Beyond Doubt (7 page)

“He could own or run the entire city of Seattle, and I still wouldn’t be interested. You know I’m not into that stuff. Besides, I’m not interested in dating. I need to concentrate on law school.”

“Is my girl in here?” Lily’s voice rang through the entryway. “I think I overheard something about law school and dating?”

Lily rounded the bend, beaming and gave both my brothers a quick hug. She had a pair of jean shorts on and a hoodie. She had straightened her hair for the occasion, and it looked really cute. She handed each of my brothers a silver gift bag.

“Is she babbling about Gabby’s long lost brother?” Lily rolled her eyes as I froze in place.

“Hadn’t mentioned it. Thanks for that.” I dropped my gaze to the floor.

My mom smiled and shook her head. “Long lost brother, huh? How does that work?”

“I guess he took off right after Gabby’s mom passed away. He was eighteen and just kind of disappeared until a week ago. Or so the story goes,” I said.

“That’s odd,” my mom replied, piling the meatballs into the warmer.

“Well, I happened to run into him last night and he is gorgeous,” Lily continued. “And wherever he’s been for the last ten years has certainly been productive.”

I furrowed my brows at Lily to make her stop, but she was having none of it.

“And how did you find this out since last night?” Ayden teased. “Do you do this to all potential victims?”

“First, I spotted what he was wearing wrapped around his wrist. Second, I asked one of my coworkers at the firm where I work. They would love to sink their teeth into his business. And third, I’m not interested. He’s got his sights set on our dear Brandy.”

I let out a groan and shook my head.

“Right. I’m sure you would turn him down.” Mason raised a brow at Lily and grinned. He knew her well.

“What? I did this strictly for business. I always have to be on the lookout for new clients.” Lily and my mom laughed.

“Well, Gabby has a bike now and she’s riding that thing everywhere,” I said, switching the subject.

“She finally got one?” Ayden asked.

“Her dad surprised her with one. And she happens to be dating the guy who built it.”

“Is that why she didn’t show up?” he teased.

I nodded. “I wish she wouldn’t ride it. It’s so unsafe and with everything she’s been through, I would have thought she’d be more careful.”

“It’s probably because of everything she’s been through that she wants to live a little,” Lily chided in. “A new heart might do that to a person.”

I smiled and knew it would be a losing battle. Just because I was afraid of those machines didn’t mean the world had to be. It didn’t help that I woke up last night from a nightmare where the bike was the main attraction either. And it wasn’t the first time.

“Well, I’m proud of her for not only riding but allowing herself to dabble in the love department. We could all learn a thing or two,” Lily said.

And with that, I grabbed the pot full of meatballs and began my escape plan with my brothers right on my heels.

Walking through the family room and out the open sliding glass door, I beelined toward the picnic table that had all of the food spread out on it. I quickly grabbed the extension cord and plugged in the pot. I glanced around the backyard, noticing the tiki torches stuck around the patio and lanterns dangling from the trees.

“So what’s the story with this mystery man?” Mason said, his overprotective ways emerging.

“There is no story. He’s Gabby’s brother. Therefore, he’s off limits.” I spotted Cole sitting with a beer at one of the tables taking selfies and rolled my eyes. Mason and Ayden turned to follow my gaze and their laughter rang throughout the yard, but it still didn’t interrupt Cole. He was obviously on a pursuit to find the perfect self-portrait to post to our poor unsuspecting world. He was the only man I knew who would make friends take pictures down if he didn’t think he looked perfect.

“Need I say more?” I laughed. “Do you really think I want to date a guy who is so concerned with getting a flawless shot to share with Facebook? I mean look at him. He’s actually positioning the beer bottle perfectly next to his grinning chops.”

“Do I hear my baby girl?” my father turned around, lighter fluid in hand.

“Daddy, you really ought to think about switching to a gas barbeque.”

“Enough of that out of you and give me a hug.”

He wore his Barbeque Master apron with pride, and I couldn’t help but love him for trying. Unfortunately, Cole spotted me heading for my dad and quickly stood up.

I gave my dad a quick hug so he could get back to the task at hand and backed up with my brothers.

“So we may have to be on the watch,” Ayden told my father.

“For what?”

“Brandy’s still blushing from a mere mention of some guy, which tells me it might not just be some guy.”

Turning quickly, I could feel my cheeks blazing as I socked him one in the arm. Suddenly feeling like I was back in high school, all I could blurt out was to shut up.

“Is that so?” my father asked, as he tended to the unlit coals.

“Dad, have you ever wondered why you have such bad luck with your coals?” I took a step away from my brothers, but unfortunately, it landed me closer to Cole.

Ayden and Mason quickly exchanged glances. Mason’s mouth opened, but he shut it quickly when my brow shot up daring him.

“That’s part of the challenge,” my dad answered.

“You might want—”

“To let us buy you one of those stainless steel barbeques that even has a burner,” Ayden interrupted me.

“So who is it that Brandy’s interested in?” Cole asked, taking a sip of his beer.

I saw Lily come outside with my mom and another group of my brothers’ friends. I hoped she’d see the desperation in my face and come save me.

“Yeah. What’s his name?” Mason grabbed a beer from the cooler just as Lily settled into our expanding circle.

“Who?” Lily asked.

“Gabby’s brother.” Mason knocked the cap off of the bottle and took a chug.

“Aaron,” she replied, completely oblivious.

“Aaron who?” Cole asked, his hazel eyes flicking to Lily’s.

“I’d imagine his last name is Sullivan,” Lily replied, grinning.

“Aaron Sullivan? The Aaron Sullivan?” Cole started laughing viciously and my insides began to ignite with fury.

“What about him?” I asked, narrowing my gaze on him.

My mom was moving a bunch of the balloons to the far side of the yard so they wouldn’t keep interfering with the food table, but she stopped to glance at me. My voice must not have been as calm as I’d hoped.

“Only that he’s the king of players. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with the same date twice.”

I could feel the blood pumping mightily through my veins.

“And when exactly is it that you’re bumping into him? I wouldn’t guess you two to be running in the same circles.” My brows shot up.

“Ouch,” Cole said, grinning. “Believe it or not my MIS degree is paying off. And yes, we do frequent the same functions quite often.”

“It doesn’t matter to me. He’s a single guy and can date whoever and however many he wants.” I walked over to the cooler and grabbed a hard cider, twisting the top off.

Cole came up behind me and lowered his voice. “Look, I get that you’re not into me, but this Sullivan guy is bad news. I just don’t want to see you getting hurt.”

I turned to face Cole and couldn’t help but soften. “For that I thank you.”

“Truce?” he asked.

“Truce. But enough with the selfies, Cole.”

I had spent the last couple weeks on autopilot and was relieved to go that long of a stretch without having any accidental run-ins with Aaron. I was back at my desk and buried in Monday morning madness, looking forward to getting some chapters read later in the afternoon on formatting legal pleadings when I heard a laugh from Gabby’s office. It had to be Jason on the other end of her phone. A nagging feeling of envy began to rear its ugly head, and I squashed it quickly. What I needed to do was concentrate on getting all the calendars updated and airline reservations made for the team. Once I got all that out of the way I could sneak in some reading and shake these ridiculously unfounded feelings. I wanted to start law school with a bang, and the only way I saw that as a possibility was to begin reading the textbooks ahead of time.

Gabby was softening on her brother, and I was positive Jason had something to do with that. Whether Gabby recognized that or not, I didn’t know, but at least she was willing to consider the possibilities. It was nice to see a genuine smile on Gabby’s lips since Jason came into her life. And her laugh was definitely signaling a turn in the relationship. I’d almost bet money that pieces of the wall around her very guarded heart were actually beginning to crumble.

My email bleeped, and I looked up from the files I’d been sorting through. My heart started pounding when the letters came into focus.

How could this be?

To: Brandy Rhodes

From: Aaron Sullivan

Subject: Cole

Ms. Rhodes:

It was a pleasure bumping into you a couple weeks ago. I’m surprised our paths haven’t crossed since. I want to express my astonishment at what a small world it is. Beyond the obvious connection we seem to share, it seems the universe has a mind of its own.

I was playing golf with Cole on Sunday, and he mentioned running into you at a function. Can you believe that? It sounds as if you two certainly have a history. Is it…

My cheeks ignited. What history? There was no history with Cole. What in the world did Cole tell Aaron? The preview screen cut the remainder of Aaron’s message from view. But that was completely fine since I was in a frozen state of shock. How did Aaron get my email? Sitting motionless at my desk, I slowly rose from my chair, popping my head over the cubicle walls, and scanned the top of everyone’s workspaces on the off chance Aaron was on the floor, spying on me. He didn’t seem to have any scruples when it came to tracking me down. I looked around the room and saw no sign of sexy-as-hell-stalker-man and sat down quickly.

Okay, I had definitely turned crazy on this one.

I stared back at the screen not wanting to open the message fully. I refused to engage with him, and something told me that a control freak like him would have tagged it to see if his message was read. I knew I would have. But it was killing me to find out how he got my email address. Who would have given it to him? I positioned my cursor over his name very carefully and right clicked the properties. My mouth dropped open as I saw the same parent company where I worked in his email stamp. The bastard worked here, and I bet Gabby had no idea.

Damn him! Damn me for not figuring it out sooner.

Even though the curiosity was pounding through my veins to take a look at his email, I highlighted his message and clicked the trashcan.

There!

That made me feel a whole lot better. I wanted to tell Gabby, but that wouldn’t be a brilliant idea because she’d wonder how I’d found that piece of information out.

I turned around to see the receptionist bringing me a bouquet of flowers, and my stomach dipped to my toes. No way!

“These are very pretty,” she cooed, placing them on my desk. “Great date last night?”

My heart was beating so fast. How could he do this when his sister was bound to see them?

“No date at all,” I said, searching for the little card and only finding one with my name on it and no sender.

“Well, they’re gorgeous,” she said, before turning around.

I shoved the arrangement to the corner of my desk and tried not to focus on them, but the thought of the weird texts and phone calls that I’d recently received made me a little uneasy. But I was sure these came from Aaron. The timing was too impeccable and I was just being a worrier, reading too many thrillers late at night.

I heard a male’s voice calling for me down the way and almost panicked mistaking the tone for Aaron’s. This pins and needles thing was really getting tiresome. Decker came into view, and my insides did a conflicting tumble as disappointment and relief duked it out.