Blind Date with the Spare Heir
Автор
Yahrah St. John
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One
“Yet another article, Julian.” Angelique Lockett sighed in frustration. “Must you continue to live up to your repute as Atlanta’s most eligible bachelor?”
Julian shrugged as he glanced at his mother with her elegantly coiffed, black shoulder-length hair and her A-line 1950s-style dress. It wasn’t like he was trying to be notorious for his playboy ways. He just happened to like the fairer sex.
He’d thought about not attending this Sunday’s family dinner at the Locketts’ ten-bedroom estate in Atlanta’s Tuxedo Park, but he hated to disappoint her. So Julian had prepared himself for her wrath over yet another article about his exploits, this time at a fall fashion show for one of Atlanta’s up-and-coming designers. Was it his fault he’d managed to snag both the designer and the model who’d been her muse?
Julian wasn’t as tall as his father, his older brother, Roman, or his younger brother, Xavier, who once again had skipped the family dinner. They were each well over six feet. But what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in charm and snappy dress. Something about his light brown eyes, handsome face and perpetual five-o’clock shadow made the women of Atlanta powerless to resist him. It had earned him the reputation of incorrigible flirt and ladies’ man.
“Aren’t you ready to settle down, like Roman?” She glanced over at his brother, who sat across the table with his wife, Shantel, who also happened to be Julian’s best friend.
His Shantel.
Or, at least, she had been until Roman had managed to steal her, taking away his safety net. Julian and Shantel had met at a college party when he’d attended Morehouse and Shantel, Spelman. Their platonic friendship had endured for over a decade, through his many love affairs, Shantel’s breakup with her high-school sweetheart and her mother’s suicide.
He’d always looked at Shantel as a little sister, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d wondered if they might give it a go when he was ready to settle down. Maybe, unconsciously, she’d been his backup plan. But Roman had ended that dream and now the two lovebirds were sitting there making goo-goo eyes at one another.
Julian wanted to barf. He couldn’t ever see himself falling in love, but he also didn’t like continually upsetting his mother. Besides, seeing how deeply Roman and Shantel loved one another, he couldn’t help but wonder if, perhaps, there might be something to all this love stuff. Was he missing out by not having found his soul mate?
He finally answered his mother’s question. “Perhaps.”
Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at him—as if he’d lost his marbles.
“What?” He shrugged.
“You’re serious?” Giana asked. Born less than a year apart, he and his baby sister were quite close. Other than Shantel, Giana was his go-to person if he needed advice. And he certainly hadn’t discussed this with her.
“Why not? If Mother wants to set me up with someone, where’s the harm?”
Angelique raised a brow. “If I set you up, and that’s a big if—” she fixed her light brown eyes on him “—do I have your word that you’ll behave with the utmost respect and that I won’t hear of any shenanigans?”
“Scout’s honor.” Julian raised three fingers.
“You were a terrible Boy Scout.” Roman laughed, sipping his single malt scotch. “You hated the outdoors, much less getting your hands dirty.”
“While you were always a high achiever,” Julian scoffed, even though he knew everything Roman said was true. “Always trying to get as many merit badges as possible.”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be the best,” Josiah responded from the head of the table. “You could learn a thing or two from your brother about responsibility.”
And there it was. The ever-present competition egged on by their father. Julian wasn’t surprised. Roman was the favorite, constantly being pushed by their father to succeed because he was the eldest son and would eventually take over the Atlanta Cougars football franchise. Josiah had rarely taken an interest in Julian, which was why he was closer to his mother.
“Well, I, for one, am happy to hear that you’re open to the idea of settling down, Julian.” Angelique spoke up as she always did when her husband tried to pit the two brothers against one another. “I’ll set something up soon.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Julian wiped his mouth and tossed his napkin on the table as he stood. “Dinner was great, as always.” He walked toward his mother. “We’ll talk soon,” he whispered, kissing her cheek.
“Run away like you always do,” Josiah chided.
“Josiah!”
Julian detected rebuke in his mother’s tone, but didn’t care. You would think an MD behind his name would garner his father’s respect, but Julian knew otherwise. Even though Josiah had demanded he pursue sports medicine, the man had never been fully happy with his son’s chosen profession. It totally irked his father that Julian wasn’t playing or managing the team, just doing what he could to ensure the old man’s players stayed off the injury list.
His father preferred discussing franchise business with Roman or playing football with Xavier. Or at least he had until Xavier’s accident had ended his career as a quarterback.
Ignoring his father’s blustering from the other end of the table, Julian quickly hugged Giana and Shantel and shook Roman’s hand before leaving the room.
He knew he wasn’t the favorite son, but living with the fact never got any easier.
He’d nearly made his escape when he heard the distinctive click of high heels behind him.
“Julian, wait up!” Giana called out as he made his way across the marble foyer to the front door.
He turned to find his beautiful chocolate sister walking briskly toward him. As always, looking chic and polished, she wore her hair in a loose chignon and wispy bangs. Her red handkerchief dress, its one shoulder strap braided to match the belt around her slender waist, complemented her ever-on-the-mark sophistication.
She caught up with him at the door and spun him around. “Were you just going to ignore me?”
“That was the plan.”
“You know Daddy didn’t mean any harm.”
“‘It’s just how he is...’” Julian responded. “I know the spiel, Giana. You’ve said it a thousand times. Why do you always defend his bad behavior?”
“Why do you always think the worst of him?”
“Because I’m quite certain that if our father could have picked another infant in the maternity ward, he would have. I’m nothing like Roman or Xavier. Both are macho tough guys who live and breathe ambition. They have that drive Josiah looks for. I don’t. Sometimes I wonder if they swapped babies and I belong to another family.”
“Don’t say that,” Giana said, glancing behind her as if she expected Josiah to appear out of thin air.
Bless her heart, his sister was the apple of their father’s eye, a real daddy’s girl. Thus she could never believe he didn’t feel that way about all his children.
“I speak the truth, Giana. You just don’t want to admit it, and that’s fine. You can continue to put your head in the sand, but I’m going to live in the real world where nothing I do will ever please him.”
“You sound like Roman.”
Julian snorted. “Is it any wonder? From the day I was born, he’s always tried to pit me and Roman against each other. We’re nothing alike.” His voice rose. “And I don’t want to be. I’m comfortable in my own skin and I could care less if Josiah likes it or not.”
“Now that,” Giana replied, “is a lie.”
Did his little sister know something he didn’t?
She moved forward, right into his personal space. “You may fool everyone else with this I-don’t-care attitude, but you don’t fool me for a second. You would give your left arm for half the adoration Daddy piles on Roman and Xavier.”
“I’m leaving.”
Giana chuckled as Julian rushed out the door. He hated that his baby sister knew him so well. Because...maybe, deep down, in places he didn’t like to look too hard, Julian secretly wished his father would love him as much as he did the rest of his children.
Elyse Harper attempted to lift all 170 pounds of her father, Frank Robinson, off the floor of the local bar where he’d passed out yet again. “C’mon, Daddy, it’s time to go.”
“I’ll help you, Elyse,” Matt said as he eyed her from his place behind the bar. The hunky blond bartender with a dozen tattoos was dressed in his customary muscle shirt and faded jeans.
Elyse knew Matt fancied her. She tried to ignore him, but whenever he called about her father, she had no choice. She usually didn’t fuss with her appearance when she came running to the bar, but today Matt had caught her right after work.
As soon as she’d received Matt’s call, she’d rushed from her one-bedroom apartment in Midtown, still dressed in work attire and in full makeup. She’d seen Matt practically salivate as he’d eyed her belted shirt dress and high-heeled sandals.
“Thanks, Matt.”
Together, Elyse and Matt lifted her father from the floor and carried him to her Toyota Camry idling by the curb.
Once they had her father safely in the back seat, Elyse closed the door. “Thank you so much for calling me.”
“Of course. But, Elyse, you need to convince Frank to go to rehab. His drinking is only getting worse.”
“I know. Trust me, I’ve tried to talk some sense into him, but he refuses to listen.”
“Well, you get home safe, okay?”
Elyse nodded as she slid into the driver’s seat.
She drove the couple of miles to Frank’s place—a modest, affordable one-bedroom apartment—in the Old Fourth Ward. When they arrived, it took everything she had to rouse him from his drunken slumber and get him inside. Luckily, he lived on the first floor and she was able to maneuver him inside the apartment without much fuss. Once there, she settled him on the bed, pulled off his shoes, and covered him with the worn blanket.
When she finally left his building half an hour later, Elyse let out a long heavy sigh. She didn’t know how much longer she could continue to clean up the mess that was her father’s life.
Feeling downtrodden, she walked the few steps to her car and got inside, but she didn’t immediately drive off. Instead, she let the tears she’d been holding flow freely. She couldn’t believe how far her father had fallen from grace. Once upon a time, he’d been a man of big dreams, with a wife and daughter who’d worshipped the ground he’d walked on.
How had it all gone wrong?
Elyse knew how. There was only one person to blame.
Josiah Lockett.
The football tycoon had learned of her father’s gambling habit. Rather than get him in rehab, Josiah swindled her father out of his rightful share of the Atlanta Cougars during a game of poker, leaving them to a life of poverty, living from paycheck to paycheck. Things had only gotten worse when Elyse’s mother, Nadine Harper Robinson, had gotten sick with breast cancer and passed away when Elyse was in her early teens. The medical bills had steadily piled up, overwhelming her father, who’d already been broken from having given up the Cougars and he’d started drinking. Instead of helping his best friend get control of his addictions, Josiah had used their friendship to get control of the franchise so he could have it all for himself and get rich.
And now here they were. On an endless merry-go-round with Frank headfirst in a bottle of whiskey, his solace of choice. It shouldn’t be like this. Her father should have his due. It was time Josiah Lockett got his just deserts.
But how—?
Her phone pinged. She had set alerts for whenever the Lockett name appeared on social media, and the tone cued the latest mention.
This one was interesting.
Julian Lockett spotted on a date with a mystery woman. Could this femme fatale be the key to winning Atlanta’s most eligible playboy?
Elyse closed the app.
From what she knew of the second oldest of the Lockett children, Julian was the love ’em and leave ’em type. Anytime the word commitment was whispered, he ran in the opposition direction. So who could the lucky woman be and how could Elyse use the information to her advantage?
