Chapter 43
CHAPTER 43
CHARLOTTE
Aiden turns to kiss my neck. I feel languid and more than a little proud of myself. He’d just told me things I can use to build entire chapters around. Sure, I’ll need to ask follow-up questions, but still…
“Mm-hmm,” Aiden says. “I feel you glowing with triumph.”
I slide my hand into his hair. I love it when it’s messy like this. “Will all our interviews have to be conducted like this?”
“I should say no to that, or you’ll get everything out of me.” His hands circle my waist, inching up the fabric of my camisole. “What questions can I get you to answer?”
I chuckle. “I’m not so easily manipulated.”
He pulls back and lifts his brow. “Oh? Wanna bet?”
A loud sound rings out through the house. A doorbell. Aiden groans and buries his face between my breasts.
“No,” he mutters.
I run my nails lightly over his scalp. “You’re expecting someone?”
“No. At least not this early. But it seems like she’s here anyway, and she will let herself in if I don’t open in four seconds.”
I sit up straight. “Mandy?”
“The very one.” He releases me with another groan and falls back on the bed, running a hand over his face. “I need a shower before I can talk to her.”
I slide off the bed. The last thing I want is for Aiden’s sister to find me in bed with her brother. To her, I’m still just his memoirist. The one reopening old wounds. “I need to get dressed.”
“Yes,” he says and doesn’t make a move to get off my bed.
I smack one of his feet. “Come on! You need to get your butt down the hall and into the shower!”
He chuckles and rolls out of my bed, rising to stand tall in yesterday’s rumpled and ruined tuxedo. He carefully tucks himself back into his pants, pulls up the zipper, and gives me a mock-serious look.
“If you get downstairs first, tell her I’ll be out soon.”
“I can’t tell her that! I’ll let her know that you might be sleeping in, which you normally don’t.”
He looks down at his watch, and then his face goes slack. “It’s after nine.”
“Go. Go!”
He cracks open the door just as another ring of his thunderous doorbell echoes across the house.
I hurry to get ready. It takes me a few minutes to brush my teeth, pull my hair into a braid, and change my clothes. I quickly spritz some perfume and pause by the mirror.
The last time I saw Mandy, she was glamorous. In a bohemian, richly nonchalant kind of way. She’s the type of woman who could get expensive laser treatments and facials, but is happy to wear a pair of oversized jeans and no makeup at all… just a pair of designer sunglasses. Like Frankie Swan, The Real Housewife I wrote the memoir for a while ago. I know the type.
I don’t look bad. But I look ordinary, and a little tired. It’ll have to do. Because Mandy’s perspective is missing from Aiden’s book, and I’m determined to get it.
I head downstairs. The doorbell has stopped ringing, but based on Aiden’s earlier comment, it might just mean that his sister has let herself in.
I find her at his large kitchen island. Her blonde hair has a load of highlights I hadn’t noticed last time, and she looks more tanned than previously. She starts talking without turning around. “It’s not like you to sleep in. You’re not sick?”
“Sorry. He’s not up yet, I think. Or at least his door wasn’t open.” I am the worst liar. “Hi, Mandy.”
She twists to face me. Her eyes, too shrewd and too like Aiden’s, look me up and down. “Hi, Charlotte. I was hoping you’d be in, too.”
“You were?”
“Yes.” Her face softens with a slight smile. “I was wondering… I know you’ve been wanting to talk to me. For the book.”
I need to play this cool.
“Yes, but only if you’re comfortable. Would you like something to drink?” I walk past her to the giant side-by-side fridge and grab some orange juice. “You decide the parameters, too.”
“Right. Like whether or not I’ll be directly quoted?”
“Yes. Your input could just be used as the background.”
“Which means I won’t be mentioned at all.”
I pour myself a large glass of OJ, and after seeing her nod, a second one for her. “Yup. It’ll help inform my chapters, but no one needs to know the info came from you. You know that Aiden will have full control over the manuscript, too. I’m sure he’ll let you read it. You can nix anything you don’t like.”
She taps her nails on the marble counter. Short, oval-shaped, with blood-red polish on them. She’s in a well-fitted tank top today and a pair of oversized white jeans. Her hair is loose, and she’s wearing what I suspect is that “no-makeup” makeup look that’s so hard to achieve for us mere mortals.
“Okay. I like the sound of that. Because I’ve... well I’ve been thinking.”
“Yeah?”
She pulls her eyebrows together tightly. “This could be a good thing. It might not be. But... it could be. Like, a chance for Aiden to get some vindication.”
I nod. “Yes, it’s an opportunity to tell his story. Your story, in some ways.”
“I hate the way the media...” She shakes her head a little. “It’s just so raw, you know?”
I can’t even imagine. Having your father dragged away in handcuffs, having to see him in the courtroom every day, embroiled in a case so widely publicized that it got its own hashtag on Twitter at the time.
“Yes. People consume it like entertainment, but for you... it’s your life. It’s your family.” My voice comes out fierce.
Mandy taps her fingers against the marble again. “Yes. Exactly! It’s infuriating. The public got so many things wrong!”
“Like what?”
She opens her mouth, but then she shakes her head with a smile. “I know what you’re doing. You’re getting the interview already.”
“I’m just getting to know you.”
“Uh-huh.” She sets a large paper bag on the kitchen counter. “I was hoping you’d be here because… I actually want to invite you to something tonight.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. It’s a tiny bit self-serving.” Her smile turns winsome. “I’m a part-owner of a company, and we’re launching our next line this evening.”
“Really?”
“Yes, at a launch party over in the Hills. Restricted guest list, and there’s a no phones policy.”
I like the sound of that. “What company?”
Her smile widens. “I think I’ll let you figure that out when you arrive. Is that terribly presumptuous of me? I just like the idea of giving you a challenge.”
I laugh. “Honestly, you sound a lot like your brother right now.”
“I do?”
“Yes. He loves a game, and never wants to submit to an interview question unless he gets something in return.” As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I feel heat racing up my cheeks.
Like an orgasm.
I take a long sip of the cold juice and try to look innocent.
Mandy starts to chuckle. “Well, we were raised in the same household, after all. He’s coming tonight, too. I’ve badgered him into it.”
“That’ll be fun.”
“Yes. And I was wondering if, maybe, you’d want to write a little piece on it?” She’s looking at me with wide eyes, and I know I’m being manipulated. But I also know this might be a necessity to gain the interview.
I’ve done far weirder things in the past to get an “in” with the memoir subjects.
“I can do my best, yeah. Where would it be published?”
“Online,” she says, like that explains everything. Her face is all smiles again. “You’re a very talented writer, or so my brother says. I’d love to read a few of your draft chapters.”
“I can show you. We could meet for lunch tomorrow or the day after,” I suggest. “You can then see the article I write about your company’s product launch, and read some of the chapters about your brother. And we could chat.”
When in doubt, formalize the agreement.
Mandy looks at me across the kitchen island. She hears the bargain just as clearly as I do.
But then she nods. “Yes. We’ll do that. I’ll book us a table.”
“How about working here? I can order in, and we’ll sit out on Aiden’s patio.” I give her a friendly smile. “Less noise. We can focus better.”
“All right, that makes sense. But,” she says and holds up a finger in my direction, “don’t become a hermit like Aiden.”
“A hermit?”
“He doesn’t do anything since he had to take over Titan. He doesn’t go out, doesn’t meet up with friends, barely goes up to visit Mom in Sonoma.”
“Mandy,” a deep voice says. Aiden strolls into the kitchen. His hair is damp, and he’s in a button-down and slacks again. But he hasn’t had time to shave, so there’s a rugged shadow covering his jaw.
I look away, or the memory of what happened not even an hour ago will show on my face.
“Don’t fill Charlotte’s head with lies,” he says.
“They aren’t lies. You don’t do anything social!”
Aiden shakes his head and comes to stand beside her at the kitchen island. “I work.”
“Balance, Aiden. There needs to be balance.” But she’s smiling as she says it, and I get the sense this is a conversation they’ve had many times before.
Judging from his face, it’s also one he’s tired of. Doesn’t surprise me. There’s a reason he’s working so hard, and it’s to restore something their dad nearly ruined. It’s easy to see that Aiden is annoyed at his sister for not realizing that. Or maybe just for ignoring it altogether.
I fill a glass with juice for him. He accepts it with a warm look cast my way.
“You’re still coming tonight, right?” Mandy asks him.
“About that,” he says.
Mandy turns from a glamorous, smiling blonde to annoyed little sister in a heartbeat. “Don’t say it. You are coming. You promised.”
There’s tiredness etched into every bone of his being. I can feel it, standing across from him. For just a day, I’d like to give him space to be nothing but himself. With no one tugging him in a million directions—for interviews, for meetings, for decisions.
Not even me.
“Please come, even for just an hour or two. Several of my single friends will be there, and they’ll bring single friends, too.”
“Mandy,” he says. “It’s weird for me to come.”
“Of course it’s not. I asked Charlotte to come, too, and she just said yes! She’s going to write an article about it.”
Aiden’s gaze slides to mine. “You’re going?”
“Yes.”
His eyes darken, and then he looks back at his sister. “Charlotte has enough work on her plate without being forced to write an article about your business start-up.”
“I didn’t force her!”
“I don’t feel forced.”
Aiden runs a hand through his hair, mussing it again. It looks even better now. “Fuck. Fine. I’ll go tonight, but Charlotte…” His eyes slide back to mine, and he takes a deep breath. “You have no idea what party you’ve just committed yourself to.”
Mandy pushes the bag in my direction. “Dress code is lingerie. I brought you a few choice outfits from our latest collection, just in case you don’t have anything that fits the occasion.” Her smile is so wide, it’s blinding. Like looking at the sun. “Can’t wait to see you there!”