“Did anything happen with the client, because how come we are now just hearing about it?” Rafe interjected.
Matt clammed up for a second until the rest of the brothers jumped in again with the third degree. They kept pressuring him until Matt blurted out, “No, there was just one night when Nova was ignoring my calls. I started drinking at the hotel and then didn’t want to be alone, so I went to the nearest bar down the street from the hotel. Everything is a blur. I had too much to drink and I—”
“We’re here.” Colin interrupted as the limousine came to a stop. As he moved to exit the car, he added, “We can talk more about this later.”
“Never mind.” Matt huffed, shutting down again. “There is nothing else to discuss. I just drank too much and went back to the hotel to sleep it off.”
Colin looked like he wanted to respond but then he heard from outside the open door. “Welcome to the V, Mr. Norris.”
Jacob exited behind Colin, not wanting to be cooped up in the limousine anymore, especially with his thoughts of Sierra.
The rest of Colin’s entourage soon arrived and the attendants began the task of gathering the luggage and setting the party up with their hotel rooms. One of Colin’s friends exclaimed, “Let the bachelor partying begin!”
He had a feeling this weekend was going to be interesting because “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Who could tell what trouble they might get up to. Would one of their groups get a tattoo of some random chick or end up visiting Elvis in a chapel and getting married?
After they got checked in, Jabob called home to see how Kaitlyn was doing. He’d barely gotten his hellos in before Kaitlyn brought up where Sierra was going to stay after the surgery. He’d promised to talk to her about it when he got home, but she keptinsisting that she needed to move into the home, not in the guest house.
“I love having Mommy here and want her to stay, please?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose and could feel a headache coming on; he never got headaches. This situation was spiraling out of his control, and he didn’t like it, not one bit. “Yes, okay, sweetheart, can we talk about it more later—”
“Mommy! Daddy says you can stay with us!” his daughter shouted out in happiness; her excited giggles followed and then he heard Sierra’s breathy tone floating in the background before she picked up the phone.
“Jacob, I did not put her up to this, I swear. I will come up with some excuse as to why I can’t stay.”
Outside the room, he heard his name being shouted; he cursed, telling her he had to leave for dinner plans and then added. “It’s okay we can talk about this later. I believe you. Kaitlyn knows I can never really say no to her. In that way, she is kind of like you.” He said tiredly and he heard her draw in a breath.
He’d spoken without thinking and hadn’t meant it the way it sounded. He muttered a low curse. “I didn—”
“It’s okay, it sounds like someone is getting impatient, we can talk later. Do you want to talk to Kaitlyn again?”
“Yes, let me say goodbye.”
After getting off the phone with his excited daughter, he got up to go and get dressed for dinner.
Already this night had dealt it firsthand to him and he knew that this was not the end to the surprises that awaited him.
Chapter 19
Sierra finished her last lap when she saw a blurry vision of a man standing near the edge of the pool. Raising her head, she shifted to treading water as she lifted her goggles onto the swimming cap she wore. Her father hadn’t changed much, except more gray had mixed in with the black, coarse hair that he kept buzzed short. His moustache and beard were still dark.
He still had an imposing figure that he kept trim with swimming. He had been the one to teach her how to swim when she was younger. She did a crawl toward the steps leading out of the pool, her eyes trained on him. The water made her body feel light and the swim effortless but became a problem when she needed to climb out.
She saw her father’s hand in front of her face, and she gripped it. He helped to pull her up the stairs and onto the cement poolside. He retrieved her towel from her chair, then sat in the one next to it. His hands were tucked in between his legs as he waited for her to dry off.
Wrapping the wet towel around her waist, Sierra sat down next to her father, facing him. She noticed he wasn’t wearing shoes or socks, concluding he must have seen her using the indoor pool at Jacob’s place.
He watched her with a guarded look on his face.
“Where is Kaitlyn?”
“Marissa took her to run some errands. She needed a break from being cooped up inside.”
He nodded and they sat there. For how long, it wasn’t clear, then they both spoke at the same time.
“Dad, I owe you an apology—
“Thanks for doing this for Jacob and Kaitlyn. I heard you have changed—”
