Grip Trilogy Box Set - Kennedy Ryan Page 0,223

bring us a script that calls for her to do some fifty shades of fucked-up shit with some dickhead actor. If I haven’t been clear—”

“The last time we discussed Kai’s movie career, you asked me to look for nun roles.” I layer my look and my words with sarcasm. “I think you were pretty clear.”

“Good,” Rhyson mutters, either not seeing or not caring how ridiculous he sounds. My sister-in-law will thank me later for saving her from wearing a habit onscreen.

“Kai’s one of those rare talents who can do it all,” I continue. “She sings, dances, acts, and is gorgeous.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty amazing.” Pride and love fill his eyes, and I’m so happy my brother didn’t listen to me when I questioned Kai’s motives, so happy neither of us settled for the matrimonial farce our parents showed us all those years.

“There aren’t many Broadway roles that require nudity.” I shrug and widen my eyes innocently. “Maybe my time in New York could open up a whole new avenue for Kai.”

The cogs are turning so hard in my brother’s head, I think I smell smoke.

“I love that idea, Bris.” He leans over to hook his arm around my neck and pull me closer. “And I think it’s great that you’re putting your relationship with Marlon first.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, and I know it’s your choice. He’s not that guy who would drag you across the country by your hair.”

“I had to force him to tell me he wanted me to go with him.” I smile at the memory. “He’s so concerned with me being happy and doing what I love.”

“Unlike me who would just say Kai, pack your shit, you’re coming with me to New York?” Rhyson laughs, but his voice rings with truth.

“Your words,” I say with a grin. “Not mine.”

He almost destroyed their relationship trying to control Kai. Our parents set that pattern managing his career as a piano prodigy, using love as control, and it’s taken him twenty years to break out of it.

“I’ve gotten a lot better, too,” Rhyson asserts. “Just ask Kai.”

“Ask me what?”

Kai stands in the kitchen doorway, Aria perched on her hip. Her petite frame is perfectly lit by the sun shining through the windows, and for a moment, my brother looks dazzled by the dark hair hanging almost to her waist and the tilted eyes that are even more beautiful because they are kind. My niece is such a perfectly adorable blend of Rhys and Kai, I can’t resist going over and snatching her up immediately.

While I’m cooing to Aria, Rhyson is thoroughly kissing his wife, pulling her much shorter frame up and into his.

For a long damn time.

“Ahem.” I clear my throat meaningfully. “You think you two could wrap this up before Aria graduates?”

Kai turns dreamy, love-dazed eyes my way, a bashful smile on her pretty face. You’d never know this unassuming girl in her simple jeans and T-shirt is about to blow the music industry wide open. Her sweetness cloaks a driving ambition that is backed up by immense talent. She’s going to be the biggest thing since . . . well, Grip, and it’s my job to make sure that happens. No one deserves it more than Kai; she’s lost so much over the course of her life, and it’s good to see her happy, especially with my brother.

“Sorry.” A faint blush colors her cheekbones. “Rhys, what were you saying Bristol should ask me when I came in?”

He winks at me conspiratorially over her shoulder.

“We were just wondering how you feel about Broadway.”

Chapter 5

Bristol

“THIS COULD BE THE ONE, BRIS.”

I glance from the clean modern lines of the beautifully decorated Tribeca apartment to Charisma Simmons, my friend since high school. Her mother, Bridget, one of New York’s most elite realtors, has shown me several properties this week, and none of them made me feel like this one does. There’s something special here. Even though Grip and I will only be leasing it for the semester, it has its own permanence, like it has only ever been someone’s home. There’s a warmth that wraps around me; it feels personal. It could be that this one comes fully furnished while the others were cold, stark, empty boxes—albeit expensive empty boxes. You have to mortgage your soul to live in New York. I shouldn’t be surprised; I grew up here, and LA isn’t much better. We had an apartment on the Upper East Side, where I lived during the school year, close to the private school