Page 8 of Worlds Collide

“I’m about to become a married man,” Mike says, completely oblivious to everything going on inside me—good, hopefully I’m fooling everybody.

“Yeah, I know.” I nod and smile over at Theo as Mike throws an arm over his shoulder. Their wedding is in less than a month.

“You’re not still pining after me, are you?”

“What?” I spit out the question, then cough repeatedly. What the hell is he talking about?

“I was just thinking how sad our New Year’s Eve was a few years ago that we had to kiss at midnight.” He points a finger at me then at himself. It takes me a long moment to remember, and when Ido, I burst out laughing. “If you want to have one last go at it, this will be your only chance.”

“You kissed CJ?” Theo demands, looking up at Mike with genuine surprise in his tone. My laughter stops abruptly when I realize shit might hit the fan, and even though I’m locked in on their conversation, I feel Wolf leave the circle—of course I do.

Every time Wolf is near I notice everything about him. There haven’t been too many times considering how often I hang out with his brother though, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

“He’s stupidly hot, Mike,” Theo says through clenched teeth and I bite my lip to hold in another burst of laughter. Mike’s gonna pay for being a smartass.

“What, and I’m not?” Derek demands from Theo’s other side.

“Yes, of course you’re hot, Derek.” Theo turns and rolls his eyes at the bigger man, sounding exasperated as hell. “But I knew about you before I even met you. I didn’t know about CJ so there better be a good explanation for this.”

I smirk at Mike but stay quiet, and reach over for a glass of champagne when a waiter passes by.

Mike’s face is getting more flushed by the second. “It was only a New Year’s kiss, Teddy,” he whines as his shoulders hunch.

“Wait, are you telling me you kissed him at my dad’s party? The one he throws for the team every year?”

Mike’s eyes are downcast so he can’t see the way Theo’s mouth twitches like he desperately wants to laugh.

I relax even further and settle in to see the show. I love it when Theo gets feisty. It happens so rarely, and it’s really a treat.

But even as I hear Mike try to explain something so harmless to Theo, I can’t help but be aware of Wolf, walking through the guests of the party to the other side of the tent.

I wish I could go to him and ask what’s wrong or tell him to come back and hang out with us, but I can’t. It’s a self-preservation thing.

Soon though.

Sooner than I’m actually ready for, I’ll get my chance.

Four Days Later—Dallas

Duke Alton, my distinguished, fifty-something-year-old lawyer, opens the glass door to the big-ass conference room for me.

Smith & Green is the second oldest law firm in the state of Texas. The only firm with more seniority is the Alton one, which means we both have something to feel smug about as we join my parents and the trustee, Mr. Green—an eighty-year-old man who probably shouldn’t be practicing law.

“Good afternoon,” Mr. Green tells me with a tight smile as he stands and reaches to shake my hand. I do it just to keep the peace and because despite my parent’s best efforts, I do have some manners behind closed doors.

The lawyers greet each other and I ignore my parents as I circle the conference table and sit opposite them.

I don’t even look their way.

Today they lose whatever rights they thought they had over me, and that means I can finally cut them off from my life. Completely and for good.

If everything goes to plan, today, twenty-eight years after I entered their lives, is the last time I ever have to see them.

I can tell from my peripheral vision that they barely spare me a glance too, so they probably know what’s going to happen after today.

“You ready?” Mr. Green asks me with the fakest smile I’ve seenin a while. He’s probably hoping I’ll keep him as trustee and on retainer after today. Fat chance of that happening. I’m not going to have someone my grandfather hand-picked holding the reins of all this. I only nod at him and settle back in my chair. I know this is going to take a long time.

The next two hours are full of signature after signature and all of us listening to the details of the trust.

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