Brooke Whittaker had all but forgotten Nicholas Williams after the "Great Christmas Disaster of 2010." But, when her father announces a business arrangement that will not only move Brooke and her family to New York City, but also forces Nicholas bac...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Never in a million years did I think that I would voluntarily spend more time with Nicholas Williams than I had to. But apparently, I'd gone soft. In the moment, I had thought I would do something nice and offer to let him sit in on my meeting with my lawyer. Now, I realized I had made a tragic mistake. There was no way I could spend five minutes alone with Nicholas. Let alone an hour.
He had fed everyone some line about wanting to stay and spend a couple extra hours with me tonight after our big announcement, but it looked as though it may have pained him more than my elbow to his ribs.
"How is this going to work?" Nicholas asked me as the last few guests were heading out the elevator.
"What do you mean?" I asked as I gave one last goodbye smile to Mr. Van der Hoof.
"I mean, how are you going to sneak a lawyer into your penthouse without your dad, or any of your siblings for that matter, noticing? There's only one way in, and it's through an elevator."
"There's the back stairs too," I answered once the last person went through the elevator's double doors. "And there's a reason I picked tonight to do this, I planned it all out. My dad and all my siblings are going out to the Abbott's house for a reception. I said I'd rather stay in because I had to get up early for school tomorrow."
"So all your siblings are gone right now?"
"Yes, we just have to wait until the lawyer gets here."
"How much time will we have?" Nicholas asked, obviously not trusting my planning skills, which annoyed me.
"The Abbott's are notorious for two things: hosting expensive receptions and talking for far too long," I answered. "I'm pretty sure, if need be, we have all night."
Nicholas just nodded with no expression on his face.
"I'm surprised you couldn't have figured that out on your own," I remarked. "Considering you and Kate Abbott—"
"I don't need a refresher on my own dating history, thanks," Nicholas said sharp as we both moved to sit down on the sofa in the living room. Even though we were sitting on the same couch, we both made sure to seat ourselves on opposite ends, as far apart as the couch would allow. Just the way I wanted it.
"That elbow to the rib hurt," Nicholas said, changing the subject and rubbing his side.
"Sorry," I muttered, not very sincere. I don't think he expected it to be.
It got quiet for a while after that as we both looked around the room. Literally looking everywhere but at each other.
"You really do have a lot of siblings," Nicholas commented, finally breaking the silence as he looked at a family picture hanging above the fireplace that we had taken the previous year.
"Yeah, my dad insists on getting a new picture every year with all the new additions."
