Just Like That (The Kings)

I couldn’t stop staring at her.

It really was starting to become a fucking problem. Hazel was sitting in a semicircle with the women of my family, laughing and smiling. I tried to focus on whatever Royal was saying, but the way her laugh floated on the early-autumn air was downright distracting.

When Hazel had made an offhand comment that she and Teddy were going up to the farm for a barbecue, I’d offered to drive.

Hell, I hadn’t even been invited.

It was my own fault, I knew that. My entire life I’d been living in my father’s shadow, groomed to take over the business, and I was expected to operate as an extension of him. Trouble was, that role had felt more and more like a cheap suit I couldn’t wait to shed.

The distance between my siblings and me was the direct result of my choices. They should hate me for it, but instead they greeted me with smiles and handshakes when I’d shown up with Hazel and Teddy in tow.

Conversations with my siblings were still stilted and awkward, but I was trying.

“She’s not going anywhere.” Royal chuckled beside me.

I tried to hide my frown by taking a sip of my beer. “What?”

“Your girl.” He gestured toward her, and I immediately wanted to pull his arm down and scold him for not playing it cool. “You can stop stalking her every move.”

I ground my molars together. “She’s not my girl.”

The words were sour on my tongue, and I washed them away with another quick sip of beer.

She may not be my girl, but sometimes it sure as hell felt like she was—times when she looked at me, without saying a word, and gave me that soft smile, the one that tugged at the center of my chest.

I need to get away from you.

I’d been hearing versions of that sentiment my entire life. I was too cold, too focused on my career, too willing to do whatever it took to keep the family business afloat. It stung when Hazel had said it, but I understood.

It was why I had kept my distance for the past few days. I still needed to figure out a way to help her understand my perspective—fine. I didn’t exactly remember Olive, and that was shitty. I couldn’t change that. What I could change was how I showed up for Teddy. For her. A plan was forming, and step one of that plan was giving her a few days to cool off so we might have a conversation and work it all out.

See? It’s logical, and she is definitely not my girl.

Royal let out a hearty laugh. “Okay. Sure.”

I diverted my attention to Teddy, who had joined Ben and Tillie in the blueberry fields. Their legs were caked by dust clinging to their sweaty skin. Their pockets were bulging, and their fingertips were already stained purple.

“I slept with her sister, man. Come on.” I shook my head.

Royal shifted his weight. “So you remember it, huh? Was it when you were interning in Chicago?”

I nodded. “That time frame lines up.” I scrubbed my hand on the back of my neck. “I don’t really remember it, if you know what I mean.” I peeked up at him, feeling the shame of my one-night stand and its consequences wash over me.

He shrugged. “We’ve all been there.” He gestured toward Teddy with his bottle. “You got a cool kid out of the deal, though. So there’s that.”

I didn’t bother hiding my smile at the mention of Teddy. “Yeah. Who would have guessed?”

“That is, if the paternity comes back a match,” he added.

My gut churned as I swallowed. “Right. Of course.”

“But the sister . . .” He waggled his eyebrows. “Make your move yet?”

Jesus.

I was absolutely not discussing her—or the fact I knew what her tits looked like covered with my cum—with my older brother.

“Grow up,” I shot back, pushing his solid frame and knocking him off-kilter.

He grinned. “Never.”

In a quick move, Royal tossed his arm around my neck and put me in a headlock. My beer bottle went spinning in the grass.

I pushed at his arm and tried to get free, but he held on to me.

“Say it,” he demanded as we wrestled. “Say it . . .”

“You’re a fuckhead.” I tried to free myself and almost got him off balance when he shifted and tightened his grip around my neck.

“Come on, John Pierce . . . say you love me.” His laugh rolled through me, and I grinned alongside him.

I looped my leg around his and shifted my weight. I might not be as bulky as he was, but I was quicker. Tossing my hips, I was able to knock him off balance and we both tumbled into the grass and dirt.

My laugh rang out as I rolled away from him.

“Fine.” I stared down at a laughing Royal and held out my hand. “I love you.”

He gripped my hand and I pulled him to his feet. “See? Doesn’t that feel good?” He slapped a hand on my back. “I love you too.”

Abel gestured toward us while talking to Duke. “You see what I have to deal with?”

Royal pursed his lips and made kissing noises toward Abel. With a laugh, he handed me a fresh beer and folded me into the conversation with ease.

I sneaked one last glance at Hazel and let myself pretend that it could always be like this.

Much of our work, between placating our current business partners and seeking new opportunities, was tedious. It largely consisted of researching businesses and analyzing their data and performance. It made buying the struggling companies much simpler when you understood and could exploit their weak spots.

On the side, we were digitizing decades of paperwork and account ledgers. Untangling my father’s web of deceit was practically a full-time job.

I looked at my computer screen. “Where are we at with the offshore account balances?”

From behind me, Veda answered. “Looks like we’re nearly up to date, so that’s something. What are you looking for?”

I pressed my lips together. “I’m not exactly sure yet.”

I clacked the keyboard, shoving down the tiny pang of guilt for lying to my partner. I knew exactly what I was looking for.

Opening the drive that housed the digital business records, I opened the search bar.

Olive Adams.

My pulse raced when not one, but several, results popped up. My eyes swept over my shoulder before opening the first one.

A check for $50,000. The image of the cashed check had a feminine signature scrawled across the back in large, loopy handwriting.

I clicked back to the other results. Ten thousand every year, and she’d cashed them every time.

The help Olive claimed my father gave was money. He had paid her off to keep her silence. She had been under the impression I was cold and callous, with no desire to help a struggling single mother. With that narrative, my father was able to give her money, keep her quiet, and keep my reputation intact.

The only cost was a child thinking his father wanted nothing to do with him.

Teddy’s innocent face flashed in my mind, and my fist clenched.

I wasn’t angry at Olive. In fact, I was angry for her. She was unaware of how manipulative my father could be in order to get his way. He saw her as nothing more than an obstacle.

A pathetic inconvenience to placate and keep out of the way.

I scanned the other entries. Most were aligned with scheduled payments to Olive, but one record snagged my attention. It was a ledger for an investment account, one of many, but this one had to be in some way associated with Olive as it came up in the document search. I clicked it and scanned the file.

My eyes landed on two words: sole beneficiary.

Well, that didn’t make any sense. Why would Dad name Olive as the beneficiary to a very healthy investment account if he was solely keeping her quiet?

I leaned back in the chair and groaned.

Veda’s eyes slid toward me, unamused. “Do I even want to know?”

I sighed and shook my head. “Probably not. Do you have any good news for me? I could use it.”

Veda swiveled in her chair to face me and crossed one leg over the other. “Well . . . your brother’s Pulse account is being featured on Wake Up, Chicago. That’s exciting.”

My face twisted and I fought back a smile. My siblings and I had recently learned that Pulse was an adults-only website where Royal made content. “You can’t be serious.”

“What can I say? The people love him.” She shrugged. “There’s good money in what he does. Plus, he loves it and that’s all that matters to me.”

I groaned at the ceiling, closing my eyes and willing the throb in my skull to go away. “Why? Why is my life so unhinged?”

Veda’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Probably because you always focus on the wrong things and haven’t learned how to loosen the reins yet.”

Ouch.

I watched my brother’s girlfriend swivel back and focus on work like her flippant comment didn’t just rock me to my core.

Focus on the wrong things? Please. I focus on what needs to be done.

Loosen the reins? If I do, everything goes to shit.

Spurred by determination and stubbornness, I dove into my day.

Four meetings later, I was officially back on my game. Three multimillion-dollar deals were closed, and one holdout was playing hard to get. I wasn’t worried. He’d call by Monday, and his fledgling company would be purchased. He’d get that vacation home in Aruba, and King Equities would maintain that JP King was the man who got it done.

It dawned on me that maybe Veda was right when it came to solving my problem with Hazel.

I’d been focused on the past and forgotten to look at our situation like everything else. A business transaction. The only thing left for me to determine was whether it was a merger or an acquisition.

A merger meant Hazel and I had to come together to provide for Teddy. An acquisition required one of us to gain control and the acquired company no longer existed.

I rubbed the sudden, sharp stab that poked my rib.

Well, that couldn’t happen.

Hazel made it too easy to forget that if I looked at the facts, they were simple. Because of Teddy, we were stuck together.

Any feelings that had started to develop for her needed to be tucked away before they became a problem I couldn’t handle.

You can’t build a future on the ruins of the past. Everyone knew that.

At the very least, I hoped that for Teddy’s sake, we could manage to be friends. I didn’t have many of those outside the business world, and those were surface-level, at best. My life was unfolding in ways I had no control over, but I refused to be an outsider while everyone happily moved on without me. If that meant focusing on a friendly merger with Hazel, then so be it.

I had to make this right with her.

With a new goal of winning Hazel’s friendship, I pulled down my driveway with a renewed sense of energy. It was late and the house was dark, but there was a comfort in knowing the brick and glass had been transformed.

Within a matter of weeks, the two of them had turned it into a home.

A dim light shone through the back window of Hazel’s skoolie. The curtains were drawn, but I could make out her figure as she rustled around on the inside. I waited for her, leaning against my car with my arms folded.

After an eternity, she bounded down the steps of the skoolie. Her steps halted when she saw me and startled.

“Shit!” she screamed, her hand pressed against her chest.

I raised my hands. “Sorry. Just me.”

She smirked. “Good. For a minute there I thought it was a big, scary bear.” The plain, mocking look she shot my way rippled through me.

I didn’t mind that she teased me. That was what friends did . . . right?

“Look . . .” I kicked a blade of grass with the toe of my shoe and tried to find the words. “I know things have been . . . different.”

When I sneaked a glance, her arms were crossed and one eyebrow was lifted. “You mean since you’ve been avoiding me?”

I chuckled. “Fair enough, but you asked for space, and I tried to give it to you.” I sighed. “Look, I don’t know what I’m doing here. Teddy, you . . . these are uncharted waters. I know it’s complicated with your sister and we still haven’t gotten the paternity results.” She moved to interrupt, but I stopped her. “Regardless . . . I don’t like lurking around my own house.” I shoved a hand in my pocket and stepped forward. “And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that dinners with Teddy are always entertaining.”

Her chin raised and I fought the urge to get lost in the chocolate-and-caramel hues in her eyes.

“He misses you too.”

The idea of being just friends with Hazel nearly dissolved in the heady, coastal air. I had stared at her for a beat when curiosity won out. “Is he the only one?”

A small snort pushed out of her nose. “The absence of your scowls has not gone unnoticed.”

My fingers itched to feel the smooth skin of her cheekbones. “Be my friend, Hazel Adams.”

Her long lashes swooped. “Don’t you have enough friends?”

My cock instantly twitched at how her voice went husky and low. I stepped forward, pressing my chest against hers. “A guy could use one more.”

She shouldn’t have licked her lips. I immediately had very unfriendly thoughts but reeled them in. Hazel stepped back and shoved a hand between us. I clocked how the cool night air pressed against the fabric of her dress, revealing the outline of her nipple piercings.

In a strictly platonic, friendly observational kind of way.

I groaned internally.

Who the fuck was I kidding?

“Friends.” She held out her hand and waited.

I slipped my hand into hers, my thumb moving across her skin as I memorized its softness.

“Something like that.” I finally let a grin overtake me.

When Hazel stepped back, I observed her outfit and I huffed a laugh. My hand moved over my mouth to wipe away the smile.

“What?” she asked, the tiny lines furrowing between her brows.

She was dressed in a gold lamé dress that looked like it was made in the seventies but cupped every curve like it was made specifically for her. On top was a clashing oversize knit cardigan with a sewing theme—crocheted thread and yarn balls, even a sewing machine knitted on one side.

“Oh.” I scrambled to find the right words. “Uh, you look . . .”

Hazel laughed, realizing why I was at a loss for words. “Amazing?” She twirled once, and the short gold skirt floated dangerously high on her thighs. “This is for my thrift store date. I was just trying it on. Do you like it?”

I didn’t bother answering her question. Instead, I frowned at her. “Date?”

Her lips pressed together. “Yeah. The girls asked me to go on a double date with them this weekend, but it’s a thrift store date.”

I crossed my arms. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

Her shoulders bounced. “I don’t know. I thought maybe it was a thing around here. Sylvie said she saw it online somewhere—you go on a date, but beforehand you pick out each other’s clothes from the thrift store. The rule is you can only spend twenty dollars and you have to wear whatever someone purchases for you.”

My expression flattened. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Hazel twirled again. “I thought it sounded fun. Veda and Royal are going, too, so they invited me along.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. There was no reason I should get wound up when Hazel was going to be the fifth wheel on some ridiculous date with Duke and Royal in tow.

“I can watch Teddy if you need me to,” I offered.

See? Friendly. I’m nailing this shit.

“No need,” she said. “Sloane is having him for a sleepover with Ben and Tillie. We’re all meeting at Abel’s Brewery. MJ bailed—something came up at work. I guess there’s a new elderly resident, but his grandson is a real jerk, apparently.” She shrugged. “I guess they found some dude to take pity on me so I wasn’t just some sad fifth wheel.”

Some dude?

No way in fuck was she having a sleepover date with some dude.

I lurked behind her like a goddamn stalker as she walked toward the house.

I cooled my tone, attempting to hide the fact I was having a complete internal meltdown over it. “What’s his name? Maybe I know him.”

She glanced at me but kept her attention forward. “Charles something. He’s a big wine guy, I guess.”

“Charles?” My molars ground together. “Attwater?” He was an out-of-town transplant weasel who was always sniffing around the single women at the Grudge.

She lifted a shoulder as she climbed the porch steps. “Yeah, that sounds right.”

A low grunted hmm was all the acknowledgment I could muster. I didn’t enjoy the very unfriendly thoughts I was having. Frustrated, I stepped inside and headed toward the stairs.

Hazel smiled, and mischief danced in her soft brown eyes. “Good night, friend.”

I offered a sad salute. “Bestie.”

Hazel’s nose scrunched as she grinned. She scurried down the hallway toward her room. From the doorway of my room, I watched her as she waved good night one last time and closed the door behind her.

I shook my head. Something about Charles Attwater screamed I’ve got a fancy car and a big dick to match.

Yeah, well, he wasn’t the only one, and I already didn’t fucking like him.