Chapter One
SPENCER
"Mr. Whitley, we’ll be landing soon," the business-class flight attendant said. "Would you like another drink?"
"No, I'm good. Thank you."
He picked up my empty glass, and I closed the tray in front of me.
Finally, after a four-hour delay, I was going back to Boston.
I always made fun of my brother Jake for having a chauffeur and a private plane.
But at times like this, I was starting to understand the need for the latter, at least. Until recently, I wouldn't have been bothered by a delay.
I could simply work from one of the many airport lounges.
As CEO of a publishing company, all I needed was a phone and my laptop.
I could work from anywhere. But things were different now.
I was a father. Some days I still couldn't believe it.
The second we landed, I turned on my phone and then immediately called my grandmother. She'd offered to watch my son today. I’d flown to New York in the morning and was supposed to return shortly after lunch. It was dinnertime.
I trusted Grandmother with my son, but she was ninety and had her limitations. I didn't want her to push it. Once I found out about the delayed flight, I’d asked my brother Cade to help her. Thankfully, she answered after two rings.
"Everything's under control," she whispered.
"Great. Thanks. Why are you whispering?"
"Because he's sleeping. I don't want to wake him up."
I could barely hear her over the passengers moving about, taking their luggage from the overhead compartments.
I had an aisle seat, and my neighbor at the window was already fidgeting impatiently.
A private plane sounded better and better.
Why was everyone already picking at their luggage?
The plane hadn't even parked at the gate.
After the plane finally stopped, I rose too. "I'll call you as soon as I'm off the plane."
"There's no need. We’re good."
My son was only two months old, and I already knew I wasn't going to plan another work trip soon. Not until he was a bit older. I missed the little bugger. Fortunately, Grandmother agreed to stay at my place with him today where all of his things were so that I didn’t need to cart everything back and forth.
I was still having a hard time figuring out what I needed to pack for outings with Ben.
The little dude needed more diapers than I could’ve imagined.
I didn't have a carry-on with me, so I gathered my laptop bag and headed straight out of the plane and called my grandmother again.
"Spencer, darling!" She spoke slowly. "I told you there's no need to call. Everything's under control. Are you sure you and Ben don't want to sleep at our house tonight? This entire place is full of boxes."
"We're moving tomorrow, Grandmother. We're going to be fine for one night," I assured her. "I’ll be at home in about an hour."
"Don’t you need to stop by the office first?"
"No.”
“All right. We’ll be here.” She sounded regretful. I had a feeling that she almost enjoyed my four-hour delay because she could spend more time with Ben. Grandmother had been longing for great-grandbabies, and I was the first to deliver her wish.
"Meredith and Cade are still here.”
“Great. I’ll see you at home.”
Ending the call, I noticed a message from my assistant.
Anissa: Spencer, the movers will be at your place in the morning. They'll handle everything. All you have to do is head out to your new house in the evening. I've checked it myself. All the furniture and everything is already there.
Spencer: Thank you.
Moving into a new house was part of giving my son the best of everything in life.
I only found out he existed a month ago.
Almost eleven months ago, I broke up with my then-girlfriend Naomi.
She was seeing someone else behind my back.
After I broke up with her, she immediately left town with her new guy, and I didn’t see her again until she showed up to tell me she’d had my son.
I'd been furious, demanding to know why she hadn't told me before.
It turned out she thought the baby was the other guy's.
But after Ben was born, her boyfriend demanded a paternity test.
Ben was mine.
And I was going to be the best damn father I could be.
I headed out of the airport and waited ten minutes for an Uber.
I wanted to get home. I was lucky that my grandparents wanted to be involved in Ben's life.
Then again, they'd stepped up to the plate after our good-for-nothing father was caught with having a second family and made sure that my four brothers and I didn't go completely off the rails.
Once I got in my Uber, the driver turned to me. "Sorry I took so long to get to the airport. There's been a massive accident on the freeway."
I nodded, acknowledging his apology before checking my messages.
I had texts from Jake and Gabe too.
Jake: Made it back?
Gabe: Need help with the move tomorrow?
That one made me laugh. Each of my brothers was CEO of their own company, and yet they wouldn't hesitate to drop everything just to help me with the move.
I was handling things, though I didn't have them completely under control like I usually did.
I was used to people doing what I wanted and everything turning out exactly the way I planned and needed them to be.
Lately, that wasn't happening, and I was starting to learn patience.
"Excuse me if I'm intruding, but you look familiar. Are you an actor or something?"
"No," I said. "You must be confusing me with someone else."
He probably wasn't. There were often articles about Whitley Industries in the papers, but I didn’t feel like getting into any chitchat with the guy.
We didn't use photos very often. Still, my family was well-known. It wasn't far-fetched for him to have seen me somewhere before.
When we arrived, I headed straight up to my condo.
This was a bachelor pad through and through.
I liked it, and it had a great view of the city.
But it wasn't the best place to raise a kid. Ben was still small, but time would pass quickly, and he’d need a lot of space to play, so I’d bought a home in Beacon Hill.
It was big, and it had a backyard. It was in a good school district.
Criteria I would have never considered for a home purchase a few months ago.
I'd always wanted to be a father. But not even in my wildest nightmares did I imagine it would happen like this.
When I went inside, I was surprised to hear voices coming from the living room.
Ben was making sounds as well. Clearly, we had more company than just Cade and Meredith.
My youngest brother, Gabe, was here along with my second-oldest brother, Jake, and his fiancée, Natalie. Grandmother was sitting down.
"Hi! Hope you don't mind that we stopped by," Natalie said. “We heard Jeannie, Cade, and Meredith had to spend more time than planned with Ben, and we figured they might want some company.”
I liked Natalie. My brother couldn't have found a better woman.
She cared about Grandmother and was more skilled than my brothers and I were at looking after her without her noticing.
“And since you didn't answer the text, I came to see what needs to be done,” Gabe said. “Apparently nothing.” Despite the fact that the new house came fully furnished and I wasn't taking much with me, there were many boxes lying around. And I had a few left to pack.
Cade looked straight at me. "As your twin, it was my duty to drop by and see what I could help with.
" We weren't identical twins. Most people couldn't even tell we were related.
When next to each other, the only thing we had in common was our blue eyes.
They were a trademark of all my brothers.
Our half brothers had green and brown eyes.
“And to cuddle the little one,” Meredith added.
“He’s such a good baby,” Grandmother remarked. “His tummy is giving him a bit of trouble, but other than that, he rarely fusses.”
I took Ben from Natalie. He scrunched into a tiny ball as I put him on my shoulder.
In those first two weeks after I got him, I was at a complete loss as to what to do with him.
He seemed so tiny that even a wrong movement could break him.
But he and I had found our way. Most of the time, though, he especially liked to keep me up at night.
"How was the meeting?" Jake asked.
"It was good," I said. "I achieved what I wanted."
"You always do!"
That was true. It was one of the reasons why Whitley Publishing had not only survived the drastic changes in the publishing industry but had come out on top.
"By the way," Jake said, "Gabe and I have finalized the details for my bachelor party."
I blinked. "The wedding's in five months." Or was I so sleep-deprived that I got things mixed up? No, it was April now. The wedding was at the end of August.
"Yeah, and look how long that one took to plan. It's only fair that we start talking about the bachelor party early too."
"Count me in for whatever you have in mind," I said.
"That's our brother," Gabe said. He patted my other shoulder. "We're going to get out of your hair. Grandmother, I'll drop you off at home."
"Thank you, dear."
Natalie looked longingly at Ben, and Jake said, "Babe, let's go."
"And by the way," I said, "next weekend, you're all welcome at the new place."
Natalie perked up. "Great, we'd love to come!"
As everyone went to the door, Ben started to fuss on my shoulder. I had a feeling we were going to have another long night. Which brought another subject front and center in my mind. I really had to get my shit together and find a nanny.
"You know what, Spencer? If you want to go out any time in the evening, I'm happy to look after Ben. You need to have fun too. Take a bit of a break." Grandmother winked at me. "And see if you meet someone special.”
I glanced at my brothers to make sure I hadn't misunderstood. They looked just as surprised as I felt. My grandmother had taken up matchmaking recently. She’d been very successful with Jake and Cade, but surely she had to realize that dating was the furthest thing from my mind.
"Yeah, Grandmother, not to piss on your parade," Gabe said. “Pardon the language, but you're barking up the wrong tree with this one."
I cleared my throat. "What Gabe here wants to say is that you should drop the subject for now."
"Ah, polite as usual," Gabe said. "You're really, really barking up the wrong tree," he added as everyone headed out. Cade burst out laughing as I closed the door.
While I was ruthless in business, in my family I had the reputation of being something of a pacifier.
I had no idea how I’d ended up in that role.
Probably because as teenagers, after we found out about Father's infidelity, my brother Cade went through a phase where he pulled a lot of shit.
I was the one who tried to smooth everything over.
In business, I could keep everyone calm even when things were in crisis. Until I could ultimately convince them to do things my way.
I sat down on an armchair, drawing in a deep breath. Now with the family gone, the silence was deafening. The loneliness was palpable. Damn, I wasn’t prone to introspection. Maybe I was rambling simply because I was exhausted. Ben fell asleep on my shoulder, but I knew it wouldn’t be for long.
"Can you believe your great-grandmother? Gabe’s right. She's really barking up the wrong tree. It's going to be you and me for now. By the time I start dating again, you'll probably be in high school.”