Page 101 of Falling for the CEO

The place wasn’t crowded yet, but it was early. I’d asked some of my team members as well as Jenna, Juliet, and Diego to come. No one was here yet. Gabe had also invited most of his staff.

He'd shut off the distillery as well and was using parts of it for the party.

Cade, Jake, and Gabe were waiting with Natalie and Meredith by the entrance. I figured that meeting my brothers’ women would put Penny at ease.

“Penny, these are my brothers Cade, Jake, and Gabe.”

"And I'm Natalie," my older brother's fiancée said.

“And I'm Meredith. It's good to have another girl in our midst. We can be a trio. It evens the playing field against eight guys."

“So nice to meet all of you,” Penny said.

“Who else from the family is here?” I asked.

“Everyone. They’re at the bar.”

"I can't believe we're so late," Penny said.

"No, you're not," Jake explained. "Everybody was just excited and arrived early."

Gabe made his way to us. "The man of the hour, along with the star of the evening, of course."

"This place looks amazing, Gabe," Penny said.

"We can do a tour of the distillery later if you want to see it."

"Sure," Penny said, nodding. "I've never been to one." She was genuinely curious about what my brother did.

Colton joined us too. "Figures you'd be late to your own party," he said. "Penny, I'm Colton. We've heard so much about you."

Penny glanced at me nervously and then back at him. "You have?"

"Yeah. Oh, not just from him, but also from our grandmother. She likes you."

"Thanks, I like her too," Penny said. "Let me just make sure I’ve got this straight. You are Colton, Gabe, Jake, and Cade, right?"

"You've nailed it," Gabe said. "Our half brothers are somewhere around here too. We'll introduce you to them. Ah, there they are. Come in here so you can meet Spencer's woman."

Our half brothers came over, and Maddox winked at me. Nick looked like he was about to burst out laughing, and Leo was just smiling smugly.

"What?" I asked. "Spit it out."

"The first time we heard about Penny, we envisioned something like this happening," Leo said.

"What are you talking about?" Penny asked. I’d warned Gabe not to embarrass me, but I hadn't thought about these three.

Maddox shook hands with Penny. "I'm Maddox. And to answer your question, when we played tennis some time ago, we learned that you and our brother dearest had something going on. We were all wondering how long it would take until he'd introduce you to rest of us. You know he’s serious about you if he even introduces you to us three.”

Jake, Gabe, and Cade burst out laughing. Even Colton was amusing himself. I guess, in a way, he was right. My brothers always knew what was going on in my life, but when my half brothers got wind of it, then I meant business.

“Let’s go have some cocktails,” Nick suggested. “Gabe, the bartender is excellent.”

“Why are you surprised?”

Nick shrugged. “Sometimes bartenders just like to sing their own praises, but then they do the same old, same old. But this guy’s actually a novelty.”

We fell in step with Colton and Leo.

---