His Always: Book 1 Rhodes Character Series

Chapter 7: Tate

I sit down at Oceans. I am the first of my siblings to arrive at our scheduled lunch. I don't even need to glance at the menu, as I have ordered the same thing since I was a child. I order a bourbon and coke to drink as I wait for my two less punctual siblings to make an appearance. While scrolling through my phone, I text Natalie to see if she wants to grab lunch sometime this week to catch up. I know this time of year puts her in a funk and the more distractions, the better. I hit send as two hands come down and slap my shoulders, giving them a hard squeeze. I don't even need to look up to know that Eric has arrived. He slides into the chair next to me.

"Sup bro, how was your shift yesterday?" I ask as he picks up the menu. I skip his question, wanting to immediately inquiry about what Madison needed the other night. "What did Madison need the other night?" He looks around, making sure Madison isn't walking in this direction before he speaks. "Oh, it actually had nothing to do with Madison. But you can't tell Natalie about any of this. She doesn't need anymore stress on her plate." I nod in agreement, giving him a look to continue on, not knowing where this story was going or how much time we had before our now very late sister walked up. "Pen was having an issue. She had passed out a work. She's working way too many doubles. Madison is listed as her emergency contact and Pen was being hostile at the hospital when they were just trying to check her out." I give my brother a puzzled look. "Why couldn't I have been there? Pen has known me forever." Pen is like another sister to me. She has been around my family for as basically as long as I have. I first met her when her family moved in across the street from ours in our childhood home. Heck, she was my first kiss up in her treehouse when we were playing spin the bottle at twelve.

He utters something I can't hear under his breath before his face perks up and he stands to greet our sister. I stand and hug Madison and pull out her chair. "Hello sis. You used to be much better at showing up on time, if I remember." I chuckle, just wanting to give her a hard time. She takes a deep breath as she sits and lets it out rather harshly. "I am literally so sorry. We are so busy at work with this new client of ours. He is so demanding and I've been working all hours of the day. I really thought I was going to cancel this whole lunch thing all together. So, count it as a small miracle that I am even in your presence." I have to say my usually extremely put together sister looks a bit on the frazzled side. I signal for the server to come over and get both of their drink orders. It's when my sister orders their most expensive red that my eyebrows lift at my brother. She is hardly a day-drinker and certainly not in the middle of what is a work-day for her.

"Well, Mad, is there anything we can do to help?" She makes a sarcastic noise in the back of her throat before a little giggle escapes. "No, both your brains are far too dumb to be of any help to me." Eric smacks the table. "Beauty, brains, and sass. Let us all say a prayer for your future spouse." She sends a dagger look over to my brother before returning her gaze to me. "Tate, have you chatted with Natalie in a while? I ran into her the other day while I was at the hospital —" Both Eric and I cut her off. "Why were you at the hospital?" The server returns with thier drinks, giving Madison time to ponder the question.

"Thank you. It's actually not your business, and it's not yours either. I can do things in my life that I don't inform you about." Looking at both Eric and I as she sips her expensive glass of wine that undoubtably will end up on my tab. "I mean fine. If you don't want to say, I can just ask around the hospital. I'm sure someone knows." She ignores my statement, per usual. She takes a deep breath, already showing her annoyance. "Back to what I was saying. I ran into Natalie, sitting in the stairwell. She looked like she had been crying. I was supposed to get dinner with her a few nights back, but she had to cancel to stay late for a case and I was swamped with work, anyway." I take a sip of my drink and look at Eric to see his take on this situation. Mr. Secrets probably already knows about Natalie's stairwell encounter, but kept it from me. I scan his face to try to get a read on his reaction. He gives nothing away.