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“I figured you’d have plans. I arranged for a car to pick me up. No big deal.” Rarely did a Friday night go by that Derek didn’t have plans. More times than not those plans involved some beautiful woman, although occasionally he did spend time with one of his brothers or another friend in town.
Derek shook his head as he made a beeline for her refrigerator. “Nah, just hung out at my place this weekend. It’s been a crazy few weeks, and I needed some downtime.” He popped open the can of cream soda he’d pulled out. She only kept it around for him and his frequent visits. She couldn’t stomach the stuff.
“How’s Allison doing?” She’d read all about the events that had transpired in Virginia and she couldn’t imagine what Derek’s twin sister must be going through.
He took a long swig from the can before he answered her. “Better. She’s all settled in at Rock’s place, and her town house is on the market. She even went in to work this week for a couple of days. I think she’s going to be fine.”
Brooklyn was glad to hear it. She knew how close Derek and his sister were. Actually, she knew firsthand how close the entire Sherbrooke clan was, and more than once she’d envied him. Her own family was nothing like Derek’s. While her two older sisters were extremely close and got along well with their parents, she’d always been the odd man out. That wasn’t to say they didn’t love her, because in their own way she realized they did. However, none of them understood her or made an effort to. The only two relatives she was close to were her Aunt Felicia and her cousin Cheyenne, her other best friend.
“So what are you doing here tonight?” Brooklyn asked. Part of her wanted more details about what had actually happened down in Alexandria. Every media outlet in the country had covered the story for days, but she knew it didn’t mean they’d gotten all the facts correct. However, she wouldn’t pry. Enough people poked their big noses into Derek and his family’s lives, and because of that, she’d always gone out of her way not to.
Derek gave a little shrug before he dropped down on the couch, his favorite place to sit in her living room. “I stopped upstairs to visit my nephew. Then I decided to see if you were back yet.” Derek’s eldest brother and his wife lived in the penthouse, which occupied the top two floors of the building. Even his second-oldest brother lived in the building now with his fiancée. “Weren’t you due back this morning?”
Her original travel plans had her coming home this morning. She’d changed them the previous Wednesday, unable to take any more quality family time. “I was, but then I changed my mind. It seemed acceptable to leave right after the wedding on Friday afternoon.” She hadn’t even waited for the reception to end. Once the bride and groom had made their exit, she’d headed for the airport herself.
“I’ll have to stop upstairs and congratulate Trent and Addie. How is the baby doing? He was really early wasn’t he?” The birth of Derek’s nephew had lit up the Internet, so even though she’d been in California when it happened, she’d known about it.
“About a month, but he’s doing great,” Derek said, sounding quite proud. She knew he’d been looking forward to the birth of his first niece or nephew. As a general rule, family was important to all the members of the Sherbrooke clan, as she liked to think of them.
“Does he look like your brother or more like Addie?”
“Definitely Trent. There’s no mistaking Kendrick is a Sherbrooke.”
She couldn’t keep from shaking her head. “I still can’t believe he’s married with a baby. He’s the last person I ever saw as a family man. Your cousin, too.”
“Never seen either of them happier.”
“I’m not sure the world is ready for another generation of Sherbrooke men,” she said with a chuckle. “Three in less than a year. Is that some kind of record for your family?”
Derek considered her question. All his cousins were around his age, but Brooklyn didn’t think any were as close as the babies born recently.
“Might be,” he said.
“Do you think anyone else will be adding to the family tree soon?”
He shrugged and took another swig from his soda can. “Don’t think so. Sara’s wedding is this month, but I don’t think she’s ready for children. And Gray and Kiera don’t plan on getting married until next year. But who knows? My family has been full of surprises lately.” Stretching out his long legs, he said, “So how was your sister’s wedding?”
Brooklyn couldn’t contain her eye roll. “It fit Paris and Seth to a tee.” The entire affair had been elaborate and over the top, much like her supermodel older sister.
Derek grimaced, an indication he understood her comment. “That bad, huh?”
“I don’t think you’d call it bad, but not anything I would ever want. Paris looked radiant though. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her so emotional. It might have been a trick of the light, but I think I saw her shed a few tears as my dad walked her down the aisle. And Seth couldn’t keep his eyes off her. They’re a perfect couple.” She spoke the truth. Paris was the second-oldest daughter of Scarlet Knight, now Scarlet Novak, the supermodel of the late seventies and early eighties. A beautiful model herself, she’d recently started to dabble in acting. Seth Vallencourt was a Hollywood hunk and the son of former actor Cal Vallencourt. Today Cal directed some of the best movies out of Hollywood. It was a match made in heaven.
He broke the tab off his soda can before he spoke again. “And you hated every minute of being out there. That’s why you came home early.”
Derek knew her well.
“What did your family do this time?”
She heard the annoyance in his voice. Her family was not on the top of his favorite people list. And the feeling was mutual. At least it was as far as her dad was concerned. He didn’t care for any of the Sherbrookes, especially Derek’s father. The fact that she and Derek were such good friends irked him to no end. Her mom never said much about their friendship. Then again, she never said much about any of Brooklyn’s friends. Brooklyn considered it a positive thing.
“They were just themselves.” Since she’d graduated college, her mom and sisters had been constantly trying to set her up with men. Men they would never even give the time of day to. Brooklyn suspected they figured, since she wasn’t as drop-dead gorgeous as them, she’d never land a man herself and needed all the help she could get. Even worse than assuming she needed help was insisting she needed an unattractive man since she’d inherited her father’s looks, rather than her mom’s like both Paris and Milan had. No Hollywood hunks for her; at least that’s what she’d surmised, based on the men her family set her up with. Not that she needed a Hollywood heartthrob. She’d rather be with the ugliest man on Earth if they shared similar interests and he treated her well, instead of a self-absorbed jerk who looked hot in jeans. However, her mom and sisters routinely set her up with not only unattractive men, but men who turned out to be creeps as well.
“At least it’s over and you don’t have to worry about them anymore.”
She wished. Her date—no, she wasn’t going to think of it like that—her dinner out with Trevor Jones on Friday proved Derek’s statement wrong.
“It’s good to be home. I’m actually looking forward to going in to the office tomorrow. I did a lot of work while I was away, but it’s not the same. Anything new and exciting happen there while I was gone?” Hale and Associates had hired them both, following their graduation from Harvard.
