So Wrong, So Right

  So Wrong, So Right

  Brenda Ford

  Copyright © 2019 by Brenda Ford

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a piece of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.

  If you are reading this book and book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Published: Brenda Ford 2019

  brenda@authorbrendaford.com

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  Author’s Note

  Stay connected with Brenda Ford

  Also by Brenda Ford

  Author’s Note

  So Wrong, So Right is a full-length standalone novel. At the end, I’ve included an excerpt from “Men In Control”, the complete Smith Brothers Series.

  So Wrong, So Right concludes at around 90% on your device.

  Happy Reading!

  XO, Brenda Ford

  Blurb

  My father’s death brought me closer to the enemy.

  The woman I never thought I’d even like… let alone love.

  My step-sister.

  She’s off-limits.

  This is filthy.

  I need to suppress all thoughts about her.

  I tried telling myself all those things.

  Nothing worked.

  I couldn’t deny that I want Rue.

  My step-mother was after the family fortune.

  But she’s different.

  Her blue eyes and those cute freckles have me dying for her.

  This is about to get hot, crazy, and a whole lot messier.

  Especially when I discover her… little secret.

  Chapter One

  James

  “Just couldn’t leave Stansford, could you?” Noah teases me with a laugh. “I knew it. Of all the students in the education class last year, I knew it would be you sticking around for a post grad degree.”

  This man is more my friend than my teacher, and he has been ever since I started my course a few years ago. I like him even more now because he’s going the extra mile, allowing me to assist him, to give me work experience in the education sector as well as continuing my studies. I am going to be way ahead when I start looking for jobs . I might not know what work I’m going towards exactly, I just know that I want to work with people. Helping them, rather than in my father’s clinical money making machine. Sure, he has everything that he wants, and he can afford whatever, but I don’t want to follow in his footsteps.

  “Well, you know me.” I shrug and smile. “I always have to go the extra mile. I’m never quite satisfied.”

  “Whatever you decide to do after this, you will kick ass. You are the best I have ever had come through these doors. Determined, fierce, and hard working. That’s why I have agreed to help you… by letting you help me.” He lets out a laugh and I can’t help joining in. “Now, come on, let’s get this office of mine organized.”

  “Not exactly what I had in mind when I agreed to help you. But so be it.” I shrug and get to work. “At least my resume will look good, as long as I keep the words ‘bitch boy’ off it.”

  “Oh, come off it. You know it won’t always be like this. Anyway, do you have somewhere better to be?”

  “Not at the moment, no,” I reply coyly. “Maybe later on. I have a date lined up.”

  That sounds far more exciting than it actually is. Really, I have a night out with a girl who is in my phone contacts as ‘Blonde Chick – Ford Bar’. So, all I really know about her is that I met her on a night out and drunkenly agreed to a date when I didn’t even know her name. I don’t even know if I really want to go.

  But then again, she isn’t going to mind, is she? They never do. They don’t even really see me as James Roberts, the twenty two year old man who has dreams of his own to follow. They just see me as the son of a billionaire. Maybe I have grown cynical over time, and I tar everyone with the same brush, but that’s how it has always been. At first, I thought that I was a hit at Stansford University, and I was excited to see who I might meet, but as it became clear that the girls were expecting me to take them to expensive places and buy them fancy gifts, the penny dropped. To them, I was a cash cow, son of Benjamin Roberts, with full access to his bank account.

  “Tell me about this date,” Noah continues. “Just a first date, right? You know how I feel about seconds.”

  “I know.” I roll my eyes. “It gives the wrong impression, it could lead to more, and having more isn’t good.”

  “Especially not at your age,” he warns. “You are far too young to settle down. You need to sow your wild oats and have fun, or you will end up regretting it. That’s what leads to mid-life crises.”

  I make an agreeable noise, even if I don’t really know if I fully agree with Noah’s down hearted look on love. Sure, I have grown cynical about the intentions of women, but if I find someone who feels right, I’m not opposed to seeing where it could lead. I don’t feel like I’m too young or I need to have more fun. Been there, done that.

  Who knows, maybe ‘Blonde Chick – Ford Bar’ could end up being “the one”. It isn’t exactly the most romantic of starts, but not every true love story begins in a fairy tale way. That isn’t real life.

  “I know you don’t think that I know what I’m talking about,” Noah continues. “But I do. I’m almost a decade older than you, and I still feel too young to settle down. There is just so much life to live.”

  “And you don’t think you can live that life with someone special?” I dare ask. “As a couple?”

  “It doesn’t work that way.” He shakes his head slowly. “You think it will, but it won’t.”

  I fall into silence and try and focus on what I’m doing, but to be fair, organizing doesn’t take up too much brain power, so I ponder what Noah has said to me instead. I guess I haven’t exactly seen true love play out in my life. So, in a way, maybe he’s right. I would like to believe that my mom and dad were meant to be, but since she passed away when I was just a baby and too young to remember her, I don’t know. She was cruelly rip
ped away from him, which has led to all of the poor choices that have come since. Or maybe they could have been in a toxic place themselves before she died, leaving me surrounded by hate… I’ll never know.

  What I do know is the second Mrs. Roberts, or Mary the gold digger as I prefer to think of her, came along six or seven years ago, is only in it for what she can get. It’s so obvious that she doesn’t really love him, more his wallet, but my father can’t seem to see it.

  But, just because other people can’t make love work for them, doesn’t mean the same will happen for me…

  Why am I here? I think desperately to myself as I glance around the bar, at all the happy couples reminding me that I don’t have any chemistry with Tillie at all. I should have put that in my cell phone instead, rather than her hair color and where I met her. I should have just stayed at home where I didn’t have to force small talk, because this was painful.

  I nearly did because I love my apartment in the city, it’s much better than living on campus. Staring at the cold four walls in the endless silence wasn’t the most exciting thing to do. Still, it was better than this.

  “So, Tillie.” I force a smile on to my face. “Do you enjoy being at Stansford University?”

  “Sometimes.” She shrugs and smirks. “It can be hard work though. Business is a bitch.”

  “What do you want to do once you finish? Go into business yourself?”

  “I don’t know… I might just work for the family company. I don’t really have any ideas for myself.”

  Urgh, that immediately makes everything inside of me sink. I don’t know how to handle that because it’s the opposite of what I want. There isn’t a chance in hell that I will follow in the footsteps of anyone else. I want to make my own way, build my own empire.

  I don’t have a single thing in common with this girl. The last hour has told me that.

  I should make an excuse to go, but instead I hear myself telling Tillie that I’m going to the bar and asking her if she wants another drink. Am I that desperate not to be alone that I will stay to see what happens?

  “Hey there, handsome.” The bar maid shoots me a flirty wink. I don’t know her, but this is a common bar for students, so I have seen her a few times. Not that she has ever flirted before. “Date not going so well?”

  “Is it that obvious?” I laugh awkwardly. “Not so much. I don’t know why, but we just don’t click.”

  “Oh, well that’s chemistry, isn’t it? A chemical reaction that you can’t control no matter what you do. You can’t help it if you don’t feel it, it’s just one of those things.” She holds up her hands in a surrendering gesture. “And no, before you ask, I’m not one of those people that believe the click can grow. It’s either there or not.”

  I glance back to Tillie, a little disappointed. I don’t know if I have ever really felt that click with someone. Sexual attraction, sure, but that’s the easy part. I know I shouldn’t worry about being single, because I am only twenty two, but with dates like these, it does feel a little hopeless.

  “Well, I guess we should just have one more drink,” I tell the bar maid. “Then leave.”

  “Oh, well if you don’t want to leave, you can always come for a drink with me.”

  I narrow my eyes at her, wondering if she actually likes me or she’s just asking me out because she knows who I am. Does she feel the click? I don’t think that I do with her, so I don’t think that’s a good idea…

  “Er, yeah maybe.” I offer her a weak smile. “We’ll see how things go when we finish our drinks.”

  I don’t want to give her any hope, but I don’t want to be cruel either, so I turn quickly and take the drinks over to Tillie. She’s been on her cell phone the entire time, barely paying me any attention. It even takes her a moment to stop doing whatever she’s doing as I sit beside her. I really don’t like the way that technology as overtaken conversations. I find it really hard to compete with phones. Maybe it’s because my life hasn’t been completely taken over by social media. It’s there, but not the center of my universe.

  “Oh, thanks.” Tillie smiles and sips from her drink. “You know, you’re really different to how you were the other night. Is that because you were drunk then? Because you were really loud and chatty. You’re kind of quiet now.” She cocks her head to one side. “I think you need to drink some more because we had fun.”

  Urgh, the party side of me isn’t who I want to be all the time. Now and again, sure, but if that’s who she likes, that isn’t me. “Sorry, am I boring you? I don’t want to do that, I’m just…”

  I’m almost relieved to hear my cell phone ringing to end the tension of the moment, because I don’t know where I was really going with that conversation. So much for slagging off technology. I grab it out my pocket and hit the answer button without even looking at the number calling me.

  “Hello?” I put a finger in my other ear and turn away from Tillie.

  “James, we… we need you.” Oh God, it’s Mary the gold digger on another hysterical rant.

  “What’s going on?” I can’t keep the sound of being bored from my tone.

  “Your father… I don’t know what happened, but he collapsed.” That makes me sit up straighter. “He’s in the hospital and I don’t know what to do. I need you to come here, it’s bad.”

  “Fuck, seriously?” My heart pounds violently against my rib cage. All I can think about is my poor father, this date, and the drama in this bar flies out the window. “Okay, I’m on my way.”

  Chapter Two

  Rue

  I haven’t stepped on American soil for a very long time. Years, actually. I may have even lost my US twang over the last few years of residing with my father in England, and now that I’m back here, I can’t help but wonder if this is the right thing to do. Is it a good idea to be back in California? Am I going to find what I want?

  I suck in a deep, slightly shaky breath as I wait at baggage collection, wondering what it is I’m really looking for now. Over the last few weeks as I was planning this trip, I told myself that I needed to give my mom a chance, that I owe it to her to see if she’s changed, but now I’m not so sure. She won’t be the Mary Nelson I knew before she got married. I’m definitely going to find Mary Roberts, wife of a billionaire, but our years apart might have made her miss me. She may want to reconnect and see what we can be.

  I finished my university course in London at the beginning of the year and have been searching for what comes next. I don’t know if America will hold the answers for me, but it’s worth a try.

  Ring, ring… Ring, ring… Ring, ring…

  It takes me a couple of moments to realize that it’s my phone ringing. I didn’t even know I had it turned on until that very moment. The flight was tiring so my brain isn’t working at full capacity.

  “Hello? Lydia?” I smile to myself at the thought of my best friend back at home. I always know exactly where I stand with her, which is something I love. “I’m here, I landed.”

  “Rue, you haven’t made your mind to stay yet, have you?” she whines back. “Because England misses you.”

  “I already told you that I’m not going to stay,” I laugh back. “This is just a fleeing visit. Something I need to do. But I will let you know when I am on the way back, so we can have a night out.”

  “You can’t even have a night out in America, can you? You are a little off twenty one, so you’re sober.”

  “Probably for the best. University brought some mad times with it. Plus… I don’t know if drinking booze and facing my mother will be the best idea in the world.” I shudder at the idea. “She’s going to be challenging.”

  Lydia knows how challenging as well. As much as another person who hasn’t ever met her can. My mom basically packed me up and sent me off to live with my father when she got married to her very rich husband. She gave some bull shit excuse about it being a better life for me, but really, she didn’t want me in the way. She had clearly found what she was looking for, an
d I wasn’t a part of that picture. Yes, it hurt me and made my head spin, but I got over it when I realized that I could have a great life in the UK… or I thought I did.

  Now, being back here, I don’t know if I ever did really recover or if I just pushed it to the side.

  “You know that I will be on the other end of the phone if you need me,” Lydia continues. “It doesn’t even matter about the time difference. I got your back.”

  I cradle the phone closer to my ear, a spike of home sickness careening through me. I wish that I was back with Lydia, talking, watching movies, styling one another’s hair… the usual things. Anything other than being here.

  “Yeah well I might take you up on that later on. I don’t even know if my mom realizes that I’m serious when I said that I’m coming. She probably isn’t even expecting me, and I’ll end up out on the streets.”

  “I’m sure step daddy, Benjamin Roberts, will have enough room for you in his mansion.”

  “It might not be big enough, believe me. If I need to get away from that woman, I will.”

  “Well, I will have my phone next to me at all times, so hit me up if you have to.”