Page 76 of Brenna, Brat

I went, totally confused, and very overdressed for whatever was happening. On my way to the hotel, I called all my siblings and my parents but no one was answering, and Dion didn’t either when I called him to track down my mom. It wasn’t too far to the Russell House Hotel and I made it in record time, leaving my car with the valet like Nicola had told me to, and rushing through the lobby to the elevator. It went up to the seventh floor and I hurried to room seven-two-five, where Juliet had told me to go before she cut off all communication and left me totally in the dark. Was it Beckett? Was something wrong with him?

“Juliet!” I yelled, and pounded on the door. “JuJu! Open this right now!”

And the door did open, but it wasn’t my sister.

“What are you doing here?” Campbell asked me.

“Me? I’m meeting Juliet. I think,” I added. “What areyoudoing here?”

“I’m supposed to meet Beckett about another job.”

He did look very, very nice in the suit he had on. It had been a while since I’d seen him in one, and I had missed…wait a minute. “What is going on?” I demanded, and he took my arm and guided me into the room.

“I got back from Dallas this afternoon,” he told me. “Then I got several emails from Beckett telling me that it was extremely important that I come to the Russel House at seven o’clock. He said that it was an opportunity for my future that would…” He looked me over. “Wow. What are you wearing? You look so beautiful.”

“Thank you. It’s just a dress I made that I was trying on for Nicola,” I answered dismissively, but the way he was staring was turning me into a bit of a Brenna firefly, with a definite glow. “He wanted you to come to this hotel room about a job opportunity?”

Campbell looked away from me to check his phone. “I thought it was about a job. He wrote about my plans for the future and an opportunity he thought I shouldn’t miss, but no.He didn’t actually say anything about employment.He told me to pick up the key at the desk, that the room was under my name. Then he didn’t respond when I wrote back with questions but I thought that after everything he’s already done for me, I’d better show up.”

“Juliet said I had to get here, that it was an emergency,” I stated. “All my siblings were telling me to hurry to this hotel, that it was very important.”

We looked at each other, and he smiled. “They’re tricky,” he told me.

“They’re contrived.”

“Well, we’re here, and the room is in my name for tonight. There was already a bottle of champagne on ice when I came in.”

“I heard that’s good for anxiety.”

“Who told you that? A hockey player? You know, those guys guzzle it in the locker room before games.” He opened the bottle and poured out two glasses. “To Texas,” he said, and held up his glass.

“Did you get the job?” My emotions seemed to be split down the middle, wanting that for him but not for myself.

“I won’t know for a while but I thought it went well. There’s a bunch of crap going on that I should tell you, now that we’re face to face,” he said, and lost his smile.

“You mean about your dad’s confession? I already know,” I answered. “He’s going to cop to the whole thing and say that you and Carrington are innocent.”

“You already heard? I’m not exactly sure what he’s going to say, but it does seem like I’m in the clear from any criminal culpability. As of right now, I’ll be able to keep my house, too, and some of my savings. Apparently, the money I was makingin my department was actually legitimate. We weren’t doing too badly, either.”

“Because you’re smart and capable,” I noted. And sweet, handsome, and wonderful. I held up my glass again. “Cheers.”

We drank and then he said, “I’ve spent so much time trying to get comfortable with the worst possible scenario, now it’s hard to believe that it won’t happen.”

“We would have gone to Laos or anywhere else with lint instead of money in our pockets, and that would have been fine,” I told him. “It would have been perfect for me.”

“Brenna…” He put down his glass, and also took mine from my hand and placed it on the table. “You can’t mean that. You would have taken off with me to a different country on the other side of the world, maybe never coming back? You didn’t even want to live in New York, and that’s only a short flight away.”

When I had lived there, returning home had meant a very long bus ride, but I understood what he was saying. “I do mean it. I would have missed everyone so much, but…”

“I didn’t want to get you involved in any of this,” Campbell said, and that was what Sophie’s husband had suggested, too. “Just when it seemed as if you might have liked me, my father was getting indicted.”

“Imighthave liked you?” I echoed. “You didn’t know how I felt?”

“Yeah, I did,” he answered. “From the moment you laid eyes on me, you thought I was an asshole. I guess I was, how I kept bothering you.”

“You weren’t bothering me. I waited to hear from you, hoping that I would. Wasn’t it obvious?”

“No, not to me. The first time we met, you looked at me like I was one of those gum sculptures. You were talking about the art and you were so smart and beautiful. Then you wouldn’t go out with me.”

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