“Mr. Taylor has two wives? He’s the real baller. I guess even billionaires suck up to their woman’s family.”
I look around the house. It’s open with hardwood floors. I can see her growing up here. The walls are lined with family pictures, and I find Victoria. There’s a picture of her in her high school cap and gown. She’s smiling and totally unguarded and so different from the woman I met a month ago. That woman has her walls up a mile high.
“Here’s some advice for you. You like Vickie? Get in good with her father and stepmom. It wouldn’t hurt for you to befriend her twin brother either.” He taps my shoulder and tells me to follow him. Ethan Bradford, nice guy, but commanding. I guess it’s easy to be that way when you’ve always been sure of your place in this world. If being a CEO didn’t work out for him, there are a million other things he could do, including doing nothing. He’s so rich, he could do nothing for the rest of his life and still maintain his same lifestyle.
Basketball saved me, and it didn’t hurt that I was good at it. If I didn’t have that, I might still be stuck in my small town working at a meat processing plant like my mother did.
I follow Ethan to the kitchen, where he introduces me to Vickie’s mother and their cousin Bernie.
“I see where your daughters get their beautiful eyes from.” I kiss the back of her mother’s hand, and she almost falls over. I do my best to exaggerate my southern accent, something I’ve found works well in certain situations. I do the same with Bernie, who is struck speechless. I wink at her and follow Ethan through the sliding glass door. This is where I find her. She’s on the deck like a queen looking down on her kingdom. Her sunglasses are on top of her head with both hands on the deck rail. I follow Ethan down the stairs and into the yard, making sure to walk as close to her as possible without touching her. She jolts when I get close, and I claim a small victory.
Her father, a tall man likely in his late fifties, becomes awestruck when he sees me. Ethan introduces me to him and to Alan Taylor, Vickie’s twin brother. He’s tall and skinny, and he looks more like Tara than he does his own twin.
After asking them to join me in a friendly game, I take my shirt off. I normally would never do this, but she’s still watching. As hard as our practices are, and as hard as my personal trainer makes me work, I’m suddenly grateful for it today. I’m lean, but I’m fit, and my abdominal muscles are proof that I can lift weights with the best of them.
I almost laugh when Alan copies me and takes off his own shirt.
“Alan, what the hell are you doing?” Victoria asks from her perch above us. Alan puffs out his chest and pounds it with his hand. He flexes his stomach muscles. “Cover that up. Nobody wants to see your bones.”
“Women fight over this almost daily.” He gestures at his body, and she rolls her eyes. “I had two fighting over me just this morning.”
“Who? Our mother and evil stepmother fighting over you again?”
“They’re women, aren’t they?” Alan asks.
When her dad returns, he hands me a basketball, which I start to bounce on the small patch of concrete in their yard.
“You,” Victoria says, pointing at me. I make a show of looking around the yard before pointing at myself.
“Me?”
“Yes. You.” She uses one of her index fingers to call me over. I take the few short steps and look up at her.
“It’s Colt, darlin’.”
She raises an eyebrow in disapproval at the endearment.
“If either one of them so much as breaks a nail, Cole.” Her eyes narrow at me in warning. I give her a boyish grin, followed by a wink. When she scoffs, I blow her a kiss, and she takes a step back as if the kiss touched her.
“What happens ifIbreak a nail?” I tease.
“Have one of your fangirls bring you a band aid.”
I toss the basketball to Alan and walk closer to Victoria. She looks down at me, her face completely stoic. “Are you jealous, Queen Vee?”
“The name is Victoria. Ms. Taylor—”
“If I’m nasty?” I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “I can be.” I drop my head and do a dramatic bow. “Whatever my queen wants. I am but a pawn in your—”
“Oh, will you stop with the dramatics? Enough already. There’s no one to fawn over you here.” Someone throws the ball, and it hits me in the middle of my back, but I don’t move away. I look into her dark brown eyes and lick my lips. She breaks the stare first, huffs, crosses her arms, and walks away.
But she doesn’t stay away for long. I start a game of two on one with her brother and father. Alan’s a good player, and as tall as he is, a few inches over six feet, I still tower over him. He’s a good defensive player, doing his best to block my moves and take the ball. If this was a regular game on the court with regular guys, he’d be competitive, but not with me. I might as well be playing with Evan and Vincent. I dribble the ball away from him and do a free throw, and I score. I turn to Victoria, who has now put her sunglasses on, doing her best to pretend she’s not looking at me.
We have an audience. Ethan’s come out, as well as Victoria’s mother. Her stepmother is taking a video of me playing her husband and stepson. Alan manages to get the ball and throws it to his father. We play until John Taylor falls on his ass and his wife calls an end to the game. His wife and daughters run over to him, and I put my shirt on.
Our eyes catch again, but Victoria turns and walks away, calling the boys to go inside to frost cupcakes. I don’t think Evan’s ever frosted cupcakes with anyone. His grandmother might dote on him, but she’s not one to teach a young boy how to cook. I never thought he’d be interested in anything like that. We have a housekeeper and a cook, but clearly, he enjoys being in the kitchen.
I’d love for my mother to be closer, but as much as she loves New York City, she’d never move here permanently. She loves the south, and she feels she’s still responsible for my older brother, even though he’s a thirty-two-year-old man who has made his own choices in life.
