17. Ander
ANDER
Theo is on my couch, checking his watch for the fourth time in ninety seconds.
“She’ll be here,” I tell him. “Relax.”
He doesn’t respond, and he checks his watch again.
I’ve never seen Theo this hooked on a woman.
My chef, Angelo, is in my kitchen searing salmon; the penthouse smells like brown butter and lemon. The table is set for three.
Tonight is going to be a great night. I drop into the armchair across from my brother.
“Fuck, Theo, your anxiousness is making me anxious. She’s coming.” I prop a boot on the edge of the coffee table because Theo hates that. But it’s my house.
He looks at my boot. He looks at me.
I laugh.
And then the motherfucker smiles.
Is Theo actually in a good mood? Bianca is probably the best thing that has ever happened to him.
The elevator dings.
Theo straightens his shirt. I don’t straighten anything.
I do, however, push up out of the armchair and stand.
The elevator opens. And there she is, in a cream sweater and jeans, hair down, cheeks pink from the cold weather outside.
Goddamn. I can’t wait to fuck her.
And then I wonder if she’ll be in the mood to fuck. I stop that thought right there. Of course she’ll want to fuck me.
Maybe she’ll even want to fuck both of us.
She steps out of the elevator, and her eyes land on me. Then on Theo. Then, on the table set for three.
I help her with her coat and hang it up in the closet. “Angelo made salmon. C’mon. Sit. Eat.”
“Angelo? Is that a brother I haven’t met?” she jokes.
I kiss her cheek. “Not quite.”
My chef appears in the doorway from the kitchen, towel over his shoulder. “Mr. Sawyer, dinner is ready when you are.”
Her face does a thing. “Oh. You have a chef?”
“I have an Angelo. National treasure, regrettably employed by me.”
Angelo dips his chin two inches and smiles. Then he disappears back into the kitchen.
I jerk my head toward the table. “C’mon, baby.”
Angelo plates the salmon, serves us, and then disappears. Earlier, I told him he could leave as soon as we were seated, because I had no intention of behaving once Bianca arrived.
Bianca picks up her fork, tries the fish, and her shoulders drop half an inch.
“Okay.” She points at her plate with the fork. “This is amazing.”
“All part of my plan.” I tip my chair back on two legs. “I feed you. You want to stay. I hope it’s working.”
Bianca laughs.
Theo sets his fork across his plate. “Bianca, we have something to tell you.”
She freezes mid-bite. “Oh no.”
“Fuck, Theo,” I admonish him. “Way to ruin a vibe.”
Theo looks confused. “But we’re not telling her anything bad.”
“I know what we’re going to tell her.” I lean forward. “But work on your delivery next time. That is the exact thing you say before giving bad news.”
Theo takes a breath. “We bought your building.”
Bianca freezes, her fork halfway to her mouth. “You what?”
She’s not smiling. Why isn’t she smiling?
Theo doesn’t move. “We bought your building. Bartley took our offer.”
She lowers the fork. “What offer?”
“Us.” Theo nods at me. “Me. Ander.”
She stands, and her face is flushed. But not a good flush. She’s angry. “Why would you do that?”
Theo and I both look at each other, confused. This is not how we expected her to react to a gift.
“Now that you own my building, are you my landlords?” She takes a deep breath. “What happens when your father decides to wage war on me again? You’ll raise my rent? Kick me out?”
I laugh. I’m not laughing at her. I’m laughing at the misunderstanding. And how fucking adorable she is when she’s angry.
She narrows her eyes on me. “You think this is funny?”
“Not at all.” I stand and wrap my arms around her and then kiss her cheek.
She pulls back.
“We bought you the building, baby.” I kiss her forehead. “We don’t own the building. You do.”
All of the tension leaves her body. “You did what?”
Theo jumps back into the conversation. “Your landlord is an asshole. And I don’t like that you have to deal with him. So, we took him out of the equation.”
I let her go, and she sits back down at the table. So do I.
But I can’t wait to tell her the next part. “Our contractors are lined up. We’ve already paid them for all the upgrades you need.”
She still doesn’t look happy. “Then I owe you. And I don’t want to owe you.”
She wraps both hands around the stem of her wine glass and looks at the candle on the table instead of at us.
Theo opens his mouth, and I don’t interrupt. “Hear me out. One sentence.”
She’s looking at her plate, not at us. She nods.
Theo says, “It’s already in your name.”
Her hands loosen a bit on the stem.
Theo leans in, very gently. “Deed. Title. LLC formed in your name. Donovan Holdings, single member, that’s you.
The contractors are paid for. The repairs are paid for.
If you walked out of here tonight and refused to speak to either of us ever again, it’s all still yours.
The work would still get done. Nothing changes. ”
Her mouth parts.
I gesture at Theo with my fork. “That was more than one sentence, but still, you should listen.”
She smiles, and she looks at me.
Good. This is progress. Maybe she’s on her way to happy.
Then she looks at Theo. “Why?”
Theo sets down his wine and folds his hands on the table. “It is, in part, an apology.”
She takes a drink of her wine. “Okay. So that’s the apology part. What’s the other part?”
Theo and I look at each other across the table.
“The other part is that we care about you. And we want you to stick around.” I realize this might sound like she owes us, so I pivot. “But this is our way of telling you that we’d like to see where this goes. Permanently.”
She doesn’t say anything.
I keep going. “Like we said, you can choose to never speak to us again, and nothing about the building would change. It’s yours. But I don’t want you to leave. Theo doesn’t want that, either.”
Her eyes are suddenly watering. “You want me to be your girlfriend?”
Theo answers first. “Yes.”
“Girlfriend feels like a demotion, honestly,” I respond. “But yeah. Sure. We’ll work on the title.”
She looks between us. “But there are two of you.”
“Actually, there are three of us,” I correct. “If Gideon ever gets his shit together.”
“Gideon hates me.”
I take a bite of the roasted potatoes. “Baby, I promise you, Gideon does not hate you. He doesn’t know what to do with you.”
“So that’s a yes?” Theo takes back control of the conversation. “You’ll accept the building? And you’ll be ours?”
Bianca puts both hands over her face.
She breathes.
When her hands come down, her eyes are red, but no tears have actually fallen.
She picks up her wine and takes a long sip.
“Okay,” she says. And now she is smiling. Genuinely smiling. This is the reaction we’ve been waiting for.
“I have a million more questions.” She’s giddy now. “And I want to celebrate.”
I take a bite of my salmon, push my plate aside, and then stand. “Hot tub.”
Bianca chokes on her wine. “What?”
“There’s champagne in the fridge. We’re going to drink that and celebrate in the hot tub.”
“I don’t have a suit.” She spears a roasted fingerling potato.
“Even better.”
I’m already pulling my shirt over my head. I drop it on the back of my chair. Unbuckle my belt, kick off my boots, and take off my pants. And I drop them on the floor.
Then I look at her.
Her eyes are on my stomach. Then my dick. Then she catches herself and lifts them to my face.
“Who uses a suit in a hot tub?” I jerk my chin at the deck. “See you out there.”
I walk.
I don’t look back, because they’re already following me.