Chapter 21
Chapter twenty-one
Kelsey
“Hello,” I say, my voice gravelly with sleep.
“Kelsey?” My sister’s voice comes through my phone. “Why is it so dark?”
Crap. I grab my phone and shove it into my pillow, confused about how I accidentally answered a video call without knowing it.
“Mmm,” Carter groans from next to me, and I flip my phone back around, aggressively smashing the red button to end the call.
Carter’s large body surges upright, his hand immediately reaching for the phone next to him. His eyes are intent as they meet mine. “What’s wrong? Is everything okay with Jaxon?”
We had another potential Bennie sighting at the concert last night at the Tokyo Dome, and even though my team determined it was likely another false positive, everyone is back on high alert, especially since there are no cameras in the hallways of our Japanese hotel room.
Slowly scanning his bare chest, I take a second to appreciate his abs flexing above the crisp white sheet. I haven’t gotten over how good he looks in the morning.
“All good,” I say, leaning over to kiss him lightly. “It’s Izzy. She video called me, and I accidentally answered it.”
“Ashamed to be seen with me?” he teases as my phone starts ringing again.
“Just don’t need more people in my business,” I say, clicking the button on the side to stop the vibration. “Jaxon meddling in our lives is enough for me. Plus, once my sisters catch wind of something, they’re going to continue to interfere until they get exactly what they want.”
“And you’re worried they’re not going to like me?” he asks, concern flaring in his eyes.
I snort as I throw on one of my running outfits. “No. I’m more worried they’re going to become best friends with your mom, and they’ll have a wedding planned for us by the time we get home.”
My phone starts vibrating in my hand again, and I stare down at it, unsure of what to do.
Carter stands up, pulling on a pair of black joggers and a T-shirt from his bag. Kissing my forehead, he grabs his key off the dresser and heads toward the door. “I’ll go grab some coffees. You let them know I think red roses at weddings are cliché.”
I laugh as I stare after him, impressed yet again by how firm his ass looks in all pants—especially those joggers that hug him just right, outlining every muscle as he moves.
His legs, long and strong, seem to take up more of my mental space with each stride.
Maybe I should start lifting with him in the mornings instead of making him come on runs with me.
The door shutting pulls my focus back to my phone, and I finally answer my sister’s call.
“Hey, Iz,” I say, pulling open the blinds to stare out at the roof of the Imperial Palace a few blocks over.
“Hey, Iz? That’s how you’re going to answer after hanging up on me and then ignoring my calls?”
“Would you have preferred ‘What up’?” I joke.
“I, unfortunately, have to agree with Izzy on this one,” my sister Bryn says, shoving her face into the screen next to Izzy’s.
With their straight brown hair, similar builds, and darker eyes, people used to get my sisters confused, even in a town as small as Wild Bluffs.
The odd one out with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a petite frame compared to them, people tended to think I was sisters with Izzy’s friend Becca instead of my actual sisters.
When I moved to the East Coast for college at the United States Naval Academy, I realized I wasn’t actually that small at five foot five, but I’ve never stopped feeling short.
Carter doesn’t do much to help with it, though at least he isn’t a hulking behemoth like Bryn’s boyfriend.
“Hey, Bryn,” I say, forcing cheerfulness into my tone. “Any news on your house?”
“It’s Jameo’s house,” she shoots back. “But it’s coming along nicely.”
I can’t help but smirk at the annoyed look Izzy is sending Bryn’s way.
“Don’t let her distract you,” my middle sister chides Bryn.
Noting the distinct windows of my sister’s downtown office space, I ask, “Why are you all at the office on the weekend?”
“Lila said she had to come in to get some work done, so we thought we’d keep her company,” Izzy says.
“Distract her is more likely,” I tease.
“Hi, Kelsey!” Lila’s voice carries through the phone from somewhere on their side of things. “I sent you a few messages, but nothing is pressing.”
“I’ll get back to you before I head to the venue for tonight’s concert,” I tell Lila, mentally calculating all the things I need to do before I leave for the Tokyo Dome at two.
Luckily, today is the second concert at the same venue, so we don’t have to have the larger security team meeting.
This afternoon we’ll just touch base with the team leads.
I firmly shut Carter down when he asked me to stay over the first two nights in Japan, refusing to be distracted by this thing between us.
I’d tried to stay in my own room last night, but Carter had shown up, puppy dog eyes in full force, and said, “Okay, but hear me out, what if you stayed in my room for tonight? And tomorrow night too? Let’s call it the next thirty to forty-five nights at minimum.”
How am I supposed to resist that?
So, being the strong, independent woman I am, I said yes, but only for the night. There is no way I can do this job if I’m sleeping with him every night. Even if I actually believed I’d be sleeping, which, if last night is any indication, there isn’t much rest happening.
“Sooo,” drawls Bryn from my phone. “Who was that?”
I force my face into a puzzled expression. “What do you mean?”
“That very masculine voice that mumbled something when you answered the call earlier. The one when you were clearly in bed.”
“I fell asleep with the TV on.”
Both my sisters send looks of disbelief at me through the phone.
“It feels like she’s lying to us,” Bryn says to Izzy.
“Definitely lying. The real question is why.”
“Do you think she’s sleeping with one of her employees?” Bryn says, a smirk pulling up the side of her mouth.
“Technically”—Lila’s voice cuts in, and both my sisters look away from the phone to listen to her—“there isn’t anyone traveling with Kelsey who is her employee.”
“Damn, so everyone is fair game?” Bryn asks. “Are you just sleeping your way through the Mitchell Security team?”
Their laughs twine together, a lighthearted sound that almost makes me want to join in. Almost.
“Yup,” I deadpan. “Just waiting for Trent to show up again so I can complete the roster.”
“Gross,” Bryn says. “Thank fuck I know you’re joking.”
“She might not be,” Izzy says, a contemplative look on her face. “She did say Trent wasn’t as bad as she thought before she left. Maybe they’re having an illicit affair.”
“Is that why he was returning the trophy wife’s car? Did you wreck their home?” Bryn asks. “Is this a Brad-and-Jennifer situation? Are you Angelina?” she gasps.
“You really spiraled there,” I say.
“You’re the one who brought Trent into the conversation.”
Izzy’s face lights up like she’s just remembered something. “Speaking of Trent, I heard he was at the bank last weekend meeting with a loan officer. What do you think he’s planning on buying the wife this time? A pool?”
Bryn laughs. “A pool? For the one week a year that you’d actually want to swim outdoors in eastern Colorado? If he’s smart, he’s buying a vacation house someplace nice…maybe Costa Rica.”
“Did you two have something you actually wanted to talk to me about, or are you just bored because your famous golfer boyfriends are at a tournament?” I ask.
Izzy sticks her tongue out at me. “I don’t have a golfer boyfriend.”
“Cool flex, Iz,” Bryn says, nudging Izzy with her shoulder.
Izzy rolls her eyes. “Can we not just be calling because we’re your sisters, and we miss you?”
“It seems unlikely.”
“Well, in addition to calling because we miss you, we also are calling because Mom has asked each of us about five times in the last three days if we’ve talked to you, and I think she’s about to jump on an airplane and fly to Japan herself if you don’t answer one of her calls or show some proof of life. ”
Crap. I’ve been meaning to call my mom back, but she calls at literally the worst possible times.
It’s like she doesn’t understand the time difference.
She called twice during the concert last night, but she left a message saying she was just calling to talk, so I didn’t feel the need to return her call at two in the morning when I finally made it back to the hotel.
“I liked that picture of her coffee that she sent Friday,” I say. “Does that not count as proof of life?”
“Honestly, it made us all wonder if someone stole your phone. I searched how to tell if someone was abducted,” Izzy says, scrunching up her nose. “You’re not a big liker of Mom’s coffee photos.”
“She sends the same one every Friday. It barely changes. It’s a latte she makes at home with foamed milk on top.”
“I like it,” Izzy says. “They make me happy.”
“I told her to take me off the text chain,” Bryn replies.
“It’s our family text chain!” Izzy exclaims.
“I said what I said.”
“Fine,” I say. “I’ll call Mom.”
“Wait!” Izzy yells. “Tell us who it was. It’s Carter, isn’t it? Oh my God, please tell me you’re sleeping with Carter Mitchell. That man is the definition of brooding heartthrob.”
“No comment,” I say, and tap the button to hang up the call.
I call my mom back, making sure to show her the view out my window and tell her all about the drama between Mikayla and Nash.
The surest way into the heart of Jen Harper is to tell her the elaborate backstory of two people she’s never met before.
She’s immediately invested and will never forget their names or a detail about them.
She’ll probably inappropriately ask Nash about his crush on his colleague when she randomly runs into him in Denver, and suddenly she’ll be his best friend, sending him care packages any time he’s away on assignment.
My mom is annoyingly the best.
As I’m finishing up my call with her, Carter slips back into the room, juggling the two travel coffee cups he has so he can silently shut the door.
“Was that your mom?” he asks when I finally tell my mom goodbye.
“The woman herself.”
“How are Jen and Ken?” he asks with a chuckle.
Everyone loves the fact that their names rhyme.
“They’re good. My sisters are too. Though they’re far more annoying than my parents.”
He raises an eyebrow, taking a drink of my coffee.
It’s apparently our new thing. He was appalled our first morning in Japan to find out I never drink a whole cup of coffee, so now he just drinks half of mine in addition to his own.
Bryn would undoubtedly be disgusted by the germ-sharing portion of it, but it doesn’t bother me.
“They heard you this morning.”
“Ah. And that’s a bad thing, right?”
“Right…because we agreed we weren’t dating.”
“True. Though that was when we thought we’d get in trouble with Jaxon or his team.”
I nod. “It’s still probably best if we don’t tell people. I mean, this is still really…new.”
Carter clears his throat, his eyes darting over my shoulder.
“What?” I ask.
“I may have told my mom that we’d gone on a few dates. It’s fine, though, I’m sure she won’t remember it.”
I start to chuckle and then realize that may not be the appropriate response to a memory joke about someone with Alzheimer’s. I’m not sure what to do with my face…or my body for that matter. “Did you… Did you just make a memory joke about your mother…the one with dementia?”
He chuckles. “Inappropriate?”
“I mean, I don’t think I can tell you how to cope with your mom’s Alzheimer’s, but…at least warn a girl if you’re going to start going dark humor about it.”
A warm smile stretches across his face as he pulls me into a hug. “It feels good to laugh about it for once.”
“Did you talk to her while you were gone?” I ask, knowing Carter tries to call her every day.
“Yeah.” He sighs, dropping onto the edge of the bed. “I talked to both my mom and Mildred, Bill’s wife.”
I sit down next to him, grabbing his large hand in my own.
“How is she?”
“It’s hard to say because I don’t think they’d tell me unless it was really bad. It might just be talking to her over the phone or the change in routine with me gone, but…it feels like she’s getting worse.”