Page 4 of Contentious

“I was waiting until we were together,” Julian said.

“That’s bullshit,” Griffin said. “We have a group text that ensures we’re always together.” He’d no sooner said those words than he seemed to realize who was sitting next to Carson. “You’re Cresley Dane.”

“I am.”

“What’re you doing here?”

“I… um… I came with Carson.”

The others zeroed in on him at once as a prickly, itchy feeling took hold, reminding him of why he needed to stick to his guns where the spectacular Cresley Dane was concerned. The last thing he wanted was to be like Julian, who’d forgotten all about who he was and what he stood for since he met Isla.

Later on, he’d take her home and then forget he’d ever met her. Well, after he gave Ty those surfing lessons.

That’d be it.

Chapter Two

“I don’t think you’ve all met Isla.” Julian pointed to each Remington as he introduced her. “Isla, these are my siblings.”

“Nice to meet you all,” she said with a shy smile. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Hopefully, Jules had prepared her for a less-than-enthusiastic greeting from his jaded brothers and sisters.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Gillian said as the others murmured proper words they didn’t mean.

None of them approved of Jules losing his marbles over a recently widowed woman who’d survived a difficult marriage and was now a single parent with two young kids. That sentence alone was surreal. They hoped Julian would soon return to normal so they could exhale over a dodged bullet.

Carson wondered if this new round of drama with their parents would wake his brother up to reality sooner rather than later. The only thing he’d need to be scared straight was another episode of the Corbin and Kate show. Viewers had eaten up the drama depicted in the stupid reality TV show while their nine children had to contend with other kids at school as their personal business was made public. He and Julian had been in high school then. Good times.

Carson’s cell rang with a call from Spence. “Hey, Gramps.”

“What’s everyone doing there?”

The one downside to being his grandfather’s caretaker was that Spence, an iPhone aficionado, loved monitoring what went on at home via the cameras he had positioned around the exterior of the property. Most of the time, he complained about how lame Carson’s life was and urged him to do something exciting to keep an old man from dying of boredom.

“Did you see the news tonight?” Carson asked him.

“I’ve been playing cribbage. What’d I miss?”

“It’s kind of a bombshell.”

“Okay…”

“Mom and Dad are back together.”

“What the hell did you just say?”

“You heard me right.” Spence took great pride in being one of the few people at his facility who didn’t wear hearing aids.

“Put me on speaker.”

“It’s Gramps,” Carson said to the others. “He wants in on the conversation.”

“Catch me up,” Spencer said.

The Remington kids loved their paternal grandfather more than just about anyone, as he’d been the most reliable adult during their tumultuous childhood. He’d never wavered in his devotion to each of them, and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for them—and vice versa.

Julian gave him the highlights—or lowlights, such as they were.