“About six weeks ago. Dad got me a position with his firm.”
“What happened to New York?”
Kyle’s eyes clouded with an emotion I couldn’t interpret. He looked . . . unhappy? But in a flash, the emotion was replaced with an empty one. “That’s a story for later.” His gaze held mine. “Look, I can’t stay. My schedule’s crazy while they’re bringing me up to speed on my caseload, but . . . hell. We haven’t seen each other in a while.”
We certainly hadn’t. My older brother and I weren’t close growing up. I’d done my own thing while Kyle had been the golden boy. I didn’t envy him; the crown seemed heavy. Mom and Dad laid enormous pressure on him, so I understood when he’d high-tailed it out of Chicago, not a week after graduating law school. My parents felt disrespected he hadn’t come to the firm that carried the McCreary name.
But that had been years ago. Now he was back?
“So you ran twenty blocks in a suit to see me?” I asked.
“Mom said you were upset.” He took a deep breath and smoothed a hand down his tie. “Mom and Dad don’t get it. They think their stuff is more important than anyone else’s. I used to try really hard to make them understand, and honestly, my life got so much easier once I stopped.”
My mouth dropped open. It was the most honest I’d ever heard him, and he made his living spinning truths and twisting words.
“I also came to meet Dominic.” Kyle’s focus shifted to my fiancé. “As her brother, I’m supposed to threaten you with bodily harm if you don’t treat her right, but that’s not really my style. So enjoy my threat of litigation instead. I’m very good, and it wouldn’t be pleasant.”
“Aw, you’re sweet,” I said, my voice mocking. “But Dominic’s smart. He knows if he fucks up with me, I’d be his biggest threat.”
“Yes,” Dominic said instantly.
Kyle blinked again at the profanity. Not like he was offended, but more amused. Shit, how far apart had we’d been these last few years? He barely knew me anymore, and I’d never really known him.
“Okay, well, that’s good, I guess.” Kyle fiddled with his watch and checked the time. “I have to run. As in, literally.”
“Thank you for coming,” I said, hoping my voice matched how sincere I felt, because I was a little blown away.
“Should we grab drinks some night this week?” Dominic asked, but Kyle shook his head.
“I’d like that, but everything’s a mess with the move. You two will be back for good in a few months though, right? We could do it then.”
“Sure.”
We said our goodbyes, and I watched Kyle go. It was such a simple gesture for him to come over, and yet it meant so much.
Dominic had a strange half-smile on his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Running here and back just to say hello. Your parents don’t get it, but your brother does.”
“Yeah,” I said. Who would have thought?
The premium leather of my driver’s seat was buttery soft. I’d narrowly avoided reunion tears when I’d picked my car up from Logan’s place. Well, technically, our place. Evie and Logan would move out in mid-December so Dominic and I could move in when we returned from Japan.
I felt bad about kicking them out, but only for thirty seconds. The view was to die for, and Logan had known this day was coming since leasing the place from his friend.
“It looks different in the daylight,” Dominic said, gesturing to the blindfold club entrance. He wasn’t wrong. The black door looked smaller, and the wear on the façade seemed greater in the harsh light.
“Yeah, this place is way less sexy during the day.” A fact I’d discovered the first time Joseph had asked me to fill in for him. I hadn’t a clue why Joseph wanted to meet here now, but since the club was a good twenty-minute drive from our hotel, and I had my hands on my Jaguar F-Type, it was fine with me.
“Any chance you’d let me drive the car back to the hotel when we leave?” Dominic’s hopeful expression wasn’t enough to pry my grip from the steering wheel.
He hadn’t driven a car in almost two years. “No way, get your own.”
“Half of this car will be mine when we’re married.”
I shut off the engine and let my expression go serious. “Yeah, the passenger half.”