Chapter 15
“You sent the email long before, so she knows your interest in her work is valid,” my brother says as Avery tosses the fur-lined blanket over his legs, pressing a kiss to his temple as she passes by.
“It’s a small cold, Avery. He truly doesn’t deserve this level of care,” I complain, jealous of the way my brother’s impossible love triangle worked out, and how he gets to easily be with the forbidden fruit and I’m stuck.
Avery smiles, tucking soft hair behind her ear as she passes by, giving my shoulder a conciliatory pat. “What’s the matter, Ford? If you tell me, maybe I can help,” she offers, moving around until she reappears with mugs and a carafe of fresh coffee.
Geo’s mouth parts, but I cast daggers at him, glaring. My brother rolls his eyes, and sips the coffee his wife has passed him. “He wants someone he thinks he shouldn’t.”
Her head volleys from me, to him and then back to me, waiting for an answer.
“I shouldn’t. She’s important to…” I trail off, deciding how to rephrase the sentence so it isn’t obvious.
“She’s important to our family, and if we started something and it didn’t work, it would make life unreasonably hard for everyone, all for me to selfishly hope there’s more in a place where there should not be more. ”
Avery looks at my brother, a smirk curving the side of her lips.
“What?”
I hate the little private look they share as Sutton enters the room, hair wet, dressed in sweats with his feet bare.
“Morning, Uncle Ford,” he greets, dipping his head as he collects Avery in his arms, kissing her cheek, then jaw, and once on her neck.
I look at my brother, who dances his brows at me as he sips the coffee Avery brought him.
“Elle?” Avery guesses beneath the barrage of affection from my nephew. Elle is a logical guess. Everyone seems to think that Elle and I should be together. Elle and I have never shared those feelings, though.
Geo shakes his head before I have a chance to tell her she’s off the mark. “They are platonic. Completely.”
Sutton shoves his hand through his hair, and looks over at his father, beneath a blanket, with hot tea on the table. “Oh great. We’re getting sick now?”
Avery braces her hands on his shoulders and presses to her toes, kissing his cheek. “We might be. Your dad’s a touch under the weather. Don’t sweat it. I already juiced you some wheatgrass and added echinacea.”
It’s a guarantee that if one of them is sick, the three of them get sick, because they share Avery.
I remember when Geo first told me about their dynamic, and I admit, I never truly found it strange.
And I never feel like I’m amidst something torrid or erotic while we’re together as a family.
It’s love, their way, and that’s all. It just looks differently for them.
I see the irony, and scratch the side of my jaw, the knot in my gut tightening. Sutton shrugs, as if it’s all so obvious. “Are you talking about Juliette Wilson being like, completely out of her mind for you?”
My heart stops.
“What?” Her admission on the balcony runs through my mind.
Avery bobs her head, her mouth full of fresh coffee, allowing Geo to take over. “He’s just now seeing,” my brother says, wearing a smirk that he buries in his drink as he sips.
“She doesn’t–” I start, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed the flush that overtakes her when I’m around, the way she begged for me two nights back.
Her hands holding herself open for me flash behind my eyes, and I clear my throat, uncomfortable to replay that memory in mixed company.
“She is not… out of her mind for me.” I shake my head staunchly, definitively.
“She’s Kat’s best friend. It’s–she’s off-limits. ”
The house falls silent but for Geo’s slow sipping, and when I lift my eyes from my feet, I learn that I am the focus of everyone around me.
“What?”
Sutton pushes out a breath. “That’s dumb.”
I scoff, because the moment requires a scoff. “No, it’s not.” My daughter’s most important relationship is not a dumb reason.
“She’s married now,” Avery offers softly.
“So?” I counter. “Juliette is Kat’s, not mine,” I say, though as the words leave my mouth, they don’t feel quite right, and they don’t feel completely true.
“What I mean to say is that… Zennie is her person now. And yeah, Juliette is still her best friend of course but… it’s different once you’re married.
That best friend bond has to evolve when a partner is in the picture,” Avery says, and as someone recently married and in a happy marriage, it would be arrogant not to believe her.
My brother smooths his hand over the blanket Avery put on his lap. “Kat wants her best friend to be happy. And if that’s with you, I don’t think she’d take issue.”
I glare at him. “Don’t tell me you were privy to this idea that Juliette has a crush on me because you’ve never mentioned a word of it.” I feel my cheeks flame behind the ink on my throat.
He smiles. “It wasn’t until you expressed interest in her did it become something of value to mention.”
Sutton rolls his eyes. “He didn’t know.”
I get to my feet, and place the cup down on the counter. “No more of this conversation. There’s nothing to discuss. The other night was a mistake. She’s got a boyfriend for Christ’s sake.” I snag my keys from the counter and my phone, too.
“What happened the other night?” Avery asks.
I shoot my brother a glance, because he’s well-versed in the fucked up events of the wedding night. Not just that I left her place, but why I left. Exactly why I couldn’t stay and finish what I started, despite the fact that it was the first time in years that I wanted to do just that.
“Nothing. Nothing happened,” I lie, as I finger my phone in my pocket and think about calling Juliette.
“Construction is underway on the new Velvet location downtown,” I say, slipping my feet into my sneakers.
“I’m going to head down there and see how things are going.
” I cast them all a warning glare. “No more of this talk. I don’t want it getting back to… anyone.”
Avery salutes me, and Sutton lifts his hands as if to say he’s not going to be a problem. My brother just smirks, but I know he won’t betray me.
On the drive to the waterfront location, I give Juliette a call, not exactly sure what I’m going to say but absolutely losing my mind from the way I left things Saturday night.
Even though I had no plans of what I would say, I called her a ton of times yesterday too, desperate to explain or apologize, I don’t exactly know.
But she never picked up.
I made her come on the balcony two nights ago, then left her mid-coitus, naked and exposed, leaving her to wonder what the hell happened.
Fuck.
That has to be the worst thing I’ve done to one of the best people I know.
My phone rings from the center console, and I snatch it up, answering immediately, hope pumping through my veins. “Juliette?”
The sigh that filters through the line filets my hope. “Elle,” I say, rerouting. “How are you?”
“Disappointing everyone today, apparently,” she groans. “Why were you expecting Juliette?”
Unwilling to share with anyone but Geo about what happened, even though Elle and I are close, I brush it off. “Ah, I was trying to contact her about the new photos she’s going to be taking for the flagship location.” I flick on my blinker. “What’s going on?”
She rolls her neck the way she always does before unleashing a slew of grievances.
And by the time I pull up to the construction site of the new location, Elle has successfully explained the way her biggest business deal is suddenly walking a personal line, and how torn she is because she’s dying to pursue the man, but she needs the deal for her career.
I shift my car into park, and check my phone screen to make sure I haven’t missed a text message from Juliette but all it shows is a twenty-seven minute call with Elle, and zero missed messages or calls.
My stomach clenches uncomfortably, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this uneasy and at odds with myself before. Ever.
Why did I even go to her house? Why did I even fucking touch her on the balcony?
And more than that, why does it feel like the only actual mistake I made was leaving her?
“Finish the deal, and see if he pursues you after the papers are signed.” I hop out of the car, and close the door with my hip, moving my phone from one hand to the other so I can shake the foreman’s hand.
“I’m sure his intentions are true, but in the event they are bottom-line aligned, this ensures that they aren’t.
Don’t conflate business and pleasure. You know that. ”
A text message comes through, and I promise Elle I’ll call her this afternoon, after my meetings.
I’m not dressed for meetings, and in fact, I’d planned on spending the day overseeing the start of construction, talking to the foreman and in general making my presence known so there is less fucking around at the construction site.
Checking the text, another mistake comes rolling back.
“Fuck,” I breathe, stepping away from the crew for a moment.
I glance down at the text message reminder for my financial planning meeting today with Juliette’s boyfriend.
The boyfriend she was supposed to be dumping.
The boyfriend whose contact information I got from going through her fucking phone.
Another layer of guilt builds, because on top of acting like a complete fucking asshole two nights back, I’m now meeting with Juliette’s boyfriend without her knowledge.
It’s business, and I plan to do business with Harry, so she doesn’t have to know.
But deep down, I know she’d be surprised to learn that I met with him, and after I unpleasantly surprised her the other night by leaving after demanding she give herself to me, I think I should pace myself on shitty behavior.