Chapter 15 Lucia
Chapter fifteen
Lucia
Lucia was quite nervous. Sure, the stakes were lower since she wasn’t actually dating Colton, but she still had to pretend to be dating Colton, and she honestly didn’t know what that entailed.
It was hard enough not to drool over him in that long-sleeve button-down that put his muscles on full display.
She was also struggling to work through the whole they almost had sex in her office thing, but that was the last thought she needed to be focused on as she walked up the stairs of the white house, clutching tightly to the gift bag that held a bottle of whiskey.
The door opened before they even knocked, revealing a tall woman of about twenty-two or twenty-three with tan skin and dark-brown hair. She was stunning, and she smiled wide as she launched herself at Colton, who realized just in time that his sister was hurtling toward him.
“Hey, Mai. Missed you.” The woman, Maya, gave Colton one more squeeze before turning to Lucia, smiling wider, if that was even possible.
Lucia held out her free hand. “Hi, I’m—”
“Lucia!” Maya’s arms were around her, and Lucia hugged her back tentatively, smiling at Colton from over his sister’s shoulder. Even in her kitten heels, Lucia was a couple of inches shorter than her.
“You have no idea how thankful I am that you’re here. Family functions are so boring with me as the only girl.” Maya slung an arm around Lucia’s shoulders and led her inside the house, leaving Colton to walk in behind them.
“It’s really nice to meet you. Colton speaks very highly of you.”
“As he should! I’m his favorite sister, after all.”
The foyer was open and spacious. Maya pointed out where Lucia could leave her shoes.
“My brothers and father hate it, but especially when we’re honoring our mom, I insist we take off our shoes. It’s how we grew up, and it’s what Mom would’ve wanted.”
Lucia smiled kindly as she stepped out of her heels. A man a couple of years younger than Colton but a few inches taller walked into the foyer, making eye contact with Maya as he hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Mai, Liliana needs your help in the kitchen.”
Maya scoffed, “Oh, what? You’re too tall to help her out yourself? Sexist pig.” She turned to Lucia. “I won’t subject you to their sexism by asking you to come with me to help Dad’s chef. You hang out with Colton and Landon, and I’ll be back.”
Landon smirked at his sister before stepping forward and focusing that smirk squarely on Lucia. “Well, hello there. You’re even prettier in person.” He extended a tattooed hand. “Landon Beaumont, Colton’s younger and sexier brother.”
The cocky smirk grew wider as Colton came up behind her and placed a hand on her back. She put her much smaller hand in Landon’s outstretched palm.
“Ah, yes, the famous tight end. I’m Lucia, Colton’s very serious girlfriend.”
As if to reward her, Colton’s pointer finger dragged little patterns on her back through the fabric of her floral dress. She squashed the urge to lean into him, pulling her hand back from the handshake.
Something strange passed between the brothers, and Lucia wasn’t sure how to read it.
She didn’t have siblings and had never known the competitive feeling that accompanied playing the same sport and trying to one-up one another.
She didn’t know much about their relationship, but even she could see that it was a little strained.
Still, they leaned in for a hug and clapped one another on the back.
“Your stats are looking much better.”
“Thanks, you’ve had a great season too.”
From an outsider’s perspective, the interaction might’ve seemed odd. But just as she’d imagined, Landon’s body language told her he wasn’t Colton’s biggest fan. It was clear there was a lot of family trauma the boys needed to work through together, and she hoped one day that they would.
She walked beside the brothers into the living room and connected kitchen, Colton’s hand still resting on her, though now around her waist. Maya and an older blonde woman, who Lucia assumed was the chef Maya had spoken of before, were facing away from them, chopping something.
The smell of food cooking made Lucia’s stomach grumble, and she saw the quirk of Colton’s lips at the sound.
The sound of footsteps had all of them turning.
Lucia felt like the entire room was holding its breath.
The spell was broken as the shortest Beaumont man with green eyes and graying hair walked in.
His eyes landed immediately on Colton before they slid to Lucia, narrowing almost accusatorially on her.
“Hi, Mr. Beaumont. I’m Lucia. This is for you.” She held out the pretty gift bag, almost embarrassed as he took it from her like it was a bomb. He peered inside, and seemingly satisfied that she wasn’t trying to blow up his family, he set it on the counter.
When she’d asked Colton what his father might like, the only thing he’d been able to think of was whiskey.
She had spent longer than she should’ve researching the best one to buy him, hoping to make a good first impression, but she could tell he’d made his mind up about her before she’d stepped through the door of his house.
“Nice to meet you,” he said in a way that made it seem like it was not, in fact, nice to meet her. He turned to Colton. “Let’s go talk about the game before dinner.”
She saw Colton’s shoulders sag as he grimaced. He shot her an apologetic look but followed his father out of the room. Lucia couldn’t figure out why he’d deflated, since the Sabers had won the game by three scores and Colton had played quite well.
“Landon, make yourself useful and go set the table, please. We’ll start setting out food in a minute.” Maya wasn’t even facing them as she said it, though she turned around and winked at Lucia as Landon grumbled.
“Lucia, join me.”
Lucia followed Landon into an adjacent room.
The dining room was massive, with a huge, wooden table and matching chairs.
Intricate placemats of red, gold, and blue sat at each setting, though they looked old and worn.
A blue table runner lay down the middle of the long table, tying into the decor well.
Besides the table, there was little else decorating the room.
There were no family photos, pictures of pets, or even paintings.
It felt very cold, just like the rest of the house.
“So, you’re the minx who dated Colton’s sworn enemy, right?
I can’t tell you how much I’ve heard about Max Clark over the past nine years.
I was surprised when I heard you and Colton got together.
” She tried to detect any note of suspicion in his tone as she grabbed the plates from the head of the table, setting them out as he laid out silverware and thinking through how best to respond.
“I was working as a Vipers analyst, and it didn’t work out for me there, so I transferred to the Sabertooths to help Colton after the first two preseason games. We didn’t see eye to eye in the beginning, as you can imagine.”
That got a chuckle out of him as he continued around the table.
“We started spending more time together, and we realized that we had a lot of common interests. After that, everything kind of just fell into place, I guess.”
It felt odd lying to Landon, but the last thing she wanted was for him not to believe that they were together.
Colton already had to deal with his helicopter parent of a father, he didn’t need his brother teasing him for lying about a girlfriend too.
If it meant protecting him from that, she had no qualms about fibbing.
Landon chuckled again. “Well, I’m certainly surprised.
Colton’s probably the best of us at holding a grudge.
Granted, he’s had to deal with the most shit from our dad, but still, he can be a real dick sometimes.
I don’t know how he managed to get his shit together enough to convince you to go out with him. ”
Lucia grinned. “He’s very stubborn.”
“That, I knew. But glad to hear he put that particular personality trait to use at something that matters. One thing we have in common is that we are both no good at relationships. I haven’t seen him date someone seriously in years.”
“Do you think he just didn’t have the time before?” She was being nosy, but she really wanted to know why he’d spent so many of his best years alone.
“I’d joke that he has no game with women, but I think we can probably agree that’s not true.”
She shook her head. The perpetual warmth that swept through her when he was near was a good indication that it wasn’t even a little true. Not to mention how she’d nearly come apart in her office.
“Right. Anyway, I think Colt was dealt a tough hand with our dad. He’s got it so deeply ingrained in him that his football stats have to be perfect all the time that he probably never even thought about it. You must’ve really taken him by surprise.”
She laughed as she leaned against one of the chairs. “I think what surprised him was that I didn’t take any of his shit.”
He gave her a genuine smile, not one of his cocky smirks, as he said, “Good. He needs it.”
She thought back to what he’d said about their dad. “Your dad’s pretty hard on all of you, huh?”
“Hard’s an understatement, but like I said, Colton gets the worst of it.
He was the first-born son who could do no wrong.
” There was that tinge of bitterness. “Unless, of course, he is on the field. No matter how hard Colton works, no matter how he perfects his game at the expense of his life, his relationships, his everything, it has never been enough for dear ol’ Dad. ”
The thought made Lucia’s heart hurt for a young Colton. “Why has he pushed you and Colton so hard in football? I mean, I know he played in college and was a first-round favorite for the draft, but it feels like a lot of pressure to put on someone else.”