Page 26 of Affinity

Shoving another bacon biscuit in his mouth, Reeves slowly chewed before he patted his belly. “If you keep feeding me like this, my trainer is going to kick my ass. Thanks for breakfast.” He stood with a groan. “I’m going to take a shower before Levi gets here.”

I left the food out on the table in case Levi wanted some and went into my bedroom to get to work. I didn’t want to disappoint Catherine on my first assignment.

I should have known things weren’t going to work in my favor when I found my laptop dead and my charger nowhere in sight. I spent over an hour going through all the boxes I’d discarded but had yet to cut down for recycling. After going through everything twice, I found it in the bathroom under a pile of towels. I wasn’t sure how it got there, but I knew I hadn’t put it in there. Had Reeves tried to sabotage me? If so, why? It made no sense.

Once my laptop starting charging and I could turn it on, I logged into my work email and started reading through them. Catherine was giving me some easy clients where I was to monitor what was being said about them in the media and to make sure they were not putting anything compromising about themselves on social media. Easy, meaning they didn’t get into trouble like my husband.

I was only twenty minutes into getting myself acquainted with one of five clients when Levi and Reeves started hooting and hollering, and what sounded like a round of high fives going by the slapping of skin. No matter how hard I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t, and it only got louder as time went on. The TV blared with the sound of sports announcers. I didn’t want to know more; if I did, it would only infuriate me more.

When the yelling turned constant, I slammed my laptop closed and stomped down the hallway. My feet slapped the stone floor as I gritted my teeth.

Walking into the living room, I found Reeves giving Levi a piggyback ride around the living room and part of the backyard with his arm in the air, swinging it around like a bull rider while calling out the worst yeehaw I’d ever heard. Stopping dead in my tracks, I placed my hands on my hips and waited to see how long it would take for them to notice me.

They continued to holler as they stopped in front of the TV while watching a soccer game. After what seemed like forever—but was probably only five minutes—I cleared my throat. I was sick and tired of waiting.

Levi turned with wide eyes and then promptly sunk down on the couch. “Jenner, dude, your . . . wife?” He looked at me with a strange expression. “Am I supposed to call you hiswifewhile in his house?” The way he said the word wife with a sneer had me taking a step back. Where did that come from? In Vegas, he had seemed nice, but maybe it was all an act.

“What the hell?” Reeves shouted. He took a menacing step toward his friend before he moved toward me. Blocking Levi from view, he put an arm out as if to tell me to stay where I was. “You know the situation. A situation I wouldn’t be in if it weren’t for you. Where the hell were you that night, huh?”

Levi jumped up from the couch, his face red. “How about you learn some fucking self-control? How many thirty-year-old men do you know who need babysitters?”

With every word that came out of his mouth, Reeves’ body tensed. “Get out of my house. I’ll personally be informing Catherine you’re fired.”

“You can’t fire me because I quit. I’ve got better things to do with my life than wipe your ass,” he spat.

I tried to look around Reeves’ large frame, but he continued to block me, his body hard as stone. The front door slammed, and the sound reverberated through the house. My body shook as I tried to process what just happened. Reeves continued to stand in front of me, and his body started to shake.

I rested my hand between his shoulder blades and asked quietly, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fucking great!” He flapped his arms at his side as he turned around. “Just fucking great! What a great friend he was,” he yelled, stomping off toward the kitchen. I followed behind, watching as he swung the refrigerator door open and pulled out a bottle of beer.

Grabbing his hand, I stopped him before he could take a sip. I didn’t want him to spiral all because Levi was an asshole. “You don’t need this. Don’t let him get to you. He’s obviously bitter about something.”

“Bitter?” he spat. “Why would he be bitter? You have no idea how much he was getting paid. He’s never going to make that kind of money elsewhere.”

“Then it’s his loss. Why don’t you continue the game while I call Catherine and tell her what happened?”

He scowled down at me. “Why would you call her?”

I didn’t want to tell him that I thought it would be better coming from me than him. I had a feeling Catherine would think it was Reeves’ fault. Plus, I wanted to make sure Levi had signed an NDA and wouldn’t leak anything to the press.

“Because I was already going to call her about a question I have for work.” It was only a half-lie. Reeves was my job, and I needed to call her about the situation that had just occurred.

He let out an annoyed sigh as his body deflated. “Fine. I’m going to go for a run to get rid of all this . . . ” He shook his body out. “Tell Catherine if she wants to talk to me, she can call me.” Starting to walk backward, he gave me a salute before he turned toward his room.

Letting out my own sigh, I went back to my room and grabbed my cell phone off my bed. Opening my email, I looked up Catherine’s number and dialed.

“CJJ Public Relations, Catherine Cole’s office. How may I help you?” A no-nonsense female voice answered.

“Catherine Cole, please.”

“May I ask who’s calling?”

“This is Abbi . . . Jenner.” It felt wrong to call myself a Jenner instead of Klein. I wondered how Reeves felt about me having his last name. While he had been holed up in his room the other day, I filled out all the paperwork but had yet to turn it in. Levi was supposed to take it, but I guess it was up to me now.

“Hold one second.”

Soft music hummed in my ear before Catherine came on the line. “Abbi, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

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