Forever Blake (Once Upon a Player Book 3) by Elena Matthews (free books to read .TXT) 📗

also wouldn’t classify it as eating either. More like inhaling the cookies like a rabid dog.

“Hey, man, what are you doing here?” I ask as I crack my neck from side to side before stretching my arms out in front of me, my back aching from sitting in the same position for hours.

“Well, just because you bail on me doesn’t mean I have to bail on you,” he tells me, wandering inside.

“Sorry, but today has to be the fucking worst.”

“And that’s why I brought you your favorite fuck-the-world snack.”

My eyes light up. Maybe the day can improve after all. “Tacos?”

“Of course.”

I have food for different moods.

Pizza when I’m drunk.

Chinese when it’s been a day of wins.

My mom’s homecooked meals when I need comfort food.

And tacos when the world continues to screw me over, like today.

“You are my goddamn hero, Jace.”

“It’s what big brothers are for,” he says as he sets a bag of tacos down in front of me before taking a seat opposite my desk.

Fueled by my hunger, I waste no time, opening up the bag, taking out a neatly wrapped taco, and demolishing it in just three bites.

“Shit, I didn’t realize you’d be so hungry. I feel bad for only getting you two.”

I shake my head as I swallow a mouthful of my second taco. “No, two is my limit.”

“I know; I know, or your precious six-pack would suffer.”

“You know it,” I say with a mouthful of food.

I watch as he takes in my bigger office—a perk of becoming a junior partner.

“How are you liking your new space?”

“Honestly, I haven’t had time to really take it all in. Hence the unpacked boxes.” I point over to the floor by the window, where a couple of boxes sit.

“Well, take it in then. You’ve been working your entire career for this moment. Enjoy it, man.”

I shake my head. “Not today. I just want to finish my work and start tomorrow like today never even began.”

“We all have bad days.”

I look at my brother, and I can’t help the laugh that escapes. “I guarantee, today tops any bad days you have ever had.”

“Prove it then.”

Finishing my second taco, I grab my bottled water and take a few sips as I get up from my seat and shut my door. I know it’s only Jace and me left in the building, but I shut the door regardless, not wanting anyone from the law firm to hear what I’m about to say. It would be the end of my career at Sullivan-Gould—that’s for sure.

“You can’t tell a soul about this,” I warn him, giving him a stern stare.

He does a cross over his heart. “I cross my heart and hope to die,” he says, smirking slightly. “Now, spit it out.”

“You remember that girl I hooked up with on Friday night?”

He nods. “Yeah, the new bartender. Ever, right?”

“Yeah, but how did you know her name?”

He raises a brow. “You told me. Yesterday, when we had dinner at Mom and Dad’s.”

Oh yeah. I remember telling Jace last night while the family was at our parents’ house.

Wow, was that yesterday? After today, yesterday feels like a million years ago.

“Her name isn’t actually Ever. Well, it’s her middle name. Her first name is Reagan.”

“Okay…” he says, waiting for me to elaborate.

“And her last name is Sullivan.”

Immediately, his eyes widen. “Wait, as in your boss, Edwin Sullivan?”

“Yep, but that isn’t the worst of it. Guess who started their summer internship here today?”

Jace’s jaw drops open, and a bubble of surprised laughter leaves his throat. “Shit.”

“Yes, shit. I slept with my boss’s daughter. But not just his daughter. His fresh-out-of-college twenty-two-year-old daughter.”

Jace throws his head back, and I have to sit and watch him howl with laughter for a full minute. I roll my eyes when he starts pounding his hand against his thigh as the fit of laughter gets too overwhelming.

“Are you fucking finished?”

Taking a few deep breaths, he manages to compose himself, though a few chuckles still escape.

“Does Edwin know?” he finally asks, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Of course he doesn’t! Do you think I’d still be alive if he knew his newest junior partner slept with his only daughter?”

“Did you know she was his daughter before you slept with her?”

“Jesus, do you think I was born yesterday? No, I didn’t know. If I had, I would have left the bar with you that night.”

“Wow, I’ve never seen you this high-strung before.”

“Well, I’ve never slept with my boss’s daughter before. Of all the fucked up things I’ve done, this one takes the cake.”

“How did you find out?”

“The worst way possible. Edwin introduced her to me in his office. I thought I was going to have a stroke.”

Chuckling, he says, “God, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall.”

“I’m so glad you find this amusing, Jace.”

“Sorry, but how can you not find the humor in this?”

“How can you find humor in this? I slept with my boss’s daughter. That isn’t okay. Plus, she’s just a kid.”

“She’s twenty-two, not twelve, Blake.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?” I balk at him.

“She’s a grown ass-woman, but obviously, it bothers you. Didn’t you think of asking the woman who you were planning to sleep with how old she was?”

“It never came up, and honestly, she didn’t act like a twenty-two-year-old. I just assumed she was older. She was just so confident and levelheaded.”

“And what, twenty-two-year-olds aren’t supposed to be confident or levelheaded?”

“Not the ones I knew when I was twenty-two.”

“To be fair, Blake, at twenty-two, the only girls you hung out with were party chicks looking for a good time. I’m guessing Reagan is a different kettle of fish if she’s interning here.”

I nod. “I guess so. She is heading to Harvard Law School in the fall.”

“Yep, party girls don’t go to Harvard Law School. The only bar they’ll ever know is the one they drink in.”

I snort, chuckling a little.

“So, what’s going to happen between you two now?” Jace asks a few beats later.

“Well, nothing. Even if her