by Ciara Shayee
Sullivan waves him off. “Don’t worry, I’ll take the pull-out down here in your office. It’s closer to the kitchen so I can sneak snacks when you’re asleep.”
Kellan chuckles, shaking his head as my cell vibrates again. It’s the final alarm before I’m risking Mom and the boys beating me home.
“Kellan…”
His eyes flash to mine. “Right, I’ll walk you out. Don’t go anywhere,” he warns, pointing at Sullivan.
“See ya, Piper. Sorry for making you wet your pants!”
“Bye, Sullivan,” I laugh, following Kellan out into the foyer. At the door, I breathe out a sigh and glance down the hall before stretching up to plant a quick kiss on his lips. “I’ll see you later, if you’re not too busy.”
Sliding his hand into the hair at the base of my head, Kellan ducks down to kiss me breathless, thoroughly scrambling my brain. When he pulls back to tell me he’s never too busy for me, and he’ll see me at work anyway, I realize he’s right about that at least. “Of course, I forgot I’ll see you at Burger Co.”
“See you in a bit, short stuff,” he murmurs, giving me one last smile before I let myself out to jog down the street. I have just enough time to change out of my pajamas and into some shorts and a tee before Mom, Max, and the boys are calling out their greetings.
Phew. That was close.
*
When Kellan doesn’t show at work a few hours later, confusion and nerves become my companions. I don’t hear from him directly, but he sends a message to Brayden to say he’s just busy and everything is good, so I try not to be too concerned as I go about my day—working at Burger Co., picking up Max from Mom and Dad, then the boys from school.
It’s hot as hell so we’re not the only ones who stop for ice cream at Sprinkles and Sunshine right after school, but I quickly end up with three cranky, messy, overtired boys and one too-hot dog.
“Why can’t we go play in Easy’s pool?” Jaxson whines for the millionth time as I wipe his sticky hands.
“He’s…busy.”
“But he said we can go over whenever! And he gave you a key, remember?” Finley helpfully supplies.
“Max wants to go, too, see?” Arlo adds, using a leftover piece of cone to coax Max to nod.
“I said he’s busy, okay? We’re not going to just go over there when Kellan is busy,” I finally snap, hot, tired, and selfishly letting my nerves that Sullivan’s arrival will take away my already limited time with Kellan away—which reminds me that I need to let Mom know he’s here so she can cater for an extra person at Kellan’s surprise birthday party tomorrow. I’m not sure how to bring it up to her without having to think of an excuse for how I know he’s here.
I’ve almost ruined the surprise party so many times by accidentally mentioning it. I can’t wait for him to walk into Mom and Dad’s back yard tomorrow and see what we’ve organized for him.
All three boys look at me with wide eyes after my uncharacteristic outburst. Shit.
Blowing out a breath, I toss the dirty tissues into the trash can nearby and crouch in front of the boys. “I’m sorry for snapping, but you guys know we can’t just show up at people’s houses without being invited.”
“But it’s not just ‘people,’ Momma,” Jaxson protests. “It’s Easy. He said we could go over whenever we want.”
“I know he did,” I sigh, wishing Kellan had kept that little offer between the two of us. I really don’t want to take the boys over and possibly interrupt whatever might be going on with him and Sullivan, but this is his fault. He stupidly told the boys they’re welcome over whenever and made a point of showing them when he gave me a spare key just in case we need the bathroom and he’s not there. “I’ll text and ask if it’s okay, but if he says ‘no,’ you’ll settle for the sprinkler at our house with no arguments, right?”
I’d call Mom and Dad to see if we can use their pool, but I already feel like they do too much and give up too much of their time for us. They deserve some peace and quiet.
“Right,” the boys nod in tandem, their bright smiles returning because they’re confident that Kellan will agree to have them over.
Of course, because he never says ‘no’ to them, Kellan answers my text before we even make it home.
I gave you a key, didn’t I? Bring Max, too. I’ll fire up the grill.
When we walk down the street later on, loaded with floaties and sunscreen and a big bowl of salad because Mom taught me never to go to dinner empty-handed, I’m surprised to see a familiar car pulling up right outside Kellan’s house. My pulse picks up as the boys scream for their nana and papa and take off running toward them. Max tugs at his leash, so I give in and let him go, knowing he isn’t going to stray from his human brothers.
“Hey, little loves,” Mom laughs, catching Finley. “Where are you off to all dressed for the beach?”
“We’re goin’ to swim in Easy’s pool!” Arlo tells her just as Kellan himself strolls out onto his porch. I have to stop myself checking for drool, because damn.
He’s sporting my favorite of his boardshorts—the pale mint ones with white trim. They make his grassy green eyes pop and contrast deliciously with his sun-kissed tan, not to mention provide the perfect amount of thigh porn on his long, thick legs without looking silly.
When my eyes trail up, over the dips and ridges of his bare, defined torso to his neatly trimmed beard and the smile it almost hides, I consider saying ‘to hell with it’ and throwing myself at him there and then. He’s way too gorgeous for his own good and I’m pretty sure he has no idea.
“Oh that’s so nice of, um, Easy?” Mom laughs, looking between Arlo, Kellan, and me.
“It’s my new nickname, right bud?” Kellan scoops Arlo up, duck pool ring around his waist and all, and flings him in the air. Not a single part of me worries, every fiber of my being trusting Kellan with every hair on my boy’s head.
“That’s right!” Arlo cackles, gripping Kellan’s shoulders until he’s back on his own two feet. Offering his grandparents a wide grin, he asks if they’re coming in to swim, too.
“No, no, we can’t stop.” Looking at Kellan, Mom explains, “We just stopped by to remind you about our change of plans for tomorrow. We’re having dinner instead of brunch.”
Nodding, Kellan ruffles Jaxson’s hair as he sidles over to lean against him. The sight of their easy affection puts an unexpected lump in my throat. “Do we have room for one more? Sullivan showed up this morning. He’s going to be staying with me for a bit.”
Mom curbs her surprise, but Dad doesn’t. He raises his eyebrows. “He’s back? It’s been a long time.”
Before Kellan can say a word, Sullivan’s loud voice carries over the lawn. He flashes me a wink as he strolls past me to grab Mom in a hug. “That’s right, the best Patterson is back in the bay.”
Kellan rolls his eyes.
Seeing Kellan with his brother is still so surreal—it always has been. Despite only sharing one parent, their personalities are so very similar.
Sullivan is how Kellan was before grief stole his easy joy and almost permanent smile.
I don’t know the whole story of how Sullivan came to be. I was only eleven the first time he came to the bay, then a gummy one-year-old. All I know is that Nathan—Kellan, Lucas, and Sullivan’s dad—had a fling with Sullivan’s mom during a brief separation from Kellan and Lucas’s mom, Elsie. It’s all a bit complicated.
Making a mental note to see if Kellan will tell me about it later, I focus back on the conversation at hand as Sullivan crouches to introduce himself to my boys.
“You’re Easy’s little brother?” Arlo asks, looking between the brothers with furrowed brows. I can see where he’d be confused.
Kellan has blond hair and green eyes while Sullivan has black hair and blue eyes. They don’t look a lot alike until they smile; their lopsided grins are carbon copies of each other.
“Uh-huh. I’m the newer, better model.”
> Arlo shakes his head, offering Kellan a grin. “Nope. Easy is the best.”
“Good answer, bud. Remind me to get you a popsicle when we get inside.”
“Sweet!”
“And you two must be Jaxson and Finley, right? Kellan told me all about you.” Twisting his cap around to reveal the snapping gator on the front, he makes their day by admitting that he’s a Jacksonville Gators fan, too. “I watched them play a couple weeks ago and got a signed ball.”
“No way!” Finley breathes. “Did you bring it with you?”
“Okay,” Dad laughs, looping an arm around Mom’s shoulders. “I can see we’re old news. We’ll get out of your hair.”
As they’re leaving, Mom reminds me to come over early with the boys so they can try their suits on for Sebastian and Gianna’s wedding. I agree and wave as they drive away before following Kellan, Sullivan, Max, and the boys back into the back yard. Admitting that he does have the ball with him, Sullivan leads the boys into the house with Max hot on their heels, which leaves me alone with Kellan.
Wrapping an arm around my waist, he takes the opportunity to plant a toe-curling kiss on me. “Hey, short stuff.”
I sigh. “Hey, handsome. I missed you today.”
With a grimace, he guides me over to a lounger, gently tugging me down to sit beside him. “I had some calls to make.”
“Sullivan’s mom?” I guess.
Nodding, he rakes a hand through his hair. I’m momentarily distracted by the way it makes his muscles shift and flex, my gaze returning to his face when he huffs through his nose, sounding frustrated and looking it, too.
“And our dad. Julia, Sullivan’s mom, she didn’t even know he’d taken off. He just got himself a bus ticket and hightailed it outta there.” Grumbling the last part, he admits, “I don’t blame him. That boyfriend of hers…he’s a waste of space. He likes to knock Sully around. Sometimes she kicks him out, but usually only for a couple weeks.”
“So he comes to stay with you when this guy is around?”
“Sometimes. Last time, he went to see Dad, but as you can imagine…”
“It’s awkward as hell?”
Kellan purses his lips. “Understatement of the century.”
I can only imagine. Nathan is Sullivan’s dad, but Elsie…she’s his stepmom, for all intents and purposes, but I can understand it being a difficult situation for her. Still, he’s a baby. Barely eighteen, if memory serves me correctly. He needs stability and a loving home, not to live with someone who likes to ‘knock him around,’ as Kellan put it.
“What did they say when you told them he’s here with you?”
“Julia…well, she doesn’t particularly give a shit, to be honest. Dad’s just happy he’s safe. He’ll probably come out to see him if he sticks around, but he’s asked me to persuade Sully to come out to Utah next month.”
My stomach turns at the thought of being without Kellan for two whole weeks. He’s admitted that he usually takes a month off after the summer rush, but not this year. I can’t help but wonder if the boys and I are the reason his trip will be shorter than usual.
“Do you think he’ll go?”
Kellan shrugs, tugging me into his side before pressing a kiss against the side of my head. We both hear the boys’ thundering footsteps then, so we put a little space between us as they run out onto the patio, Sullivan laughing right behind them.
“I hope so,” Kellan murmurs.
*
By the time I order the boys to pull on their sweaters and flip flops so we can walk home, they’re in love with Sullivan.
He’s the same funny, cheeky boy I remember from his summer visits when he was a kid. Every summer, like clockwork, he’d spend two weeks with Nathan and Elsie. One of those would usually be in Utah, so he could also see Lucas and his family, while the other often involved a trip out to Jackson Bay to see Kellan.
The moppy-haired kid I saw the summer before I left for England has grown into a moppy-haired teenager with a mischievous, devil-may-care attitude to life. He’s a breath of fresh air. It doesn’t surprise me that the boys adore him. They’ve spent the entire evening playing soccer and teaching him how to Noodle Race. Sullivan even got my vegetable phobic Finley to eat a corn on the cob by ‘double dog daring’ him. It’s not green, but it’s still a vegetable. I’ll still call it a win.
“Are you stayin’ for a while?” Finley asks Sullivan as I zip up his jacket and point him toward his flip flops on a seat by the grill.
Grinning, Sullivan twists his cap around and waves Finley over for a hug. “I sure am, Finn. Who else is gonna teach you to play soccer properly? He’s no good at it,” he says with a wink, nodding at Kellan.
Shaking his head, Kellan drains the last of his beer and rises from the table. “Whatever you say, Sully. Remember whose house you’re stayin’ in.”
“Ooh, I’m quakin’ in my flip flops.”
The boys find this hilarious, breaking out in fits of giggles which only worsen when Sullivan attempts to pull Kellan into a headlock and winds up being tossed in the pool by his bigger, stronger brother.
Blowing Kellan a kiss while nobody is looking, I wish we could be together in the open. Although Sullivan knows something is going on and has made a few thinly veiled comments throughout the evening, the boys don’t. I don’t even dare to hug Kellan in front of them for fear of their little minds working overtime and their mouths blabbing to Mom and Dad.
At some point soon, Kellan and I will need to decide where this is going. I can’t live like this forever and I don’t want us to be a secret. I want to shout about him from the rooftops and tell everyone how crazy about him I am. I want to hold his hand in public, kiss him without worrying if there’s anybody around, and stop sneaking between our houses in the mornings so my parents don’t see him leaving or me returning.
Last night was the first time we stayed at his house, and it didn’t escape my notice that he took me to the guest bedroom instead of his room. I can guess at his reasoning, but it concerns me. We’ve talked about Willow, but we haven’t talked about Shannon or how he feels about her now. It’s been six years since their divorce, but he wouldn’t take me to his bedroom and I assume it’s because it’s the room he once shared with her.
It’s just another pressing topic in a long list of many that we need to discuss.
“All right,” I finally sigh. “Come here, Max.”
Tired from chasing the boys and their soccer ball, he heaves himself off the floor to amble over, giving me a sloppy kiss while I attach his leash to his harness—which he’s quickly outgrowing.
Wrapping my arms around Sullivan once he’s climbed from the pool, grumbling and toweling himself off, I tell him he can babysit any time. He grins and sways us side to side before planting a noisy kiss on my cheek. “You just let me know when and I’ll be there. Oh! Can I show the boys one quick thing before you go?”
I shrug. “Sure.”
As he takes off, the boys following behind him, he shoots a wink over his shoulder and mouths “Go get him” before nodding pointedly at Kellan, who grins and scoots his chair back. I don’t need to be told twice, quickly straddling his firm thighs and using my fingers in his hair to kiss him silly.
While I was worrying Sullivan would out us, I didn’t consider the benefits of having him around as a distraction for the boys.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Kellan murmurs, his voice gravelly, when I pull away to catch my breath.
“Tomorrow,” I promise, hoping his smile will be as wide when we surprise him as it is right now.
*
“The label is all itchy,” Finley whines, tugging at his waistcoat.
“Come here, sweetheart.”
While Mom cuts the labels out, I turn to Jaxson and Arlo, beaming at my handsome little boys all dressed up.
Opting for a November wedding means Sebastian and Angela won’t have to be as worried about us all melting to death in ou
r ‘posh clothes,’ as Arlo calls them. As page boys, he, Jaxson, Finley, and Danny will be wearing miniature versions of the tuxes the groomsmen are wearing. They look freaking adorable.
“You look so handsome,” I tell them once Finley has pulled on his jacket and adjusted his bowtie to pose for a picture for Mom.
Blushing beet-red, Finley shuffles his feet. Arlo grins, wiggling his bowtie with both hands. “I do, don’t I?”
Just then, we hear the distant ring of the doorbell. Mom claps her hands, stowing her phone in her pocket. “That’ll be our first guests! Piper, honey, are you okay getting the boys back out of those? The hangers are all set out on the bed.”
“Sure, sure.” Waving her off, I get to work guiding the boys back down the hall to strip out of their tuxes and put their party clothes back on. By the time we head out back, there are a few familiar faces milling around the yard.
“Little Grandma!”
The boys take off as soon as they spot Little Grandma and Grandpa Freddie. Smiling, I watch them go, then suck in a deep breath and meander around, saying ‘hi’ to everybody and compulsively checking my watch. As the day has worn on, I’ve gotten more and more nervous.
Kellan hates surprises.
He’s not a fan of crowds, doesn’t particularly enjoy socializing like he used to, and he abhors being the center of attention—all of which he’s going to be bombarded with the second he walks through the front door in…approximately ten minutes.
Swiping a red plastic flute of prosecco from the table as I slip away from TJ and Jones to check my hair and makeup, I pray he’ll at least be thankful I talked Mom out of throwing a beach party and inviting the whole town.
As I step into the kitchen on my way to the bathroom, I spot Mom struggling with the heavy cake box as she tries to get it into the pantry where she can safely unbox it. Following her, I grin at her short arms attempting to battle with the large box.