Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
cameron
ICOULD TELL THE party was already in full swing by the time I pulled up to Noah’s new multimillion-dollar home in the Boston suburbs.
The sounds of happy chattering, an unrecognizable music genre that I knew was Beau’s doing, and joyous laughter swirled in the air, coming from the back of the house.
Wandering through the yard, I spotted Noah first, over by the patio table, wearing an enormous smile, his arm slung around Gemma’s shoulders and Delilah strapped to his chest. I didn’t miss the sparkle of a new engagement ring on Gemma’s finger when she lifted her hand to adjust the little sun hat on Delilah’s head.
She laughed at something Noah said, pure happiness in the sound, and they both appeared a bit misty-eyed as they stood there together, taking in their surroundings.
They had this look like the entire scene before them was too good to be true, and something about it was so pure that my heart lurched unexpectedly.
I’d never thought much about marriage before, not in real, concrete terms. I didn’t have an aversion to the idea, but I’d also never made choices that would lead in that direction.
I’d dated casually throughout college, always open with partners about where I stood, that my career path was my priority.
I made sure we were compatible in that way, and for the most part, things always worked out.
I figured that one day, once my career was established or maybe once I found the right person, I’d think about relationships differently. That I’d think about marriage…more.
Suffice it to say, I’d thought about marriage more than a few times in the last month.
In general terms, of course.
Two tall men, one much larger than the other, walked up to Noah and Gemma, and based on their size alone, I assumed they were Noah’s teammates.
Looking closer, I recognized one of them as the Knights’ kicker, Phoenix Jones.
Not wanting to interrupt their conversation, I scanned the rest of the crowd in the backyard instead, trying to pretend I wasn’t looking for one person in particular.
A flash of brown hair against the landscape, the exact shade of Natalie’s, made my pulse tick faster.
But it was Chloe, running across the yard after a golden retriever. Now, I just needed to find her mom.
But after another full sweep of the backyard, I came up empty. Natalie-less.
“She’s not here yet.”
Fuck me.
Glancing at Julian, who’d made a sudden appearance beside me, I decided not to bother lying.
“Who brought Chloe, then?”
“Her dad did,” he answered, and I stiffened at the thought of Korey being here. Luckily, Julian eased my worries a second later. “He dropped her off and left. I guess it’s one of his weekends with her, but she begged to come. That’s what Blake said when I was talking to him.”
As if on cue, the oldest London brother scooped Chloe straight off the ground, sending her into a fit of giggles. The golden retriever jumped into the air after Chloe, standing on her hind legs as though she could save the nine-year-old from her uncle.
I waited until Blake put Chloe back on the ground before looking at Julian.
“Did Blake also say when Natalie was going to show up?”
“Why do you care?” Julian countered, flashing me a grin.
As unhelpful as ever.
I rolled my eyes before spotting Collins.
“You’re annoying,” I muttered. “Excuse me while I go talk to my sister.”
Julian laughed as I strode away from his irritating ass, crossing the lawn to Collins, who brightened as soon as she saw me.
“I didn’t know if you’d be here.” She beamed as I drew her into a quick hug.
“Well, pretty much all of my favorite people were going to be in one place.” I had to raise my voice a little to be heard over the music. “I couldn’t exactly miss it.”
Seeing Collins made me feel ashamed that I’d even been considering skipping the event.
“Beau will be happy to see you, too,” Collins said, pointing behind her to where Beau stood by a makeshift DJ booth.
It was a table with two massive speakers sitting on it, almost entirely concealing my brother-in-law.
But I could see him enough to know that he was preoccupied with talking to the man who stood next to him—tall, sandy-haired, straight nose, sharp green eyes.
There was something oddly familiar about him.
“I would pay you an obscene amount of money if you let me play ‘London Bridges.’ I promise it’s Noah’s favorite song,” the man was saying before pausing to add, “Okay, that’s a lie. I don’t have an obscene amount of money.”
“He has an obscene enough amount on his own,” I cut in. “Don’t even think about giving him anything.”
Beau’s head jerked up, his expression morphing into his characteristic easy grin.
“Oh, hey, man. Nice to see you finally show up.”
“I’m like…” I checked my watch. “Ten minutes late.”
“Okay, no money,” the other man said, singularly focused on getting Beau to play some throwback Fergie that I had to imagine haunted anyone with the last name of London in middle school. “Might I offer you my hacking skills?”
Beau laughed, turning back toward him. “Are you trying to sabotage this engagement party? Should I also throw in a little ‘My Humps,’ too?”
“Dude, I am the youngest child out of five,” he deadpanned.
“I was put on this Earth to annoy the rest of my siblings. Literally no other reason.” So that was why he seemed familiar—he was one of the London brothers I hadn’t met.
“Plus, I’ll have you know that I made that—” He wiggled a finger in the direction of Gemma and Noah, still happily chatting.
“—happen. So I think everyone here owes me.”
“Not every event is about you, Sullivan,” a woman’s voice said behind me.
It was said sort of caustically, without a lot of heat and just a small amount of snark.
But Natalie’s brother whipped his head around like someone had yelled at him.
A flash of stark emotion crossed his face, and then a name I couldn’t quite make out fell from his lips like a sigh.
The way he stared at whoever was just over my shoulder had me turning in their direction.
But it was another woman who stole all my attention, sidetracking me from their interaction. Natalie stood there, too, looking fucking stunning in a coral-colored sundress.
It was unbelievable. That I got to exist in the same place she did for snippets of time.
My mouth ran dry, and my hands twitched, desperate to haul her over my shoulder and take her somewhere no one would find us.
Yep, this was why—this exact feeling was why I probably shouldn’t have come today. It had been brought to my attention on more than one occasion that I was terrible at masking how much I wanted this woman, and of course, she had to show up looking radiant. Like I’d known she would.
Natalie smiled at me, giving a little wave of greeting that was altogether too casual for us.
In a different world, one where she hadn’t walked into my office and I hadn’t committed to being her legal representation, one where her ex hadn’t hurt her in the way that he had, I’d be sliding my arm around her right now, pulling her into my side.
“Excuse me, sister.” Natalie startled at the sound of her brother’s voice, and I turned back to face him, finding that all the color had drained from his face. His eyes tracked the other woman as she strode away. “I thought you loved me. What the hell?”
“I do love you, Sully.” Natalie slipped past me to give her brother a hug, even while he continued to wear a somewhat horrified expression. “But I also love Ellie, and she happened to be in town this weekend, too.”
Natalie moved to hug another man who was standing slightly behind Sully.
Had he been there the entire time? I hadn’t even noticed, but the more I looked at him, the more I realized he looked just like Noah, except even taller and broad-shouldered and with tortoise-shelled glasses sitting on the brim of his nose.
“A goddamn warning would have been nice,” Sully muttered, staring across the lawn after the woman who was now crouching next to Chloe.
“If you need to go inside and fix your hair, we’ll all cover for you,” the quiet brother said, and Sully swung a glare at him.
“What’s wrong with my hair?” He ran a hand through his mop of blond hair while wearing a scowl.
“Nothing,” Natalie assured him before smacking her other brother on the chest. “Be nice, Theo.”
“Ouch.” Theo made a show of rubbing his chest, his lips twitching as he cast a warm look at Natalie. “Missed you, too, Nat.”
She wrapped herself around his middle, and he threw an arm over her shoulders, hugging his sister to his side and pressing a kiss on top of her head.
“Yeah, be nice, Theo,” Sully echoed. “At least I’m capable of talking to women instead of just staring at them from the corner.”
Theo flushed but held his hands out. “Be my guest. Show me how it’s done. I think the love of your life just walked that way.” He pointed at Natalie’s friend.
“She’s not—” Sully broke off with a groan, even as his eyes drifted toward her, too. Then he shook his head and focused on his brother again. “Seriously, though. Please just go talk to her. Put us all out of our misery.”
“Julian cuts me off every single time I try. I don’t know how he fucking does it,” Theo grumbled, and I couldn’t withhold a chuckle, causing everyone to look at me.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “It’s just, that sounds exactly like Julian.”
I had to assume they were talking about one of Julian’s sisters because that was the only situation I could see Julian interrupting. Besides Gemma, there were four more of them running around here, all with flashes of long, gingery hair.
“Theo, Sully,” Natalie said, detaching herself from Theo’s side and taking advantage of her brothers’ shift in attention to introduce me. “This is Cameron Bryant. He’s the lawyer helping with Chloe’s custody case, and he works with Julian. Cameron, these are my other brothers.”
“The better brothers,” Sully added beneath his breath before sticking his hand out. “Nice to meet you, man. Thanks for taking care of our girls.”
I shook Sully’s hand, trying to figure out what to do with the odd sensation that filled my chest at his words.
I really liked the idea of taking care of the London girls.
“Anytime. It’s nice to meet you both.”
“Nice to meet you, Cameron,” Theo echoed, also reaching out, and I took his hand. “Please get rid of that weaselly-ass, pathetic man for us.”
“Working on it,” I assured him, and then both men’s attention wandered. I didn’t look around to figure out where, exactly, they were staring. Or rather, at whom. But I had a pretty damn good idea.
“Chloe must be feeling better,” I said to Natalie, nodding to where her daughter was attempting to climb a tree.
Natalie followed my line of vision and then swore beneath her breath, watching Chloe with careful eyes. “She’s going to kill me with stress one day.” Her eyes flicked to me, tossing a gentle smile my way. “But yes, she’s feeling much better. Thanks again, for everything.”
“Of course,” I said. “It’s too bad she missed field day.”
Natalie sighed. “I know, but she had a low-grade fever most of Sunday, and there was no way she should be running around in the hot sun the next day. Chloe doesn’t exactly know the concept of ‘take it easy.’”
At that exact moment, Chloe jumped off the lowest branch of a tree and rolled over the ground. Natalie grimaced, watching, but Chloe popped back up right away and started running toward the dog again. And then, a second later, back toward the tree.
“Hang on,” Natalie said with another heavy exhale. “The last thing I need is her breaking a bone in the middle of an engagement party.”
I nodded, watching as Natalie beelined for her daughter, catching her just before she scurried up the tree again.
“So.” Another voice appeared at my side, and I didn’t need to look to see who it was. “That’s still going on, huh?”
“What?”
“The staring at the pretty client, who just happens to be Noah’s sister.”
I turned my body away from Natalie, forcing myself to face my sister instead. Then I dropped the volume of my voice before responding, even though Natalie’s brothers were fully preoccupied with other…things at this point.
“Just between you and me, Lins?”
Collins nodded, her lips stretching. “Of course.”
“I think it’s going to be going on for a long time.” I checked back over my shoulder at Natalie, who had made her way over to Noah and Gemma, Chloe in hand. They were exchanging hugs, smiling, laughing. Natalie’s hair shimmered in the wind, and her eyes sparkled in the sun.
Glancing back at Collins, I added, “But she won’t always be my client.”
I was practically counting down the days until she wasn’t.