Chapter 34 – Kirby
thirty-four
Kirby
I stand beside her, not saying a word, as she talks to her father.
Her mother’s eyes go to her and then come to me and then back to her daughter, her hand firmly in her husband’s.
“I love him.” My head turns to look back down at her.
This is the first time she’s said she loves me.
I thought for sure she liked me a lot, but she never told me she loves me.
My face fills with a smile and I feel like my heart is going to literally come out of my chest, and I can’t stop myself from leaning down and kissing her.
“I love you,” I say softly and she shakes her head.
“Not now,” she says before turning back to look at her parents.
“He’s a wonderful man and he treats me with respect and kindness and, most importantly, he makes me feel good about myself.
He makes me feel like I’m worthy of my life and the happiness I’m working toward.
He makes me feel like, even though I fucked up my life for the last ten years, that it’s okay, it was just a bump in the road that was all leading to this new chapter. ”
“That’s not true.” I hold up my hand. “I just like to know what she thinks before telling her what I—” She side-eyes me. “I’ll stop talking now.”
“Oh my God,” her mother gasps, “you—” She points to me and I don’t know if it’s a good point or a bad point. “You’re the K.” She looks at Lexi. “That frame in your house. The dare.” She puts both hands on her mouth. “He’s the one.”
“He is,” Lexi confirms. “He’s the reason I—”
“No,” I cut her off, “that’s not true. You are the reason you made that phone call. You are the reason you got out of the situation. It was you and your strength; it had nothing to do with me. Do not sell yourself short.”
“Oh my,” her mother says.
Lexi looks up at me. “I dare you to shut up right now.” She chuckles before turning back to her parents. “By the way, that’s my mother, Zoe,” she says, “no Y.”
I extend a hand to her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Petrov.”
She immediately extends her hand to mine. “Kirby,” she says my name, “the pleasure is all mine.”
I’m about to say something when Matty comes into the room, followed by Matthew Grant and Max Horton, who to this day is still a beast. “Oh fuck,” Matty swears, “did not think I would see you here.”
“Got a call”—I look down at Lexi—“and an invitation I couldn’t refuse.”
“That’s nice,” Matty says, and I can tell by his tone he’s not interested in small talk. “Mom, Lexi, I need to have a word with Dad and this guy.” He motions with his chin toward me.
“Okay, wait a second.” Lexi moves to stand in between us. “Let’s not—”
“Relax,” Matty assures her, “I’m not going to hurt him.” He smirks. “I’ll save that for the game tomorrow.”
I chuckle. “It’s fine,” I tell Lexi. “I’m fine.”
She points at all the guys. “If you hurt him, I will not be happy.”
“He’ll be fine,” Zoe says, putting her hand in her daughter’s, “or else.” She looks at the guys and they slowly make their way out of the room. Lexi looks back over her shoulder at me, and I try to reassure her that it’s fine.
“What is all of this?” Matthew now asks. “And who is this guy?”
“This,” Viktor replies, “is her boyfriend.”
“Her boyfriend,” Max now adds, “since when?”
“Okay, this is all fun, and if I had more time, I would let him swing out here,” Matty says, “but I have to head back to the hotel for curfew.” All the guys look at him, including me. “Now it’s come to my attention”—he side-eyes me—“that Trent is a piece of shit even more than we thought.”
“What?” Viktor says.
“You heard about the NDA?” I ask Matty and now all eyes are on me and this should have been my sign to shut up. I should have just said forget it and looked away. I should have, but I didn’t. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, yes, you fucking did,” Viktor snaps.
“Okay.” I put up my hands. “She’s going to be pissed about this.”
“She’ll survive,” Matty says. “Now, spit it out.”
“Okay, well, Trent offered her twelve million for her to sign an NDA.”
“Oh no, he didn’t,” Matthew seethes, taking out his phone.
“It gets a bit worse.”
“Does it?” Max asks, his stance widening as he glares at me and he folds his arms over his chest. “I don’t think so.”
“She turned it down. He came back with fifteen and she turned that down, and then he came back yesterday with twenty million.”
“What does her lawyer say?” Matty asks me.
“She’s pushing her to sign it, but she doesn’t want to.”
“Why isn’t Ryleigh handling this?” Matthew asks. “Until she calls her—”
“She called her today,” Viktor tells the group. “She sent me a text, telling me she was going to take care of it.”
“Good. I don’t think her lawyer was looking out for her.”
“I’m going to call Casey.” Matthew makes a mention of someone he probably knows. “He’s going to get me everything we are going to need to bury him.” He walks out of the room.
“I don’t want to know what that even means,” I tell the men, who just look at me. “I’m going to have to go into that room, and she’s going to ask me what all this was about.”
“So what, don’t tell her,” Matty advises, his eyebrows pinched together.
“She was just with a man who lied to her for ten years, and you think I’m going to fuck myself over by lying to her too?” I shake my head. “No fucking way am I going to lose her to keep this a secret.”
“Jesus,” Matty groans.
“Yeah,” I agree. “I’m going to go find her before I hear something else and I have to tell her. I don’t know you guys, but from the tone it’s not something you guys are going to want her to hear.” I take a step to walk out of the room.
“I’m watching you,” Viktor warns. “I’ll be watching you like a hawk.”
I nod at him, but Matty is the one who laughs. “What is it with you and the guys your daughters bring home? You just hate them all.”
“I don’t hate Gabriel,” he retorts and now everyone laughs. “What? He took her away to live on a farm.”
“She ran to him,” Matty goads and Viktor glares, “willingly.”
“When your daughters bring home a man to you”—now Matty glares—“we’ll circle back to this conversation.”
I walk into the house and follow the noise to outside.
I see they have a tent set up outside, with round tables filling the backyard.
Kids run around chasing after each other, and then I hear a shriek.
I look over to see Lexi sitting there looking at me and shaking her head.
I walk toward the table of women. “Oh my Lord,” one of them says, and then Lexi gets up and comes to me.
She’s wearing another pair of jeans and a one-shoulder cream shirt.
My hands comes up to rub her arms when she stands in front of me.
She lifts both of my arms to the sides and then looks behind me and then comes back to the front. “No battle scars.” She laughs and I pull her closer to me.
“I haven’t told you that you look beautiful today,” I say, looking into her eyes, seeing them clear and carefree, “and I missed you.”
She steps closer to me. “Yeah, is that so?”
I nod my head. “Yeah, baby, that is so.”
“I sort of missed you too,” she admits, looking up at me and one of my hands goes to her neck.
“Keep that thought in mind,” I tell her. “You’ll have to show me how much you sort of missed me.” I kiss her lips.
“What was all that guys meeting about?” she asks me.
“Can we talk about it later?” She nods her head.
“Ready to meet the girls?” I don’t know if she’s asking me or telling me. “Because they are ready to meet you.”
“Is that so?” I smile at her and can’t help but kiss her again.
“He looks at her as if there is no one else in the room,” one of them says, and Lexi laughs under my kiss.
“That’s my aunt Zara,” she mumbles. “My mother’s twin.”
“Oh, there are two of them?” I deadpan. “Fun.” She laughs as she spins around and slips her hand in mine as she turns and heads toward the table.
“Ladies,” she sings and I have never met this Lexi. I suddenly hate Trent even more for suppressing her. “I’d like for you guys to meet my boyfriend,” she says, giggling.
“Whoa,” Zara says, getting up and coming to me, “he’s got a title, people.” She smirks. “Hey, Kirby.” I’m expecting for her to extend her hand but she comes in for a quick hug. “I mean, Lexi’s boyfriend.”
“I like the sound of that.” I look back at Lexi, who lifts one of her shoulders and bats her eyes.
“It’s nice to meet you.” A woman holds up her hand. “I’m Zoey”—I look at Zoe—“with a y, named after the best one at the table.”
“Oh please,” Zara groans, and I know it’s Zara because Zoe puts her hand in the air like she’s raising the roof. The two of them are identical and it’ll take some time to get to know which one is which. “It’s nice to meet you,” she says to me and I nod my head.
“Likewise,” I reply.
“Let’s sit,” Zara suggests, leading me to the table, with me looking back at Lexi, who just giggles. I’ll make sure I do whatever I need to do for the rest of my life to hear that giggle.
I sit at the table and look around it. “Okay, ladies.” I look over and hold out my hand for Lexi, who comes to stand next to my chair.
I take her hand in mine, kissing the top of it before I let it go.
She wraps her arm around my shoulders and I hold her around her waist, pulling her to my side. “Fire away, I am an open book.”
“I have one,” Zoey says. “Are you close to your parents?”
“No. My father passed away when I was very young, and my mother remarried someone who was not a nice man. He died and is probably rotting in hell, and then my mother passed not too long after him.”
“Well, that’s a buzzkill,” the girl with black hair states. “I’m Gabriella, by the way. Welcome to my home.”
“Thanks for having me.” I nod at her. “But I do have a sister and we are very close.”
“She’s amazing,” Lexi praises. “You’ll meet her tomorrow at the game.”
“I have a question.” Zoe holds up her hand. “Why Lexi?”
“Oh, good one,” her twin, Zara, says.