Breaking through the Bond (Espen Jetties #2)

11. Jamie

11

JAMIE

A sigh fell from my lips, same as it always did when I had to go back into the building after lunch. Another Wednesday. Another week that wouldn’t end. For the thousandth time I wondered why the hell I continued to torture myself. Would the nagging of my dad and Tim about being a CEO somewhere be worse?

Most likely.

Which is why I pulled open the door like I did each time I had thoughts about quitting. At least with this job, I didn’t have to explain my résumé to anyone else, and I could continue to pretend I was waiting to move up in the company I worked for. Something I knew would never happen. Reality was different than the fantasy my family wanted to hear.

Any plans I’d had as a bright-eyed twenty-year-old disappeared when Halford took over. Afterward, I didn’t think there was any point to do more than coast along. Which I’d been doing since then, much to my brother’s and father’s dismay.

I could pretend all I wanted my shitty job was the problem. There were definitely problems there, but none as big as the silence from King. In four days, I hadn’t heard a single word. The voice in the back of my head told me more than once a day how badly I’d fucked this one up. Keeping my family connections a secret had never been an issue before. Now it seemed like it had come back to bite me in the ass. Not the kind of ass play I enjoyed.

I sat down at my desk and opened the program I’d started earlier that morning. Thankfully, it was something more challenging than what had come across my desk in the last few months. It should at least take me until the end of the day. The code was a bit more complex.

I was completely immersed in a specific line of code when my phone buzzed on my desk. Figuring it was Tim crawling into my business again, I picked it up. If I read the text now, I could use work as an excuse not to answer right away. I’d at least have time to think of how to respond. When the screen lit, my heart jumped in my throat.

It wasn’t from Tim.

It was from King.

I sucked in a breath and held it while I opened the message.

King: Can we meet for dinner?

Honestly, I hadn’t expected to hear from him again. Not with the way our last conversation ended. It had only been days since I saw him last, but it felt like it had been weeks. And what did that say about my previous desire to screw a different man every night?

Me: Definitely. When and where?

King: Reese’s at eight?

Me: I’ll be there.

My stomach was now a churning mass of nerves. Of course Oscar had chosen today to take a day off. I couldn’t help but wonder what King might want. I knew what I wanted, and it was him. The question was whether he desired the same thing as me. If he could get past what I hadn’t told him, I hoped we could try and see where this could go.

And what a wake-up call that was.

Now, I just had to survive the next few hours at work. Thank fuck the project I’d been assigned today would give me something to focus on instead of the clock. There would be enough time for that later.

When I stepped off the elevator into my place, my stomach churned. I wanted to drown my nerves in alcohol. I walked past the bar and went straight for the roof deck. Alcohol wouldn’t solve my problems. The breeze might help me relax.

The biggest issue wasn’t whether or not King and I wanted each other. I wanted him. If he didn’t want me that was something I would need to be okay with. On the other hand, if he did want me, I had to come to terms with being in the spotlight. It was only fair to see King if I decided I was all right with the press digging through my life and posting things I’d kept secret for so long.

For hours I contemplated the fallout of my decision. By the time I left for Reese’s, I knew what I wanted.

And that was King.

I stepped into the restaurant, my eyes immediately scanning the crowd for King’s shock of auburn hair. When I didn’t immediately see it, I stepped up to the hostess stand.

The woman behind the desk smiled warmly at me. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, I’m supposed to be meeting King Walker?”

“You must be Jamie.” She stepped around the podium. “Follow me.”

She walked through the main part of the dining room. I’d eaten at Reese’s multiple times, but I had no idea where she was taking me. We reached a door in the back of the room. One I’d never noticed before. She swung the door open, and I found myself standing in a private dining room with King watching me as I stepped through.

I was unable to pull my eyes away from him as the hostess said our waiter would be right with us and left the room.

King stood and walked around the table. “Thank you for meeting me.”

“Of course. I thought I’d never hear from you again.”

King gestured toward the table where there was already a vodka on the rocks waiting for me. It was hard to explain why something so simple meant so much to me.

“I’m sorry about not reaching out to you sooner. My mind was a bit of a mess, and I wasn’t sure how you felt about me knowing your identity. I still have a lot of questions.”

We both took our seats. “You deserve answers.”

King shook his head. “I’m not sure I do, but I won’t lie and say I’m not curious.”

I lifted my glass to my lips. A little liquid courage never hurt. There was a lot to unpack, some of it I wasn’t ready to take out of the bag. King did deserve answers though.

“Well, you know that my older brother is Tim, something I don’t really mention.”

“You said it’s something you keep in the shadows.” King took a sip from the bottle of beer in front of him.

“That’s the best way of putting it. There’s an expectation for me to be some corporate mogul like my brother. It’s what my dad always wanted from me. Since it’s not an expectation I plan to meet in my lifetime, it’s easier to not even acknowledge my relationship to him in the public eye.” I shrugged as I picked my glass up again. “Besides, until now it didn’t matter who I was when I went home with someone.”

“It does now?”

“I don’t know about you, but it does to me.”

Before King responded, a door on the other side of the room opened and a waiter appeared. We placed our orders, but what I was eating seemed so insignificant compared to the conversation we needed to have.

Once the waiter left, King turned back to me. He placed his hand on top of mine where it rested on the table. “It matters to me too. But you need to know that dating me won’t keep you in the shadows. It’s going to put you in front of cameras and reporters eager to find out who you are.”

I sighed. “I had a feeling. It’s honestly all I could think about after I got home from work.”

“You knew who I was when we first met. I’m not going to lie. I enjoy the attention the media gives me. It fuels my hockey-loving soul. And the Jetties use it to their advantage. Our PR person loves me.” He grinned. “Well, sometimes.”

“I did know most of that.” And wasn’t that the truth. King was everywhere in the media. He was a presence that was larger than life. Being with him meant that the media would dig into my life. The idea of people tying me to my family, something I spent half of my life distancing myself from, made me uneasy. The alternative was giving up King. “But if there was anything I learned over the last couple of days, it’s that for you, I’m willing to put myself out there.”

King squeezed my hand. “Even if it means having your life written about for all to see? They’ll find out you’re Tim’s brother.”

I lifted a brow at him, even as a smirk curled the corner of my mouth. “You looked me up online, didn’t you?”

King glanced away for a moment, then back to me. It was the first time I’d ever seen him less than one-hundred-percent confident. “I tried. I didn’t understand why you’d hide it.”

“And what did you find?”

King rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Actually, Hayes looked. Said you were a ghost. Nothing to be found.”

“I am. It’s easy when you were born and went to school before the rise of social media.”

“Kasper mentioned there’s an age gap between us.”

I shook my head. “I saw Kasper’s gaze on you in the elevator. Marcus seemed to not notice. I just turned forty. I worried about the age difference until I really thought about it, and according to the people around me, I’ve never acted my age. Does it bother you?”

“Not at all. I understand not having much about you online from when you were younger, but not now. Social media is a huge thing. How did no one find out you’re related to Tim?”

“That’s not a simple explanation.”

The door opened, revealing our waiter carrying a tray with our meals. Once he set them down, he promised to bring us each another drink. He left and we both started in on our food. There was plenty I needed to share with King. It would be easier once I knew there would be no interruptions. Even though the food was delicious, it sat like a lead brick in my stomach. I didn’t talk about my family often.

Our drinks were delivered and the quiet of the room closed in on me. I sucked in a breath and looked at King, reminding myself that what could come out of this was worth it. Before I could lose my nerve, I started the story.

“Tim’s mom passed away when he was four. I don’t know many of the details except that she was killed in a car accident. My dad struggled for a while. At least until he met my mom. She was younger than him, but he said it made him feel alive again. Ironic, I guess.” I chuckled, but there was no humor to it.

King reached over, cupping my cheek and caressing my face with his thumb. “Keep going.”

I nodded. “They got married a few years later when Tim was eight. Two years after that I came along. Don’t get me wrong, Tim was the best big brother anyone could have. He never let our age difference keep us apart. He didn’t leave me out or treat me like an annoyance. Hell, he was my biggest supporter when I came out at sixteen.”

King’s brows drew together, and I could understand why he was confused. When he wasn’t giving me shit about my career, Tim really was an amazing big brother. I’d won the lottery in the brother draw.

“I know, it sounds crazy. Why wouldn’t I want to be connected to him? While Tim never let the age difference affect our relationship, our dad was laser focused on what Tim accomplished by what age, and he expected me to do everything sooner than Tim had. My brother, like me, hadn’t wanted our father’s help and connections in making a life for himself. He wanted to build his career on his own.”

“He obviously made it.”

That stung, even though I knew King didn’t mean it that way. “And I didn’t.”

His voice softened. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know. It’s just the same thing I’ve heard on repeat for years. You see, when things hadn’t worked out for me the way I planned, my father’s solution was to throw money at it. The one thing I never wanted. From then on, I’d been compared to what Tim accomplished and I hadn’t.”

“I’m sorry. It has to suck when no one cares about what you want.”

“It does. At first, Tim supported my choices, but over the last couple of years, as I’ve gotten older, he started to question my decisions. It’s why I told you that it depends on the day when it comes to getting along with my brother. He encouraged me to talk to you when he was at my place after I left your house that day.”

“He did?” A smile bloomed on his handsome face. “I’m glad you listened.”

I couldn’t help but smile back. “Me too. Tim has always been my rock when I felt stuck. As long as it didn’t have to do with my career. He’s always understood my desire not to be in the limelight based on my connection to him.” I reached out and took King’s hand, lacing our fingers together. “However, being in the limelight because of my connection to you seems well worth it.”

Plates cleared and the check paid, King stood up and tugged me up from my seat, sealing our lips together in a kiss of promises of tomorrow.

That night, I walked out of Reese’s hand in hand with King, ready to deal with whatever came my way from dating one of the Jetties.