Eastern Lights Read online

  Thankfully, Marie was on the same page as me. “She’s right! What are you doing, Jason? I told you to call before you stopped by.”

  “I did. Dad’s and your phones are on silent. Plus, Aaliyah’s went to voicemail. Listen, I’m just here to drop off Dad’s tux for Saturday.”

  “Put it in the foyer and then leave. We’ll see you tomorrow for the rehearsal,” Marie told him.

  I could almost feel Jason rolling his eyes at the thought of it all. When it came to superstitions, he believed in none of them.

  “Whatever. I’m leaving.” He began to walk away and then glanced over his shoulder toward me. “Aaliyah?”

  “Yes?”

  He smirked widely. “Your ass looks fat in that dress.”

  “Take that language elsewhere,” Marie said as she threw a couch pillow at her son, who hurried away, slamming the door behind him.

  Marie looked at me as I stood straight, and the warmth of her smile made me grin. “He’s right, you know. You look to die for.”

  7

  Connor

  I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks, and my overprotective mother was concerned.

  I didn’t even tell her I hadn’t been sleeping, but she always seemed to be able to tell.

  “You really need more sleep, Connor Ethan, and a girlfriend,” she’d always say. I didn’t know how, but she somehow managed to toss the word girlfriend into almost every conversation. She was gifted in that way.

  My mother was convinced I was going to die alone. She called me weekly to remind me. On the days she had too much wine, she’d cry about it over FaceTime. She often reminded me that I was a workaholic and didn’t take enough personal days. She wasn’t wrong about that. Day in and day out, I worked myself to exhaustion.

  At times, my days felt more like years. I was proud of many parts of my life, but being a workaholic wasn’t one of them. Sometimes I wondered what would’ve come of me if I hadn’t pushed so hard to make a name for myself in the world. Then again, if I hadn’t pushed myself, I wouldn’t have been able to give back to the world in the ways I’d been able to give. Every sacrifice comes with its own set of negatives.

  I’d take long days and nights if it meant I helped make someone else’s life a bit easier. Still, a few large coffees were needed to get me through the long days.

  “I have the afternoon reports and coffee for you, Mr. Roe—I mean, if you aren’t busy. Because if you are busy, I can come back when you aren’t busy, and I mean—if you’re not busy, I can update you now on the calls that came in and the emails that, um, I mean—”

  “Slow down, Rose,” I said, looking up toward the nervous girl who stood in the doorway of my office, pretty much shivering in her heels. “Right now is a perfect time for the updates.”

  Rose was pretty much a kid. It seemed odd to say because she was nineteen, and I was twenty-eight, so there were only nine years between us, but I knew for certain I wasn’t the same man I’d been nine years before.

  She was the new intern at Roe Real Estate, and the poor girl’s nerves got in her way more often than not. I didn’t mind, though. We all had to start somewhere, and I was willing to put up with her slipups and mishaps. Everyone deserves a chance in life.

  Plus, she only came in twice a week in the afternoon, so she couldn’t do too much damage.

  Rose took a breath and walked into the room, tripping a bit over her own two feet before catching herself by gripping the back of one of my office chairs. She stood straight and cleared her throat before setting the coffee on the edge of my desk. Thankfully she didn’t spill that since I was in desperate need of a caffeine kick.

  She looked down at her paperwork and began speaking. Even though she was still nervous about working for the company, I could tell she was becoming more comfortable week by week because her voice didn’t shake as much as it had before. Progress.

  “Well, four magazines reached out with massive offers for you to do interviews with them,” she explained.

  “I don’t do interviews.”

  “Yes. Right. But they are offering hefty amounts of money for an exclusive cover and—”

  “I don’t do interviews,” I repeated. I also smiled so she wouldn’t feel intimidated.

  She gave me a half-smile too and continued. “I, uh, your mom called and said you need to stop working so much.”

  “Noted. Next message?”

  “Your suits are done at the dry cleaner, and I will pick them up this afternoon and bring them back to the office tonight. I know I was supposed to get them before I showed up today, but they got backed up, and well, I’m really sorry. I’ll definitely work later to make sure they are here tonight.”

  “Don’t worry about getting them back tonight. I can pick them up on my way home.”

  She frowned. “No, really. It’s okay. I just…” She paused before letting out a big sigh. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”

  “Rose.”

  “Yes?”

  “You’re doing a great job, every single day. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

  “It’s just…this opportunity is a big one for me, Mr. Roe. I know I’m young and nervous, and you could’ve probably hired someone better for the position. So, I want to give it my all.”

  “Which you are. Keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll be fine.”

  Her shoulders dropped a bit as relaxation hit her. Good. I didn’t like the idea that my employees were nervous around me. I wasn’t some big bad wolf. If anything, I wanted everyone who worked for me to feel at home as though we were a big family.

  Hopefully, she’d come around. Earning trust goes both ways.

  “Okay, well, thank you.” She paused for a moment and nibbled her bottom lip.

  I arched an eyebrow. “Is there something else?”

  “Well, it’s just that one of the magazines offered you a lot of money. And I mean a lot. Like, over one hundred thousand dollars a lot.”

  I could see the dollar signs in her eyes as she spoke about the amount. Not to sound like a jerk, but I could have easily made that amount of money in my sleep. And, even if I hadn’t been able to, I still wouldn’t have wanted to do some magazine article.

  I’d seen what being in the spotlight can do to a person’s mental health and their actual businesses. Nothing good comes from giving the world a viewpoint into your life. They’d love you at first, maybe, yeah, but the moment they needed a reason to turn on you, they’d twist your words and call you the devil.

  Life was easier with me being a bit of a mystery. All they could do was assume, and anyone who had time to assume about someone else’s life was clearly not living their own to the fullest. I wasn’t into that world—the gossiping scene. Since I’d moved to New York, I’d learned that the gossiping habit didn’t stay in high school. I’d crossed paths with individuals in their sixties still shit-talking about people. Whenever it happened, I’d exit stage left.

  The less drama, the happier life was to me.

  Rose’s mouth twitched once, and I smirked.

  “What else did they offer me, Rose?”

  “The cover of People magazine for sexiest man alive! And oh my gosh, Mr. Roe, they only do that for celebrities! Like real celebrities! Like Ryan Reynolds and Idris Elba! It’s so cool. Like that’s the dream.”

  I laughed. “Is that it?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “So what do these guys get from holding the title of sexiest man alive?”

  She looked at me as if I were idiotic for not understanding what an honor said opportunity was. “Uh, the sexiest man alive title! You literally hold that title for life.”

  “Wow. Well, as wonderful as that sounds, I think I’ll pass this one up. But thank you, and please let each outlet know I am honored but kindly turn down the offers.”

  “Well, okay, Mr. Roe.” She paused and arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t want me to pick up the suits tonight?”

  “Positive. Thank you, Rose.”
>
  She left my office, and just as she exited, Damian walked in with a grimace on his face.

  “Good afternoon, Damian,” Rose stated.

  He moved past her as if he hadn’t even noticed her existence. Not a hello, not a hey, nothing. A completely and utterly silent response.

  Rose was a very attractive girl, and Damian was her same age, just a year younger. I would’ve thought he’d develop an attraction to her just as the rest of the guys in the office were, but he seemed far from interested.

  Then again, that was Damian’s norm for the most part. He was extremely good at not caring about pretty much any other human being. He and I were the complete opposite. He was cold as ice, and I was known for my warmth.

  Still, to me, he was family. I’d met Damian two years earlier when I was looking for a kid to help mentor through a program, and I was paired with Damian—the grumpiest sixteen-year-old I’d ever seen in my life. For a long time, I took his bad attitude personally, but then I realized it was a defense mechanism. He’d grown up in the foster system being tossed around from home to home, never really finding a stable life, so he closed himself off to everyone around him. He had trust issues that ran deep. He tried his hardest to push me away, because so many people had pushed him away in his lifetime.

  Too bad for him that I was an annoying motherfucker who didn’t give up when something was challenging.

  I’d stayed in his life for the past two years, and I had no plans of exiting anytime soon. When he told me he didn’t see himself going to college, I made sure to get him a position working for me. I didn’t believe everyone was meant for the college life track, but I knew Damian was smart as hell and could do amazing things if given the opportunity.

  It turned out, he was one of my best employees—grumpy self and all.

  “You didn’t say good afternoon to Rose,” I mentioned as he moved to sit in the chair across from my desk. Unlike Rose, there was nothing nervous about his entrance into my office. He moved with confidence.

  “Why would I say hi to her?”

  “Because she greeted you first.”

  “She’s a fake, shitty employee. I don’t like her.”

  “To be fair, you don’t like anyone.”

  He parted his lips to respond but then shit it when he realized there was nothing but the truth in my words.

  “What makes you think she’s fake?” I asked.

  “The whole clumsy, stuttering, innocent girl act. She only puts it on around you. When you’re not around, she’s busy flirting it up and pushing her tits in the face of any person who will look.”

  “No way. She’s a good worker.”

  He sighed. “Must be hard believing everyone in the world is a good person.”

  “I don’t think Jason Rollsfield is a good person.”

  “Congratulations, Connor. You don’t like one person out of seven billion on this planet,” he sarcastically remarked. “Then again, you hate him and still gave him a job. Shocking. If you knew about Rose’s past—”

  “No!” I hollered, tossing my hands up. “Don’t tell me. Every time you tell me about a person’s past, it changes how I view them.”

  “As it should.”

  I called Damian the grave digger. He had an ability I’d never seen before in a person—the ability to dig up dirt on anyone and everyone. He’d been able to unlock secrets people thought were buried deep. The only secrets he was unable to uncover were probably the ones he craved the most—the story behind his biological parents. No matter how hard he tried, he’d never been able to track them down. I knew it ate at him every single day.

  When he and I met, I made him promise not to dig up dirt on people I knew before he came into my life. I didn’t need to know the skeletons of my business partners. Rich people did a lot of weird shit.

  Damian was dressed in black from head to toe, as always. Black suit, black tie, black shoes. Every single day, he showed up wearing all black, had ever since I met him. He said it was his favorite color like his soul.

  I couldn’t help but smirk at his emo tendencies.

  At the same time, he was built like a linebacker. He stood at over six foot four with muscle on muscle. I wasn’t too closeminded to state he was a good-looking guy. Women would’ve been all over him if he wasn’t grimacing all the time. If it wasn’t for his cold personality, he’d have women throwing themselves at him on the regular.

  “Anyway, got bad news,” he said, brushing his thumb against his nose.

  “First, I didn’t get to tell you the joke of the day.”

  He gave me a blank stare. “Are you serious right now?”

  “I’ve told you a joke every day for the past two years. Of course I’m serious.”

  “You won’t be in a joking mood after I tell you the bad news.”

  I stood from my desk and slid my hands into my pockets. “Which is exactly why I should tell you the joke now.”

  He sighed and shrugged. “Okay whatever. Go.”

  “Did you hear about the new restaurant called Karma? There’s no menu—you get what you deserve.” I snickered, smacking the side of my leg. “Get it? Karma? You get what you—”

  “I get it. It’s just far from funny.”

  “I’ll get you laughing one of these times. Mark my words.”

  “Don’t hold your breath. Now, can I tell you the shit news?”

  I nodded.

  His brow furrowed, and I could tell whatever he was about to say was going to be bad. Whenever Damian’s brows got closer during our meetings, nothing good was coming from him.

  “The Brooklyn property fell through.”

  I moved toward the edge of my desk, feeling as if I’d been sucker punched. Every inch of mirth evaporated from my body. “What do you mean it fell through? We had that in our grip. It was all but a done deal. Besides, no one even knew about it except us.”

  “I know. Don’t know how it happened, but they decided to sell the building to another buyer.”

  “Who?”

  “They wouldn’t say.”

  Dammit. Damian was right—after that news, I was far from in a good mood.

  “I’m going to find out, though,” Damian said, resolute and sure.

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  He grimaced, of course, and stood from his chair. His gray eyes locked with mine as he shrugged again. “Your joke was kind of funny,” he dryly stated, trying to make me feel better.

  “You don’t gotta lie, Damian.”

  “All right. It wasn’t funny at all.”

  I rubbed my hands over my face and sighed. “When you find out who bought the property, let me know.” I moved back around to my desk and plopped down. “You coming to the dinner party on Friday night?”

  “Am I coming to a dinner party for an asshole I hate to the depths of my core to celebrate him getting a job he doesn’t deserve? I think I’ll pass. I don’t even know why you hired someone as incompetent as that douche to run the west coast division. I could do a better job than he ever could. He’s a joke.”

  Was he wrong about my new business partner, Jason? No. He was the only person I truly couldn’t stand in my life. Everything about the spoiled jerk rubbed me the wrong way. But, was I giving Jason the opportunity because his father offered to partner with me on my dream of building luxury low-income properties if I hired his son to be a business partner with me? Yes.

  Jason would be taking over Roe Real Estate West Coast in the coming weeks, and my anxiety about it all was through the roof. That Friday night, we were having a celebration dinner for Jason where I’d do some kind of passing of the keys to him. It was a photo opportunity to paint Jason in a good light, probably his parents’ idea, seeing how most of the time, Jason was in the press for being a trust fund idiot.

  Over the past two years or so, he’d seemed to tame his party-animal ways, but that didn’t mean I put any trust in him running a part of my business. Still, I respected his dad enough to give it a shot.

  Walter Rolls
field was one of the richest men in the world, and he was the first person who ever invested in me at a young age. Since then, he’d been like a father figure to me. His son, on the other hand? A hot damn mess who left a disaster everywhere he went. I had my fears about hiring Jason, but my hope was that over time, he would get bored with the job—just like he got bored with everything else—and I’d be able to hire a real leader for the position. Plus, I’d have both Walter’s and my wallet to build my dream properties.

  It was a risk to take Jason on, but the bigger risk was losing Walter’s backing for my next business endeavor—which reminded me how perturbed I was that I’d lost the property that afternoon. If only I knew who’d gotten in the way of my Brooklyn dream. The moment I found out, I was going to raise some hell.

  What a shitastic day.

  I was in a mood. I’d been in a mood since Damian informed me about the lost property. A mood bad enough that I doubted any of my favorite things would’ve been able to pull me from my grump-fest. Whenever I was in a mood, I needed two things: Mom and Cheetos.

  After stuffing my face with Cheetos Puffs, I picked up my cell phone and called the only woman willing to have heart-to-hearts with me when I was cranky. My number one spot on speed dial.

  “Hey, sweetheart. How’s it going?” Mom asked when she answered my call.

  I sat back in my chair and groaned.

  She knew exactly what that groan meant, too.

  “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. Do you want me to fly out to New York to make you some chicken and dumplings? You shouldn’t be alone right now.”

  I almost took her up on the offer. What could I say? I was a mama’s boy and talking to her always made the failures seem less harsh.

  “I’m good, Mom. Just wanted to feel a piece of home tonight.”

  “How about you come home for a quick visit?” she urged. “Kentucky is missing you.”

  I’d been in NYC since I was eighteen years old, and just last month, I turned twenty-eight. With each day that passed, New York felt more like home base. The only thing missing was Mom’s love and cooking.