Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
The rooftop lounge where my sister and I met the ladies overlooked the Pacific.
The view from where we were seated captured soft waves of black and gold.
Candlelit tables flickered across low glass tables while the sound of the ocean carried faintly beneath the soft piano music drifting through the open-air promenade.
For the first time in days, I wasn’t working. There was no earpiece, no timelines, no demanding clients, and no disasters looming ahead. It was just drinks, ocean air, and the women who somehow managed to keep me sane through every chaotic season of my life.
“Well,” Brooke said dramatically as the server placed another round of cocktails onto the table, “after surviving an entire gala while being hunted by a billionaire, I think our girl, the gorgeous and talented Catalina Veléz, deserves a toast.”
I eyed her and sipped my glass of wine. “Please. No need to toast me for surviving any billionaire, whether they appear to be hunting me or not.”
Sienna lifted her martini without hesitation. “Well, word has it that Mr. Hawk has been quite persistent with you lately.”
“Word has it, huh?” I said, shaking my head. “May I ask where you’ve heard these words?”
Sienna shrugged and smiled. “You know how men of influence, such as him, are,” she said, eyeing me in that attorney-at-law way she had about her. “Let’s just say everyone is watching.”
“Well, they can tune out because there’s nothing to see,” I said, glancing over at my sister, who was taking a sip of her sparkling water.
Amelia smiled into her glass.
“Something amusing, sweetie?” I asked her with a smile.
“You just make me laugh sometimes,” she answered. “So what if some wealthy billionaire every woman wants is hunting you down? Enjoy it.”
“Leave it to my own sister to make light of all this,” I said with a chuckle of my own.
“I just think it’s harmless, especially since you’re not attracted to the man in the slightest,” Amelia answered, eying my friends, who were practically sisters to her.
“Feelings can come from anywhere,” Sienna answered, her brow arching sharply. She looked directly at me. “And that’s what’s dangerous about Titus Hawk. Whatever game he thinks he’s playing with you lately, everyone knows that man is the biggest player of them all.”
I raised my glass to the truth my friend had just spoken, “And that is why everyone can entertain themselves with gossip about the man hunting me. They’ll see this story grow cold and die soon enough.”
“As an attorney who represents men like him,” Sienna offered, “I should hope that remains true.”
Of my two close friends, Sienna was the exact opposite of Brooke in almost every way. We’d met in college after she verbally destroyed a professor during a business ethics debate and somehow still walked out looking polished.
Now she was among the most sought-after corporate and entertainment attorneys in Los Angeles, representing elite executives, celebrities, and billionaire founders. Years spent cleaning up the disasters wealthy men created had made Sienna deeply suspicious of men like Titus Hawk.
Honestly? I trusted her instincts.
Brooke Morales, however, believed life was meant to be lived beautifully and recklessly.
She’d been one of my closest friends since college and now spent most of her time traveling the world, writing for luxury travel publications and dating men she quickly lost interest in.
Brooke loved drama, though, not destructive drama, just the kind that made life more entertaining.
Which meant she was thoroughly enjoying this whole situation with Titus far more than she should have been.
I truly needed us all to get off this subject, or the relaxing evening I was excited to share with my friends would only serve to frustrate me. Most of all, because it was founded on nothing. Try as he might, Titus Hawk would remain strictly business, and that would be all I knew of the man.
“How was your OB appointment?” I turned to my sister, hoping to regain everyone’s interest in her having a baby.
“Well,” she said, “everything looks great, and Dr. Aster will perform my first ultrasound next week to determine exactly how far along I am.”
“Which Dr. Aster are you seeing? Is it Mickie or John?” Sienna asked.
“Mickie, thanks to my sister being friends with them,” Amelia said.
“Mickie is phenomenal,” Sienna added. “When I was pregnant with the twins, she made what terrified me seem like such a rare and blessed opportunity.”
“Because it is,” Brooke said with a silly laugh. “I can’t believe you and Jeff could be so freaked out about having the twins. Amara and Alessia are the cutest little nuggets I’ve ever seen.”
“You can’t imagine it because it seems impossible when you’re running around, loving and leaving men, while touring the world,” I chuckled. “I imagine if you found out you were pregnant with two babies, you’d be a little overwhelmed too.”
“Hell no,” she shrugged. “I would just include them in my travel blogs and make them global baby stars.”
“You say that now, gorgeous,” Sienna said. “But when you’re up all night with not just one, but two screaming, jaundiced babies, I really doubt you’d want to catch the next flight to Jamaica.”
“Or go jump off a cliff in Costa Rica,” I added.
“Exactly,” Sienna agreed with a warm smile. “I truly couldn’t have asked for a better doctor than Mickie. Since the twins couldn’t be carried to full term, she did such an incredible job delivering them safely. Thanks to her, I happily have two healthy, beautiful girls.”
“Yeah, she seems really good,” Amelia said, suddenly saddened by all of this.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” I said, immediately clocking her shift in mood.
“It’s nothing,” she shrugged it off.
“Nothing my ass,” I said, seeing tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. “What’s going on? Is it about the baby?”
“I’m just scared, I think,” she said.
Brooke grew serious, and Sienna’s eyes narrowed.
“What is it that you’re afraid of? It is natural, and that’s why I’m grateful your doctor is Mickie,” Sienna said. “You need to make her aware of your trepidation right now, and she will help put your mind at ease.”
“How can she help me feel better about being a single mom? I worry I might never meet anyone new. Why would anyone my age want to raise another man’s child?”
Well, that came out of nowhere, I thought.
I should’ve expected it, though. My sister and I saw the world very differently.
I was fiercely independent and couldn’t imagine worrying about finding a man if I were in her shoes, mainly because I wouldn’t want a man competing for my attention while I was trying to figure out motherhood and focusing on my child.
We were two different people with distinct personalities and priorities, so I didn’t know how to comfort her in this situation or explain that she would be okay without a man, because we saw the world through different lenses.
Before anyone could respond, Avery and her sister-in-law, Ashley Mitchell, approached us at the table.
“Sorry we’re late,” Ashley said, sitting across from me and next to Sienna. “Southern California traffic can be such a bitch.”
“Don’t even worry about it,” I answered with a smile. “Perhaps you both showed up at the perfect time,” I said, acknowledging Avery, who sat to my left.
“Well, if we’re not always unfashionably late,” Avery chuckled, waving our waiter over. “Ash, what are you having? I’m having a dry martini.”
“Dry?” Sienna said with a laugh.
“Very fucking dry,” Avery said.
“Rough day at the center?” I asked, aware that Avery managed a well-funded, carefully curated shelter for women who were victims of domestic abuse.
“If you call not eating all day a rough day,” she responded after placing her and Ash’s martini order, “then yes, it was a pretty shitty day.”
“Perhaps we should order some food for the table,” Brooke offered.
Avery met her polite smile. “Won’t be necessary…”
“Av went through an In-N-Out drive-thru, ordered, and ate two double doubles,” Ash said with a laugh.
“Holy shit,” Amelia said. “Where do you put all of that?”
“Avery, Ash,” I gestured to my sister. “You haven’t met officially yet, but this is my sister, Amelia, who is staying with me for a while. Amelia, these are Avery and Ashley Mitchell.”
“Oh, sisters?” she asked.
“Not by blood,” Ash returned sweetly. “Marriage.”
“They snatched two of the hottest billionaire brothers in the neighborhood,” Brooke said. “Damn, I remember when those boys were the talk of the town.”
I laughed. “Aren’t they the reason that whole ridiculous Billionaires’ Club branding got started for their group?”
“Yes,” Sienna said. “What was the saying? If you were lucky enough to screw one of them, you were part of their billionaires’ club?”
“Something like that,” Ash said with a laugh. “And God, was it hell being the one who settled down the first wild child of the bunch.”
“Jake was a situation,” Sienna said before looking at Avery. “I believe your husband, Jim, called me multiple times to help get the paparazzi off his ass while he was trying to make an impression on his adorable future bride.”
“That was you Jim was working through?” Ash questioned. “God, it was so long ago that I forgot how that documentary about that hospital pretty much screwed all those Playboy doctors over.”
Avery finished a long sip of her martini. “You’re still Jim’s favorite attorney to work with because you take zero bullshit in this industry,” she sighed. “But alas, you wouldn’t take him up on his offer.”
“What offer was that?” I asked, aware that Avery and Ash already knew my friends Sienna and Brooke from various galas and our casual hangouts just among us women.
Avery smirked at me. “He wanted to hire her exclusively as his lead attorney for his legal department.”
“Sound familiar?” Sienna asked me.
“Before or after Av came into his life?” I asked, knowing I was out of the gossip loop.
“Before,” Avery said with a laugh. “And I believe it was Sienna who set the man straight at the time.”