Page 47 of Masters of the Game: Colton
“I’ll give you some time, but expect me in Atlanta this weekend.”
“Why? Because Colton is your friend?”
“No, because you’re my sister, and I think you’re making a mistake.”
“You didn’t hear what those women said about me.”
Hansen let out a deep breath. “And it reminded you of what you once overheard women saying about your mom, right?”
She didn’t say anything as she fought back more tears. Why was this brother so intuitive? That was probably why he was such a good FBI agent. Hansen was the only one she’d told about that incident when they’d traveled together to the Maldives. She had confided how one day, when she’d been eleven, she’d been in the neighborhood library and she overheard two librarians talking. They’d been looking out the window and saw her mother arrive to pick her up. They’d whispered about how gullible her mother was, guessing that she was probably the only one in town who didn’t know her husband was sleeping around. But theyfigured that even had her mom known, she probably would not do anything anyway, since Lorenzo Perkins was such a good-looking man. They had laughed about it, and said her mom was a fool in love with a liar.
The women hadn’t known Kelly had been listening. They had been talking about Mallory Perkins as if her husband’s not being able to keep his pants zipped was her fault. To this day, Kelly had never told her mother what she had overheard those women say. Even when her mother had asked why she hadn’t wanted to go back to that particular library, she never told her the reason.
“Kel?”
“Yes, that reminder didn’t help,” she admitted.
“I take it you and Colton didn’t get anything straightened out when he came by earlier.”
“No.”
“Let me guess. You did all the talking and didn’t let him get a word in. Look, Kel, I need to get back to work. Expect me this weekend, okay?”
“I thought you were working in Seattle, which is why you couldn’t come to the meeting at Monica’s house to discuss Mr. Perkins on Sunday night.”
“I’m taking the time off, so expect me.”
When Kelly ended the call with her brother, she began crying again.
**
“I agree with Cobra, Colton. You should have told Kelly that Lake is the one who selected her consulting agency, and that you didn’t have anything to do with it. That would have ended the lie right then and there,” Cortez said.
Colton was on a three-way call with his brothers while he moved around the room to finish packing for his two weeks in Savannah. “I disagree. She should not have believed what sheheard and be so quick to render judgment. Hell, she didn’t even give me a chance to defend myself. If she had, I might have told her then.”
“You’ve had trust issues ever since that incident with Nadine Battles in high school,” Cobra said. “That was years ago, Colton.”
“Cobra’s right,” Cortez said. “Since Nadine, you take issue with anyone doubting your honesty. Trust is important to you.”
Colton rolled his eyes. “Trust should be important to anyone. Besides, we’re not talking about Nadine. We’re discussing Kelly.”
“Now you guys see why I don’t get seriously involved with women,” Cobra interjected. “Too much work, stress, and things could get messy. If you’d just given Kelly that one-nighter she’d wanted two years ago, none of this would be happening.”
Colton paused, leaned against the dresser, and thought about what Cobra said. Even with the outcome being what it was, he still was glad he hadn’t spent just one night in Kelly’s bed. Those two weeks in New York and LA had meant everything to him. And he’d hoped they had meant something to her as well. It was supposed to have been their beginning, not their end.
“Colton?”
“Yes, Tez?”
“Cobra just told you he was opting out of the call since he had one of his infamous appointments to get to. Since you didn’t say anything, I figured you weren’t listening.”
No, he hadn’t been. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It should matter, Colton. I hope you know what Cobra said is BS. Our youngest brother will meet his match one day, and I can’t wait to see it. And just adding my two-cents worth…I think you did the right thing by not giving in to that one-night stand with Kelly.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because you were following your heart.”
