“I was.”
“Why?”
I drank more wine. That was the answer to everything right now.
How the hell could I tell Hayden why I was furious with Colson? That, after everything we’d gone through work-wise, I somehow found myself in a private room with him at Lush, where he teased me for hours, leaving me completely unsatisfied. To make matters worse, he rubbed our negotiations in my face, like that was the reason he had tortured me.
My brother and I were close, but that was crossing a line.
I needed to pivot.
And just as I was about to, he said, “Look at me, Sophie.”
I was reluctant but caved.
“Is there something I need to know that you’re not telling me?”
“No.”
“So, you’re confirming I don’t need to kill that man?” He let out a ragged breath. “I don’t care that he’s my client. If he did something to you, that changes everything.” His palms pressed against the counter again. “I’ll wring his fucking neck.” He bared his teeth.
Hayden had protected me since he had been big enough to walk and rear back his fist. When it came to me, he only needed to get a whiff of turmoil, and he immediately reacted.
I could understand why he worried about Colson; everything I should have said at his office and didn’t, along with the way I quickly left—both so out of character for me—had fueled my brother’s assumption. But Hayden didn’t need to step in. I could handle Colson myself, which meant avoiding him at all costs.
“You don’t need to kill him.” I continued to hold my glass near my lips.
He was silent while he stared at me, but I could tell his brain was anything but.
“I need to know something. Is the animosity between you two strictly work-related? Or does it go deeper?” His eyes narrowed.
I rubbed my lips together before I let out a loud breath, my head falling back as my lungs deflated.
“Jesus Christ, Sophie.”
When I looked at him again, I said, “If I’m not allowed to ask questions about the conversation you had with Colson about me, then you’re not allowed to ask any questions either.”
“Answer me.”
“No, you answer me! Tell me what Colson said about me!”
He grabbed my glass of wine and swallowed what was left. “I get the impression that whatever happened between you two is really going to piss me off.”
“I feel the same way about the talk you two had.”
He chuckled. “There’s no winning with you …”
I smirked. “There never has been.”
At the very least, I flew to Fort Lauderdale once a quarter. If work permitted, I came more often, and in those cases, my visits were monthly. No matter how long I lived in LA, my family was in Florida, and that made it home.
Before I had become a partner, I contemplated moving back, especially being a single parent since the presence of family would be tremendously helpful with Abbi. But my new title had made LA permanent for the foreseeable future, my salary giving me the freedom to travel east whenever I wanted, and Abbi’s age came with a lot of flexibility.
When I had first started going back and forth, I stayed with my brother. He accepted no other scenario. But as Abbi got older, I wanted her to have a space that made her as comfortable as my house in LA. Even though Hayden would have said yes, I didn’t have it in me to pink-out one of his bedrooms. To load it with toys and stuffed animals. To keep clothes and cosmetics there when he lived such a bachelor lifestyle.
So, last year, I purchased a condo in a high-rise on the water. A three-bedroom that gave Abbi plenty of her own space, along with an office so I could work remotely.
But our living arrangement was the only thing that changed whenever I came into town. Everything else, like who I saw and spent time with, stayed the same.
