Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
CHLOE
The clock ticks down as I look around the living room. Brantley should be home any minute, and I want to surprise him. He’s done so much for me that I want to show him that I appreciate it. That I appreciate him.
All it took was one inquiring text to Mason to figure out what I could do.
Mason told me that he loved the John Wick movies and will watch them anytime he gets the chance.
I’ve never seen them before, so it seemed like the logical choice.
Imagine my surprise when I looked it up and realized that there are more than one.
Tonight that’s going to change. I got the movies queued up, food ordered, popcorn ready to go on the stove to pop, and drinks chilling in the fridge. I even went as far as rearranging the living room so the two couches are pushed together, creating something that closely resembles a bed.
The only thing missing is him.
I hear the garage door open and smile.
“Chloe?” Brantley yells.
“Stay there!”
I rush into the kitchen and greet him.
“Hi.” He kisses me as soon as I’m within reach.
“Hi. How was your day?” I ask.
“Better now. What are you doing?” He looks at me suspiciously.
“Nothing. Why?”
His eyes narrow playfully. “Because if I didn’t know better, I would think you’re up to something.”
“Okay, what would you say if I had a surprise for you?”
His eyebrows wing up. “A naked one?”
I roll my eyes but smile. “Maybe later, if you’re a good boy.”
“Baby, I’m always good.”
“Right…”
“Show me this surprise.”
I move behind him and attempt to cover his eyes. “Walk to the living room.”
The short distance is a little awkward because of our height difference, but we make it work.
“Okay, stop.”
Taking a deep breath, I move my hands away from his eyes and step off to his side so I can see his reaction. “Open.”
I watch as he blinks three times and then looks around the room.
“What’s all this?”
“I hope you don’t mind, but I set up a movie night for us,” I tell him. “Surprise!”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, I asked Mason, and he told me you love the John Wick movies, so I thought we could watch them,” I tell him.
“Do you like them?”
My heart jumps in my chest. He is always concerned with doing something I enjoy. Especially when we watch TV. He always wants to watch what I want to watch.
“I’ve never seen them before, so I guess we will find out, but what do you think? Is this okay?” I bite my lip nervously.
He pulls me in for a kiss. “This is perfect. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Let me go grab the drinks.”
“Sounds good.”
I head back into the kitchen. I place the drinks on a tray I found under the counter along with some small snacks.
“Chloe, your phone is going off,” he hollers.
“Check it!” I yell back as I make my way to him.
When I step into the room, I see him frowning down at my phone. “Is everything okay?”
His jaw tics. “You have a message from a dating app.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?” He looks upset.
“Yeah, what’s the big deal?” I ask as I set the tray down.
“The big deal is the fact you still have dating apps on your phone when we are together,” he growls.
I cross my arms over my chest. “Okay, I get that, but I think you’re making a bigger deal out of this than necessary.”
He raises a brow. “Really? So you wouldn’t give a fuck if you looked at my phone right now and found a dating app on it?”
“Would it sting? Maybe, but at the same time, I would go through your app history to see when the last time you logged in was. Spoiler alert: if you did that to me right now, you would see I haven’t opened any of them that I’m on since I moved in.”
The corner of his eye twitches. “I’m not on any.”
“Good to know.”
He holds my phone out. “Get rid of them.” He pauses. “Please,” he tacks on like it’s an afterthought.
Huffing, I take my phone from him. I go to stand at his side so he can see what I’m doing.
“Just so you know, this is ridiculous. You’re making this a way bigger deal than it really is.”
“Again, imagine how you would feel if it was me receiving messages from women behind your back.”
Okay, when he puts it that way.
“Fair enough. Just know I would shank a bitch,” I mutter as I delete one after another.
“Jesus Christ, how many are you on?” he groans.
“You know what? You and your judgment can stay and watch the movies. I’ll go upstairs and give you some space.”
I take two steps before he reaches out and grabs my arm, stopping me.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “No, I’m not sorry about getting pissed. My feelings are justified, but I am sorry that you feel like I’m attacking you. Did you do anything wrong? No. Do I think you’re a cheater? Absolutely not. I just wasn’t expecting to pick up your phone and see that.”
“Apology accepted, and I’m sorry. I’ve never had a relationship make it this far to even think about how it might look or feel to someone else to have dating apps still.”
A smile forms on his face.
Is this asshole really smiling while we’re fighting? What the hell?
“Why are you smiling?”
He shrugs. “We just had our first fight.”
“Okay…and?”
“And no one died. Namely me. I didn’t die. You didn’t kill me,” he says, making me laugh.
“True enough, because you best believe, I would.”
“I have no doubt. I know for a fact that you and Liv are obsessed with those murder shows. You would probably get away with it.”
“Of course I would. Orange would wash me out,” I say, making him laugh.
“What am I going to do with you?”
Love me.
The response hits me so fast it’s all I can do to keep myself from blurting it out.
No, I can’t say that. It’s too soon. Right?
“Come on, let’s get started. Did you order dinner?”
“Yeah,” I murmur as I crawl onto the couches with him.
As he queues up the movie, all I can think about is the fact that I want him to love me. If anyone is capable of it, it’s him, right?
brANTLEY
My phone rings, and I smile.
“What’s up, buddy? It’s been a while,” I say as soon as I answer.
“I fucking hate people,” Max mumbles, making me laugh.
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“I need you to remind me why I did this again?”
Before Mason and Liv got together, Mason ran the Williamson Group.
He was the one traveling all the time and checking on their investments.
At that time, Max ran the hotel here in Boston that started it all for the family.
Then shortly after we found out about Mason’s daughter and Liv, Mason realized he hated being away from his family.
While he could have hired someone else to take over that part of the job, Max volunteered.
“Because you’re a good brother,” I remind him.
“If you say so.” He sighs.
“Work pissing you off?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Tell me about you,” he says.
“Not much to tell.”
“Really? You don’t want to talk about the fact that you have a girlfriend? One who’s eccentric at best,” he jokes.
“Be nice,” I warn.
“Dude, you know I love Chloe. I meant no harm,” he says.
Sighing, I lean back in my chair. “I know.”
“So, what the fuck? How did this happen? Last I checked you wanted to take each other out,” he reminds me.
“You heard that Mason gave her a key to my place, right?”
“Yeah, something about pipes?” He snorts a little.
There’s more to the story about that, and I will find out one day, but not today.
“Yeah, well, let’s just say one day I couldn’t hide it anymore that I liked her, and she realized she liked me back. The rest is history.”
“So it was that forced proximity shit.”
“What?”
“It’s a book trope Iris loves,” he says offhandedly.
“How is she?”
Iris has been his assistant and right hand since he graduated college and joined the company officially.
While I might like to think I’m Max’s best friend, I know for a fact it’s really her.
All you need to do is spend five minutes with them and you know they belong together.
Something that neither of them has acknowledged yet.
“So it’s going good?” he asks, ignoring my question about his girl.
“It’s going really well. Well, unless you count last night,” I tell him.
“What happened last night?”
“We had our first fight.”
Before he can ask, I fill him in on how I saw the notification on her phone and lost my shit. Did I overact? Probably. I owned that, though.
“I don’t blame you. I would have done the same thing if I found a dating app on the girl who I’m serious about’s phone. Since we’re on the phone, I take it she didn’t kill you.”
The fact that he had the same thought I did shows my friends know Chloe as well as I do.
“No, we talked it out. I watched her delete the apps.”
“Did you delete the ones on yours? I know you used to be on that one. What’s it called?”
“Entangled,” I say, referring to the dating app that’s specifically targeted for people of a specific tax bracket. “I actually deleted it before she moved in.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling it anymore. They claimed to weed out the gold diggers, but it didn’t feel like it,” I admit.
“Well, shit. I leave for a few months, and you move a girl in and become monogamous. What the hell else have I missed?”
Opening my mouth, I fill him in. I tell him about how we got together with Mason, Liv, Adrianna, and Eli and had dinner.
I tell him about the hockey team and how we’ve won a few games, even though I know he watched them when he could.
I confess that Louis is driving me crazy and that I don’t know if I can trust him.
Last, I tell him about the coaching drama and how I don’t know what to do.
“I mean, Collins has earned it, don’t you think? I get the appeal of the young guy, but you need to make sure he’s up to the challenge.”
“True.”
“You need to find out, though, if either party is interested. For all you know, Collins won’t want a promotion, and this Taylor guy won’t want to move.”
“Very true. Enough about me, though. What’s going on with you?”
“I’m living the dream, man. I’m in Vegas overseeing the renovations of our hotel out here,” he drawls with a bored tone.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
Max sighs, and I can just picture the way his head drops to his chest.
“Come on, man, spit it out.”
“Iris.”
“What about her?” I ask as dread fills me.
“I don’t know, man, something is going on with her.”
“What do you mean?”
“She went on a date,” he confesses quietly.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
“Don’t make me repeat it.”
“And it wasn’t with you?”
“No.”
Well, shit. It’s not like all of us didn’t warn him that this could happen. A woman will only wait so long before you force her hand. I just didn’t think that she would break this soon. I figured it would be years from now.
“You knew this was a possibility.”
“I didn’t call you for you to rub it in my face,” he snaps, which is telling of his mental state.
Max is one of those guys who’s always level-headed. Even when his mother kidnapped his niece and got put in a psych ward, he kept his cool. Iris has him rattled, and he doesn’t know what to do.
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
“There’s nothing I can do. She made her choice,” he says dejectedly.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. She loves you just as much as you love her. You just need to pull your head out of your ass and show her. Fucking win her over, man.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Are you prepared to lose her from your life forever? Can you honestly tell me you could handle watching her marry another man? Having his children? All while you sit on the sidelines by your fucking self.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“If you wanted to be coddled, you wouldn’t have called me. You would have called Mason,” I point out. “Now answer my question.”
“No, no, I don’t think I could handle it,” he says quietly.
“Then get your fucking girl.”
“You’re right.”
“Can you say that again? I want to record it so the guys can hear you say that.”
“Fuck you.”
“Sorry, you’re not my type. Now tell me, when are you coming home? I think we need to talk this out face-to-face so I can nut check you when you are being an idiot.”
Max and I chat for a few more minutes, and by the time I get off the phone, I’m not worried about him as much.