NautiCal (Forever Wilde 8)

My father’s views on “deserving” wealth had spilled over into his legacy. He’d deliberately left Lucas and Natalia’s shares of the family business to their mother. It was a slap in the face to Lucas’s hard work in veterinary school and Nat’s determination to start at the bottom and work her way up at JAC. It was especially a slap in the face considering the only “work” Angela had done in twenty-seven years had been providing social lubrication for my stodgy father.

But now that JAC was completely handed over to Lucas and Nat and being managed by an incredibly capable and experienced CEO and board of directors, I could finally let go. Seven years of work finally done. Seven years of trying to manage JAC and Spinnaker Capital at the same time to keep Angela from running JAC into the ground with her negligence.

Despite having just spent the week on a yacht in the Caribbean, I was still tired. Not physically tired, maybe, but certainly emotionally tired. On Sunday morning, I decided to fight that feeling with a long run along the waterfront, something I enjoyed but hadn’t been able to do on vacation.

I changed clothes and took the elevator downstairs before pushing out into the afternoon sun and turning toward the lake. My run started slowly, but by the time I hit the waterfront trails, I was flying, pushing myself harder and harder as if I could outrun the thoughts in my head. Thoughts about why I seemed to fall for every beautiful young man in front of me and why this time had seemed different. Thoughts about how Cal’s body against mine and his soft breath had relaxed me in a way no Caribbean vacation could ever do. Thoughts about how, for the first time in my life, I was second-guessing my priorities.

I felt the burn in my legs and kept going. The summer heat was long gone, and the trees were just beginning to turn. A fresh breeze coming off the water helped keep me cool as I raced along the path.

When I finally stopped to take a breath, leaning forward and clutching my knees, I realized I was only a block away from Lucas’s place. I headed in that direction, stopping at a nearby coffee shop to pick up some coffee and pastries.

Maybe it was time for me to accept Prescott’s presence in Lucas’s life. The plan to reveal him as a cheating asshole hadn’t borne fruit, but maybe that was for the best. Maybe I needed to let Lucas be an adult and learn his own lessons.

Lucas needed to learn his own lesson that all the precautions in the world couldn’t stop you from being sad when relationships didn’t work out the way you wanted them to. And if I had to suffer through Prescott’s company while Lucas figured that out himself, then so be it. I wasn’t going to let the man drive a wedge between me and my brother.

Someone was coming out of the door when I approached, so I was able to get into the building without buzzing. I made my way up to the third floor and knocked on his apartment door, juggling the three coffee cups and Starbucks bag.

“Worth?” he asked when he opened the door. He was clearly still half-asleep. He had on a pair of boxers, and his hair was going every which way.

“Hey, sorry to wake you. It’s after ten. I guess I assumed you guys would be up already.” I moved past him into the apartment.

“Wait, wait,” Lucas said. “I don’t… it’s not… it’s not a good time right now.”

I stared at him before my brain began searching for answers. “Were you in the middle of sex or something?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to even think about that, but I also wasn’t about to leave simply so Prescott Resnick could nut all over my brother.

“Um, no, but—”

I heard a laugh come from the direction of the bedroom. A decidedly female laugh.

“What’s…” My brain whirred some more. “What’s going on? Who’s here?”

“Fuck,” Lucas muttered. “Okay, but it’s not—”

He didn’t get a chance to finish before Mia came sauntering out in my brother’s T-shirt and boxer shorts. She was busy looking at her phone and didn’t see me at first.

“Babe, did you check to see if they remembered…” Her voice trailed off as she looked up and noticed me. “Creamer,” she finished faintly.

I pushed past her to see who else was here, namely Prescott, but there were only two sets of luggage in the bedroom. Lucas’s familiar black Tumi bags, a set we’d all gotten from our father years ago, and a giant lavender suitcase Julo had almost dropped on his foot while carrying it off the ship for Mia.

Prescott’s hard-sided Samsonite was nowhere to be found.

So why wasn’t I happier about this?