12. Strong And Independent

On the first of October, Braylon made his way to West's office where he was meeting with Laken also. It was seven thirty on a Tuesday. Most would be in around eight on this floor. Meeting this early was normal for them, so he didn't think much of it.

The minute Laken saw him and, "When were you going to tell us you were dating someone?" came out of her mouth, he should have realized he couldn't keep this a secret for long.

"I knew a few weeks ago," West said, looking up from his phone casually, then going back to the message he was typing.

"You did?" Laken said with her hands on her hips. "How come you didn't say anything?"

"Yeah," Braylon said. "Why didn't you? And how did you find out?"

West lifted his eyes and put his phone down. "Because you're using my driver at times."

"So?" he said. "We all do."

"You do," West said. "And I don't care. But Lenny let it slip that you've gone to the same place more than once to get a woman."

"So?" he said.

"That's right," West said. "So. I don't care. What I do find interesting is that isn't all that I've heard."

He looked at his older brother, then his sister. He could tell by her face she had no idea what was going on.

"What's that?"

"That you're engaged to this mystery woman."

Laken started to laugh. "That's stretching it. No way. I'd only heard this week you were dating someone. We know you were single over the summer. Mom makes it a point to shove that in all our faces. I can understand with me not being around much, I do miss things."

"You miss more than you realize," he said.

"I brushed the engagement talk off. You know how to handle those things," West said.

"I do," he said. But he also realized that he had to explain to his siblings what was going on. If West heard it, others would.

"Who is she and how did you meet?" Laken asked.

This was as good as any way to lead into it. He told them that he'd noticed her in the coffee shop on Mondays. That she always seemed to be bothered by men. That he stepped up to help her out.

"You knew she was engaged and then you said you were the fiancé?" West asked. "Are you an idiot?"

"No," he said. "I was helping her."

"You were being big brother West," Laken said. "Just like he did with Abby."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't have done it if she had a ring on her finger," West argued.

"I don't know what came over me. I just saw my sisters being bothered and had to step in."

"I know that feeling," West said.

"Come to find out she works in the building," he said. Braylon went on to tell them about her being on the second floor and how they ran into each other another time. He apologized for stepping on toes and she admitted she wasn't engaged.

"So now you're newly dating someone, people in this building know you, and they think you're engaged because of a ruse she was playing?"

He let out a sigh. "Yes. That about sums it up."

Laken started to laugh. "I never thought you'd get into some kind of mess like this."

He frowned. "It's not a mess. We are dating. She only wore the ring to the coffee shop. Some guy at work had been asking her out and she forgot to take the ring off one day. He noticed it and jumped to conclusions forcing her to wear it there too. Then he saw us at lunch the first time."

"She admitted you were engaged?" West asked, lifting his eyebrow.

He knew that look. The one where his big brother was trying to look out for him and he didn't need it.

"She didn't. She never acknowledged it and hasn't once. It's just a ring on her finger that people assumed was an engagement ring. It's a cheap one she got online. She has never once told anyone she was engaged. As she and I said, it's a symbol in people's minds, but that doesn't mean it's what it is to her.

"Is she denying it?" Laken asked. "That's kind of the same thing as not acknowledging if she's not denying."

"I get it. But if she says I'm not her fiancé now then people will think she's cheating on some guy. That's not right either. It's not like her at all."

West held his hand up. "You're getting worked up. You can handle that any way you want."

"That's right," he said. "I can. It's just a stupid ring and people's assumptions. We've been dating for over a month now. We get along great."

"Tell us about her," Laken said.

This was where it might be tricky. "She's younger."

"How much younger?" Laken asked.

"Nine years," he said.

"She's Nelson's age?" Laken asked. "Oh my God."

"Laken," West said. "Abby is nine years younger than me. Stop it."

"Yeah, but she doesn't act it," Laken said.

"And you don't know Lilian to know if she acts her age either. She doesn't. Not even close. I get the feeling she's had a little bit of a hard life, but she's strong and independent. I don't want to say she's naive because she's not, but she didn't even know who I was. She's only been in Manhattan a few months."

"One of those," Laken said. "She wants to be an actress or something?"

He wanted to growl but didn't. "When did you get to be so cynical?"

"Yeah," West said. "When?"

"Sorry," Laken said. "I'm hungry and hormonal. I should have ordered food for this meeting."

"You set this meeting up," West said. "So you should have."

Laken turned and walked over to West"s mini bar, opened the fridge, didn't see anything she wanted, then opened some cabinets and came out with some breakfast bars.

"I'll be good now," she said. "Anyone want one?"

Both he and West shook their heads.

"Tell us what you know about her," West said.

He filled them in on what he knew. It was more than he realized even if there were times he thought she might be hiding things.

"She has no relationship with her mother and doesn't know who her father is. She's close with her sister Quinn who is married to a plastic surgeon and he's from the area."

"Did you look into her and see if her story is true?" West asked.

"Did you do that with Abby?"

"No," West said. "I knew she was telling me the truth."

"And I know Lilian is too."

Had he looked up Max Hamilton? Sure, he had. That was easy enough to do and see he had a practice in Lake Placid and prior to that worked at his father's practice in the area.

Max had a wife named Quinn and he'd seen pictures of them and saw the strong resemblance between the sisters. That was enough for him.

Not to mention Lilian had talked about Max's sister, Riley, who was a dentist in the area and married to the Chief of Police. There were too many things that fit well together and came out in side conversations with no evil plan.

"When can we meet her?" Laken asked. "We met Abby early on."

"You did," he said. "I planned on telling you guys soon. I just wanted to warm her up to it. Like Abby, she's a little skittish about our background. I've tried to tell her it's not much different than hers."

"It's always easy to say that," West said. "But they see what is in the present and not the past."

"I'm learning that," he said.

He'd wanted to see her place a few times and she'd brushed it off and they ended up at his. Only twice. The first night they'd had together and then this past weekend.

During the week they tried to have lunch or dinner at least once, but the rest were calls or texts.

It's not what he thought he'd have when he found someone he wanted to get to know better.

Maybe part of it was because no one in his family knew and he wasn't sure how to break the news. Now that they knew, he wouldn't feel as if he was sneaking so much when he never wanted to do that to begin with.

Now he could just say he was going to see Lilian and no one would think anything of it.

At least no one whose opinion he cared about.

"When are you going to tell Mom?" Laken asked.

"It's not like she is going to find out unless one of us in this room tells her," he said.

"True," West said. "But if we meet her soon, there is no reason not to tell Mom."

"Or there is," Laken said. "Because then she'll get on the rest of our cases to find someone."

"He's been dating her one month," West said. "We've all done that and not told Mom."

"But he's willing to let us meet her," Laken said. "And he doesn't normally do that so I'm going to guess it could be more? I mean how do you explain the broken engagement?"

He scowled at Laken. She was back to busting their asses now. "I'll deal with that part of things. No one questions us and you know it. People have seen us together enough in this building. I've told her she doesn't have to explain herself to anyone."

"What does she do?" Laken asked. "For work?"

He told her about Lilian's job. How she came here for one job and it ended up being another. "She's sticking it out when I know they treat her like shit. She never says much, but she gets texts and emails all weekend and at night from her boss for stupid shit when she's not working."

"It happens," West said.

"I know. She could leave but said she knows it won't look good on her resume so she'll give it a year. She's not like a lot of people her age expecting the moon and stars right away. You know, like Nelson. So don't compare the two."

West laughed. "We won't. Abby will be here this weekend if you and Lilian don't have plans. Maybe come out to the beach house and we'll round up Foster. I had to go through it, why not you?"

Braylon wanted to argue but then told himself that maybe doing this was the next best move.

He knew that Lilian was holding back because she didn't believe what they had would last. Introducing her to his family would be a good first step. Then maybe she'd do the same and tell her sister about him.

He'd been letting Lilian set the pace all along, but maybe it was time for him to step on the gas some.