“It’s for a damned good cause.” Braden gestures around us.
I don’t need to look at the peeling beige walls, cracks on the ceiling, or old equipment to know my friend is right.
“I’ve never asked him for a cent for anything frivolous. I hope Dad takes that into account.” But I know my father doesn’t care about good deeds and helping others. I shrug because I’ve never understood my father and never will. “He and Evan were alike. Dedicated to the trading business and caring about things like family legacy and heirs. It sounds like a nineteenth-century drama.”
Evan had been married, he and his wife trying to get her pregnant when he’d passed. TMI as far as I am concerned, but that’s how my family is. Trying to birth an heir to the fortune.
“I’m really sorry you lost him,” Braden says.
“I know you are, and I appreciate it.” It is different for my friend, I think. Braden is close with all of his siblings, whereas Evan and I had been distant, not sharing things in common. “I miss the thought of him, but we rarely spoke, so I have some guilt tied up with it all.”
Braden frowns. “You shouldn’t carry that burden because you were different and didn’t bond. Grieve? Of course. But don’t feel guilty.”
“I’m working on it.” I swing my legs around and place my feet on the floor and rise. “As far as our plan, we’ll know a lot more after I go home this weekend.” And I’m not looking forward to the trip or the groveling I’ll have to do in order to get what I want.
I work a late shift at the clinic and finally lock up for the night. The warm Florida air hits me when I exit, but after two years in Brazil, I am used to humidity and heat. I climb into my Ford SUV, turn on the ignition, and raise the AC, plugging in my phone and setting the music before pulling out of the lot.
I drum my fingers to a current song on the radio as I drive toward the apartment I rent in the same building as Braden, when my cell phone rings and my father’s name pops up on the screen.
Son of a bitch. Although I am tempted to ignore the call, my father will only try again later. The man is persistent, and I have been ducking him lately, if only to give myself some peace.
I hit the button that accepts the call. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hudson, I’ve been trying to get ahold of you,” he says in his typical annoyed tone, which comes through the car speakers.
I roll my eyes. “I’m fine. How are you?”
“Your mother and I are fine as well, something you would know if you’d picked up or called me back.”
“I have two jobs,” I remind my father. “My free time is minimal.”
“You wouldn’t need to work those hours if you came home and took a job with Northfield International.” The family international trading business that I want nothing to do with.
I let out a low chuckle. “Are you forgetting you paid for medical school?”
“Yes, well, as you know, I had your brother to ultimately run the company then.” Fate had disrupted Martin’s plan.
To this day, I don’t know how my fatherfeelsabout the death of his firstborn son beyond the fact that he no longer has an heir to take over. Martin and Lucille Northfield think they are nobility and treat everyone as a commodity that is either useful to them or not. For years my parents’ attitude suited me fine because I’ve been able to live life on my own terms. Now they need me, and I’m not about to give in.
“Are you coming home this weekend?” my father asks when I don’t take the bait and answer the jab about my brother’s death and Martin wanting me to work with him.
“I’ll be there,” I mutter.
“Good. I’m looking forward to talking about this further.”
In other words, to harangue me and try and change my mind. What I need is a distraction, something or someone to shift my father’s focus. Someone to keep me busy and away from my family. My mind drifts back to Bri and that stunning kiss. It was more potent than anything I’ve ever experienced, and I could have drowned in her and died a happy man.
“I’m bringing a date,” I hear myself say.
And despite not knowing whether I can pull off the barely formed notion, I can’t deny I like the idea of taking Bri with me to the city. She is everything I’ve just thought about and then some. A beautiful distraction to keep me too busy to get pulled into endless conversation with my father except for the one about my trust fund. Not to mention, it gives me the opportunity to get to know her better away from her overprotective brothers.
My father begins to cough, and I wait for him to pull himself together. “You’re what?”
I frown at the ridiculous question. My father heard me just fine. “I’m bringing a date,” I enunciate just to be sure. Though it won’t be easy, my cousin will add one to my table. Hell, she’ll bethrilled I am bringing a date and had offered me a plus-one with my invitation.
“But what about Corinne? Surely you know she’s excited to see you again after all this time,” Martin says.
I glance up at the sky before shifting my gaze back to the road in front of me. “She’s not invited to the wedding, and we haven’t spoken in years,” I say of a family friend’s daughter my parents approve of as a match for me.
