Dare to Tease: A Dare Nation Novella, Carly Phillips [well read books TXT] 📗

stuck or who he’d had any interest in pursuing a serious relationship with. Until Bri, but he wasn’t going to share his feelings about her with Braden. Whatever happened between them was private.

“Trust me or not, but I’m not discussing her with you.” Hudson kicked his feet up on the desk. “Want to order in dinner?”

After a long stare off, Braden nodded. He called in sandwiches from a nearby restaurant, and then talk turned to their plans to turn this run-down clinic into a state-of-the-art health center.

“Are you going to New York this weekend?” Braden asked, leaning back in his seat.

Hudson nodded. “My cousin is getting married, and we’re close. I wouldn’t miss it anyway, so I might as well kill two birds with one stone and talk to my father about releasing his hold on my trust fund.”

“It’s for a damned good cause.” Braden gestured around them.

Hudson didn’t need to look at the peeling beige walls, cracks on the ceiling, or old equipment to know his friend was right.

“I’ve never asked him for a cent for anything frivolous. I hope Dad takes that into account.” But he knew his father didn’t care about good deeds and helping others. He shrugged because he’d never understood his father and never would. “He and Evan were alike. Dedicated to the trading business and caring about things like family legacy and heirs. It sounds like a nineteenth-century drama.”

Evan had been married, he and his wife trying to get her pregnant when he’d passed. TMI as far as Hudson was concerned, but that’s how his family was. Trying to birth an heir to the fortune.

“I’m really sorry you lost him,” Braden said.

“I know you are, and I appreciate it.” It was different for his friend, Hudson thought. Braden was close with all of his siblings, whereas Hudson and Evan had been distant, not sharing things in common. “I miss the thought of him, but we rarely spoke, so I have some guilt tied up with it all.”

Braden frowned. “You shouldn’t carry that burden because you were different and didn’t bond. Grieve? Of course. But don’t feel guilty.”

“I’m working on it.” He swung his legs around and placed his feet on the floor and rose. “As far as our plan, we’ll know a lot more after I go home this weekend.” And he wasn’t looking forward to the trip or the groveling he’d have to do in order to get what he wanted.

He worked a late shift at the clinic and finally locked up for the night. The warm Florida air hit him when he exited, but after two years in Brazil, he was used to humidity and heat. He climbed into his Ford SUV, turned on the ignition, and raised the AC, plugging in his phone and setting the music before pulling out of the lot.

He drummed his fingers to a current song on the radio as he drove toward the apartment he rented in the same building as Braden, when his cell phone rang and his father’s name popped up on the screen.

Son of a bitch. Although he was tempted to ignore the call, his father would only try again later. The man was persistent, and Hudson had been ducking him lately, if only to give himself some peace.

He hit the button that accepted the call. “Hi, Dad.”

“Hudson, I’ve been trying to get ahold of you,” his father said in his typical annoyed tone, which came through the car speakers.

Hudson rolled his eyes. “I’m fine. How are you?”

“Your mother and I are fine as well, something you would know if you’d picked up or called me back.”

“I have two jobs,” Hudson reminded his father. “My free time is minimal.”

“You wouldn’t need to work those hours if you came home and took a job with Northfield International.” The family international trading business that Hudson wanted nothing to do with.

He let out a low chuckle. “Are you forgetting you paid for medical school?”

“Yes, well, as you know, I had your brother to ultimately run the company then.” Fate had disrupted Martin’s plan.

To this day, Hudson didn’t know how his father felt about the death of his firstborn son beyond the fact that he no longer had an heir to take over. Martin and Lucille Northfield thought they were nobility and treated everyone as a commodity that was either useful to them or not. For years his parents’ attitude had suited Hudson fine because he’d been able to live life on his own terms. Now they needed him, and he wasn’t about to give in.

“Are you coming home this weekend?” his father asked when Hudson didn’t take the bait and answer the jab about his brother’s death and Martin wanting Hudson to work with him.

“I’ll be there,” Hudson muttered.

“Good. I’m looking forward to talking about this further.”

In other words, to harangue Hudson and try and change his mind. What he needed was a distraction, something or someone to shift his father’s focus. Someone to keep Hudson busy and away from his family. His mind drifted back to Bri and that stunning kiss. It was more potent than anything he’d ever experienced, and he could have drowned in her and died a happy man.

“I’m bringing a date,” he heard himself say.

And despite not knowing whether he could pull off the barely formed notion, he couldn’t deny he liked the idea of taking Bri with him to the city. She was everything he’d just thought about and then some. A beautiful distraction to keep Hudson too busy to get pulled into endless conversation with his father except for the one about his trust fund. Not to mention, it gave him the opportunity to get to know her better away from her overprotective brothers.

His father began to cough, and Hudson waited for him to pull himself together. “You’re what?”

Hudson frowned at the ridiculous question. His father had heard him just fine. “I’m bringing a date,” he enunciated just to be sure. Though it wouldn’t be easy, his cousin would