Fourteen
Noah
Meet for lunch?
I read Beau’s text and then hastily typed my response.
12:30, your office?
He responded just as quickly as I had.
See you then.
I stood from the sectional and headed to the gym in the lower floor of the townhouse, deciding to go work out before leaving to meet Beau at lunch.
Maybe after lunch, I’d go house hunting.
I liked the townhouse, but I hadn’t spent much time here. I fucking hated the construction zone that was Alex’s apartment, but she preferred to be there, and I preferred to be wherever she was.
But I’d need to find a place of my own because I’d be staying in town.
Alex’s birthday was the night I’d decided.
Alex was here, so I would be too. And I liked being close to my brothers.
This decision raised another question of what the fuck I was going to do with myself, a question for which I had no answer.
Maybe I’d just take care of Alex.
She was capable of taking care of herself, but I wanted to pamper and spoil her, wanted to protect her. She wasn’t very forthcoming about her life, but I knew that she hadn’t had much of the protection and care that she deserved.
Which pissed me off.
And reminded me of my nonna and even my mother.
But especially Nonna.
My grandmother was the toughest woman I’d ever met, but also the kindest, and Alex reminded me of her.
And like Alex, Nonna had never had anyone take care of her. I’d sworn I would, but she had died before I’d had the means to keep that promise.
Fortunately, due to stubbornness and more than my fair share of luck, money wasn’t problem anymore. And every instinct I had, the same instincts that had carried me this far, demanded that I take care of Alex.
Assuming, of course, that she would let me.
I stutter-stepped at that thought.
Alex giving in.
Not fucking likely. She’d fought me every step of the way, and even though she’d never said anything, I knew she thought she didn’t deserve to be cared for.
I just wished I knew why.
But maybe it would have been better if I didn’t, because if I found the person responsible for making Alex feel like she was unworthy, there was no limit to what I would do.
For now, I was content to nurture the trust that was growing between us and show her, in big ways and small, that she deserved the world.
It was a tough fight, but even though she tried to pretend, I saw how much she liked and appreciated it when I did things for her.
Two nights ago had been a perfect example. She had almost burst out in tears when I’d bought her a new stack of legal pads. I’d brought them to her office when I came to walk her home because the day before she’d mentioned she was running low and hadn’t had a chance to get new ones.
It had been nothing for me to grab some of her favorite brand—recycled paper, white, wide ruled, never yellow—because I knew how busy she was, but her gratitude, and her shock, had made me that much more determined to see that she was taken care of.
Thinking about Alex made my workout pass in a blink. I gave the bag one last kick to punctuate the point, and then I showered, dressed, and headed to Beau’s office.
“You should buy the building,” I said to Beau when he stepped off the elevator wearing ratty jeans and what had to be a ten-year-old T-shirt.
“We’re a startup, Noah. Can’t afford it,” he said.
“Are you taking on investors?” I asked as we exited the lobby.
“You looking to buy in?” he asked.
I laughed. “Business with the Wilders? I’ll pass,” I said, shoving him with my shoulder.
Beau shrugged. “Whatever you say. But thanks for saving me from having to turn your ass down. Now I guess I’ll have to worry about you buying the building and becoming my landlord,” he said.
I looked at him out of the corner of my eye as we walked and looked down the block. “I just might do that. It’s a good property. And given its location, if demand for office space plummets, it’ll be easy enough to convert to housing. As close to a no-lose as you can get.”
He laughed. “Listen to you. Talking shop like a true Wilder. You claim you’re not one of us, but I don’t know, Noah.”
He slapped me on my shoulder companionably, and we continued down the block, not talking but with no lingering discomfort.
That was something I appreciated about Beau.
The issue of my parentage was touchy, one that most people wouldn’t touch.
Not Beau.
I wasn’t sure if it was his age, or, more than likely, the fact that he just didn’t give a fuck, but he would tease and talk shit without a second thought.
And as much as I liked to pretend otherwise, I enjoyed it.
My brothers were the one good thing that Prescott had given me, even though it had taken me years to come to the realization.
Still, I was staying in town, and as part of that, I wanted to try to build a relationship with them, maybe find just a hint of the family that I had been so desperate for as a child.
“They have the best burgers here,” Beau said as we sat.
“Sounds good. Two burgers,” I said to the waitress, who jotted the order down and walked away without a word. After she was gone, I faced Beau. “Why are you inviting me to lunch?”
“Because I feel like you are finally at the point that you won’t bite my head off for trying to hang out with you,” Beau said.
“I never bite your head off,” I countered.
Beau smiled with skepticism. “So, you’ve forgotten about the first time we met?”
“I haven’t forgotten,” I responded.
The memory came without effort.
My mother had died the year before, and the days since had been an unbreaking string of work broken up by a few hours of sleep followed by more work.
That particular day had been shaping up to be like the others.
Except that day, my sperm donor, the one who had given me nothing but twenty-three chromosomes and a last name, had dropped into my life like a grenade.
Not personally, of course.
No, that shit-heel couldn’t be bothered to come see me himself.
Instead, he’d sent a courier—a fucking courier—to summon me for a meeting.
I’d gone to the meeting with full intention of breaking Prescott’s fucking jaw and telling him what a piece of shit he was.
Had been about to do just that when Beau stepped in.
“Don’t interfere,” I’d said, my focus squared on Prescott. “The old man and I have shit to settle.”
“Interfere?” Beau had said, his eyes mischievous behind his glasses. “I’m trying to get a better view.”
That had disarmed me completely, and I slammed out of the office, determined to have nothing to do with any of the Wilders ever again.
Yet here I found myself sitting across from Beau, and even more surprisingly, happy about it.
I thought back to that meeting, again remembering that Prescott hadn’t had a chance to say a single word before I’d gone on the attack.
Maybe that was why he’d sent that letter.
I wasn’t sure because I still hadn’t read it, not sure I was ready to hear whatever Prescott had thought was important enough to leave for me after his death.
Wasn’t sure I ever would be.
“So, who do I have to thank?” Beau said after he took a huge bite of his burger.
“Thank for what?” I asked, taking a bite of my own.
“You seem chill. Centered. And I know Wilder DNA well enough to know that there’s definitely a woman involved,” he said.
“You think you know shit about me?” I asked.
My voice was rough-edged, but Beau brushed it off.
“I know enough to know that there has to be some external cause for this cheery disposition,” he said.
I said nothing, munching on fries as I considered my words.
Then, I decided what the heck.
“I’ve been seeing Alex,” I said.
It felt good, right, to say the words out loud.
I hadn’t said anything to anyone else at first, initially respecting Alex’s wishes, even though I fucking hated them. And since her birthday, the opportunity hadn’t come up. But now, I wanted to scream it from the rooftops.
Beau nodded his approval.
“Alex is awesome,” Beau said. Since Birdie had worked for Dominic for so long, I knew that Alex had been in the Wilders’ orbit, so Beau had had the opportunity to get to know her a little bit over the years.
“That she is,” I responded.
She was awesome. She made me feel things that I had never felt before, feel things that I wasn’t even sure I believed were real.
“So, you’re going to stick around for a while?” Beau asked.
“Yeah,” I said, knowing I would stay with Alex as long as she let me, and now fully determined to build a relationship with my brothers no matter what.
“Good,” Beau said, nodding his approval. Then he smiled. “So if you buy the building, will you cut us a deal on rent?”
I laughed. “Not a fucking chance.”