THIRTY-ONE
brOGAN HAD EATEN brEAKFAST but didn’t remember tasting anything.
He and Julius sat at a circular table in the dining room.
Various other people occupied the tables around them.
His competition. In theory. Consensus was everyone had a good time last night, the mood seemed high.
Elsewhere. Something of a gray cloud hung above their table.
“Guess I shouldn’t ask what you’re looking forward to today,” Julius said. “I’m not even sure you tasted the coffee and usually you’ve got plenty to say about that.”
Pushing up to look over his shoulder, Brogan stole another glance Conway and Bram seated in the opposite corner, deep in conversation as they had been for a while.
“If you keep looking over there, people are going to think you’re considering moving in on another Sear,” Julius said. “Seems Bram never looked so good to you.”
Sucking in breath, he abhorred the distraction. “What?” he snapped. Julius’s brows rose. “Sorry. I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Doesn’t matter how many times you look over there, she won’t magically appear,” Julius said. “Do you want to talk about the pitch? We won’t have time later and don’t know when Gault will call us in tomorrow. He hasn’t exactly been forthcoming on the itinerary.”
Julius was talking, there were words, but he couldn’t concentrate on anything except his own thoughts.
“If she’s not here, where is she?” he asked, scanning again.
“Or we could keep talking about Gia.”
“I haven’t seen Gault this morning either, have you? I was in the gym at five a.m. and in the corporate suite for the rest of the morning. I haven’t seen him anywhere.”
“And you think he’s not anywhere because he’s busy entertaining Gia in bed?”
Of everything Julius said, why couldn’t he have missed that one?
“Shit, did you have to put that visual in my head?”
“I’d have thought that visual would be familiar to you,” Julius said, taking him aback. “Gia in bed. Didn’t you see her behind your eyelids during your extra long shower this morning?”
Though he fought to stop his lips contorting, Julius did a half-assed job. His friend’s laugh was enough to vent some of his steam.
“Gia alone in bed, my bed, without clothes and a smile on her face, that’s a familiar visual. A welcome one.”
“Which could be where the problem started,” Julius said, leaning forward to top off both their coffee cups. “We didn’t discuss your intention to have sex with her.”
“Why the hell do you care if I had sex with her?” Brogan asked. “Since when do you keep track of my cock?”
“Maybe since I was hoping her looking a little green around the gills last night could’ve had something to do with… you know?”
He had no idea what Julius was talking about. “You know, what?”
A male voice intruded. “That she could be… in a family way. Doesn’t look that way to me.”
Who the fuck was—Tripp fucking Breckenridge, standing there by their table.
What did he want? The guy stared out the large window framing the pool area outside the brunch room.
What was he—shit. There was only one person out there, walking across the deck toward the pool.
A woman in a white hat, oversized sunglasses, and a dark purple bikini.
His woman… He had to stop that, thinking of her like that. No, that was too much to ask.
“With a figure like that, I’d say that’s one unfertilized woman,” Tripp said, sinking into the chair next to Brogan’s. “You were damn careless to lose that woman, Bro.”
Tripp Breckenridge was everyone’s friend. He’d call him the same, if he had friends. Julius was family and didn’t count.
Brogan couldn’t deny he’d seen Gia naked, many times.
No matter how many damn times he was blessed by the sight of her body, clothed or not, the impact didn’t diminish.
Even in her bikini he was mesmerized. She’d worked out in his gym, he’d seen that body move, he’d seen her sweat.
And the outer package wasn’t half as sweet as what was inside.
“Good news travels fast,” Julius said. “I didn’t see you last night, Tripp. When did you get in?”
“Yesterday,” Tripp said, leaning back when a server brought him a fresh cup of coffee.
“Your folks here too?”
“They’re in Chile,” Tripp said. “Mom’s been desperate to get down there for a while.”
The Breckenridges had a medical center in Chile that specialized in children’s health. Alice Breckenridge liked to spend time there but didn’t like to travel without her husband, which limited how much time she could spend there.
Brogan couldn’t tear his attention from the woman draping a towel on a lounger.
Conversation went on without him. Gia settled down and dipped her hand into a large tote to retrieve a book.
Damn, she was a vision. Why wasn’t he allowed to go to her and touch her anymore? Wrong had no meaning until right then.
Julius went on, “I didn’t know the Breckenridges were interested in Gault Logistics.”
“We’re not,” Tripp said and leaned over the table to pull a few grapes from the bowl in the middle.
“We’re here in an advisory capacity.” Tripp tossed a grape in his mouth.
“Shit, I’m turning into my dad.” He swallowed.
“I, I am here in an advisory capacity. Gault has questions, guy wants to make the right decision. He’s been out of the game since his health scare.
I guess, he’s out of the business mindset. ”
Julius laughed. “He called you for advice?” he asked and laughed. “Fuck, the guy must be desperate.”
“I’m a Breckenridge, stuff goes in by osmosis.”
“You did go to college,” Julius said. “No one was sure how much of an education you got there—sorry, how much of a business education you got there.”
“Got a great hands on education.”
“That’s still going.” Julius laughed. “No one doubts that, boy. Few places those hands haven’t been. But for business, I might’ve expected Gault to call Breck.”
“Think Breck’s got the time to come here?” Tripp asked. “The biggest Breckenridge brother is a busy man.”
“A family man, almost.”
“Right,” Tripp agreed, eating another grape. “And don’t write me off, I’ve got my own talents.”
“True. You have a way of reading people.”
“Natural talent,” Tripp said. “Are you playing football later? Gault is putting a game together before dinner.”
“Brogan? You want him to play football?” Julius said, laughing again. “Look at him. The boy can’t even string a sentence together, you want him on the field?”
“Not on my team,” Tripp said, “but on the other side, sure.”
“I remember when you guys were teenagers, Brant used to end up in a team on his own. None of you wanted to play with him.”
“Some things don’t change. Back when Brog gave us the time of day,” Tripp said and slapped his shoulder. “We used to be close as brothers, and I know it, I have them.”
Now that he had eyes on Gia, Brogan was loathed to tear them away. “What’s that got to do with anything?” he asked.
Tripp sank back in his chair, out of Brogan’s peripheral vision. “She is one beautiful woman.”
After a second of processing, Brogan twisted slowly until he brought the Breckenridge into focus. Tripp clicked his tongue and winked, then let his gaze slide past.
Playing with fire could end in a brawl. Good thing he’d given Carver the weekend off, he could use the exercise.
Brogan leaned in to block Tripp’s line of sight. “Are you getting a hard-on looking at my girlfriend?”
“I thought you broke up,” Tripp said, still perusing her.
“They did,” Julius said. “She’s a free agent.”
“My mom will love her,” Tripp said, talking past Brogan though he wouldn’t see Julius. “Adore her. They’ll be peas in a pod.”
“You’re not taking her home to your mother.”
Because if Gia met Alice Breckenridge as a potential daughter-in-law, she’d be lost for good.
“You want to do it yourself?” Tripp asked. “Looking for brownie points? Mom might name the next hospital after you, or do you want to be namesake for mine and Gia’s firstborn?”
Julius was all hilarity.
Brogan didn’t find it so funny. “You’re trying to piss me off, Priest.”
“No,” Tripp said, doing a good job of projecting innocence. “You broke up with Gianna, didn’t you? You broke up with her.”
“What the hell does—”
“Implies you were finished with her,” Julius explained.
“Finishing with a woman does imply you’re finished with her.” Tripp nodded. “You might not be compatible, but she’s very compatible with my family.”
“Compatible with your family,” Brogan said at the same time Tripp’s phone made a noise, causing him to take it from his pocket to check out the message. “But not compatible with you?”
Tripp typed a quick message into his phone. “Oh, I’m damn sure she’d be compatible with me… In fact, I’ve got to ask, what’s wrong with you?”
Julius laughed again. What the fuck was wrong with him?
“What’s wrong with me?” Brogan asked.
“Yeah, I saw you and Gia together. I’ve never seen you like that. Didn’t you tell him he was in love with her, Julius?”
“Oh, I did,” Julius said. “I tried.”
Brogan couldn’t force himself out of Tripp’s line of sight even when the guy patted him on the shoulder.
Smiling, Tripp pushed back in his chair. “It’s okay, buddy. I’ve got to say, it worked out for me, so…”
That made no fucking sense—his favorite scent distracted him.
Gia. She came to a stop behind his seat.
“Where have you been?” Gia demanded of Tripp, once again ignoring him.
“Me? You’re the one who split. It’s rude to run out on a guy while he’s on the phone.” Tripp stood up, lacing his fingers with Gia’s. “We weren’t done.”
She grinned and raised her chin. Brogan didn’t like the way that move took Gia’s chest closer to Tripp’s. She wore some kind of cover-up thing; the bikini still beckoned beneath.
“No, we weren’t,” she murmured. “But you were rude to me.”
“Rude?” Tripp said.
The glint in his friend’s eye wound him up too.
What the fuck? His jaw worked, tightening the clench of his teeth.
He hadn’t known where Gia was all morning.
It had torn him apart to think she might be with Gault; it hadn’t occurred to him to suspect one of his oldest friends.
He hadn’t even known fucking Tripp Breckenridge was here.
“You said my panties were retro,” she said, amusing Tripp. “That means old-fashioned.”
“It does not! They were neon, Gia. Neon is retro.”
Nodding, her lips were parted when she murmured an, “Uh huh. Neon’s coming back.”
“Says who?”
“Roxie.”
Tripp scoffed. “Oh, and the empress knows?”
“She knows.”
“I guess if anyone can make it happen…” Tripp said with a shrug. “We’ve got business to finish upstairs.”
“We do,” she said.
Tripp offered his arm and she curled her hand around it so he could lead her out of the room.
Incredulous, he turned to Julius, who sat back, holding the rim of his coffee cup with the tips of his fingers.
“Looks like she’s happy, guess you got what you wanted.”
“This isn’t close to what I wanted,” Brogan said. “This whole thing is fucked up.”
“Yeah? And who fucked it?” Julius was right, he had no one to blame but himself. Brogan didn’t dwell on mistakes, he liked to fix them. “And I’m going to tell you this simply so you hear it from me and can absorb.”
“Tell me what?”
“She spent Tuesday night at Crimson.”
“Right, with Roxie. They got to be friends, you know that.”
“Not with Roxie,” Julius said. “She spent the night in Tripp’s suite.” He didn’t know how to… “Don’t blow up, this is Tripp. Priest. You trust him.”
“No man would trust his woman with Tripp Breckenridge.”
“No man who doesn’t know him,” Julius said. “You know Tripp, you know what he does. She needs support and he’s good at this.”
Didn’t make him feel better about any man being near Gia. Whether they shared a bed or—he couldn’t. If he went down that rabbit hole, the day would end in homicide.
“I fucking hate this,” he growled.
Julius left the table, pausing to rest a hand on his shoulder. “Got no one to blame but yourself. You got the life you wanted.”
This was far from the life he wanted. The life he wanted before Gia? Maybe. Now? This was far from any reality he wanted to live in.