Chapter 21
brIGGS
The penthouse was quiet in a way that had never bothered me before. In the years I’d lived here, the quiet had been fine. It was welcome, in fact.
The building was secure. No one dropped by uninvited.
No noise came up from the floor below, because the floor below was also mine.
The city was seen and not heard from my ivory tower.
I had chosen this apartment specifically for these qualities.
I paid a significant amount of money for all those perks.
I had never once come home to find my apartment lacking anything. It was the epitome of luxury.
But now, I felt everything I didn’t have.
I ordered dinner from a restaurant two blocks away. Same place I ordered dinner from at least two nights a week. Dinner for one. Always. Me eating a meal alone. Again.
The penthouse had a second living room I rarely used. Floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides. It was a good room. Objectively. On the few occasions I’d had family over, everyone had gone directly to the windows.
I went and stood at the windows after my lonely dinner and looked at the city. It occurred to me, not for the first time since landing, that I was fucking married.
To a woman I had known for less than a week. She lived on the other side of the country. I had her phone number and I knew her last name, but that was about all I knew about her. Well, that and she was an event planner.
I supposed I knew more than that. She liked pink.
She was funny when she wasn’t scowling at me and thinking I was a drag.
And I couldn’t believe she got me to do karaoke.
I didn’t care that I was drunk and didn’t remember doing it.
I had definitely done it and there was plenty of proof of it.
As embarrassing as it was, it was nice to have proof I wasn’t the absolute stiff my brothers thought I was.
I could have fun. I could let my hair down.
I had tried to pinpoint the moment in my life that I shut off my sense of humor. It wasn’t that it was shut off. More like it was hidden. Stashed away.
In the days and weeks after my father died, it felt wrong to laugh or feel any kind of joy.
And just like anything else in life, the longer I went without laughing and finding joy in the dumbest things, the easier it got to be subdued.
I watched that light fade in Adrian as well.
It felt wrong to be happy when he was struggling.
Sebastian and Dash got to be the carefree brothers.
I had to stand beside Adrian. I did my best to shoulder some of his burden.
But he shucked the sadness and was now happier than he’d ever been. And he only got to have that because of Elizabeth.
What if Mandy is the one who can bring me back to the land of the living?
When you shut off the light, it was hard to turn it back on. The alcohol removed the obstacles and gave me the chance to feel that kind of excitement for life. Mandy gave me the courage to do it.
My father had worked himself to death at sixty-three.
I had watched him do it. And then I managed to step into the same pattern.
The company needed protecting. The brothers needed supporting.
The deals needed closing and the contracts needed reviewing and the litigation needed managing.
There was always more to do. After Dad died there was even more because the weight that had been his was now distributed among the four of us.
I also believed that it was possible to do the right thing until you forgot there were other things.
Not a lot of time for carriage rides and roller coasters.
I went to bed at ten-fifteen, which was earlier than usual.
It was intentional. I didn’t want to run on five hours of sleep because I’d been up late reviewing a contract or something else.
Now, if I was running on five hours of sleep because I’d been having amazing sex with a hot lady? That would be a different story.
The following morning I hit the gym, drank a protein shake, and headed into the office.
I sat at my desk with the files open and a fresh coffee and tried to give it the attention it deserved. My attention kept wavering.
It wasn’t that I was distracted, exactly. I was reading every page. I was registering the content. But somewhere between the registering and the processing, my mind was finding routes back to a hotel room in Las Vegas. I was thinking about Elvis and singing.
It was strange to miss someone I didn’t know. I wondered what could happen if we lived closer. Would there be more nights together?
Maybe. Possibly. We did get along when we weren’t fighting. And we were only fighting when I was being my typical self. But our last night together, I had been stone-cold sober and I had a lot of fun. I was different with her. And I wanted more of that freedom to be the guy I used to be.
The distance was the problem. Her life was in Los Angeles.
Her career was there. Mine was here. Not just professionally.
My family was here, the company was here, and everything I’d organized my life around was here.
People didn’t uproot their entire existences for someone they’d accidentally married in Las Vegas. That wasn’t how it worked.
The fake marriage had a timeline. The timeline had an end.
It was probably for the best that the end was coming, because the alternative was allowing whatever was happening in my chest to develop further.
If I allowed that feeling to grow, the distance would stop being a logistical problem and start being a genuine one.
This was me being practical.
The door opened without a knock. Dash strolled in, followed by Sebastian and then Adrian. I grimaced at the sight of Adrian with a wrinkled shirt and circles under his eyes. Life with a newborn was taking a toll on my normally put-together brother.
I leaned back in my chair, eyeing the three of them. They all looked pleased with themselves, which immediately put me on guard.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
Dash grinned and pulled out his phone, turning it toward me. “People love you as a couple. The engagement on social media has been insane. Every post either of you makes gets thousands of likes within minutes.”
I glanced at the screen. He was scrolling through comments on one of Mandy’s posts. Hearts. Fire emojis. People gushing about how romantic our story was.
“So?” I said.
Adrian stepped forward, settling into one of the chairs across from my desk. He looked exhausted, but he was in full CEO mode. “Let’s get this partnership announced. We’ve been sitting on it too long anyway. But here’s the thing—you and Mandy will now be the faces of the new line.”
I felt my jaw tighten. “What?”
“It was mostly going to be Mandy by herself before,” Adrian continued. “She’s the wedding planner, she’s got the aesthetic, the following. But now you two together? That’s gold. People can’t get enough of you two.”
“I’m not a model,” I said flatly. “I’m an attorney. I have zero interest in being the face of anything except my own body.”
“You’re also a Blackwell,” Sebastian pointed out. “And you’re married to our new partner. Whether you like it or not, you’re part of the brand now.”
I didn’t like it. I didn’t like being under a microscope.
I hated being photographed and scrutinized by strangers on the internet who thought they knew me based on a few drunken videos.
My job was to stay in the background and protect the family from legal disasters, not to be front and center selling wedding dresses and tuxedos.
But even as I wanted to argue, I knew it was a smart business decision. The engagement numbers Dash had shown me were real. People were invested in our story, fake as it was. And from a purely strategic standpoint, leveraging that attention made sense.
I thought back to when Adrian had been asked to do something similar with Elizabeth. He’d hated the idea at first, but I’d been the one to tell him it was good for the company. That sometimes we had to step outside our comfort zones for the sake of the brand.
I’d be a hypocrite to say no when it was my turn.
“Fine,” I said, the word coming out more reluctant than I’d intended.
Dash’s grin widened. “Really?”
“Don’t make me regret this.”
“Too late,” Sebastian said with a laugh.
Adrian leaned forward slightly. “We’ll need to coordinate with Mandy, obviously. Get you two in the same place for photo shoots, campaign planning, that kind of thing. We’re thinking a soft launch next month, then a bigger reveal at Fashion Week.”
I nodded slowly, my mind already working through the logistics. And then, despite myself, I felt something that might have been anticipation. Because on the plus side, it would give me an excuse to spend time with my wife. Get to know her better. Maybe fool around again.
That last thought caught me off guard, but I didn’t push it away.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
Adrian stood, straightening his wrinkled shirt. “Pack your bags. We’re going to LA.”
I stared at him. “We?”
“Not me,” he said quickly. “Elizabeth would kill me if I left her alone with Bucky for more than a few hours. But you. You’re going to LA. Tonight if possible.”
“Tonight,” I repeated.
“Strike while the iron’s hot,” Dash said. “Besides, don’t you want to see your wife?” He waggled his brows just in case I didn’t get the gist of what he was saying.
“For how long?” I asked.
“Few days, maybe a week,” Adrian said. “Long enough to get the initial campaign materials done and make sure you two can actually work together without killing each other.”
“We can work together,” I said.
“Can you?” Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Because from what I remember, you two were at each other’s throats in that first meeting.”
“That was before.”
“Before you married her?”
“Before I got to know her,” I corrected.
The three of them exchanged glances. I didn’t like the looks on their faces.
“What?” I demanded.
“Nothing,” Dash said, but he was smiling. “Just interesting to hear you say that.”
I stood, gathering the files on my desk. “If I’m leaving tonight, I need to get some work reassigned. I’ve got a lot on my plate. Some stuff I can handle remotely, but I can’t just up and leave. Who’s covering my depositions?”
“I’ll handle them,” Sebastian said. “You just focus on your wife.”
There was that word again. Wife. It still felt strange, even though I’d said it myself multiple times now. Even though I’d had sex with her.
“I’m sorry, when did you go to law school?” I asked.
He grinned. “I mean I’ll coordinate with the legal team to do the law stuff.”
I hesitated for a minute. “You know what, I’ll just make sure to check in with them every couple of hours.”
“Hey, I’m not an imbecile.”
I gave him a look that said I didn’t believe that in the slightest.
“You’re going to be with him,” Adrian said. “I’ll handle things here.”
“Please tell me the jet is available. You punished me with the flight to Vegas once already. I don’t need to experience that again.”
“Oh no. The horror of commercial.” Sebastian laughed as he said it.
“I’m sorry, when’s the last time you flew commercial?” I turned to look at Dash, who had laughed as well. “And I know you never do.”
“Alright, alright, busted,” Dash said. “I’ll call the pilot. We should be ready to leave in a few hours.”
“Fine. I’ll meet you guys at the hangar. Now go away so I can get this done.”
“This is good,” Adrian said. “I’m loving the idea of this campaign. Wasn’t planned but it’s going to work well.”
“This is me making lemonade from lemons,” I said.
“I’m sure your wife will love being compared to lemons,” Dash said.
“You tell her, and I’ll castrate you,” I warned.
He laughed his way out of my office. The other two left and I returned to my work.
I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Excitement.
I was going to see my wife.
And I couldn’t wait.