Carter holds up his hands. “I was going to reach out, butNathaniel told me he already did, so I’m just crashing lunch to chat.”
“Don’t automatically think the worst of us,” Nathaniel grunts.
“You don’t have the best track record.” I remind him and order a drink from the server.
“So Taylor’s back,” Carter starts it off.
“She is.”
“And how did that happen?” Nathaniel asks.
“Taylor is friends with some of my staff and the players. She’s been helping with Chase Bennett’s image rehabilitation after getting arrested in July.”
Nathaniel tilts his head. “But she owns her own agency, right? She doesn’t work for your company.”
“She doesn’t. I asked if she would help.”
“Why?” Carter picks up the menu in front of him.
“Because she has the experience we needed to handle the situation expeditiously and with sensitivity.”
“You also have those people at Stella,” Nathaniel offers.
“She’s familiar with the team and inserted herself in the situation already.”
“Sounds like her. Bulldozing her way in.” Carter smiles. Of all my siblings, he was the nicest and closest with Taylor, but that’s not saying a lot after how everything went down.
“I also—” I pause, swiping a hand through my hair, debating whether to give them my truth. “Gah, I also just wanted to be near her. See her more than every once in a while from a distance.”
I tell them the whole story—of the phone call three years ago, the wedding last year, everything up until now. I lay it all out there for them, confiding in my brothers like we used to when we were younger.
“Jesus, Grant. Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Nathaniel asks.
“Gee, I don’t know. We’re not exactly sitting in a circle singing kumbaya on the weekends,” I deadpan.
“That’s fair. We haven’t been great when it comes to you and Taylor in the past and it really fucked up our relationship, but we want to be there for you.”
“Nathaniel is right. We know we messed up. We’re here trying to make amends. We’re just worried about you.”
“Worried about me?”
The server interrupts and takes our orders. When they walk away, Nathaniel picks up where Carter left off. “You lose your head where Taylor Baker is concerned. I mean what has she said about why she just up and left ten years ago? Did she even explain it to you?”
“No.”
“Has she at least said she wants to be with you?” Carter volleys back.
“Not exactly.”
Has she?I’ve basically told her that I want to be with her. That I’ve been waiting for her to come back to me, but has she done the same? I recall our conversation the morning after the dugout. She asked why I really moved to Nashville, but when I got serious about her being where she was meant to be, she shut it down and pushed me between her legs.
“Are you dating? Hooking up?” I shift uncomfortably at Nathaniel’s question.
“You fucked, didn’t you?” Carter whisper-hisses at me.
I drop my head back on a groan. “Yes. We messed around once. And then we fucked before I came here.”
“How was it?” Carter’s face splits with a wide grin.
