger seat. “The more she knows, the better.”

I’ve met Lily a handful of times, and she wasn’t the angel Jasper thought she was. If she wasn’t trying to make a pass at Austin and me, she was targeting Chase.

I honestly don’t know what Jasper saw in her personality-wise. The girl was fucking insane.

In ways, Chase and Charles are alike. They try to bottle up so much and think they can take on the world alone. When all actuality they need help but have too much pride, and in Chase’s case, a massive fucking ego.

If these two just came clean about everything, we wouldn’t be in such a disaster. Hell, I want to go back to college and see my girlfriend.

“Don’t you think I know that they are family? I just didn’t think she would look like her. Cousins rarely look alike.” Chase runs his fingers through his hair.

“Jasper is not stupid, and if he really does his digging into her life, I know he will find it out.”

“Back up a minute. Did you just say Charles and Lily are cousins? Why are we just now finding this out?” Austin pulls the SUV over.

“Chase, you just can’t leave something like that out. Do you understand how much drama this is now? I don’t think you get it. Lily and Charles are cousins…”

“And now we are about to head upstate to have lunch with your parents and Jasper—let’s not forget sweet little Autumn.”

I can’t believe this shit. “How and why the fuck did you pull us into this shit? I don’t even like my own family drama, and now I have to deal with yours.”

“Wait a damn minute.” Darren clears his throat. “Charles and Lily are cousins…don’t you think your family knows by now because of Autumn? This just doesn’t make sense.”

“Yeah, Darren is right. They probably know,” Vincent adds.

“Long story short, Lily never talked about her family, said they were dead.

“The reason I found out they were cousins, one night Lily was drunk trying to hit on me as usual back when I was in high school, and I mentioned she looked a lot like a girl I knew.

“I said Charlotte Withers, and she froze. From there I knew she was hiding something, manipulated her into telling and she had me promise not to say anything, or she would tell my brother I made a pass at her.”

Chase runs his hand down his face.

“So, I would have told my brother,” Vincent speaks up. “Bros before hoes.”

“Yeah right,” I say. “Dove has you so whipped.”

“The reason I didn’t tell Jasper was that he already thought I was trying to hit on her. His girlfriends before Lily always tried to hit on me and one night, I smashed one of them.

“Ruining our relationship just a bit, so I keep her secret.”

“Dude, you better tell them today, and then when we get back to the city you need to tell Charles.” Darren turns around looking at Chase.

We all know Chase is tight-lipped about his family—well we thought it was because of his dislike for his father and brother, but this takes the cake.

“Man, it’s like we are literally living out one crazy-ass Lifetime movie that was written by Tyler Perry.” Everett yawns.

“I know you are mad at me, but for Charles’s sake, I think you should just come clean about everything to everyone and my family is in this mess, because she is my cousin as well.

“My mother already lied to your father, to keep up Charles’s lie.”

“Yeah, the least your father might do is get mad at you, but does that really matter? They need us to help the company out anyway.

“Telling your family is going to be tough, but at least you don’t have to worry about Jasper trying to hit on her.” Vincent is making great, valid points here.

I don’t think Chase knew something like this would happen. He managed almost four years without bumping into Charles. I know it was hard for him at first when he saw her freshman year in college.

He was smitten, and then he went home the summer before sophomore year, and then everything changed. Then the car accident that happened last year, taking Lily’s life, followed by Charles coming to stay with us this year.

Yeah, this definitely sounds like a Lifetime movie.

“You guys are right.” He drops his head. “I will tell them, but no funny shit, okay? No jokes, no flirting with my mother, and no dickhead comments to Jasper or my father. Are we clear?”

I think we might be getting somewhere with this situation.

Everyone agrees, but Tristan is still blasting his music and hasn’t once paid attention to the conversation. I make a mental note to catch him up on everything.

Especially since he’s one of the guys who love to flirt with Chase’s mother. She is a beautiful woman, with long, silky black hair, very curvy, and for a woman in her late forties, she has a nice ass.

Whew! Just thinking about it, I can’t wait to see her either. Austin turns back on the car, and we drive in silence the rest of the way.

To this day Chase’s family house will always amaze me. With so much money they keep their home simple and homey.

The house gives off the vibe of money but not in an in-your-face kind of way. The front door to Chase’s family home opens, and his mother comes into view with Autumn.

“Ace! Ace!” Autumn shouts, trying to get out of Mrs. Tucker’s arms. She puts her down, and Autumn takes off—as fast as a four-year-old could run.

Chase scoops her up into his arms, placing kisses all over her face.

“Dude…” Tristan elbows me. “Look at Mrs. T in that dress.”

I can’t tell him to shut it, because he is already waving at her walking up the driveway. Chase sends me a quick glance before turning his attention back to his niece.

His face lights up as he tickles her and I know he would protect her and Charles at all cost from the shitstorm that is about to happen.

Then again, everything might play out for the best. I hope it does, because at the end of the day my name is Bennett, and I ain’t in it!