Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
“Lawyer is going to have so much fun,” Ivy says as she pulls out her cell phone. She points Jeremiah’s way. “You do not go to the police without Lawyer. Am I clear?”
“As crystal,” Jeremiah replies. “I was going to grab a lawyer on my way in, but I bet whoever CeCe brings in will be better.”
Reid looks Ivy’s way. “We will do everything CeCe tells us to do when it comes to this. I think we need to talk to more than a lawyer. Tell her she’s completely off the leash when it comes to this. Raze the earth, and I’ll have a martini waiting for her at the end.”
Ivy’s grin lights up the room. “Will do.”
“Well, that’s going to be fun,” Heath says. “I don’t know it’s a good idea to use the words off the leash around CeCe. She’s been weirdly emotional lately. She even called me Heath the other day. Jer, good on you, man. Anything you need, we’re here for you.”
“So are we,” Anika says. “I’m going to call the publicist and have her write a statement that says our company fully stands behind you.”
“That’s all well and good, but there are no receipts,” Reid argues. “She was careful. She’ll say the money was a gift or a loan. This is why I should have recorded my last conversation with her.”
“You didn’t,” Jeremiah agrees. “But I did. I was the one who told security to let her up. I used the security system we have in place to record the entire encounter, both audio and video. Father was paranoid and had cameras everywhere.”
“I remember, and we turned them off,” Reid counters.
“And then I turned them back on.” He holds up his phone. “Heath taught me how to do it on my cell.”
“I built an app,” Heath acknowledges.
“She can fight me on it or I can release the tape where she admits what she was about to do. As for the accident, I have several text conversations and a couple of emails where she admits what we did and that it was her idea. There’s a lot of stuff about me being weak and her being strong, but it should be enough to prove what happened. I also have the driver cam. She was smart enough to hide it before the cops came, but I was smart enough to take it from her. I could have stopped this at any time, but I didn’t…I didn’t want to be known as your addict, screw-up brother.”
“You could be known as a man who has the courage to correct his mistakes and take his rightful place in the world.” Patrick stands at the edge of our group, his eyes steady on Jeremiah.
The saddest smile hits Jeremiah’s face. “You were right. I was hiding something. I know you won’t believe it but it was especially hard to do this now because I have feelings for you. But the me I presented was a lie. This is it. This is me. I’m sorry…”
“Fuck sorry.” Patrick walks right up to him, plants his hands on either side of Jeremiah’s cheeks, and kisses him then and there. We all stand around watching because what else are we supposed to do? Patrick comes up for air, staring at Jeremiah like he’s something precious. “Hi, there, sunshine. I’m grumpy. You want some company at the police station? Maybe we can get a coffee afterward. Or if you’re anxious we can find you a meeting and when you’re done, I’ll be waiting.”
A tear spills from Jeremiah’s eyes as he nods. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
Patrick steps back and gestures to the crew. “That’s a wrap for today. Go home and enjoy the afternoon with your families. We’ll do pickups tomorrow, and then we’re sliding into home. We’ve got inspections and last-minute stuff and in a couple of weeks, we’ll be back to do the big reveal.”
Reid looks to Jeremiah. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
He’s holding Patrick’s hand. “I have never been more sure of anything in my life. Brother, I cannot thank you enough for everything you’ve done to love and support me, even when I maybe didn’t deserve it. So I’m going to ask you to sit back and let me do this for you. For me. For our suddenly larger than I expected family.”
“Okay,” Reid says and pulls his brother in for a hug. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Jeremiah whispers.
“Uh, we need to walk over to CeCe’s,” Ivy says as she enters the room again. “I might have started World War III. The good news is Chef is making lunch, so we won’t be hungry while we make our war plans. CeCe’s words, not mine. I already called the other moms. They’ll meet us there. It’s nice to be so close. I usually have to fight my way here via subway when she calls me in.”