Page 23 of Bargain With The Boss (Crescent Cove: The Moguls #2)

Xavier

“Housekeeping!”

The cheerful voice in the hall drew me into consciousness. I rolled, stretching my hand across the king-sized bed. When I got to the edge, I didn’t find the fascinating redhead who was making me insane.

I frowned, whipping the sheet over my bare ass as the door started to open. “Can you give me an hour?”

“Sorry! Yes, I can come back.”

The door closed and I flopped onto my back. “Shit.”

The sun was slanting across the bed telling me it was well into the morning. I sat up, grabbing my phone from the bedside table. “Double shit.” I bounded off the bed and across to the bathroom door. I knocked, but the door opened.

Empty.

What the hell?

I went back to my phone to see if she left me a message, but nothing.

No note.

Nada.

I dialed her number but it went right to voicemail.

The niggle of worry cartwheeled into anger. It didn’t ring long enough—she either had do not disturb on her phone or she’d pushed me to voicemail.

Annoyed, I took a quick shower and pulled on my suit slacks with a Voltron T-shirt. I grabbed my bag and was out the door in twenty minutes.

Where the hell did she go without a car?

Downstairs, I found the valet. “Jerry, did you see Miss Keller?”

He nodded. “I saw her get into a rideshare.”

“Any idea where?”

“Sorry, Mr. Hastings. She barely looked up.”

Sighing, I gave him a tight smile. “Thanks, anyway. Could you get my car?”

“Absolutely.”

I scrolled through my messages, finding one from Gavin about some missing freight for two of our jobs. “Great,” I muttered and made two calls while I waited for my car.

I nodded to Jerry and slid a bill into his hand as he hopped out and I got in. I plugged into my Bluetooth and finished the call as I sped down Main Street then cut over Grange to the warehouses.

Annoyed that FHK Property Group looked deserted, I peeled back out and headed for the lake.

Dammit, was she with Claire?

Or Jude?

I slammed my hand against my steering wheel, going for Jude.

His grand house was one of the few historic houses that hadn’t needed a lot of work. Matching SUVs were in the driveway telling me Maddie and Jude were both home.

The sound of laughter and Maddie’s bright voice met me as I climbed the winding walkway.

She was outside with Owen and Nessa on the wide expanse of lawn.

A patchwork quilt was spread out with Owen happily coloring between two different books.

The carrier had a sleeping Nessa with Maddie sitting cross-legged beside her, a coloring book of her own open on her lap.

She spotted me and brightened. “Well, hey there Uncle X.”

Owen popped to his feet and sped down the walkway to me. I caught him with a grunt and swept him up into my arms to hook him on my hip. “What’s up little man?”

“Wanna color with us?”

“I gotta go to work, I’m just stopping in for a minute.”

His face fell. “Oh, okay.”

I crouched down onto the quilt and looked in on the sleeping baby. So quiet and pink and small. “Being a good big brother?”

Owen nodded emphatically. “She’s too little to color yet, but I’ll teach her soon.”

“Good to hear.” I accepted the extra coloring book with a laugh and dropped onto my butt. Guess I was coloring whether I wanted to or not. Selecting blue and yellow crayons, I lightly filled in the sky of the thickly lined picture, then worked on the sun. “Have you seen your Aunt Sydney?”

“Aunt Sydee had breakfast with us at the spoon, but that’s the last I saw her.”

“Right, thanks buddy.”

Maddie gave me a raised eyebrow.

I cleared my throat. “I might have misplaced our recruit. Think the hubs knows where she is?”

Maddie traded my blue crayon for one of her red ones. “You have this handy little thing in your pocket called a phone.”

I huffed out a laugh. “I tried that.”

“We haven’t seen her. In fact I’ve only seen her twice since she’s been here this visit.”

I frowned. “Is that right?”

“Yeah, she seems very distracted.”

We swapped crayons and I absently colored the truck in my picture a bright ass pink as I puzzledover that comment.

Owen leaned over my coloring book. “Cool truck, Uncle X.”

“Thanks, bud.” I ruffled his hair. “I’m going to go talk to your dad.”

“Kay.” He waved. “Bye.”

I rolled onto my knees, then stood.

“Bye, Xavier,” Maddie said in a sing-song voice.

I resisted the urge to lift my shoulders in reaction. This was exactly why I hadn’t wanted to come to see Jude. I still had her taste in my mouth for fuck’s sake. It was probably obvious.

I followed the path around the back of the house and found Jude at the table in the kitchen. He had schematics for something spread out, held down by used juice glasses. I tapped on the glass pane of the door, and he looked up with a frown.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as I opened the door.

“Hello to you too.”

Jude pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sorry, Nessa was up all night. I tried to let Maddie get some sleep, but Nes wasn’t having it.” He yawned as he grabbed his mug of coffee.

“She’s sleeping like a little princess out there now.”

“Figures,” he said around another huge yawn.

“What are you doing?”

“Building a Jurassic Park bed for Owen.”

“Of your own design.”

He reddened. “Maybe.”

I laughed. This Jude was much different from the man I’d met a few short years ago.

Even tired as hell, he had an easiness around the eyes since he’d found Maddie.

I let him show off the blueprints—honest to God blueprints—for the twin bed that could easily be deconstructed when Owen lost interest in dinosaurs as only a young boy could.

I’d never lost my love for Transformers and Voltron, personally. Owen was a bit more fickle. He’d already lost interest in Bluey and Paw Patrol in the last year. Three was coming on like a freight train.

How the hell had that happened?

My own nephew, Milo, was firmly in the toddler phase of life. Every time Luna sent me a new photo in text, he seemed to double in size. It gave me a pang to think about it followed directly aboutthe broken condom of the night before.

Hell, we didn’t even bother to think about a condom after that.

I knew Syd said she was on the pill, but the thought of her having my kid should have sent me into orbit, instead I was almost disappointed when she’d said it.

I needed my damn head examined.

“Earth to Xavier.”

I looked up from the blueprints that I was obviously not reading. “Sorry. Hey, have you seen Sydney today?”

“Is that what you’re doing here?”

“Sort of. She kind of went MIA today. I thought maybe she stopped in here.”

“Kind of MIA?” Jude leaned his hip against the table and crossed his arms. He wore workout pants and a T-shirt with something on the shoulder that was probably baby spit-up.

“Yes. She doesn’t have a car, and she wasn’t at the Sherman.”

He didn’t need to know that I’d been there without her.

Jude’s eyes narrowed.

Well, maybe he’d figure it out for fuck’s sake. I was incredibly bad at this. It was probably the first time I’d chased after a woman since college. And it wasn’t even like I was chasing her. She worked with me. It wasn’t out of bounds to know where she was.

I tried not to remember that there’d been little to no boundaries last night.

I knew every damn inch of her body. I knew where a little cluster of freckles were at her hip. I knew that she had a sensitive spot at the base of her spine that made her moan.

Get a grip, Hastings.

“Fuck.”

Jude tipped his head.

I dug deep to figure out something to talk about that didn’t make me sound like a love-struck idiot.

“What the hell is going on with you?”

“I...hell, J. I like your sister.”

“You what?”

“I know, I know.” I backed away from the table when Jude stalked my way. “I’m not sure how it happened. Well, I know because she’s smart and beautiful. I mean smart doesn’t even cover it. Her brain is wow.”

Shut up, Xavier.

“And she makes me think and sometimes not think which is actually really nice. I don’t have an empty brain all that often.”

“It’s going to be offline if you don’t stop fucking talking.”

I tripped over one of the kid toys strewn around the kitchen and stumbled into the corner of the kitchen island. I winced, but kept putting distance between me and Jude.

“It’s not one-sided—at least I’m pretty sure it’s not.”

“Pretty sure?” Jude’s eyebrows shot up under his disheveled hair. “She’s been here barely two weeks, X.”

“I know. But to be honest, I was already interested when she first arrived last year.”

“Not helping your cause.” Jude headed around the kitchen island and I shuffled back the other way. “She’s here to help out not for you to help her out of her damn clothes.”

“How do you know it was me that did the undressing?”

“So you already did!”

“Shit.” I sprinted for the back door and Jude grabbed the back of my shirt before I made it off the porch steps. He hauled me back in just as Maddie was coming up the walk with the carrier.

Jude held a finger up to say one minute.

Maddie pressed her lips together. I wasn’t sure if it was against a laugh or worry because she ushered Owen back toward the yard.

No help there.

Jude pushed me through the kitchen to the hallway that led to his office.

I probably should have kept my damn mouth shut. I didn’t even know if there was something worth sharing. Maybe she really did mean just one night. I hated how my heart sank at the thought.

He jammed me into the door, and I grunted before I got my hand on the doorknob only to get thrown into one of the club chairs around his desk.

It slid back more than a foot before Jude loomed over me. “That’s my little sister!”

His breath was hot and his eyes wild.

I took it, saying nothing. There wasn’t much else I could do. It was better to face this head-on—I hoped.

“And you know me,” I said evenly.

“I do, which is why I’m yelling, you jackass.”

“She’s a grown woman. And it’s not just—” I cleared my throat. “Look, you don’t want to know the details and I sure as hell don’t want to give them to you.”

Jude paced away, gripping his hair.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Good to know you think so highly of me.”

“Oh, shut up. You weren’t any better with finding out about Caleb and Luna.” He stared out the window, his fists clenched at his sides.

“Fair. Look, it wasn’t planned. I also didn’t know I had to ask permission to be interested in your sister. It doesn’t exactly work like that.”

“Didn’t you just say you were interested last year?” He threw over his shoulder.

Leave it to Jude to actually listen.

“And the reason you didn’t notice was because you were so wrapped up in Mads.”

“Oh, I noticed. I just thought you were smarter than that.”

The quick punch of hurt landed quite effectively. Being a fuckup with relationships was my stock in trade.

“Fuck.” Jude turned around, his hands relaxing. “I didn’t mean that.”

“Pretty sure you did.”

“You aren’t exactly shy about the women you date, X.”

“I know.” I sighed and stood. “You’re right.”

And I didn’t even know what the hell we were doing.

She was in my head and after last night she was in my bloodstream on a level I hadn’t felt in a damn long time.

Being from money required an extra layer of protection when it came to who I dated.

I didn’t know if a woman was interested in me because of what I could do for them or give them.

But I didn’t have to worry about that with Syd.

In fact, I was pretty sure it was a detriment as far as she was concerned.

“I’m not entirely sure she even likes me,” I said with a laugh.

Jude touched his thumb to his wedding ring, twisting it absently. “She’s had to deal with a lot. I’m not even sure she likes me at the moment, either. Every time I ask her over for dinner or to hang out with the family she makes an excuse.”

“It’s hard on her.” I wouldn’t betray the woman I was falling for, but Jude was oblivious about everything but Maddie and his new family.

Jude frowned.

“Think about it. If Syd had come to you and said ‘oh hey, you’re only my half-brother and I’ve got this great family now,’ how would you react?”

“That’s why I want her here. And you’re supposed to be looking out for her.”

Anger spiked. “I do look out for her, but it’s not my job to remind her she’s your family.”

She could be my family.

The thought made my chest ache. I was just as clueless as Syd and Jude about making an honest connection.

There was love with my parents, but it was through a filter of etiquette and quiet civility.

Big emotions didn’t have space in the Hastings house.

Luna had been chaotic and loved so hard. Far different from all of us.

Instead of letting her shake us out of the formal stodginess of our life, we’d let her go.

The biggest mistake of my goddamn life.

I wouldn’t be making the same mistake when it came to telling Sydney that I wanted her in my life.

Jude stared at me. His eyes shuttered and his body tight.

“You know I’m right.”

He stalked away from me and out the door.

I didn’t have the strength to go after him. Not when I didn’t know what to say, dammit.

I had to talk to Syd first.

I pulled out my phone and texted her.

We need to talk.