flashes his average smile. “Iris—How would you like to be an OrganicBreakfast Prime representative? How would you like to be your own boss?”
20
Jude
So, Iris Merlini is dating again. And somehow, I’ve decided to make that my business.
I was restless after she left the house with that loser.
Is she going to spend the night with some guy? Is she going to go back to his house? And why the hell am I bothered?
I couldn’t just lie back and watch sports news and act like it was all good. Because…I want her.
There—I admitted it.
I’m attracted to my roommate. Watching her walk out the door on another man’s arm nearly drove me crazy with jealousy.
I don’t know what possessed me but next thing I know, I was calling up the fanciest restaurants in town to see if anyone had a reservation booked for ‘Merlini’. I lucked out when I called Le Sous-Sol.
I brazenly graduated from ‘innocent curiosity’ into ‘straight-up stalkerhood’ when I booked my own reservation for two then called up Cannon and lured him out of his house under the pretext of having something urgent to discuss with him.
Now, here we fucking are. Sitting across the room from Iris with her shapely thighs and her juicy boobs, tarted up in that curve-worshipping tight dress. I can’t get over how good she looks and every few seconds, I find myself stealing a peek.
Cannon growls. “Could you stop eye-fucking your roommate for long enough to tell me why the hell you dragged me here? It’s after eight. I’m supposed to be having naked-time with my wife.” He’s bitter as hell.
I shake myself out of my stupor and face my brother. “We need to find a way to help Mom and Dad,” I declare.
He drops an elbow on the table. “What are you talking about?”
“I talked to Mom the other day,” I tell him. “She’s kind of in over her head with Callie. I think she and Dad could use some help.”
“Like a nanny?”
“Yeah, I guess a nanny. I hadn’t really considered that.”
Cannon nods slowly. “That makes sense.” He squints and gets this far-away look on his face. “Y’know what? I’ll talk to Lexi. Her sister, Jessa, might be interested. She said she needs some extra money while she’s looking for teaching work.”
Sounds like a good idea to me. “Jessa’s cool.” I sneak another furtive peek at Iris.
She’s still sexy. I’m still salty.
“Yeah, Jessa’s cool.” My brother laughs a little, drawing my attention back his way. “Bubbly as hell, but cool.” Slowly, his amusement fades. “Gosh, that poor kid.” He grabs a roll from the bread basket and pinches off a chunk. “If only Eli hadn’t fucked his whole life up, huh?” He pops the bread into his mouth.
I chuff. “Tell me about it…And Gabby? What a bitch, abandoning her kid like that.” I scratch my forehead, a little nervous about what I’m about to say. “But…but don’t you think we should be doing more for Eli? I mean. We’re his brothers. I just feel…” I mess around with the silverware near my plate.
My second oldest brother’s incarceration is a touchy issue in our family. Eli’s smart. Too goddamn smart. No one had a clue what he was up to until federal agents were slapping handcuffs on his wrists. His imprisonment has been hard on the family. It took us all by surprise. He always seemed like an upstanding guy, a family man. We were all wrong about him. Ma’s still having a hard time accepting it. Walker is coping via his anger. The rest of us fall somewhere on the spectrum of emotions in between.
Cannon’s chest expands on a great, big sigh. “My…” He hesitates, looking nervous, too. “My lawyer has been working on building a case to get him released from jail.”
Both of my eyebrows bounce up to my hairline. “You’ve been trying to get him out of jail?”
He nods slowly. “Every time it looks like Frank is getting somewhere with the case, his law firm hits a dead end. I don’t know…we might just need to wait this out, wait until he serves out his sentence.”
I drop my head. Fuck. Eli was convicted of committing some pretty elaborate corporate crimes and I know that he’s guilty and it’s only fair that he do his time, but he’s my family and I can’t help but wish things were different, if only for Callie’s sake.
“Mom and dad have been visiting him in secret,” I spill.
Cannon’s eyes narrow. “What?”
I bob my head in confirmation. “Yeah.