Someone knocked on my office door, and I silently promised God I’d give up anything he demanded if only he could make it not be Kane. Quietly, I called out, “Come!” and waited to see if my prayer had been answered.
The door opened slowly and through the crack Olivia’s red hair peeked through. Thank you, God. Olivia I could handle. In fact, she might be just the person I needed at that moment. I hadn’t made any headway on my Shay problem, so maybe she could point me in the right direction.
“Stefan, do you have a minute? Cash wanted me to bring you up to speed on next week’s party. Angie has made at least a half dozen changes since I sent you the details, so I thought I’d come over and go over them with you.”
“Sure. Just speak quietly because you’re competing with the effects of last night’s tequila binge, okay?”
Olivia gave me that knowing look she often had when I said things like that to her. While I didn’t think she’d ever been much of a partier—she was far too much like Cash to ever be a wild girl—I did get the sense that she knew all about that life. Maybe she’d had a boyfriend like me at one point?
“Another wild night, Stefan? Your brother told me he thought you were settling down a little. I guess that was just wishful thinking?” she asked as she sat down in front of my desk.
“Settling down? Why would he think that?”
She shrugged and smiled. “I think maybe Kane said something to him about it. And what you said to me the other day led me to believe…”
“Ugh. Kane isn’t someone you or Cash should believe about anything concerning me. As far as settling down goes, I’m happy the way things are, so no, I’m not, girl or no girl.”
“Okay. I’m sure they didn’t mean any harm. It’s just that you’re so different from them I think sometimes they don’t understand you.”
“They want me to be just like them. Well, I’m not and I’m never going to be.”
She rifled through the papers on her lap. “I think that’s part of it. I knew from the first time I met you that you were different from them.” Looking up, she said, “You’ve got what my mother calls Youngest Child Syndrome.”
Youngest Child Syndrome sounded like something that came from a nuclear disaster. That couldn’t be good. “What’s that?”
“The youngest child is always a little wilder, a little more carefree than his or her older siblings. By the time parents get to the last child, they’re more relaxed and easygoing about things.”
“Are you trying to say my parents had lower expectations for me than they did for Cash? The heir and the spare?” I asked, the defensiveness creeping into my voice even as I tried to hide it.
Olivia quickly shook her head. “No, no. Nothing like that. It’s just that younger siblings are more carefree. Your brother is by his nature serious, Stefan. You know that. Do you know that the first time I met your mother that day we were all out at her house for Labor Day I instantly understood why you are like you are? You’re just like her. I imagine Cash is just like your father.”
I thought back to the last few years of my father’s life and had to agree. “He is. They named him right. Cassian March IV. He’s just like my father. A hardass until his last breath.”
“See? You can’t blame him for being so serious. He comes by it naturally.”
“And Kane? What’s the explanation for him? He’s not the youngest or the oldest.”
A sly grin brightened up her face. “Kane’s the outsider here, so it’s not surprising he’s like he is. He didn’t grow up a March.”
“More like a pain in my ass. Outsider? He owns just as much of this club as Cash and I do.”
“I know, but he’s had to deal with being your brother without being a member of your family all his life. That was likely very hard for him.”
I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for Kane at that moment. Not after he’d intentionally set out to piss me off as soon as he saw me today.
“I wouldn’t worry about Kane. He and Cash are more alike than Cash is with his own brother, so I’m more the outsider than he ever could be.”
Olivia’s brown eyes filled with a look of sympathy. “Maybe they’re jealous of you, Stefan. Serious people like the three of us see people like you as having a much easier time of it. You never seem to worry about anything. We’d like to be like that, but we can’t be. It’s not in our natures.”
I liked the idea of Cash and Kane jealous of me. They rode me so much about everything from how I ran the bar to who I slept with that I’d convinced myself they practically hated me.
“All you have to do is have a good time in life. No regrets. No worries. If what I want doesn’t come to me, there’s something just as good coming right after it. That’s how I live.”
A chuckle escaped from her lips, and she shook her head. “If only it was that easy, Stefan. That kind of thing only works for people like you, though.”
As we talked over the details for the party, that last thing she said repeated in my head over and over. That kind of thing only works for people like you, though. Maybe she was right about that. Maybe that’s why my brothers seemed to resent me so often. It didn’t make dealing with their shit any easier, but the thought of them seeing me as some golden boy did make me feel better.
Olivia left and slowly my hangover eased up, so by dinnertime I looked forward to the night in front of me. Shay would be working again, and I’d have another chance to work my magic with her.
I heard another knock on my door and prepared myself for Cash or Kane to walk through after my talk with Olivia, but instead Lola appeared in front of me. Lately, she caused me almost as much grief as my half-brother. I knew I had to keep her happy, and I didn’t really have a problem with her as one of my workers. She knew how to handle the bar, and the members loved her. The problem occurred when what she wanted from me came into play. Ever since Kane told me I had to sleep with her to make sure we kept on that scumbag Shank’s good side, all the things I liked about her seemed to just disappear.
Dressed in her usual—the tiniest skirt that barely covered her ass and a Club X t-shirt a size too small so her fake tits nearly busted through the thin fabric—she looked like she was trying too hard. Why I’d never noticed before I had no idea, but now, I couldn’t imagine wanting her ever again. Twirling the ends of her blond hair around her forefinger, she batted her eyes at me and smiled. “Hey, Stefan. I just wanted to stop in and see how you were doing.”