“Genevieve?” His forehead wrinkles with confusion.
“Yes. She’s young, I know, but she has some great ideas and you should really hear her out.”
“You want me to talk to Genevieve Fasbender. About Werner Media.”
It sounds like a statement instead of a question, but I confirm anyway. “Yes. I do. She’s brilliant. She’s a grand-scheme kind of thinker. More aware of the current market than her brother, that’s for sure. Completely on top of her game.”
“Jesus,” my brother mutters, “you’re gushing.”
He’s mocking me, but that’s all the invitation I need. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been dying to talk to someone about my feelings. Next thing I know, I’m sitting in the window seat, spilling my guts. “I’m in love with her, Hudson. I think she might be the one.”
“Please,” Hudson says dismissively. “You’re not in love with her. You just met her.”
“What does that matter? Aren’t you the guy who moved his girlfriend-slash-future wife in after two weeks of knowing her?” He doesn’t show it, but I have a feeling that down deep he’s romantic. Why else would he let things happen so quickly?
But if he is romantic deep down, he’s not letting me be privy to it. Instead, he’s giving me brusque and snippy. “I’d known her longer than two weeks.”
“Sorry, two and a half.” Honestly, I don’t know exactly when he’d met Alayna, but it was fast. He’s definitely not one to talk.
But he does anyway. “Don’t compare your relationship with this, this…girl to my relationship with my wife. It’s not the same.”
Okay, despite our differences, I was ready to open up and share everything, but now I’m pissed.
“Who the hell are you to decide that?” I stand and point a finger at him. “Maybe it’s exactly the same. Maybe this is the beginning of exactly what you have with your wife. You don’t know how deeply I feel about Genny. I’m in love with her, and just maybe I’m going to marry her.”
Hudson picks up his drink and finishes the contents in one swallow. Then he slams the empty glass on the desk next to him. “You cannot marry that woman. I forbid it.”
Like hell. “You can’t forbid shit.”
“I can tell you that if you put a ring on that finger, you and her family will be banned from coming anywhere near my family again.”
I’m speechless. My brother has always been a bit aloof, and he’s more often than not a pain in my ass, but he’s never been downright shitty. I don’t understand this, don’t have any idea where it’s coming from, and the only comeback I can manage is the most obvious one. “What is your fucking problem?”
“Her family!”
“I know that you’re not fond of Edward Fasbender, but so what?” Even if he doesn’t end up giving the man a job, it shouldn’t have anything to do with what happens between Genny and me.
“It’s not her father I have a problem with,” Hudson snaps back, his hands wrapped around the edge of the desk behind him. “It’s his wife.”
I don’t say it, but I give him the look that says, and what’s your deal with her?
Hudson’s eyes widen with realization. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“That girl you’re so fond of? Her stepmother is Celia Werner.”
15
I know Hudson has beef with Celia Werner, but I’m perplexed and still trying to piece together all the reasons this affects my relationship with Genny when I hear Laynie at the door.
“Celia’s back?” she says, holding one of the babies and looking paler than I’ve ever seen her.
Hudson winces, and I know he regrets that his wife overheard this bit of news. Seems Mina isn’t the only one who needs to learn about privacy. Hudson did leave the door open. I feel less bad about forgetting the bedroom lock now.
He recovers quickly and rushes toward Alayna. “Millie?” he calls out into the hallway. “Could you take Holden for a bit, please?”
“Gladly!” Millie steps in and scoops the baby from Laynie’s arms then quickly disappears, humming as she goes.
Hudson shuts the door after her. A little late for that, isn’t it?
“Celia’s back,” Laynie repeats, drawing the attention back to the issue at hand.
Hudson puts his arms around his wife and looks her in the eye. “She’s not back, precious. I will not let her be back; do you understand?”
“But she’s that girl’s stepmother? I thought Genevieve was someone you met from work,” she directs to me. Then back to Hudson, “She got to us through Chandler?”
I frown, irritated at what my sister-in-law is inferring.
“She hasn’t gotten to us,” Hudson says. “And Celia is not back. That’s the point. She’s exactly where she’s always been, and we’ve been fine. I won’t let her get any closer to this family than she already is.”
He throws a glare in my direction at that last part. Then he walks Laynie to the couch. He holds her as they sit down together, delivering reassurance. It’s sweet. It’s the kind of relationship I want with my wife one day, and I can’t help that I see Genny in that position now more than ever.
So while I hate to interrupt this private moment, it seems our private moment was the one interrupted first. “Hold up, Hudson. You’re talking about Celia. That has nothing to do with Genevieve.”