Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
K ellen
Four months later
I check my watch and see it’s quitting time, so I log off my work computer and lean back in my chair to relax at the end of a long day. It’s been a good few months that I’ve been back at my job, but I still prefer to work from home. In part, it’s because I’m a little gun-shy about working face-to-face with people after that Gina mess, but mostly it’s because I like not having to wear a suit and doing my work from the privacy of my home.
Of course, it’s not just my place anymore since Salem moved in last month. After spending every day and night together while she was fixing my reputation, it seemed like the right thing to do since we’re crazy about one another. She’s not a fan of working from home, but every night we spend together.
Who would have thought Kellen King would be settled down with a woman he loves? Not this guy. I used to think that kind of thing was fine for Ronan and Matthias, but somewhere in the mess that my life became, I found Salem and she turned my world upside down.
“Kellen? Where are you?” she calls out from the living room.
Right on time. I can set my watch by her. Every day she returns by six o’clock after leaving at nine that morning. It’s the most regulated I’ve ever seen someone, but it works for her.
Me, I prefer a more relaxed schedule, but that’s what makes us so great together. We’re as different as night is to day, but somehow that works for us.
“I’m in my office. Hang on. I just finished work,” I call out.
When I walk into the hallway, she’s waiting for me with a smile. “I missed you. I had to deal with a certain star pitcher who seems to have found himself in a sex scandal. He’s my newest client.”
I kiss her, loving the feel of her lips on mine, and pull her to me. “I missed you too. I haven’t heard anything about this client of yours on the news, and I had it on all day while I was working.”
She looks up at me with confusion in her eyes. “You still do that after what happened to you?”
Shrugging, I admit the boring truth. “Old habits die hard. Now I just assume whatever they’re saying is fact isn’t or they haven’t bothered to check it out yet. So what did Mr. Star Pitcher do? Is it juicy?”
Salem taps the tip of my nose before turning out of my hold. “You know I can’t tell you. Let’s just say it involves a barely legal girl and her mother.”
Damn! Whoever this guy is, he likes it freaky. Now I’m not sure I want to hear about this from Salem or the news.
“So how are you going to make him look like a choir boy?”
She spins on her heel and glares at me. “You know that’s not what I do. My job is to make my clients be seen as something other than bad guys. I can’t change the truth, although I suspect there’s more to the story with this client than meets the eye.”
I walk to where she stands and take her in my arms. “Who’s trying to shake him down? Mom or the daughter? And for how much?”
The truth is that’s what most of Salem’s clients face, including me. The facts rarely fit the story that first leaks out to the world, so it’s her job to make sure that on one hand the truth comes out and on the other her clients show the public that they may have made mistakes but they aren’t the villains they’re being made out to be.
And she’s damn good at her job. I should know.
“So what are we doing for dinner tonight? Take out, cook, or go somewhere?” I ask, already hungry.
For a long moment, she stares at me like I’ve grown another head. What was so wrong about that question?
“Did you forget we have to be at Matthias and Ava’s in about an hour?”
This is news to me. What am I not remembering?
“We were just there for Thanksgiving last week. Why do we have to go back there tonight?” I ask as I follow her into our bedroom.
She searches through the closet looking for something to wear to whatever this event is that I’ve completely forgotten and explains, “I can’t believe you forgot. They’re having the entire family over tonight. They said it’s a surprise, but I think I figured it out.”
The mention of this sparks a memory, but I still don’t recall us agreeing to drive all the way out to their house on a Friday night. “Okay. I think I remember. What’s the surprise you figured out?”
Salem leans back and smiles. “Ava’s pregnant again, I think.”
“Really?” I ask, stunned by this news. “Does my brother know?”
I think if Matthias had even the tiniest clue he was going to be a father for a second time, he would have been screaming it from the rooftops. He talks almost nonstop about Theo and shows dozens of pictures every time he’s around anyone.
“I would think so, Kellen. He was there when it happened. I highly doubt she’s kept it from him. That’s why I think they wanted all of us out there. Marius and Ronan will be at the house too. I swear we had an entire conversation about this earlier in the week. We were right there in bed when I told you Ava texted me about this.”
Walking up behind her, I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her to me. “See, that explains it. We were in bed. I can’t be held responsible for not remembering you telling me something when we’re naked. It’s a rule.”
She turns in my hold and chuckles. “It’s a rule? Who made that rule up?”
“Men. We have a hard time focusing on anything when the woman we love is naked next to us. I don’t make these rules, Salem. I just live by them.”
Grimacing, she hums, “Hmmm…this does not sound like a real rule of life, but I’ll allow it. Nevertheless, you need to get dressed so we can leave. It’s going to take us ages just to get out of the city.”
I nuzzle her neck, smelling that soft perfume she wears that drives me crazy. “I’d rather stay right here and get naked so I can forget more things you tell me. I’ll call my brother and pretend you had to work late so we can’t come up until tomorrow. I’m sure they can give us the good news on a Saturday.”
That gets me the Salem look of disapproval, which means I need to get dressed to go listen to my brother and Ava surprise us with something I already know. “Okay, okay. Driving out to the house is what we’ll do.”
“Thank you. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
She returns to searching for what she thinks is the perfect outfit, so I kiss her neck once more on the off chance that will convince her to bail on this whole family affair, but it doesn’t work. “By the way, I love you.”
Looking back at me, she smiles. “I love you too, Kellen. And I promise when we get back, we’ll spend all weekend in bed so you can forget a ton more things.”
“Perfect.”
The things we do for love.
Marius and Ronan are sitting near the fireplace in the living room when we get to Matthias and Ava’s, so when Salem starts chatting with Eleanor and Ava’s friend Eden, I make a beeline to my brothers to find out what’s been going on with them.
“The latest casualty in the war between the sexes,” Marius says in his usual tone of disgust when it comes to love. Or romance. Or anything close to it.
“Give me a break, okay? You live with a woman like Salem and see if you don’t fall head over heels for her. What can I say? It was my time.”
Both my brothers look at one another and then back at me. “I get it. I’m not sure I thought you two would move in together so soon, but I get it,” Ronan says.
“That’s because you’ve been whipped since you dated that Kate girl in high school. Even then, you were a sucker for love,” Marius says before taking a drink of what looks like whisky.
Time to change the subject before he starts in on how love is for fools. Whenever he gets too much booze in him, it’s always the same tune. Love sucks. Women are succubi. He’s never going to be tied down. It’s the same old thing with him every time.
“So what’s the surprise here tonight? They get you guys to fly in from all parts of the world, so it must be big.”
The two of them shrug and shake their heads. “No idea. Ava looks very happy, so maybe it’s another baby? She really does seem to love being a mom,” Ronan says.
“That’s my guess,” Marius adds.
The three of us watch Matthias bounce his son on his knee and talk babytalk to him before looking at one another and smiling. “Have you ever seen him so happy? Who knew all it took was reproducing a son that looks just like him?” I say with a chuckle.
“That’s why I think it might be that they’re having another baby,” Ronan says. “I guess with a house like this the need to fill it with people comes over you. It seems to have come over Mom and Dad.”
“That’s true. There was only about two years between Matthias and Theo.”
As soon as I say his name, it’s like the vibe among the three of us changes. I don’t want that to happen anymore, so I quickly say, “I think it’s great Matthias and Ava named their first son Theo.”
My brothers give me a long, hard look before Marius says, “I heard you apologized for saying all that stuff about Theo and Ava. I’m glad you did that. Matthias may not have been a perfect angel in that situation, but he never meant any harm to Theo.”
“Let’s just say I had to learn the hard lesson about judging people before I figured that out. Matthias was cool about it, though.”
“Good! So we’re one big, happy family again,” Ronan says with a smile, lifting his glass in a toast. “To the King brothers finally all getting along.”
From across the room, Matthias loudly says, “Can we have your attention? Ava and I have an announcement and then we’ve got enough food for an army, so we’re going to need you to eat it or we will.”
Ava stands next to him and takes little Theo into her arms as he begins to whine. “Someone needs to go to bed. We better make this announcement quick before things go downhill.”
Salem walks over to where I’m sitting and stands next to me as we wait for the big news. The baby begins to cry, which drags things out more, and all I want to do is say, “Can you just give the news before your first kid has a conniption?”
“I bet it’s another baby,” she says in my ear.
If it is, that’s great for them. Or maybe it’s that they bought another house. If they plan on having half a dozen or so kids, they might need more rooms.
Finally, a pacifier does the trick, and baby Theo is content enough for his parents to give us their news. Matthias looks like he’s going to explode if he has to keep it all inside for another minute longer, and Ava just beams happiness like she has ever since becoming a mother.
“Can someone please give the details about this top secret thing?” Marius says, relishing his role as malcontent of the family.
“Okay, okay. We’ve tortured you enough. We have three surprises, actually,” Matthias says.
Beside me, Salem says, “Oh my God! They’re having triplets.”
My oldest brother hears that and looks at her in horror. “No, we are not having triplets.” Then he turns to look at Ava and asks, “We aren’t having triplets, right?”
Everyone bursts into laughter at how terrified he sounds, but Ava pats his arm and sweetly says, “No, Matthias. No triplets.”
He lets out a heavy sigh of relief and shakes his head. “For a second there, I nearly passed out. Okay, the first surprise is sort of out of the bag. Ava and I are expecting another baby next summer.”
Salem slaps my arm in excitement as the entire room erupts in cheers. “I knew it!”
Ava quickly adds, “But there are two more surprises.”
“The second one is we’re finally going to get married this Christmastime. We hope you’ll all be able to join us here at the house for the ceremony and reception afterward. We’ve got the invitations to hand out tonight,” Matthias says.
Ava’s friend Eden runs up to her and squeals, “I knew it! It only took a year of being engaged and the birth of your first child. I can’t wait to go shopping for the dress!”
Out of the corner of my eye I see Marius paying more than his usual attention to Eden. Interesting.
Leaning over, I push on his leg and joke, “Seeing anything you like tonight?”
His answer surprises me. With a rare grin, he answers, “Maybe.”
“She’s pretty excited about a dress, dude,” Ronan teases him. “That doesn’t sound like the type of woman you’d like.”
He’s not listening to us comment on his life anymore and instead is staring at Eden as she dances around with little Theo and his parents prepare to tell us their third surprise of the night. Maybe I was wrong about Marius being anti-love.
“Okay, the final surprise is more a me-thing,” Matthias says, staring directly at me as he speaks. “Well, a me and Kellen thing. I didn’t get to talk to him about this, so let’s hope he’s okay with what I’m about to say.”
My heart slams into my chest at the thought of what the next words out of his mouth might be. I look to my left at Salem, but it’s clear by the mixture of confusion and fear in her expression that she has no idea what’s about to happen.
“Um, big brother and bossman, maybe springing things on people when they’ve only had half a glass of whisky isn’t a great thing to do to your brother,” I nervously joke.
Matthias smiles at me like he did that day when we talked right after Theo was born. “I hope you’ll forgive me, Kellen, but in my defense, I did mean to discuss this with you before now. After Ava and I get married, we’re going to be taking a trip with Theo to Europe right after the New Year before Ava gets too pregnant to enjoy it. If you’re willing, I want you to be the interim head of King Industries starting in January and staying in the position all next year. With the honeymoon trip, another baby on the way, and an infant, we’ve got a lot on our plates. I can’t think of another person I trust more to run our company than you. So will you do it?”
Salem throws her arms around me in congratulations as I sit there stunned at this third announcement. Me? The head of King Industries. Well, interim head but the head all the same.
That my brother trusts me after what happened means more than he will ever know. When that Gina business first hit the news and my brothers all thought I was some fuck up who couldn’t handle his life, all I could think was how much I was disappointing everyone. Now he’s saying he wants me to take over for him.
I nod, still in shock at his offer. “Of course, I will. Thank you for trusting me.”
“You’re the only person in the company I trust more than myself. I know you’ll handle things while I’m gone, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that,” Matthias says.
Ava waves us all toward the doorway and announces, “Okay, that’s all the news. Now it’s time to eat!”
Marius and Ronan congratulate me, and all I can do is smile. It’s been a hell of a year, but finding out I’ll begin the new year as the head of King Industries is more than I ever dreamed of.
I turn to look at Salem and see tears in her eyes. “I’m so proud of you, Kellen.”
Taking her in my arms, I kiss her and whisper against her lips, “You get a good part of the credit for this. If you hadn’t helped me, I don’t think Matthias would have ever thought of putting me in charge.”
“I just clean up messes. You did all the important work. I’m so happy for you. I know you’re going to do an incredible job.”
I kiss her again and then realize the biggest change that’s going to come from this. “I guess I’m going to have to work out of the office now.”
She smiles and points at my tie. “Oh, it’s even worse than that. You’re going to have to be a guy who wears suits to work every day.”
There’s a sobering thought. I started the year screwing up royally and end it by becoming the big boss wearing a suit.
What a year, and there’s still a month left to this one.
As Salem and I walk toward where the rest of the group has gone to eat in the kitchen, I wonder if I should really shoot for the moon this year. I am crazy in love with her. Maybe we should make an announcement tonight.
Maybe next year.