What You Need(20)

“Wait. You have friends?”

“Piss off. I actually manage to get laid too.” Although it’d been a while.

“Hey, I’m trying to keep you from turning into a hermit that hides in his lair.” Nolan looked around. “Freakin’ sweet lair. I still can’t believe you got the jump on me with this place.”

It’d taken two years to refurbish the run-down warehouse I’d bought for a song a few years back. Now the top level was my living space. The main floor was the ultimate man cave—half of it was a garage that stored my collection of cars. The other side had a home gym, a half court, a regulation boxing ring, a weight room, and a separate area for cardio. Most of the gyms in the Twin Cities weren’t as big as this. But my schedule was so crazy that I had to create a place that fit my needs.

We walked through the fitness area and Nolan said, “You still training with Nate?”

“Only twice a week. His hours are different now that he and his partner have adopted a kid. He goes on about how blissfully happy they are and I ought to try it.”

“He sounds like my mother,” Nolan said. “Oh, and thank you for passing on the bachelor auction. Dude, you might hate being listed as one of the most eligible bachelors in the Twin Cities, but I eat that shit up.”

“I know.”

“Cheer up. Next time the auction rolls around, you’ll be a new man. No more the serious brooding type. Chicks like it when you actually smile at them. I’ve made it my goal in life to perfect my panty-dropping smile.”

“There’s a goal worth having,” I said dryly. For some reason my thoughts zoomed to the genuine smiles I’d eked out of Lennox Greene this week. In those unguarded moments, when her hazel eyes had shown humor and her lips had curved, she’d gone from pretty to stunning.

From a distance she seemed like a woman who was confident in herself and was happy enough to smile frequently. But the second she was around me, she defined uptight—I was uptight enough to recognize the signs. I didn’t buy her argument that her standoffish attitude was because I scared her. She’d actually stood up to me when others wouldn’t. But an unpredictable and prickly woman was not my type, no matter how stunning she was. Or how quickly she made me laugh when so few could these days.

“Brady? Where are you, man? And why do you look so pissed off?”

I glanced up at my cousin. “Just thinking about this woman I met recently.”

“No thinking about any specific woman. Tonight all women are on the menu. Tonight you are stepping out of your comfort zone, my friend.”

I’d never been a player—although after I grew out of my awkward stage, I’d never had a problem finding women to share my bed. Even before I’d become CFO, my work came first. I had no idea why—or how—I was supposed to change that. I doubted one night in a bar and new clothes would do it. This all seemed pointless.

Nolan got in my face. “Leave your job, your worries, your baggage right here. You are not going to puss out. This is the tough-love part, Brady.”

“Got it.”

“Time to get your head in the game.” Then my younger cousin slapped me on the cheeks—like he was my godfather taking me to a whorehouse to lose my virginity—and I half expected him to tack on, Capisce?

Thankfully he didn’t.

The car pulled up.

Here we go.

*

Lennox

Another Friday night and I had the house to myself. I looked forward to my ritual of balancing my accounts and unwinding with bad TV.

Again.

I was debating where to order a pizza from when my cell phone rang. I picked it up and saw Maxie on the caller ID.

It couldn’t be a coincidence that Maxie was calling a week after I’d talked to my mother. I answered with a short “Hello?”

“Is this the high-and-mighty Lenni Greene who’s forgotten all of her old friends since she’s working in some big fancy office building?”

I grinned. “You’re hilarious. I thought you’d lost my number.”

“Oh, sugar, I’ve got your number. I’ve had it for a long damn time. It’s you who seems to have forgotten where you came from.”

Guilt swamped me. I hadn’t stepped foot in Maxie’s place for almost a year. “I’ve been busy with the new job.”

“I figured. But you ain’t workin’ right now, are ya?”

I started to say, “No, but I have a community service thing to do early in the morning,” but, as usual, Maxie beat me to the punch.

“So there’s no excuse for you not to haul your buns down here. Pronto.” She dropped her voice. “I already told everyone you were gonna be here tonight, so don’t you make a liar outta me, girlie, after all I’ve done for you.”