"More Than Friends: Brad" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rochelle Marie)

Chapter Four

Why did it seem like her hours at work were getting longer instead of shorter, Alicia wondered as she dragged her weary body over to the small wine bar at the corner of the room and poured herself a glass of red wine.

Grabbing the glass, she moved over to the island in the kitchen and rested her back against the side. She had been sitting on her behind for the last sixteen hours and she wasn’t in the mood to sit down at the moment.

God, when was Tiffany going to learn that everyone didn’t have to jump through hoops when she called. No, she hadn’t heard from Brad yet about doing the piece on his family, but that didn’t mean he was going to turn her down.

If anything or anyone was holding him up, it had to be Lee.. He came across like it was his way or else. It was almost like he had never heard the word no in his whole entire life. No was something she heard a lot while she had been growing up as a kid. She wouldn’t be able to handle that kind of strong personality.

At first, she didn’t understand what woman in their right mind would want to be with Lee Drace until she met Cherise Roberts.

Cherise was the perfect match for Brad’s brother. It was like they were almost cut from the same cloth, but Cherise was a tad bit better at filtering her comments and nicer than Lee was when it came to her.

Now, Brad was totally on a different scale when it came to his older brothers. He was so laid back. His carefree attitude always made her smile when he was giving her tennis lessons. Not to mention how his kisses almost made her forget her own name and where she was.

Why did she have to like a man who would never be a part of her life? Brad lived everyday and every moment to the fullest. He never allowed grass to grow under his feet.

However, she, on the other hand, was a totally different story. She liked some kind of structure in her life. Not so much that if something went wrong that it would flip her out, but enough that she knew why she was waking up every morning.

Alicia knew going in that a career as a TV reporter/anchor would take some sacrifice, but she wasn’t aware of how much. A lot of her friends thought she had the most glamorous job in the world, but they didn’t know how wrong they were.

Her closest friends wouldn’t believe it if she told them the truth. However, it wasn’t like any other job in the world and she loved the excitement and thrill. She even loved the pressures the position brought every single day. How could someone not love doing something new every day and making a difference?

One of her biggest dreams while living in Treebanch, Alabama was to be able to leave the small television station there to something bigger and better. So, when her boss told her about the position opening up in the Houston area, she had jumped at the chance and was lucky enough to beat out seven other people for the position.

Her old job back home had been a wonderful experience for her. Working at a smaller news station she had done everything from shoot video on a scene, edit her own words, to report and produce an element in the same day.

The only thing she wasn’t told to do was to use the teleprompter and she would have done that too because this was her dream.

Sure, only a little more than a ten percent of news anchors hit it big to hold a nightly news show, but who said that she couldn’t be in that low percentage? Shit, if she’d stayed with her news job back home she would be making less than $18,000 a year there.

Her Ivy League parents still weren’t pleased that she didn’t go to Harvard or Yale like they had. No, just the other day her father called to lecture her again about how everyone and their mama wanted to be television, but how there weren’t that many available slots for them.

Alicia took another sip of her wine as she pulled the hair clip off. She quickly ran her fingers through her hair causing it to brush the back of her neck.

She wouldn’t forget how her mother almost died when she cut off all of her long hair when she first moved to Texas. She had tried to make her mother understand how much quicker her hair was to do now since it was shorter.

Sometimes she wondered why her parents even had her because they’d spent more time doing their own thing instead of listening to what she’d wanted to with her life growing up.

Both her older brother Shelton and her sister Chloe moved away from home right after graduating from high school to pursue their dream jobs. She knew that they kept in contact with their parents.

But she didn’t see any good reason to do anything more than a call or card for the holidays. She always got the feeling she had been the surprise baby her parents hadn’t been prepared for but kept because they didn’t believe in abortion or giving away a child.

Alicia made her way out of the kitchen and fell down on the couch. Picking up the remote, she turned on one of her favorite celebrity gossip shows. At least, there were some people out there in the world with more horrible lives that she had.

She couldn’t believe how many celebrity break ups there were lately. Maybe her mother was right when she told her that money couldn’t buy anyone happiness or was it that money was the root of all evil.

Hell, it didn’t matter. Dolores Hart was constantly throwing quotes at her when she was living at home before she decided to take the leap and move for her career. So, it was hard for her to remember all of them. Finishing off the last of her wine, Alicia placed the glass on the table next to her and then pulled off her dark purple suit jacket. She was too tired to even think about making her way upstairs to her bedroom.

She had fallen asleep on the couch before, so it wasn’t like this would be the first time. Alicia slid down on the cushions and closed her eyes hoping that sleep came to her quicker than it usually did.

“Thanks for coming over at such short notice,” Brad said, staring at the two couples standing on his front porch.

“We know that you wouldn’t have called us unless it’s really important,” Zack replied, walking past him with Traci carrying a sleeping Carter in her arms.

“Yeah, little brother, you sounded very upset on the phone,” Richard chimed in as he followed the first couple inside with a car seat in his hand.

Brad smiled at Dawn before closing the door behind everyone. He hated to bring out his nephews this late, but he had to talk to them about Alicia, Lee and his thoughts about leaving the marketing business to start his own business.

“Let me apologize again. I didn’t mean for any of you to bring out the boys this late. I just needed to see everyone.” He waited for everyone to take a seat before he sat down in his favorite recliner. It was the one piece of furniture in the living room that he wouldn’t be able to live without.

“Where’s Lee and Cherise?” Traci asked as she handed a still sleeping Carter over to Zack. “I’m surprised that they aren’t already here.”

“I’ve already talked to Lee about this, so I’m sure he has filled in Cherise about everything. That’s why I only invited all of you here.”

What if Richard and Zack reacted the same way as Lee? Was he assuming too much? He knew how much Richard and Zack adored their families and they might not want them in the public eye either. If they told him no then he would respect their wishes.

Yes, he was in love with Alicia and wanted to help her with this, but he wasn’t going to alienate his entire family for her. No matter what his feelings might be for the sexy reporter. He would always protect his family no matter the cost.

“Are you going to keep us in suspense or should we guess what is going on?” There was a faint glint of humor in Zack’s eyes. “If you didn’t want Lee to be here with us, it must be something that would set him off on one of his lectures.”

“Alicia wants to do a special about our family,” Brad said, watching how everyone looked at each other and then back at him. “She thinks the community and other people would love to know how three of the most eligible bachelors in Houston, Texas ended up getting married.”

“Don’t try to cover up for her. We all know the real topic of the story,” Richard snapped. “I can see why Lee wouldn’t want to be here tonight.”

“Richard, calm down,” Dawn told her husband touching him on the leg. “Let Brad finish. Honestly, I’m not upset about this. I love any kind of couple specials. It’s always so interesting learning how couples fell in love with each other; I would like to be a part of it.”

“I would too,” Traci jumped in. “I’ll be able to brag to all the women out there how my sexy husband wanted to know my name from first sight and I was wearing no make-up and sweaty gym clothes at the time.”

Brad liked how Traci’s beautiful face became more animated as she talked about the first time she saw Zack. His brother had dated a lot of women over the years, but he was very pleased that Traci was the woman he married in the end. Her sweet and outgoing personality was a perfect blend to Zack’s usually laid back image unless someone bothered him or his family and then his protective side came out in full force.

“What about you Zack?” Brad asked, knowing that he would get an honest answer. “Do you want to get interviewed by Alicia? I told her that I had to get everyone’s approval first.”

A shadow of annoyance crossed Zack’s face as he laid Carter down on the couch next to him. Brad was surprised that neither child had woken up with all of the talking going on around them.

“Brad, I’ve turned down about eight interviews over the years because they wanted to know more about my personal life than my business life. The only reason I did the most eligible bachelor thing was because the money from the sales went to charity.”

Great, Brad thought as he dropped his head. This was going worst than he thought it would. He loved the idea; however, all of his brothers hated it and their wives didn’t.

“But since I’ve fallen in love with the most brilliant woman in the world, I’ll be more than delighted to tell my story. Count me in,” Zack answered, shocking the hell out of him.

Brad’s head snapped up quickly and his shocked eyes locked with Zack’s amused ones. “Are you serious about this? I was sure you would hate it as much as Lee.”

One corner of Zack’s mouth pulled up into a slight smile. “No, I’m not against it and I’m pretty sure that Lee will come around after Cherise has a talk with him. You know he tries to act tough with her, but she has him wrapped around her little finger.”

“Stop making fun of Lee,” Richard cut in laughing. “I think both of us suffer from the same thing. Well, I guess that I should agree too. I don’t want to be left out in the cold and I need to show Hamilton and other men that Dawn is off limits forever.”

“Haven’t I told you that Hamilton is just a big flirt and you should ignore him,” Dawn said, shaking her head. “He loves getting under your skin.”

Jealously intermingled with hurt touched Brad’s heart as he sat back and watched his older siblings talk to their wives. He’d always thought he would be the first brother to get married because it had been a dream of his for as long as he could remember. Now, he was the single brother playing with his nephews instead of his own kids.

Alicia was the woman he wanted to build a family with but either she was too scared to be with him for some reason or Lee was right and he had been wasting his time and energy longing for a woman he had no chance of winning over.

Could he love a woman who might not have any real interest in him, but only wanted what she could get out of him?

Finally…you’re beginning to see that Lee was right. Alicia isn’t any good for you. Stay away from her. You can do so much better.

Brad shoved the wayward thought from his mind. No! He wasn’t ready to give up on Alicia yet. He was going to try one more time to break down the stubborn wall she held so close to her heart.

“Hey Brad! Are you listening?” Richard asked.

“I heard every word. Thanks so much for doing this. I’m pretty sure Lee won’t give me the green light for him. It’s hard for him to believe and understand that I’m not that little boy who used to be scared of the dark or wanted to follow behind my three big brothers. I’m a grown man and he should treat me accordingly.”

“Lee is just an overbearing big brother. He fits into the mold perfectly,” Traci said. “I grew up with a sister cut from the same cloth. That’s why both of them are so perfectly matched for each other. Don’t worry about him because after the twins are born Lee will forget all about you and Alicia.”

“Listen to my beautiful wife here,” Zack said. “She knows what she’s talking about. I know that Richard even got a life when his son was born, so there is help for Lee.”

Dawn’s soft laughter drew Brad’s attention over to her. Out of all of his sisters-in-law, he liked Dawn the best. She had been in love with Richard so long and had been through so much.

He almost thought that Richard was going to lose the love of his life when Dawn found out he was asked by Richard to follow her and he unearthed the huge secret she was keeping from him.

“I think our son really changed Richard. He was loving and understanding before, but it grew more after the baby. So, I would love to be a part of the interview.”

“Wonderful,” Brad smiled. “I can’t thank all of you enough. I’ll go ahead and tell Alicia whose all in and then I’ll leave Lee’s decision up to him.”

“Well, we better go,” Zack said, picking up Carter. “Our little man here wore himself out at his play date. We need to get him back home and into bed.”

“Yeah, we should get going too. We have a little bit of a longer drive back home than these two,” Richard pointed at Traci and Zack before picking up the car seat. “Let me know if Lee gives you any problems and I’ll have a long talk with him.”

Following behind his guests, Brad fought down a smile. Richard was always the one who stood up to Lee for him when he was a kid. Not that Zack was a good brother or they weren’t close, but it just seemed like he was closer to Richard.

“Have a safe drive home,” he told everyone as they secured their kids and then got into the car. Brad waved at his brothers as they pulled out of his driveway and drove off.

Instead of going back inside, Brad went over and took a seat on the swing set on his porch. He had so many good memories sitting out here with his parents as a little kid. It seemed like his mother always had a snack for him and his brothers to share on this porch every day after school.

After their parents had died, Lee had been old enough to be his and his brothers’ legal guardian which helped them stay in their childhood home. Over the years, his brothers moved out leaving the house to him.

Just last year, Zack had asked him if he wanted to sell the huge house for him so he could get a smaller one or a condo closer to town, but he turned down the offer. Instead, he hired a contractor to update certain parts of the house because he wanted to stay here and raise his family.

A family he thought he would be having with Alicia, but now he might be wrong thinking she was the woman for him or would be the mother of his children.

Brad knew that Alicia loved her career, but she needed more than that in her life. Hell, he wanted her to have more than that and he wanted to be the man who gave it to her. All of his siblings took the woman he loved at face value, but he saw the deeper part of herself that she was trying to hide from him and everyone else…the loneliness, the need to have something or anything to grasp on to so she wouldn’t get pulled under by the everyday routine of life.

If she would only open up to him more and let him in. He could show her that there was more to life than those sixteen hour days she couldn’t get away from.

This interview special Alicia wanted to do with his brothers was going to be his last chance at winning that piece of her heart that she was terrified to let go of.

Alicia had been pushing him away for so many years, but if she did it this time after the story was over, his interest in her would be over too. The love he had for her might be a little harder to get rid of, but he would do it over time.

Alicia, this is it. Either you realize what you have in me or it will be gone forever.