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The suite was off the kitchen and everyone else had bedrooms upstairs so they were out of the way.
Even the family room that most sat in at night was at the other end of the kitchen and provided distance that way.
He hadn’t been upstairs and didn’t need to go, but he, Max, Davy and Carson went downstairs to play video games while the girls baked cookies last night and got food ready for the day.
It reminded him of spending time with his brothers, but he knew damn well this was Max and Davy’s way to question him and find out his intentions with Lilian.
Since he knew he and his brothers would do this to any man who was interested in Laken or Talia, he wouldn’t say a word.
But Lilian had told him that her family didn’t know the truth about how they met. The whole fake engagement ring deal. So he kept that out of the story and just said what he’d told his mother. That he’d seen Lilian at the coffee shop a few times, some guy was hitting on her and he went over to save the day.
Max and Davy had laughed over that and then both nodded their heads.
“There is nothing wrong with being confident,” Braylon said. “I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to fake it until I made it. West too.”
“You wouldn’t know that by his career now,” Quinn said.
“No,” he said. “But you can’t get to where you are in life if you show too many weaknesses. At least we always thought so. Boy, the two of us sweated some of those deals in the beginning.”
“Lily said that you went to work for West when you graduated?”
“I did,” he said. “I had a few job offers. I’ll be honest and say I weighed them. I thought maybe I could bring in a steady paycheck to help West and my family out while still working for him, but there weren’t enough hours in the day.”
“That had to be hard turning down something steady,” Max said.
“It was. But the truth is, you just stand with your family when you can. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But I had something to fall back on. By the time I graduated, West already had invested in three businesses and was looking to raise money for more. He was diversifying and taking out loans to do it. Talk about scary, but he was able to make it work.”
Lots of juggling of funds back then. On the outside they’d shown the world they were successful, but back home they were sharing an apartment and budgeting like their mother did food costs.
West spent money when he needed to, but when he didn’t, he was tight as could be.
Not anymore. One of those investments in a social media platform took off and West had managed to convince them to sell within two years to a bigger company. It was the first big cash out in West’s pocket and it came six months after Braylon graduated.
Over twenty million, his brother had made. He’d taken that money and invested in more and more and though he had some losses over the years, they were few and far between.
“Lily knows what scary is,” Lara said. “She told me she was nervous about moving there, but she was used to big city living and wanted to get back to it. Davy and I didn’t know what it’d be like here. There isn’t much to do like when we lived in Rye.”
He looked at Lilian and saw her blush over Lara’s comment.
Before he could ask where the big city living was prior, Quinn said, “Lily, why don’t you help me clear the table and the guys can go relax and watch some more football before dessert?”
“Sounds good,” she said, standing up.
“Let me help,” he said. Braylon was hoping to hear some more being said because the two sisters and Lara were giving each other looks he couldn’t quite figure out.
“Nope,” Quinn said. “You’re a guest and Max knows the rules. He can fill you in on them.”
“Rules?” he asked, looking at Max.
“Don’t fight with Mom on the holidays,” Davy said. “I know them too. She has things organized the way she wants and no one can touch anything.”
“Oh,” he said. “I don’t want to get in trouble by breaking the rules.”
“It’s only for the holidays,” Jocelyn said. “During the week we eat at the table off the kitchen and we have to help then.”
“As you should,” Lilian said. “One person shouldn’t do all the work.”
“That’s right,” Max said. “The kids know that. But some little girls don’t like to do things like their own laundry even when they try six outfits on a day and throw them on the floor.”
