“Considering you never let us meet half the men you might be dating, I can’t doubt a lot,” West said.
“Come on now. Alex was a dick. We all knew it. Let’s not forget about him,” Braylon said.
She rolled her eyes and wasn’t surprised that Braylon would bring up the man she dated for a year when she’d first moved to Manhattan.
That was her first step into the arena of being used for who she was related to.
She’d been locked up tight after that lesson.
“I’d prefer we did forget about him,” she said. “He’s in the past and it’s over with. And now we can talk about the present and future unless you both have more questions about my love life.”
“Love?” Braylon asked.
“Figure of speech,” she said.
“If you say so,” West said, smirking.
He went from being a dickhead older brother to now being playful.
She was starting to wonder if he’d done that on purpose to see how much she’d defend the man she just started to date.
Damn it. Did she just fall for one of her brother’s ploys without knowing?
19
PUT ME ON TRIAL
Two weeks later, Jamie walked into Laken’s offices, but he was meeting with West first and then Laken and Nelson. Or maybe it was West and Nelson first. He didn’t know. He didn’t care.
In the past two weeks, he’d barely seen the woman he was dating and he found it more frustrating than he thought he would.
He’d spent the night on New Year’s Eve, leaving early the next morning and having to face Janelle in the kitchen lifting an eyebrow at him. He hadn’t said another word and went to his room to shower and change.
There hadn’t been time to see Laken again that week as she was busy with work and Saturday he had plans with his daughter before he flew out for the game on Sunday.
Monday Laken had meetings all day before she flew out of town and returned Thursday night.
She’d been catching up on work in the office all day on Friday and he’d spent Saturday with her, staying the night before he flew out for the game on Sunday again.
That was three days ago and he’d see her at some point when he was done meeting with one of her older and younger brothers.
She’d told him Braylon, West and Nelson knew they were dating but no one else.
He hadn’t asked why since it didn’t feel as if they had enough time to hug and kiss let alone talk about those things.
“I’ve got a meeting with West,” he told the woman at the front desk.
“Yes,” she said, “Follow me and I’ll bring you to his wing.”
He’d been here enough that he didn’t need to be shown the way but wouldn’t argue either.
Outside of West’s office he took a seat and waited.
He looked at his watch and noticed it was five after ten. Normally West was on time and didn’t keep people waiting like a lot of other powerful men in the world.
He would have expected it if it’d happened before. The only thing different this time was that West was aware of a personal relationship with his sister.
He saw West’s door open and Braylon came out, then nodded him in. Oh boy, looked like it was more than one brother.