Chapter 4

“Jesus fuck, Nathan.” My oldest brother, Elijah, shakes his head after I finish recounting what our father said to me earlier this morning. I left out the crap about me being the only one of us capable of having it all. What a load of shit.

I take a sip of my beer and signal the waitress for three more. “Yeah, you see what happens when you two fucks don’t turn up for Sunday brunch.”

“Sorry, bro,” Mason says sheepishly. “I had a hell of a date last night.”

I roll my eyes. “I thought you were dating the catalog model. Carter, was it?”

“Nah.” He shakes his head. “That kind of fizzled out. You know I like to keep my options open, and besides, he was way too clingy for me.”

“Yeah, way too pretty too,” Elijah adds. Mason and I stare at him with matching grins on our faces. “What?” Elijah blinks at us. “I can appreciate a man’s good looks. He just didn’t seem your usual type is all. You usually go for guys a little rougher round the edges.”

“Mmhmm, the rougher the better.” Mason licks his lips.

I roll my eyes, feigning my disgust, when I’m only jealous that my little brother isn’t jaded by the endless monotony of making the same small talk with a different person every week all in the hopes of a good fuck. And even that is losing its appeal.

“Shall we get back to my problem?” I remind them.

They mumble their agreement as the waitress delivers fresh beers.

“So he’s already got this wife picked out for you?” Mason asks.

“Yeah.” I nod, recalling how ridiculous the conversation was. “He even has a meeting set up with her family lawyers for Thursday.”

Elijah frowns. “Jesus fuck, Nathan!”

“Yeah, you already said that, asshole,” I say.

“I know, but I think it’s worth repeating.” He’s rarely this animated, and his reaction reassures me that our father’s proposition to me earlier today was as outrageous as it seemed.

I take a long swig of my beer. “So what the fuck do I do?”

“First, who is this chick?” Mason asks.

“Well, she’s a woman, and her name is Melanie Edison.”

Elijah’s eyebrows shoot up. “Luke Edison’s daughter?”

I nod. “The one and only.”

Mason grins. “She was two years below me in high school. My buddies all thought she was hot.”

She doesn’t have much of a social media presence, and the few pictures I did find online were from various animal rights and environmental charity functions. She appears to be impeccably turned out—brunette, curves in all the right places, a beautiful smile—but the photos gave the impression that she hated the camera. I sure know how that feels. There was no hint of a smile in the posed shots, but a couple of candids showed her laughing. Those were the ones that intrigued me most. “She’s still hot,” I tell them. “But that’s beside the point.”

Mason’s brow wrinkles like he’s deep in thought. “I heard she works as a vet’s assistant or something now.”

I nod. “Yeah, that matches what I found. She volunteers for a shelter too.”

Mason nods. “That rings true. She was always fundraising for the local animal shelter in high school.”

Elijah takes a swig of his beer and nods approvingly. “Seems like she’s a nice person, then. At least there’s that.”

Mason sucks air through his teeth. “I’m sure I recall something about her dropping out of college to do a few months in rehab. Not that it makes her a not-nice person, and that could have just been a rumor.”

I nod my agreement. “Yeah, she took a year off, and all the reports I found alluded to rehab.” I spent four hours after I left my dad’s house researching all there is to know about her. She has a college degree from Ohio State, has an unhealthy obsession with jelly donuts, lives in the meatpacking district with her cousin, Tyler, and has a twenty-year-old sister who’s currently studying at Harvard. Melanie Edison is an interesting woman. Not half as interesting as her brother though.

Elijah’s brow furrows. “So Dad wants grandkids. A legacy. But what does Melanie Edison get from this?”

“Um. She marries a handsome billionaire, fuck-knuckle,” Mason retorts.

Elijah shakes his head. “She works as a vet’s assistant.”

“Veterinary nurse,” I correct him.

“Okay, but I dunno.” He shrugs. “Doesn’t seem like the kind of job a gold digger would have. And what’s Dad thinking? I could see why he might set you up with some heiress or socialite, but a veterinary nurse?”

I sigh. “Technically she is an heiress, there’s just fuck all left of Edison Holdings to inherit, and the old man was fond of her father. Seems he bumped into her mother and brother at some event, and they got to talking. Turns out their company’s failing and they’re looking for some investors.”

Elijah groans. “He’s not investing in their company, is he?”

I shake my head. “He made it clear that’s firmly off the table. But a marriage into the James family lends their failing business credibility, and it offers a level of assurance—accurate or not—to potential investors.”

“So that’s what her family gets out of it, but what about her?” Elijah asks.

I shrug. All my research led me to the same conclusion Elijah just made. She lives a modest life and hasn’t taken any share of the profits from Edison Holdings for the past eleven years, so I can’t imagine she’s suddenly decided to marry for money. “I dunno, buddy. Maybe she wants kids and is fed up with the dating pool. Or maybe she wants to give up work and be a stay-at-home wife.”

Mason peels the label from his beer bottle and stares at me. “So you’re considering this thing?”

I draw a breath through my nose. There’s no denying that the relentless dating is wearing thin, and even the inevitable sex at the end of those dates is no longer enough to get the blood pumping in my veins the way it used to. I think about my mom and what a wonderful grandma she would’ve been, and how my dad is desperate to know he has someone to pass his company down to after his sons. I’m not getting any younger. I feel like I’ve dated almost every unmarried woman in the tri-state area, and not one of them has held my attention long enough to get past a fourth date. What the fuck do I have to lose? “Enough to go to this meeting on Thursday and check out Melanie Edison and her motivations in person, yeah.”

Mason snorts a laugh, but Elijah pats me on the back.

I take another swig of my beer and wonder why I didn’t order something stronger. “I’m gonna have Drake come with me.”

“Probably a good idea,” Elijah says. “Contracts are his forte.”

I’m inviting him because he’s as good at reading people as I am, and maybe for a little moral support. I arch an eyebrow at Elijah. “You’re saying they’re not mine?”

“You thrive in the courtroom, Nathan. You always have. Center stage is where you and Mase are at your most comfortable. Contracts are a backroom job for guys who love details, like Drake and me.”

Mason nods his agreement. “Hey, speaking of brothers, has anyone spoken to Maddox this week?”

An unexpected wave of sadness hits me in my chest, and I clear my throat. “I spoke to him a few days ago, why?”

“Just checking. He said he was headed to Florence last I spoke with him, but that was over a week ago. He didn’t answer my call this morning. You think he’s okay?”

I nod. Maddox is known to go off-grid for days or even weeks at a time when the mood strikes him. “Yeah, he said he was good. But he changed his mind about Florence and he’s in Berlin now instead.”

Elijah whistles. “That kid sure gets around. Lucky bastard.”

“Yeah,” I mumble, even though we all know there is nothing at all lucky about our youngest brother.