Page 37 of Cocky Counsel

Nineteen

Ethan

I’d spent Tuesday morning in a closed-door meeting with Regina and Garrett as I gave them the update on Cora’s surprise visit. Garrett was looking into options for requesting a paternity test while I tried to do the math to see if there was any fucking way that I could be the father to begin with. The more we talked about the situation, the more I wished that I would have just given in and paid her off when she first demanded it. Not that it would have earned me any bonus points with Eva, if anything, it would have been the final nail in the coffin of our non-existent relationship.

I figured it was also best to disclose my meeting yesterday at Hyde and Williamson before they somehow found out on their own. Regina was going to reach out to their Director of Human Resources to see if our legal team could set up a meeting with theirs to discuss a course of action. Granted, there was little that either side could talk about at this point, but it was good to know what resources we had if we needed them.

Regina excused herself to make a quick phone call, leaving Garrett and me alone in the boardroom.

“How’s Eva working out?” Garrett asked, trying to break the silence that had filled the room.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t had much time to sit down and work with her and then she was out of the office for a little bit when she got sick. Regina and Kate have helped her get set up on a few things but overall, she seems like she’s just teaching herself the ropes.”

“I’m sure things will level out soon,” he assured me as he held his pen between his two index fingers and looked at it. “Aside from the work stuff, how are things with Eva?”

I looked up at him, wondering how he knew anything had happened with us.

“Mom told me you were in love, I just assumed it was with her since your productivity has gone to shit on the days that she’s working,” he laughed, noticing the confused look I had on my face when he asked.

“Of course she did.” I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to my brother who had a shit-eating grin on his face. “What’s so damn funny?” I asked, feeling my lips turning up into a smile.

“Nothing, I just never thought I would see the day.”

“When I fell in love or when I started slacking at work?” I teased.

“Both.” He pulled his head back and laughed, setting the pen down on the table between us.

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” I sighed. “Now I see why some men stay bachelors their entire life.”

“Relationships take time and hard work, there’s no way around that. But when you find the right person, it no longer feels like work. You end up going out of your way to do things to make the other person happy and sometimes, it means temporarily sacrificing your own happiness.”

“That sounds terrible,” I joked, trying to lighten the load with all of the heavy, lovey-dovey bullshit he was preaching about.

“You joke about it now but when you’re tossing and turning at night because you can’t sleep and can’t eat—it won’t be so funny then.” He winked.

“I think my DNA is missing whatever gene is responsible for all of that. Apparently, you got yours from mom, and I inherited all the terrible traits from dad.”

I saw the anger flash across Garrett’s face. It wasn’t an easy subject for either of us to talk about, but he always flew off the handle first. I waited for him to go into a long lecture about what a terrible person our father was for cheating on our mom, but he didn’t. For the first time, he stayed calm and didn’t react to it.

“You’re nothing like dad.”

His words stunned me as I looked at him, waiting for him to take them back.

“Seriously, Ethan, you’re nothing like him.” He shook his head and looked out the window. “Dad was selfish and never bothered to worry about making anyone happy other than himself. He constantly cheated on her, and when she would call him on his bullshit, he would apologize and beg her for another chance. When that stopped working, he started manipulating her and threatened to take us away from her. You know mom, she would do anything for her boys, even if that meant staying married to dad for longer than she should have.”

I felt nausea rising as I thought back to my childhood and the fights that I remembered my parents having. The constant yelling and screaming. The look of pain on my mom’s face when she would look at me before she went running off to make amends with my dad. I always thought that maybe she wasn’t strong enough to leave him. Now, I understood that she was strong enough to stay with a man that she didn’t love so that she could do the best for her children.

“The shit with Cora will be handled by our legal team, and we’ll get a paternity test. Right now, there’s nothing that you need to do. As far as things with Eva—if you love her, you should tell her. Find a way to get out of your head and make this work.”

“It’s not that easy,” I replied, remembering the look on her face when she stormed off last night.

“Why not?”

“Because she’s pissed off at me, for one.”

He raised his eyebrows, questioning what I had done this time.

“She was here with me last night when Cora showed up, only I hadn’t told her about Cora or the lawsuit. So, the only side that Eva saw was that some woman, who I used to work with and slept with, showed up claiming that I was trying to pay her off instead of doing the right thing.”

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