Trouble (Orsen Brothers #1) (13 page)

“No…” I blushed and looked away from him, pouring myself a glass of orange juice as a distraction. I kicked myself for not doing actual grocery shopping when I was at the store. The inside of my fridge was almost completely barren and he had used up the last of the milk.

He continued eating without restraint and his messy hair fell in loose strands against his face. He wasn’t refined, not in the slightest, but there was something about him that offered a certain appeal. His biceps flexed every time he lifted his spoon to his mouth and I swallowed hard, trying my best not to notice.

I thought briefly of Stephen and Liam. Anders wasn’t anything like either of them. If the tattoos that covered his back and arms weren’t a good indicator of that, the discarded pile of clothing on my bedroom floor was. The fabric was riddled with tears and stains and had certainly seen better days. But maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Maybe different was exactly what I needed right now.

Chapter 15

—

“
You’re glowing,” Stephen spoke up from the other side of his heavy oak desk. He had asked me to meet him at his office and I obliged, wanting to get the whole thing over with.

“Thank you,” I muttered, tucking a loose strand of hair away from my face as a soft blush crept its way over my cheeks. Today my façade ended. Today I got my life back. And while that realization engulfed me, I was too distracted to be excited.

Too much transpired in the days leading up to this. But Stephen didn’t know about any of it. He didn’t know about the incident on the bridge. He didn’t know about the intricacies of my breakfast with Liam or my heated night with Anders. He didn’t know a thing. 

“So this is it then?” I spoke up, meeting eyes with him.

Stephen nodded and slid me a stack of freshly printed paperwork. His handsome face was tinged with conflicting emotion. I glared down at it and picked up my pen with an unsteady hand, flipping through it. Every word blurred together in front of me. There was a lot of technical mumbo jumbo but the message was clear.

“I’m sorry,” Stephen said for the third time since I arrived. His desk was the only thing separating us but we might as well have been light years apart. I always expected to feel something when this moment finally came. Anything. But instead I felt an odd sense of emptiness.

“Don’t be,” I spoke up, letting my pen dance over the dotted lines on each page. The last thing I needed was his pity. “We agreed that this was mutual didn’t we?”

“I know,” he managed, “but you never deserved any of this.”

He extended a hand to me but I cringed away from it and capped my pen, sliding the signed paperwork back to him. Just like that it was done. Five years of marriage dissolved with a few quick signatures.

I reached for my purse and stood up, pulling it over my shoulder as I turned for the door. I was exhausted—both physically and mentally—but I still had to meet Luna and her new boyfriend for breakfast.

I looked back at Stephen. He was staring down at his hands with a perplexed look on his face. He didn’t deserve it but some small part of me felt sorry for him. He wasn’t anything like the Orsen brothers.

He, unlike them, was the kind of man who you could forget…

“So when can we be expecting him?” I questioned, pulling my hair into a ponytail.

Luna shrugged and grabbed her mug of coffee, blowing on it and taking a brief sip. She stirred a packet of sugar into it and tucked a loose strand of freshly dyed hair behind her ear. She still smelled like ammonia, and the color wasn’t natural either, It was an intense platinum blonde that was a far cry from the fire engine red look she was previously sporting.

We were at our usual place—a quiet little coffee house just outside of town. I was starving after the events that had unfolded the previous night, so I ordered an apple turn over with my latte and devoured it practically in one bite. “Soon,” she answered, flipping through the text messages in her phone, “he’s stuck in traffic.”

“So are you going to tell me this guys name or should I guess?” I questioned.

Luna rolled her eyes and laughed into her palm. “I told you. I don’t want to give away too many details. It’s still fresh…were not even dating yet or anything…I don’t want to jinx it…”

“What?” I sat up straighter and shook my head. All I knew about Luna’s new boyfriend was that he wasn’t exactly what you’d call an upstanding citizen. “Come on. You can’t be that superstitious.”

She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee. “I’m not. Its just…his name was in the papers…I’m sure you’ve heard it…I just don’t want you to get any pre-conceived notions about him. He’s amazing, I promise.”

She was swooning.

“Well alright.” I shook my head and rubbed my neck, wincing as my hand grazed over the love bite hidden beneath my scarf. I thought of Anders and blushed. “Have you told mom about him?”

Luna chuckled and picked a piece off of her blueberry muffin, shoving it into her mouth. “Are you kidding?”

“Right.” I laughed. “Sorry—stupid question.”

A lapse of silence fell over us.

“I met him at one of her group therapy sessions. I was meeting her for lunch and he was just leaving when I arrived,” Luna spoke up, seeming to read my mind. “Can you imagine what that conversation would be like? —‘Hey mom I’m dating an ex-con from your group but he’s a really great guy at heart’.
Yeah right.
”

“Oh come on,” I interrupted, shaking my head, “but she’s just
so
understanding.”

“Ha. Right.”

A soft ding from across the coffee shop signaled someone’s entrance. I took a long drink of my tea and glanced out the window. The rain had died down to a light drizzle overnight but the sky was still a depressing shade of murky grey.

“What about you? Luna questioned, poking me in the shoulder. “You’re totally sporting the ‘I just got laid’ glow.”

I blushed and shook my head, biting down on my bottom lip. She knew me too well. “No,” I said, waving my hand in the air. “Okay…so maybe I did. But it was just a one time thing…I think.”

“
Venus.
” Fiona scoffed, adjusting in her chair. She took another bite of her muffin, keeping her eyes trail on mine. “You bad bad girl! I wasn’t even considering the fact that it wasn’t with Stephen! You better spill!”

“It’s no big deal.” I laughed. “Seriously. I don’t even know how it happened…it just did…”

“Oh come on,” she retorted, pointing a finger at me. “You know as well as I do that sex outside of marriage is never not a big—” She glanced out the window and jumped to her feet. “That’s him!” she spoke up, rushing for the door without finishing her train of thought.

I followed her gaze and sucked in a sharp breath as my face drained of color.

This couldn’t be happening.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of the scene unfolding on the other side of the glass. My heartbeat came to an abrupt halt in my chest as dread washed its way through me. Everything slowed to an abrupt stop around me. Was the world really this small or did I just have really shitty luck?

I sat up straighter and tried my best to regain my composure as Luna reentered the coffee shop with the man close behind. They approached our table and he stiffened as soon as he laid eyes on me, a million different emotions flashing across his face. I stared at them both without flinching, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at the irony of it all.

“Venus,” Luna said in a singsong voice. “This is Anders.”

“Anders…this my sister Venus.”

Thank You!

Thank you for purchasing
Trouble (Orsen Brothers #1)
. If you enjoyed this first book in the series and are interested in seeing how everything pans out—please leave me a review on Amazon to let me know your thoughts. Book #2 will be available soon and will be from Anders and Liam’s perspectives. I love keeping my readers happy!
As a gift from me to you—please enjoy this
free copy
of the first book in my Kimball Brothers series, available below.

JUSTIFIED #1 FREE COPY

Chapter 1

T
he club is packed, dimly lit and noisy; bad techno music blasts from a sound system in the corner of the room, drowning out the conversations going on around me. The booth I’m sitting in is trashed; the table is littered with marijuana and coke residue, empty bottles, and half-full glasses of champagne. Some of it is mine. Most of it isn’t.

Olivia smiles at me impressively from across the table. I wasn’t planning on coming out tonight. I fully intended on curling up in bed with a good mystery novel and a glass of chardonnay but my friends are anything if not convincing.

“We’re really glad you came out tonight!”

Vega waves a manicured hand in my direction and takes a sip of her third, maybe fourth, glass of champagne. If she’s not drunk yet, she will be soon. “Liv, you owe me ten bucks!”

Olivia chuckles and rolls her eyes, pulling the crumpled bill out of her wallet and handing it over. I give them both a smile. This is the way it’s been our entire lives—just the three of us, polar opposites that somehow found a way to fit together.

Tonight we’re at the Linx, a gaudy club on the west side of town, celebrating Olivia’s thirtieth birthday and subsequent descent into actual adulthood. This, we’ve decided, is our final hurrah—our last real chance to behave hedonistically. Liv is the last one of the three of us still in her twenties, but after midnight, that all changes. After midnight we grow up.

That’s the plan at least.

“Are you kidding?” I say, running a hand through my hair, “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”

The music pans from techno to trance, and although there’s little difference, it proves easier to speak over. Vega bends her head to snort a line off the table.

Olivia laughter is sardonic. “You missed out last weekend, though!” she says, “Vega fucked this
really
hot DJ. Francisco something or another. He was pretty young, though. It was almost predatory.”

Vega wipes the excess powder from her nostril and shoves Olivia playfully in the shoulder, rolling her eyes. “Bitch, he was eighteen, thank you very much. I saw his ID.”

“Yeah?”

“Before or after you blew him?”

Laughter bubbles over her pink lips. It’s contagious and I quickly find myself laughing right along with her.

“Really though,” I speak up, finding my voice, “I’m glad you’re dating again.”

Vega shrugs. “Yeah, I figured it was time.” Her pale cheeks are flushed pink and her pupils are dilated. Her high is setting in. She rubs a chipped red fingernail over the lipstick stain on the edge of her glass, “I was getting tired of not having sex. Besides, Andrew has moved on. He’s dating his intern now, you know.”

Ouch.

My shocked expression must be obvious; Vega takes one look at me and laughs. “Yeah, pathetic right? And to think we actually tried to make it work for a while. The divorce was tough, don’t get me wrong, but it was probably the best thing I ever did for myself.”

Her tone falters. She doesn’t entirely sound as though she entirely believes herself.

She raises her drink in the air. “Anyway, here’s to not give a shit.”

Olivia and I nod in agreement and the three of us clank our glasses together. Vega downs the last of her champagne in one sip and smiles.

“As for the DJ—I found him in my living room watching Cartoon Network after we had sex. I doubt we’ll be seeing each other again anytime soon.”

I meet eyes with Olivia and we explode into a fit of laughter that leaves us both breathless. Vega nods at me and I regain my composure.

“What about you, Cass?”

I take a sip of my champagne and raise an eyebrow at her, not entirely following.

“Anything new in the love department?”

Nope,
I want to say.
Absolutely nothing. My love life is drier than the Sahara.
Instead, I push a smile across my face and shrug. “Not really,” I manage with a wave of my hand, “I mean…I went on a few Match dates recently, but nothing serious.”

Olivia rests her chin in her hands. “Any of them cute?”

I shrug and think it over. There was Anthony, the dental hygienist; Matthew, the telecommunications specialist; And John, the paramedic—but they were all pretty run of the mill.

“Nah,” I say, shaking my head, “I mean, objectively, I guess. But none of them were really anything to write home about.”

Olivia nods and sits up a little straighter. “Well…were they at least good in bed?”

I roll my eyes. The question doesn’t surprise me as much as it should.

“Trust me, it
definitely
didn’t get that far.”

I remember Anthony’s halitosis breath and cringe. It seemed pretty unacceptable for a dental hygienist.

“What?” Olivia frowns, leaning against the table to hear me better. The music is techno again, and this time, it’s even louder than before.

“It never really got that far!”

It’s a sad truth. Olivia and Vega’s steamy retellings of their own sexual conquests are the only thing keeping me with a foot still in that world. I’ll never admit it out loud, but I’ve started to live vicariously through them.

“Well I have some news,” Olivia says with a coy smile. Vega and I exchange a glance, fully aware of the level of detail that is about to be unleashed on us.

“Do tell,” I say.

Vega, however, doesn’t seem to care either way.

Olivia sucks in a sharp breath and her words spill out all at once.  “His name is Luis. He’s a plastic surgeon from San Francisco but he just opened a new office here in Los Angeles. I met him at the park last week and he asked me out for dinner. We went to the Charlatan and he was a
perfect
gentleman. He didn’t even try to sleep with me. And trust me, I really wanted to. We’re going out again next Friday. Oh, and did I mention that he’s a total babe? Because he is.”

She smiles big and brightly in a way I’ve seen dozens of times.

“He sounds great, Liv,” I say.

Internally—I can’t help but wonder how long this guy will last.

“We get it,” Vega chides in without looking at us, “the sun shines from his ass.”

Olivia’s smile dissipates. She tucks a loose brown curl behind her ear and crosses her arms over her chest. “What is
that
supposed to mean, exactly?”

Uh oh,
I think.
So it begins
.

But Vega doesn’t answer. Her eyes are glued, leeringly, on a table full of frat boys a few feet away. They just entered the club and are already drawing attention.

“Whatever.” Olivia rolls her eyes and turns her attention back to me. “I really want this to work out. He’s perfect.”

They are
always
perfect, and she always wants it to work out. Sometimes I think she lives with her head in the sky, but there’s no point in telling her that. Dreamers rarely ever change, which is good in a way, because the world wouldn’t spin quite the same without them.

I smile at her. “I’m happy for you.”

Vega snorts from across the table and chews on the pad of her thumb, still staring down the frat boys. “Oh, please. Cass is just trying to be gentle. You know you’ll get tired of this guy the minute his dick starts to bore you, or the minute he does something you don’t like, be serious, Liv.”

Vega has never been one to bite her tongue and the alcohol and coke certainly aren’t doing her any favors. Olivia slides forward in the booth and gives her an icy glare, but I’m quick to diffuse the situation.

“Don’t be a jerk,” I say firmly, reaching for Vega’s hand. She turns to look at me and juts out her chin.

“I’m not!”

She pouts, reaching across the table for my champagne. Before I can interject, she downs it and wipes her hand over her mouth.

“I just think she needs to start being more realistic, don’t you?”

Realism is not Olivia’s calling card. Vega knows this just as much as I do, but she’s far too gone to care.

“Anyway, what do you think of that guy?”

I sigh and glance over at the table. “Which one?”

“The blonde, the one with the red polo.”

I narrow in on him and shrug. He’s not bad, but I wouldn’t peg him as Vega’s type—not by a long shot. He’s rowdy and unrefined, but attractive in that offhand way that most guys in their early twenties are.

“He’s pretty cute,” I offer blandly, nodding at Olivia for support. Her expression is sour, though, and she doesn’t offer any. It’s clear that she’s pissed off.

Vega is out of the booth and halfway towards red-polo in seconds. I start to stand up to bring her back, but Olivia reaches for my arm and pulls me back into the booth.

“Let her go,” she says with a wave of her hand.

Chapter 2

“
She can be a real jerk, can’t she?”

I cast a glance at Vega and shrug. She’s in red polo’s lap with her long arms wrapped around his meaty neck and his palm is planted firmly on her bare knee.

“She’s drunk,” I offer, turning my attention back to Olivia. I learned my lesson a long time ago when it comes to getting in-between their disagreements; it’s best just to remain neutral.

Vega stands up and allows red polo to pull her onto the dance floor, where they gyrate bodies. She’s clumsy in her movements, and his frat brothers are starting to laugh. It’s too cringe worthy to witness. I start to stand up again to help her, but Olivia shoots me a glare that keeps me planted firmly in the booth.

“She’s a big girl,” she admonishes, taking a sip of her drink, “she’ll be fine. She’s been like this ever since the divorce was finalized.”

I want to ask her to elaborate but I don’t.

“That guy she’s with kind of looks like a younger Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t he?”

I do my best,
“Get to the chopper!”
impression, hoping it will get her to lighten up a bit, and she cracks a slight smile.

Success.

“Do you think she’ll go home with him?” I question, sloshing the last of my drink around in my glass.

She waves a hand in the air. “Probably, I mean, she seems pretty dead set on making up for lost time, if you ask me. But can you imagine being married all through out college? And to a guy like
Andrew
?” She makes a gagging noise. “Yeah, no thanks, I’d be screwing everything within walking distance if I was her, too. It’s just her new attitude that fucking sucks.”

I laugh and search the throng of bodies on the dance floor for Vega, not finding her.

“It’s crazy how things can change, isn’t it?”

“I mean, who would have thought that she would be the most promiscuous one out of the three of us. Do you remember how long she waited to have sex with Andrew?”

Olivia laughs and leans back against the booth, stretching her arms.

“Yeah, like two years.”

Her eyes scan the room and focus in on a guy at the bar. She nods at him. “He’s pretty hot don’t you think?”

I follow her train of vision. The guy she’s staring at is built like a brick house. He’s arched over the counter with a melting drink in hand, but he’s a shadow among neon lights and I can’t quite make out his face.

“Sure,” I offer with a shrug, “but what about that Luis guy? Or are you two not quite exclusive yet?

Olivia frowns. “What? I meant for you, you big goof!”

What the hell?

I give the guy another look and strain to see his face, but it’s a no go.

“I don’t know,” I say hesitantly, pulling back, “he doesn’t really seem like my type, does he?”

Olivia arches a brow. “Your type? What would that be? Clean cut? Boring?”

I scoff, feigning offense. The men I’ve dated have
been on the boring side, but I’ve never had any problem playing it safe. Not that it has brought me a landmine of success, either.

I wave a hand at the guy. “I mean…he’s wearing
leather
.”

It comes out sounding more prude-like than I expected.

“So what?” Olivia sighs and rolls her eyes, “It’s a jacket and it’s
cool
. Come on, Cass, you’ve got to step outside of your comfort zone at some point. How do you expect to ever have fun?”

Fun.

It’s not a concept I’m familiar with.

I bite down on my bottom lip and shake the melting ice in my glass. “I don’t know…I guess I’d have to get a better look at him.”

Olivia nudges me in the shoulder and nods her head. “So go up to him. Introduce yourself. Get him to buy you a drink.”

No way.

I start to object but she stands up and crosses over to my side of the booth before I can. I tense as she loops an arm around my shoulder and pulls me into an unexpected hug. A random guy notices from across the bar and whistles and she gives him the finger.

“Look,” she says, “I know you’re still really broken up about Stephen, but it’s been over a year. You’ve gotta get over him. He’s definitely over you. Or did the new, very pregnant girlfriend not make that clear enough?”