“You’ve been quiet the past week and a half and haven’t returned my calls,” Wes pointed out, even as his gaze strayed to a table to the left of them where three women were sitting. “Everything okay?”
Those calls had been all about having a drink together, and tonight was the first evening since finding out about his illegal adoption that Jackson was clear-minded enough to meet up with his friend. “I just have some things going on that I’m trying to deal with.”
“Work?” Wes guessed.
“No, work is fine.” Jackson absently turned his glass in a circle on the napkin it was sitting on. “Just some personal shit I’ve been trying to figure out.”
Wes raised an inquisitive brow. “Care to elaborate on that?”
Jackson met Wes’s earnest gaze. For the most part, Wes was easygoing and didn’t take much seriously, but it was times like this that reminded Jackson what a good friend Wes had been after Jackson’s wife’s affair and their subsequent divorce. He’d known Wes for over five years now. The other man was a luxury real estate agent, and they’d met at a business function. A few weeks after that, Wes had sold Jackson his first condo on Lake Shore Drive, and a strong friendship had built from there.
The only people Jackson had told about his illegal adoption had been his brothers and Tara, and since he was hoping that eventually he’d form some kind of relationship with his siblings, there was no sense keeping the truth to himself.
He took a long swallow of his whiskey and proceeded to tell Wes everything—how his aunt had decided that Jackson had a right to know about his past, and all the ugly details of being sold for drug money and how his father had essentially ignored him his entire life because of who and what Jackson was, and about finally contacting his brothers about his existence, only to be shut out once again.
“Jesus,” Wes said once Jackson was finished with his story. “That’s some heavy-duty shit.”
“Tell me about it,” he said, his tone derisive. “So yeah, I’ve been a little distracted lately.”
“I totally get it.” Wes’s gaze once again wandered to the other table before returning to Jackson. “And just for the record, your brothers sound like assholes.”
Jackson laughed abruptly. He’d had a lot of time to think about his siblings’ reactions to him. A part of him understood their initial caution, but he was having a difficult time discerning why they hadn’t bothered to contact him since that meeting—unless they truly didn’t want to have anything to do with him. It was a notion that Jackson hated to think about and refused to accept.
“They’re not assholes.” Okay, maybe Mason had been a bit of an asshole, Jackson corrected in his head. “They’re just wary.”
Wes frowned at him. “You said one of the brothers was your twin. What’s there to be wary about?”
“They don’t know anything about me, so I’m assuming they just need time to get used to the idea of having another brother that came as a complete surprise.” He was trying to give the Kincaid siblings the benefit of the doubt, though it didn’t appear that they were returning the favor. “Tomorrow night, one of the bartenders who works for Clay is bringing me to a party they’re having for her. There’s no telling how that’s going to go down, but I figure it’s worth trying to break the ice.”
A slow smile tugged at the corner of Wes’s mouth as he raised an inquisitive brow. “Her?”
Out of everything Jackson had just said, that’s what he’d latched onto? Knowing his friend would endlessly hound him, Jackson told Wes what he wanted to hear. “Her name is Tara.”
Wes tapped his fingers on the table. “And how is it that you know Tara well enough that she invited you to this party, hmmm?”
“I met her the night I went to the bar. We’ve talked a few times since then.” Jackson shrugged. “She’s close to the Kincaid brothers and wants to help initiate some kind of reunion between the four of us.”
Wes nodded, but once again Jackson noticed that he was distracted by the women at the other table, or rather, one of the ladies. His gaze was riveted to the brunette who was facing him, but she wouldn’t so much as glance his way.
“What is up with you and that woman at the other table?” Jackson finally asked. He was surprised that someone so prim-and-proper-looking had captured Wes’s attention, when he was a guy who’d always gone for the fast-and-easy type. “You keep staring at her like you’re a stalker.”
“You know my business partner, Connor Prescott?” Wes asked.
Jackson nodded. “Yes.” The guy flipped a lot of the luxury homes that Wes bought that were in dire need of updates and renovations.
“Well, that’s his little sister, Natalie. I’ve known her since I was ten, and we’ve always had a love hate relationship.”
Another glance at the brunette told Jackson that she was totally blowing Wes off. “Looks more like hate to me at the moment.”
“She’s just acting a bit haughty because she sold a house right out from under me.” Wes shrugged. “Doesn’t happen often, so she’s a little pleased with herself right now.”
“So why do you keep looking at her like you want to hook up with her?”
“Well, she is kind of hot . . . in an uptight kind of way.”
Jackson laughed. “And off-limits?”
“Yeah.” He exhaled a sigh as Natalie continued to ignore him, even though the friends she was with clearly saw Wes looking her way. “Connor would castrate me if I so much as touched her that way. But damn, between you and me, when she plays hard to get, she’s so fucking tempting I want to toss her over my shoulder and take her somewhere and do dirty things to her.”