"Different," he repeats. "As in not the same."
I nod. "It is different."
I see something flash across his expression but it's too fleeting to place. "How is it different?"
"He's trying," I begin before I smooth my hand over my hair. It's falling from the bun I pushed it into this morning. I didn't take a minute to look at myself in the mirror before I left Corteck. I'd made Asher promise me that he'd let me know before he jetted off to see his mother. Once I said goodbye to him, I'd grabbed my purse and had walked the three blocks to Caleb's office to confront him.
His assistant had pointed me towards the boardroom when I arrived and before I had time to form a plan of action in my head, I was standing behind him, tapping him on the shoulder.
"What's he trying to do?" His lips hover close to mine. "Tell me what he's trying to do."
I close my eyes briefly hoping it will offer me enough of an escape that I can find my composure again. It doesn't work. My heart is racing just as fast once I open them to see Caleb's face. "He's trying to be a good person."
"A good person?" he parrots back. "Asher doesn't know the first thing about being a good person."
I narrow my gaze. "He does. You don't."
He can't control the smile that tugs at the corner of his lips. "You don't think I'm a good person?"
It's a loaded question. I don't doubt that Caleb has the capacity to be kind and giving. I know that he does. Those parts of him have just become buried beneath his drive to prove that he's the best at what he does, both in his professional and personal lives. "You've changed."
"You're wrong. I haven't changed. The people around me have changed."
I don't fall into the radius of the people he's referring to. I know that I don't. I've heard him tell me too often that I'm still the same girl he remembers from when he was a kid. He's talking about his brothers. "You mean Asher and Gabriel?"
"Money changes people." He glances towards the conference table. "Once you give people a taste of it, they can't control their need to have it."
If I didn't know better I'd swear he's talking about himself more than either of his brothers. "I don't have a lot so I don't know."
"You're fortunate." He leans back far enough that I finally feel as though I can breathe. "You can trust your brother. I don't have that luxury anymore."
There's a pain woven into the words that can't be ignored. "They're still your brothers, Caleb. They'll always be your brothers."
"They are my brothers." He nods as his eyes dart to the door I just walked through. "They're also ruthless, Row. You need to watch yourself around them. They'll use you to get to me."
It's a callous remark meant to intimidate me. "Not everything is about you. My friendship with Asher has nothing to do with you."
"It has everything to do with me." He leans so far forward that his lips flutter against the side of my ear. "He told me yesterday when they were handcuffing him that if push comes to shove, you'll choose him over me."
The words resonate the same way they did when we were children and the brothers were picking teams for basketball at the park. We're not doing a schoolyard pick for teams anymore. We're adults and as I watch Caleb raise his arm to summon in a group of his employees into the room I can't help but wonder whether Asher is right. If I had to take sides, I doubt that I'd be standing next to Caleb when the dust finally settled.
Chapter 13
"Which one have you slept with?" Ivy's hand races over the screen of my laptop. "Was it this one?"
I stare at where she's firmly planted her finger over the image of Gabriel's face on the Foster Enterprises website. "No, that's Gabriel. He's the oldest. I've never even thought about him that way."
"He's totally my type," she whispers as her eyes dart around the crowded diner we're sitting in. "Don't tell my husband I said that."
I laugh out loud. "I won't tell Jax a thing."
"It has to be this one then." She slides her finger over the screen towards Asher's picture. "He's more your type."
"I haven't slept with any of them." I reach to grab the edge of the laptop's screen. I'm not even sure why I brought up the Foster brothers when I agreed to meet Ivy for a coffee after work.
"You're talking technicalities." She gently pushes my hand away. "Do you want to sleep with this one?"
"No." I shake my head from side-to-side. "That's Asher. He's definitely not my type. He's my pal."
"You have a pal that looks like that?" She cocks a perfectly sculpted blonde brow. "None of my pals look like that."
I pull my hand over my mouth as I try to stifle a raucous laugh.
"It's the one in the middle then." She nods towards the screen. "Caleb. Caleb Foster."