Conception (The Wellingtons #4) - Tessa Teevan Page 0,10
I figured we’d do some male bonding or whatever.”
He’s full of it. “You know, there’s a reason you’re always losing money to me when we play poker.”
“Yeah, ’cause you’re a cheat.”
“Or because you have a terrible poker face and can’t lie or bluff to save your ass.”
He sighs, running a hand through his dark hair. “It’s not that I don’t want to be here. I do.”
“Even if it means a week without Maria?”
Clay’s lips curve up into a sheepish grin. “I’ve got a couple of photos and she sent me along with a letter for every night I’m here.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “You do know there’s this new technology called a telephone, right? You can even call her all the way back in Nashville.”
We’re only a couple of hours away, but to Clay, we might as well be on the other side of the world.
“Look,” he says, “Mom wanted me to come up with you. Get you settled in. Make sure you’re…you’re good.”
Of course. I should’ve guessed. Kate Wellington, our mother, is a force to be reckoned with, and when she wants something? She usually isn’t told no. If she is? She ignores it anyway.
To put it simply, she’s the only reason I’m in Crystal Cove for the summer. Hell, if it were up to me, I’d be spending my summer shadowing Dad, not lounging at some lake a few hours away. Dad would’ve welcomed it. Mom? Not so much. The second she heard what my plans were, she put the kibosh on them. Nixed them.
I got to listen outside Dad’s study as they argued over me. Something they didn’t do often, especially when it came to us boys, which made eavesdropping a bit uncomfortable. When the screeching of Dad’s chair scooting back reverberated through the door, I darted back to the kitchen to pour some iced tea, trying to be cool about it.
Mom’s look of triumph had my shoulders slumping. Dad simply shrugged and gestured to Mom in a you know she’s really the boss kind of way.
“Knox, your father and I have decided.” She glanced back at Dad, who was shaking his head at me. Then he became sheepish when she raised an arched eyebrow at him. “Since this is your last summer before graduation, you will take a hiatus from Wellington Incorporated.”
I started to protest, but she held a hand up to stop me.
“I’ve stood by while you’ve spent nearly every summer there since you were fifteen. When you should’ve been off swimming, going to concerts, spending nights at the drive-in, you instead were at work. You have one more summer before you grow up, Knox.”
“What if I promise not to work nights or weekends? I won’t bring any work home.”
“The answer is no.”
“Mom, what the hell am I going to do in Belle Meade?”
Her answering smile had a knot forming in my stomach. Nothing good could come from that smile. “You’re not going to spend your summer in Belle Meade.”
I frowned, shaking my head slightly. “What do you mean?”
“You know the lake house we used to take you boys to when you were little?”
It was so long ago that I could barely remember, but since she brought it up, memories of rope swinging into the lake where I first learned to swim and where I went to my first drive-in movie—Bullitt, which lead to my obsession with Ford Mustang GTs—came back to me.
Damn, had it really been twelve years since we’d gone there?
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s just been so long, I’d forgotten. Why did we stop going?” I asked.
It was Dad’s turn to chime in. “After that last summer is when things really took off with the business and I had a hard time getting away. We decided to give up our yearly weeklong rental the following summer, and well, it just so happened that we never went back.”
Mom smiled at me. “Until now.”
My brow furrowed. “We’re all going back there for the summer?”
My first thought was about my brother and his proclaimed “love of his life.” I nearly smirked. At least I wouldn’t be sharing in the misery alone.
“Not exactly,” Dad said, giving me pause. “Your mother has apparently had your summer in mind for a while now. It seems she made a few calls and found the house up for sale. She”—he gave the word emphasis while turning to her with a pointed look. Then, with a sigh, he continued—“decided it would be a sound investment.”