by Alina Jacobs
"My evening schedule is full," he said.
"Someone needs to take Henry home."
"Are you seriously arguing about who's going to drive home?" I heard Hunter's voice come out of the phone speaker. "I can't believe you put me on this call, Liam."
"This is your fault, Hunter," Garrett said loudly. My jaw clenched. The easiest way to work Hunter up into an angry froth was to blame him for the new cell phone law.
"Stop it," I hissed to Garrett. "You're not going to have to deal with him!"
"I heard that," Hunter said. "Have Adrian drive."
"He's working on the marketing push," I replied.
"Have Josie drive, then," Garrett said. "There. Problem solved."
I looked at Josie. She looked a little nervous.
"In my car?" I asked dubiously.
"Yes, Mace, in your car. Her car is broken," Garrett sneered. "You know, sometimes I wonder how you made it this far in life."
I waved him away and went back to strategizing with Jack and Liam while I buckled Henry in.
Josie sat down in the car, and I resisted the urge to stop her as she pulled the seat forward, adjusted the mirrors, and fiddled with the radio settings. I would never be able to put everything back how I liked it. It would take months. I was sure of it.
"Are you even paying attention, Mace?" Liam asked through the phone.
Josie clenched both hands on the steering wheel and slowly pulled out of the parking lot.
"Sure," I told my brother. "I'm thinking that if we offer to pay for park improvement and—"
Screeeeech!
"Ignore that!" Josie shouted.
I looked over. "Why were you even driving that close to the light pole? This is a huge parking lot! You have all the room in the world!"
25
Josie
Mace looked shaken when I parked the car in front of the large estate house. I took Henry out of his car seat, and we all inspected the damage.
"You can probably just buff that out," I said with more confidence than I felt. The scratch looked deep.
Several of Mace's brothers ran out of the house.
"Hey, Arlo. Hey, Otis. Hey, Calvin! How was school?" Mace greeted his brothers.
"Boring. Come play tag," they begged, pulling at Mace.
"I have a meeting," he said apologetically.
"You always have a meeting," Otis complained. His brothers looked sad. Mace looked guilty.
"I'll come play with you," I told them. "Just let me change."
Mace smiled at me then got in his car to drive off. Or tried to. His little brothers and I watched as he took several minutes to readjust the seat and the mirrors.
"You're not driving anymore," he rolled down the window and told me before taking off. "You're so short I could barely fit in the seat."
"You're just freakishly tall," I countered.
I thought about the marketing meeting while I changed into athleisure wear. Anke and I would go on regular shopping sprees for clothes, but to scrounge up some cash, I sold most of what I had bought. Not that I was sad—I had gained enough weight from stress eating that none of them fit right. But I kept the yoga pants; they were so comfortable, and they still fit.
Willow: Did you recover from your exploration of Mace's crotch area?
Josie: You don't have to make it sound so dirty
Willow: Except it was. It looked like you were giving him head
Josie: Ugh
Willow: If Tara didn't like you before, now she really has it out for you. Her nose was twitching nonstop. She kept going on and on about how you were going to drive Svensson PharmaTech into the ground
Josie: If anyone's ruining that company it's her. No offense, I know you worked on it, but that marketing scheme is exceptionally bad
Willow: *sigh* yes I know and no, no offense. I just hope the last check from PharmaTech clears before they realize what an abject disaster it is
Josie: I feel like we shouldn't just let her ruin the campaign. The gene therapy procedure is a big deal for Mace
Willow: Feel free to come up with something better. I'll text you a link to where all the work so far is
I checked the link to make sure it worked then made a mental note to review the material that evening. Little fists banged on the tiny house door, and I closed my laptop. I had an appointment.
"Who's banging on my tiny house?" I roared in my best troll voice. "I'm going to eat you up!" Mace's little brothers all shrieked in delight as I raced after them.
The back lawn was perfect for running around. It was a little overgrown, but I could see how, back in the days when the ornate, beaux-arts style was all the rage, a designer had carefully planned the grounds. The lawn was mostly flat but rolled slightly to give the appearance of a natural meadow. Large trees framed the edges, carefully planted to frame picturesque views of the house and the outbuildings. Entrances to bridle and walking paths were visible at the edges of the vast lawn. As it grew dark, lights came on, marking the pathways and illuminating the grand house.
By that time, Mace's teen brothers had joined in the game as well, and we all gathered on the terrace as Henry pretended to slay the troll witch—me—and my two crazy dragons—Isaac and Bruno.
"I'm hungry," Henry announced, flopping down on top of me.
"Me too. What would you like to eat?"
"Pizza!"
"We can order some," Isaac said.
"Mace lets you order pizza?" I asked him.
"No, but he's not here, so…" He shrugged
"Why don't I make you pizza?" I told them.
"You can do that?" Otis asked as the whole squad followed me into the house. I stood in the hallway for a moment, looking around.
"Kitchen is that way," Calvin said helpfully.
The kitchen was just as big and beautiful as it was when I first saw it.
"And it's even well stocked," I remarked, opening up the cupboard and the large refrigerators. "And you have a stand mixer?" I exclaimed as Isaac carried the large shiny-red mixer out and placed it on the island.
"We have three!" he said proudly, bringing out a yellow and a blue one.
During my YOLO days with Anke, I took various cooking classes, starting with Italian cuisine because, hello? Carbs and cheese. Needless to say, I was pretty good at making pizza.
While the dough proofed, we chopped toppings. It was fun being around the kids, but I had to stay on them. I was a little nervous with the knives, but the older kids helped the younger ones. All the while, the Svensson boys told me about their older brothers.
"Archer is the best," Nate said.
"No, Liam's the best!"
"I'm sure they're all great," I said.
Calvin nodded. "Remy's cool. Greg is mean."
"He's not that bad!"
"Mike always brings toys even though Hunter doesn't want him to."
"Yeah, he brought us a bunch of drones! But now most of them are stuck in the trees," Nate admitted.
They all agreed Hunter was scary.
"What does he do?" I asked.
"Nothing. He doesn't yell or anything. He gives you the evil eye," Billy said and pretended to glare at Calvin. He laughed.
"What about Mace?"
"He's probably actually the best. He's always here. Or he used to be," Bruno said.
"He's really busy lately. I'm sure it's temporary," I assured them.
"I guess," Calvin said and shoved his brother. Otis picked up the pepper he was cutting to throw it at Calvin.
"Nope," I said. "We aren't throwing food."
"You're mean!" Otis yelled at me.
What the—I hate kids.
"No, she's not," Bruno scolded him. "She's a thousand times nicer than Mom. Mom would never cook or play tag."
Otis hugged me, getting flecks of pepper and basil on my clothes. "I didn't mean it. You're the best. And you're pretty too."
"So are you," I told him.
Yeah, I love kids.
26
Mace
I felt bad about working so much. I promised myself that as soon as the launch of the gene therapy product was done and the Platinum Provisions factory was approved, I would spend more time with my little brothers.
But I was feeling admittedly less than confident about the marketing campaign since the meeting that morning. And as for the factory… as soon as I walked into the ornate meeting room in the city hall building, I could see that Meghan was not going to make it simple.
The meeting was open to the public, and it was a full house. Any time the Svenssons made any sort of change to the town, people wanted to know.
Mayor Barry Loring, Meg's great-uncle, was there. So were her two little sisters. They did not look happy to be there.
"This is a preliminary planning meeting for the proposed Svensson PharmaTech and Platinum Provisions research facility and factory," the mayor said. "Before we call this meeting to order, I'd like to thank Jack Frost for bringing refreshments." He held up one of the cookies.
Jack stood up, impressive in his dark-blue suit. "My girlfriend, Chloe, provided them from her bakery."
"We're all fans of the Grey Dove Bistro!" Mayor Barry said.
"Depending on how this evening goes, she might bring a franchise to Harrogate, or you could run us all out of town," Jack joked. The crowd laughed, and Liam gave Jack a fist bump.
"We have this in the bag," he whispered.
"Let's not confuse cookies with the fact that the Svenssons' new facility is going to tear up trees and destroy green space," Meghan said.
In a normal city, the lieutenant mayor wouldn't speak out against a particular project. But this was a small town, not New York City. Even though there had been growth, Harrogate retained the small-town anything-goes mentality.
Liam stood up and walked to the front of the room, where we had several site plans and renderings displayed.
"Obviously our company is very environmentally conscious," he said. "We are cutting down a minimal amount of trees, and anything that is cut down, we're putting in the new park we're going to build for all residents to enjoy."
There was a smattering of applause.
"While a pocket park is… nice, the fact is," Meghan stated, "that your property is not zoned for any more development. This town is surrounded by protected rural land. The voters and taxpayers bought land out here with the expectation that it would retain that character."
"Hear! Hear!" someone shouted.
"I birdwatch out there," an elderly man told us.
"There are native apple trees in the woods," a young woman complained. "I pick those for my jam business."
"We're bringing much-needed jobs to the area," Liam said, not losing any of his charming demeanor.
"Are you going to hire any of us old folks?" Ida countered. "Save Harrogate!" she started chanting, and the rest of the crowd joined it. The meeting went downhill from there.
When it was over and people were filing out, talking about plans to protest in front of our property, Hunter stalked over to Meghan. I hurried after him. The last thing we needed was for him to go off on his ex-girlfriend.
"You're doing this on purpose," Hunter snarled, shaking me off as I tried to pull him back. "It's like the cell phone law. You're hurting the residents of this town just to spite me. You know this research facility brings good jobs to the area. I can't believe how selfish you are."
"How selfish I am?" she spat. "I know those factories use mostly robots. You're not providing low-skilled jobs. You can't just walk in here with cookies and a sexy smile and expect people to fall over themselves to do your bidding."
"You certainly did," Hunter said. I winced. Meghan hauled back and slugged Hunter in the jaw.
"That's that, I guess," Liam said as we watched Meghan leave. "Pack up and find somewhere else for the factory."
We walked out to where we parked on the street. Hunter was rubbing his jaw, and Liam and Jack were arguing about alternative factory locations.
A thin woman with sunken cheeks stepped out of the shadows. Her blond hair, bleached from the harsh desert sun and years of hard living, was bright in the streetlamp light.
"Where is Henry?" Payslee said. She looked old—older than I knew she actually was. She was one of my father's younger sister wives, but I knew that after they had a few kids and the charm of being the newest youngest wife wore off, he neglected the poor women.
"You stole my boy," she said, pointing at me, jabbing a sharp nail in my direction.
"You never took care of him," I said to her. I couldn't believe she was here. "You've sent every single one of your sons away, and they always arrive in the worst condition—scraped up, covered in bugs, bruised."
"You don't know how hard it is to be a mother," Payslee said with a fake sob.
Hunter stepped in front of me and held out three one-hundred-dollar bills. Payslee's eyes were greedy as she watched his hand.
"You want this?" Hunter asked, his tone low. "Then you need to leave. That's part of the stipulation for my giving you cash. You can't just come here begging for more money."
"Yes, yes, I'll leave." She snatched the money out of Hunter's hand and hurried off.
"What is she doing here?" I snarled at Hunter when he turned around. "You said you had it under control."
"Calm down," he retorted.
"She's in town," I said, moving into Hunter's personal space. He glared at me but didn't move. "She could be trying to kidnap Henry."
"And I thought my life was a soap opera," Jack muttered.
Liam held back a laugh. "You think she's going to kidnap Henry?"
"Yes," I insisted. "Do none of you see how serious this is?"
"You are severely overreacting," Hunter said, brushing past me.
"He needs to get laid," Liam said sagely. "It will take the edge off. Think of your heart and your cholesterol. You're almost in your midthirties, Mace. You're ancient."
"Dad doesn't want the boys back," Hunter said as he headed to his car. "And their mothers are too brainwashed to take them back. You saw what condition Payslee is in. She just sees us as a bank account."
"And you just taught her that she can come here for a handout," I snapped.
"I'm paying her off with peanuts," Hunter scoffed. "I make more money moving money around than I use to pay her off. I have it under control."
"You need to tell me every time she contacts you," I said, wrenching open my car door. "And I'm going to have Remy put the concertina wire back up."
There was laughter from the kitchen when I returned to the house. Hunter arrived home at the same time I did, and when we walked into the kitchen, there was Josie, with all of our younger brothers. Even Garrett and Archer were sitting around the island, putting toppings on oblong pieces of dough. The scene was domestic and relaxed.
"What?" she asked when she noticed us standing in the doorway. "It's a crime not to use this kitchen for what God intended!"
27
Josie
"We're making pizza," I announced. Hunter made a disgusted noise and turned on his heel. I wasn't sure what I'd done. "Am I not supposed to be here?" I asked, confused.
"Ignore him," Mace said. He regarded me; his eyes seemed warm.
"Sit down, Mace. I'm going to make you a surprise pizza."
"How was the meeting?" Adrian asked him.
Mace shook his head slightly. I wondered what was up. "Did you do all this?" Mace asked, surveying the scores of little bowls filled with chopped ingredients.
"Me and all my sous chefs," I said. "Now what should we put on Mace's pizza?" I asked them.
"Candy," Henry said, handing me a bowl.
"You're putting gummy worms on pizza?" Mace asked with a frown.
"I'm making a dessert pizza," I told him. "I have extra dough left. Don't worry. I won't put candy on yours."
I coated some dough with olive oil, spread the garlicy cream sauce on it, then sprinkled olives, sausage, and peppers. Satisfied with how it looked, I slid it
carefully onto the hot pizza stone in the oven. Then I helped several of the kids make their dessert pizzas.
Henry, perched on a stool, took a big handful of chocolate chips and dumped them on his pizza.
"You need to put ninety percent of that back," I told him as I walked to the oven. Mace's pizza smelled done. I opened the oven, but before I could take out the pizza, Mace was there. He took the hot pad out of my hand, and using a spatula, scooped the pizza out onto a plate.
"I can't make you do all the work," he said with a small smile.
"It's hot," I warned him.
He blew on the pizza. "Just like something else in this kitchen."
Had Mace been flirting with me?
The thought rolled over and over in my head. We'd exchanged witty banter before, but in the kitchen last night, he'd said explicitly he thought I was hot. Well, not explicitly; he implied it. The thought nagged at me like the bent safety pin that jabbed my side whenever I turned in the driver's seat to check for traffic.
What kind of boyfriend would Mace be? But maybe he didn't actually want to be my boyfriend. Maybe it was simple lust. I had invited him to watch me take a shower for goodness' sake.
A scream from Henry jolted me out of my fantasy.
Mace did not want me to drive this morning, but he had to take a call. Before even leaving the property, I had dented the front bumper on the stone mailbox in front of the estate as I turned out of the gate. I also cracked the windshield on a tree branch, which was not my fault. The city really needed to keep the roads clear. Now Henry had taken to screaming whenever I made a turn in anticipation that I would hit something. The screaming of course would make me jerk the wheel.
"Henry, stop," Mace told his brother, not looking up from his phone. I made a mental note to take Henry out during the day so he wasn't cooped up inside.
There was a box of cookies on Mace's desk when we walked into the office.
"Jack must have had the leftovers from last night's meeting sent here," Mace explained as he situated Henry on the floor in my office with some coloring supplies.