Julian shook his head as the others laughed.“Good luck with that.”
“What’s everyone getting?”Kaidan asked.
“Whose turn is it to pay?”
“Jackson,” the others said as one.
“Fuck my life,” he muttered.
“Your days of freeloading off us are over, baby brother,” Ethan said.
Carson coughed.“Says the ultimate freeloader.”
Ethan flipped him off.
Just another night out with the Remingtons, Julian thought as he relaxed a bit for the first time since “the encounter” with Aimee.
“I’m getting the seventy-six-dollar Chilean sea bass,” Griffin said with a grin for Jackson.
“There’s a fifty-dollar limit per sibling,” Jackson said.“I’m only an associate!”
“Please,” Kaidan said.“We know how much you make.”
“My rent is four grand!”
“We told you not to sign that lease,” Jordan said.
“You had to have that fancy apartment in Brentwood,” Gillian added.
“My place isfly,” Jackson said with a smug grin.
“For four grand a month, I want a view of the Pacific,” Griffin said.“Oh wait, I have that.”
“When you’re not crashing at my place because you don’t feel like driving home to Malibu,” Ethan said.
“That’s what brothers are for,” Griff said.
“I’m going to start charging you rent,” Ethan said.
“You can try.”
“Speaking of rent, how’s it going with Mom, Kay?”Julian asked.
“I’m living the dream with her as my weekday roommate,” Kaidan said sarcastically, “and my boss.”
The others laughed even as they winced with empathy for Kaidan, who’d offered their mom her spare bedroom after Kate’s home was lost to the terrible Palisades Fire last year.Thankfully, Kate decamped to her weekend place in Santa Barbara every Friday afternoon, giving Kaidan a break.
“Since I’m taking a big one for the team by putting up with Mom, I’m not paying for dinner until she moves out,” Kaidan said.
“All in favor, say aye,” Jordan said.
“Aye.”
That was one thing they could easily agree on.While they loved their parents, the siblings carried complicated feelings from their childhood that they were still contending with as adults, especially working as they did for the family firms.
“Hey, Jules, I got a call from Gabriel Santana this afternoon, looking for representation,” Gillian said.“I pulled the police report and saw that you’d filed for an RO.”
“Actually, I did that,” Jackson said.“All real work in his practice is done by me.”
