After I finish my breakfast and take Ibuprofen to combat my raging headache, I take a shower and then check my phone again.
Nothing.
So I decide to sleep off the headache. When I wake up an hour later.
Still nothing.
I think I might have fucked up.
“Thanks to all the evidence you provided us and the due diligence of the team, we put together a strong case to counteract the lawsuit and force Gemma to extend an apology through the media,” Taylor, our lawyer, says.
Huxley clasps me on my suit-clad shoulder, clearly happy about the news.
Me, on the other hand, I can barely muster a yippee.
After I woke from my nap, I received a text from Huxley—I thought it was Lia, and I swore up a storm—asking me to come into the office at two. Since he was asking me to step foot into Cane Enterprises, I knew it had to be the end of the lawsuit.
And it is, but given the last twenty-four hours with Lia, I honestly couldn’t care less about whatever is going on with the crazy Shoemacher lady.
“That’s fantastic,” JP says. “Does she have a written statement she’ll read?”
“She’s working on it with her lawyer now, and we’ll approve it before she goes live with the apology,” Taylor answers.
“Please send it directly to me when it comes in,” Huxley says before lending his hand out to Taylor. “Your hard work on this case will not go unnoticed. Thank you, Taylor.”
“It was my pleasure, Mr. Cane,” Taylor says as he snaps his briefcase closed. He offers JP and me a handshake before he heads out of the conference room, his two assistants at his side.
When the door shuts, Huxley turns toward me while gripping the conference table. “Are you happy?”
“Yeah,” I say as I lean back in my chair, clearly not showing the kind of excitement they were expecting.
“Are you?” JP asks. “Because it looks like someone ran over your dick, and you’re mourning the loss.”
“I assumed you’d be thrilled to come back to work,” Huxley says. “Which, we should have a company-wide conference about this. We need to set the record straight. Those who can’t attend in person will be required to attend online.”
“Probably best we do that,” JP says. “But I want to know what’s going on in Breaker’s head right now. I want to know why he’s not pumping his fist in the air and saying huzzah like he normally would be.”
Both my brothers stare me down, their reluctant gaze not faltering as I let the room sit in silence. After a few seconds, Huxley says, “Did you fuck things up yesterday with Lia?”
“What?” I ask, playing dumb. “What would make you think that?”
“Great observation,” JP says, patting Huxley on the back. “Handsome, smart, and observant. That’s why he’s at the helm.”
“I didn’t fuck things up with Lia,” I groan in annoyance. Even though, yeah, I did, big time. I’ve been checking my phone through this entire meeting and not one single text message from her.
“You didn’t?” JP asks, now pacing around me. “So tell me, what did you do yesterday with Lia?”
“Just hung out,” I say. “Ate some pizza. Played some games. Had a few ciders.”
“A few? HA!” JP rips. “Look at those bags under his eyes, Hux. Does it look like he had a few ciders?” JP points at me with a pen he picked up off the conference table.
Huxley leans forward and examines me. “They look sunken.”
“Precisely,” JP says with a dramatic flair. “Which means he had a lot to drink last night. So tell us, Breaker, how many ciders exactly?”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t know, like ten.”
“Ten?” Huxley asks. “That’s a lot for you.”
JP leans in and says, “Hence the dark circles under his eyes. And check out his hair. It’s all disheveled, even though there seems to be product in it.” JP walks behind me and threads his pen through my hair. “Unkept, which is a result of . . .”
Huxley scratches the side of his jaw and says, “Running his hand through it.”
“Aha,” JP replies, making me want to punch him right in the stomach from how annoying he’s being. “And why would he have sunken eyes and be running his hand through his hair?”
Huxley sits across from me. Looking smug, he says, “Because he fucked things up with Lia.”
“You guys are so fucking wrong,” I say as I lean into my chair. “This was fun, though.”