"Tate used an app to locate your phone."
"He has to have my password for that."
Eric just stared. "We're talking about Tate here."
"Fucker should have been a spy." Kellan took a swig of his brew. "Remind me to get a new phone. Then none of you will be able to find me."
Kell didn't seem too drunk. He'd probably been nursing that same beer all afternoon. Eric would be happier if he'd been out getting shitfaced. It would mean his friend would be willing to give up some of his control. But that would never happen.
"No, you won't. You would hate changing phones. At the end of the day, I think you hate change as much as Tate does."
Kellan turned weary eyes on him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're set in your ways, my friend, and it's going to cost you everything. I don't think you're really ready to sever all ties to me or Tate. You're especially not ready to give Belle up. If you were, you'd be looking at New Orleans in your rearview mirror, not brooding in this shithole. You need to think about the future instead of being mired in the past."
Kellan tipped back his beer again and drained some, then took a long, settling breath. "She gave me an ultimatum. I don't take well to those."
That was news to him. "Did she? Tate and I heard a different version. According to Belle, she explained to you that we're getting married and you would be welcome to stay with us for as long as you like. That doesn't sound like an ultimatum. That sounds like an open invitation. She gave you everything you wanted."
"As long as you say it's okay. You and Tate." There was no way to miss the bitterness in his voice. It gave Eric hope.
Kellan was jealous, and that was a good thing. He could work with jealous. "Then what are you upset about, man? I've never cut you out. Tate won't do it, either."
He huffed a little. "Yeah, am I going to have to ask permission? Am I supposed to beg my way in every night?"
Eric sighed. Kell was going to heap on the drama. "I haven't asked you to beg before. I wasn't planning on starting. What's really making you act like an asshole? Belle told you that you would be welcome. You can come and go as you please. That's what you wanted. Isn't it? No strings."
He didn't answer for a long minute. The bar got quiet momentarily as the jukebox shifted from jazz to the blues. The beat thudded through the place, setting the scene for Kellan's misery.
With a sigh, he shook his head. "I don't know what I want anymore."
Now, they were getting to the real problem. For a control freak like Kell, not understanding his world was bad enough. Not understanding what was going on in his head would be catastrophic. "You don't have to know this instant. You just have to come home and give it some time. That's what Belle is offering you."
Kellan shook his head. "There's no time. There's no way you're not going to marry her right away. You'll have her in front of a justice of the peace before she can change her mind."
"She's not going to change her mind." He knew his Belle. Now that she'd committed, she'd stay that way until the day she died. She would love them all with every breath and every beat of her heart. Now that she had agreed to marry him, he felt a deep conviction that everything would be all right. "We're still going to marry her as soon as possible. I think we've waited long enough. Even when we do, that won't change our offer."
Kell didn't appear to believe him. "If you say. And what about the firm? You're just going to throw out everything we worked for in Chicago?"
It hadn't been easy, but Eric had made his peace with that. He could find work here. "It's not as if Louisiana has met its quota for lawyers." And even if he convinced Kell to stay with them, he didn't see a reason they couldn't keep the branch in Chicago going, too. "I know she's asking us to uproot our lives and careers, and it's not easy. I think if we pushed her now, she'd return to Chicago with us. At the end of the day, she won't choose this place over her husbands. That's exactly why I'm going to move here. I'm going to support her and help make her dream come true, but if you'd rather go back to Chicago, do it. You can come and go from her bed as you please. You can run that office and visit us whenever you like. I'm not going to stop you. As long as Belle wants you around, I'll say yes."
A nasty frown crossed his face. "And what happens when you start popping out kids? She mentioned that would be an issue."
Eric leaned forward, getting a little angry himself. There was only so much he was willing to take. "I'm sorry. Did you mean to ask what happens when we decide to start a family?"