22. Get Real
22
GET REAL
F oster slammed on the brakes when he turned into his driveway.
There was Charlotte running in front of his SUV.
He rolled the window down. “Hey,” he said. “Do you have a ghost in the house?”
“No,” she said. “I can handle a ghost. I can’t always handle not being told the truth, but ghosts I think I’ve got some advantages over.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“We need to talk,” she said, crossing her arms.
“At my place or yours?” he asked. “Where is Marco?”
“He’s in his crate. I don’t want him around for this.” She climbed into the passenger side of his SUV and he drove down the long driveway in silence.
He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what was going on.
Then it hit him.
Not being told the truth.
He parked and they got out. He grabbed his laptop from the back where he’d tossed it when Charlotte was climbing in.
When they were in the kitchen, he turned to her. “You know.”
“What is it I’m supposed to know?” she asked.
He let out a sigh. “My name.”
“Mitchell is your middle name, not your last name. I feel like an idiot for not questioning that.”
“You assumed it,” he said.
“You didn’t correct it,” she said. “If I asked you, would you have?”
He wasn’t sure if he would have, but he wouldn’t have lied. “Probably,” he said.
“Which isn’t yes.” She was pacing around his kitchen. If he thought she’d be upset over this, he was wrong. She was livid. “Are you playing some game?”
“No,” he said firmly. “I don’t play games. I told you that before. I’ve never lied to you once. You know what I do for a living. I’ve mentioned the number of siblings I’ve got. Where some of them live too.”
“But you were careful with their names,” she said.
“I was,” he said. “I always will be. You have no idea what it’s like to live in West’s shadow. Some of my siblings have no problem with it. I do.”
“Yet you work for your brother,” she said. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yes,” he said. “I did. We all did. West made a promise to care for us and none of us want that. What he did, and how we were raised, was to be there for each other. Braylon and Laken, they play a bigger part in West’s businesses. I do mine behind the scenes. I stay away from the public view and like it that way.”
“Is that why you work here?” she asked.
“Yes. My brother knows enough to put us where it works the best. I’m close enough to him in the City or his house on Long Island.”
He never said where West lived. Only he visited family about an hour from here.
“I want to be so mad. There is part of me that is hurt too. I told you about my past. A lot of things.”
“I’ve done the same!” he shouted.
She stopped and stared at him. He didn’t normally yell anymore, but he was getting worked up.
It had to mean something more than he was willing to admit if he was losing control.
“Why are you mad at me?” she asked. “I’ve told you who I was and haven’t hidden anything. You even know my sister and who she’s married to.”
“You’re accusing me of something and it’s pissing me off,” he said. “I told you why I didn’t tell you.”
“No, you really didn’t,” she said. “Why don’t you do that? From a dating perspective I don’t care about your brother or his money or businesses. I don’t care about anyone in your family. The only person I care about is the one that I opened my heart and soul to and I’m trying to decide if I’ve made another mistake in my life.”
He could see she was trying not to yell back at him, but it was hard.
Her fists were clenched, her body was stiff, and she was staring him down.
But she was giving him a chance to explain, which was more than he could have hoped for.
“When women find out who my brother is, they know right away I’ve got money,” he said.
“They are going to know it by your house, Foster. Get real.”
“I know,” he said. “But around here, lots of people have houses on the water, but that doesn’t mean anything more than they could be house-poor.”
“You’ve got a point. So you don’t want women to want you for money. Got it. I didn’t know who you were until a few hours ago, so you can’t accuse me of that. Unless you think I’m the one lying?”
The way there was fire all but shooting out of her eyes, there was no way he was saying he thought that. He was positive all the hair would be singed off of his body if he did.
He didn’t believe it anyway.
“You’re not,” he said. “You’re one of the most truthful people I know. I think that is what drew me to you.”
“Oh really,” she said. “Yet you couldn’t be the same way.”
“I haven’t lied to you,” he snarled.
“You do have a temper,” she said. “And surprisingly, I’m not afraid of it.”
He frowned. “I don’t want you to be afraid of me,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because,” he said.
“Because why?” she asked. “Give me something, Foster. I called Amanda. I was upset and mad. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. I really do. I’m hurt that I didn’t see how much you were hiding, but at the same time when I did some research, I saw how much you told me without giving all the facts.”
“That’s right,” he said. “I gave you enough. Any other woman would have tried to find me or searched for me at this point. Charlotte, you know my address. All you had to do was look at the property records for the town.”
Her lips were twitching. “I know. But do you know why I didn’t do that?”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I figured there had to be a reason you were being so private and that it wouldn’t be right for me to do it. I thought you’d tell me when the time was right. Not that I’d have to find out from someone else.”
Which meant she hadn’t tried to find out on her own.
“Who told you?” he asked.
“Does it matter?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “It does. It does to me.”
“It wasn’t my sister,” she said. “Do you know Drew? I’d think all billionaires know each other. I mean it’s kind of a small circle, right?”
The sarcasm wasn’t lost on him. “I do not know Drew. West does know Drew’s father and has met Drew. I’m not a billionaire. I’m not in that circle.”
“You’ve talked to your brother about me?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I have. You wanted me to give you something. I am. West, Laken, Braylon and Nelson knew about you Memorial Day weekend. I was in a mood and they saw it and got it out of me.”
“We hadn’t even started dating at that point,” she said. Her fingers relaxed and she moved over to sit on a stool.
“No,” he said. “But you had me all messed up inside. I told them a tiny bit about you. Then some more later on. I mentioned to West who your brother-in-law was. I even called my brother Elias, who I’m close with, last week to talk about you.”
“Really?” she asked. Her shoulders drooped and then she popped back up in fighting mode. As if she wasn’t ready to give in yet. He could appreciate that. “What did you say to him?”
“That I was dating you,” he said. “He warned me that I should tell you my last name. Everyone has.”
“But you didn’t,” she said. “Why? I don’t understand that at this point. You say you know me and I’m a truthful person. You have told your family about me. But you couldn’t admit what your last name was. I need to understand this.”
“I told you why,” he said. “I just wanted to be looked at as Foster. Not West’s brother. Not anything else other than what you saw of me. The same way I only looked at you as Charlotte. Not Charlotte Moore.”
She seemed taken back by his words.
Maybe he was getting through to her.
He at least hoped so.
“I get it now,” she said. “I think I did all along before I stopped you. But I still feel like a fool.”
“Don’t feel that way,” he said.
“Would you have told me if I hadn’t found out?”
“Of course,” he said. “The fact that my siblings knew, meant they were going to push to meet you soon.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t make it a habit of introducing people to my family.”
“Then why say that?” she asked.
“Because you asked me to give you something and that is what I’m doing. I’m telling you this thing we’ve got—the thing that has no name—whatever it is, is enough that I’m willing to share when I don’t like to. That you’ve felt as if I’ve been hiding things, but I haven’t been hiding you to those that mean the most in my life.”