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Cole stood and pulled the ebony tailored blazer over his matching shirt. He latched the lone button as he came from behind his desk to turn this way and that to show off his new suit. “Jillian suggested I look a little more professional coming to work,” he said, raising his chin as he tightened the knot of his tie.
“Ah, the power of a pussycat,” Gabe said, stroking his beard. “And stop primping. You’re acting like Sean.”
Now that made Cole howl with laughter. It was undeniable that their older brother, who favored the actor Daniel Sunjata, was the star of the family and knew it. In fact, he enjoyed starring in several of the culinary shows Cress, INC. produced, was friends with high-profile celebrities, and had been named one ofPeople’s Top Ten Sexiest Chefs twice in a row. The charmer was as handsome and famous as he was a genius in the kitchen. And Sean knew it.
“Besides, I’ve seen you in a suit before, egomaniac,” Gabe drawled, setting the file atop his brother’s desk.
“Yes, but never in the office,” Cole pointed out before removing the blazer and reclaiming his seat.
“Short of a DNA test to confirm things, it seems Lincoln Cress is indeed our brother,” Gabe said.
“Our eldest brother,” Cole corrected him.
Gabe shook his head and winced. “Phillip Junior won’t like that.”
Good.
Of all the Cress brothers, Phillip Junior was the most competitive and backbiting. He held an outdated belief that as the eldest son of the Cress family, he should be the undisputed heir to the company’s throne. Learning that Phillip Senior had instead opened the opportunity up to all his sons had created a divisiveness among the brothers that was unsettling.
Cole removed his wallet and money clip from his pocket and counted off enough crisp hundred-dollar bills to cover his half of Bobbie’s bill.
Gabe took the cash. “I’ll cut her a check today,” he said.
Cole nodded and rested his elbow against the arm of his chair before propping his chin in his hand. “Everyone needs to know about this,” he began, thinking of the secret already weighing him down. “We have to call a family meeting.”
“Do we speak to our parents alone or tell everyone at once?” Gabe asked. “You know, as hard as he has been on us, he was there every day—raising us, teaching us, reprimanding us. There are many things about our father that I doubt. But I know he loved being a father. Sometimes his sternness was this overreaching need to be for us what his father was not for him.”
Cole shifted his gaze out the window as he fought with whether to share’s his father’s infidelity—a part of his father’s life that was not in that file from Bobbie Barnett. And thus he took little comfort in her report of his current faithfulness. “Let’s think about it and make a decision soon,” he said, reaching for the file to carry it across his office to the safe inside his closet.
“Another Cress brother,” Gabe mused, shaking his hand before releasing a light laugh.
“Maybe,” Cole declared, locking the safe and returning to his seat.
They locked eyes.
Of all the brothers, Cole was closest to Gabe, who was older than him by just two years. And he knew they were thinking the same thing.
“A thousand,” Cole offered, reaching in his wallet for another ten bills.
Gabe nodded and stood to remove his platinum money clip to do the same. “He looks just like us, Cole. He’s our brother,” he said. “Face it.”
“I’m not against it. I’m just not as sure as you. That’s all.”
Betting was their thing since childhood. Be it a guess on what was for dinner or whether one would win the charm of one pretty girl over the other. The brothers had brought the act into adulthood.
Cole gathered the bills and slid them into a Cress-monogrammed envelope, removing the paper strip to reveal the adhesive as he sealed it.
“I should have bet you that you and Jillian would fall in love,” Gabe said, remaining standing as he slid his hands into the pockets of his gray three-piece suit.
Cole put the envelope in the top drawer of his desk. There was another already sitting there. He opened it. There was five thousand dollars inside. “Who says I’m in love?” he asked as he tried to remember the reason for the cash.
“Are you not?” Gabe countered.
He showed his brother the envelope. “Did we bet on something and forget?” he asked.
Gabe chuckled as he strolled to the door. “I didn’t forget. I lost. Your launch went off without a hitch,” he reminded him over his shoulder.
Well damn.
