Give and Take

by Lee Kilraine

  I shook my head and glanced at Steph, who stood rubbing her arm and staring daggers at me. Smiling at the men behind the booth, I texted Steph as fast as I could.

  She narrowed her eyes at me and then checked her phone. “My sister would like to fill out the ‘Pay it Forward’ application for new start-ups.”

  Darn it, of course they looked confused. She was supposed to explain why I couldn’t talk. I whipped off another text.

  “Excuse me,” Steph said, holding up a finger to read the text. “Oh, right. This is my sister, Rhia Hollis, and she’s got a start-up event planning company. She can’t speak right now on account of a bad case of lajfoeuja.”

  WTF? The three men stood staring at us, heads tilted and frowns on their faces. They looked like they wanted to take a giant step back from the crazy we were exuding. Eff sisterly love. I should have pushed her off the swings when we were little.

  I shook my head a bit frantically and pointed to my throat, quickly sending Steph another text.

  “Oh, sorry. I meant to say Rhia has laryngitis.” And then because my sister always had to be right, she hissed, “Well, you spelled it wrong.”

  My face heated like a tide rolling in, over my cheeks and all the way up my forehead and across my scalp. With my red hair and pale skin, I was sure I was a sight. Then again, maybe my bright blush helped disguise the hives.

  “Great. I’m Gray Thorne. These are my brothers Eli and Wyatt. Wyatt, will you grab Ms. Hollis an application?” Gray nodded over, but his brother was a step ahead of him and had already circled to the front of the booth with the forms and a pen. He led me to a small standing table off to the side and slid the forms across to me.

  I’d never met a person exuding such calmness. He was like a crystal clear lake with nary a ripple of tension. His eyes, a deep, gorgeous blue, distracted me until I recalled I needed this grant if I wanted to run my own company and eat.

  “Does it hurt?” His voice, deep and rich, rolled over me in the most sensuous way.

  “Hmm?” Looking back up into his eyes, I blinked, lost in the deep blue lake. I’d been so busy hearing—feeling really—his voice, I hadn’t listened to the actual words he’d said.

  “Your laryngitis.” His gaze flicked down to my throat before lifting back to meet mine. “I’ve heard it can be painful. Let me walk you through the application, so you can get out of here quicker.”

  And that’s what he did. I filled out the application while Wyatt Thorne stood next to me, explaining anything I looked unsure about.

  I nodded and curved my lips up in thanks, turning to address the forms. He was close enough to smell, and he smelled good. Real good. I had to blink a few times at the paper in front of me to pull my focus back. I felt downright fuzzyheaded and wasn’t sure if it was from the dose of Benadryl…

  Or due to Wyatt Thorne’s clean scent and blue eyes.

  Darn it. Then again, what were the odds that Steph’s sports drink formula she’d tested on me had messed up my pheromone receptors?

  Chapter 2

  Wyatt

  “Trust me, Wyatt, you don’t want to go.” My brother, Gray, sat across from me at the conference table in my office, eyeing the selection of Krispy Kreme doughnuts Eli had brought. The standing rule was when you passed a Krispy Kreme with the “hot now” light on, you had to stop and grab a dozen. “Eli, why do you always get so many glazed? You know I like sprinkles.”

  “Exactly.” Eli grinned. “More for me.”

  Yep, just a normal morning here at Six Brothers Construction. A slight misnomer as there were only five of us in business together. Something we’d been trying to fix for a few years now. Each week sitting around our conference table with the empty chair was a reminder that we still had one more brother to find and bring home. Ryker. Plus, I was making another chair for the sister we’d recently found out about. There was rarely a dull day around SBC.

  I watched Gray pick a pastel sprinkled doughnut from the box. Those sprinkled doughnuts were one of the first signs of spring around Raleigh, even before the dogwoods and the crepe myrtles began budding. My gaze followed the sprinkles that fell and bounced and skidded along the table, before settling scattered across the surface. A few landed in the coffee ring in front of Beck and began dissolving into colorful puddles. I clamped down on my urge to grab a paper towel and refocused on the conversation.

  “Why wouldn’t I want to go? I’ve already RSVP’d.” This was Gray giving me advice, and we were about as similar as steak and tofu. I turned to my other brothers along the table. “Why wouldn’t I want to go to Brian’s kid’s first birthday party? He’s the first one of my college friends to have a child, so it seems like an important event to celebrate.”

  I’d known Brian and Sarah since my first week of college. I hadn’t joined a fraternity because it seemed like a waste of money I didn’t have. Besides, I ended up with a real “fraternity” when seven of us pulled together during freshman year. We were that group of nerds. We met on Friday and Saturday nights to study instead of hitting up the keg parties.

  “It sounds like fun.” Eli shrugged. “I’d go if it were my friends. Birthday parties for one-year-olds are really for adults. Good food. Cold beer. Gray doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

  “That’s what I figured.” I’d already bought a gift for the party: a set of giant plastic Legos and a savings bond. I’d been looking forward to helping mark Brian and Sarah’s big milestone.

  I looked at my other brothers and frowned. “Why are you two looking like that? Beck? Ash?”

  Beck sat back in his chair. “I think what Gray’s getting at is there are usually kids at a one-year-old’s party. Cousins. Neighbors’ kids. Friends’ kids. Lots and lots of kids.”

  “So? I like children.” I shrugged, not sure what the big deal was. “I think I might even want a couple myself one day.”

  “Since when?” Beck asked, his eyebrows raised. “Have you started having that baby dream again?”

  “Maybe.” Yes. Ever since high school, I’d been having a reoccurring dream about a baby. A nightmare really. A baby all by itself, crying with its arms reaching out to me. Needing me. The consensus among my brothers was it was my subconscious working through being abandoned at the age of two. They could be right.

  My brothers and I were close. Our strong bond had been forged early—a result of an abusive, alcoholic father, a mother who’d abandoned us, and then a patchwork of homes in the foster system. Some good. Some not. We’d been through a lot together growing up.

  But being the youngest, my experiences were a little different from the others. Different enough that I didn’t talk about it. Couldn’t. Not when the guilt over it made my throat go so tight I could barely swallow.

  “Look, I don’t see what the big deal is. My friends have a kid. I like kids just fine.” The last thing I wanted was for my brothers to turn this conversation into a Wyatt therapy session. “End of story. The dream is a nonissue.”

  “Uh huh. But you haven’t been around kids much, have you?” Ash asked. Gray, Wyatt, and Ash shared a look. Eli looked as confused as I was.

  “You take a hit to your head in the game last night, Ash?” I squinted one eye and looked over at him. “I’m around kids every month, same as you.”

  “I’m not talking about our volunteering. Those kids don’t act like normal kids—not yet.”

  Right. I had to give him that. The foster kids we volunteered with weren’t typical kids. They’d never had that luxury in their young lives.

  “Plus, our foster kids are older. Toddlers are a whole different life-form. Have you been around any infants or toddlers?”

  “Not much. I saw Brian’s baby right after she was born.” But, excluding our volunteering, that was the only child I’d been around. I was twenty-six years old and pretty much worked or hung out with my brothers. Three of us were commitment-
phobes, so it wasn’t a surprise we were all unmarried with no children.

  Although Beck, the oldest—probably the most commitment-phobic amongst us—had fallen head over heels. So, yes, now his girlfriend, Sam, was part of our family, but still no kids.

  “Look, Wy, trust me when I say that party will be everything you hate.” Gray began listing things off on his fingers. “You like order; the party will be pure chaos. You like quiet. The party will be loud.”

  Well, Gray was right about that. I did like order. And quiet.

  Ash nodded. “Yep, and you haven’t heard loud until you’ve heard the high-octave squealing of a party of kids. Lots of guys on the team have kids, and I’d rather take a puck to the nuts than listen to screaming kids. But that’s me.”

  “It can’t be that bad,” I said, but I also hadn’t taken a puck to the nuts, so I had no comparison.

  “There’s more. You like neat; there will be spilled drinks, smeared food, and sticky fingers grabbing on to your pant leg.”

  Just the thought of spilled drinks, smeared food, and sticky fingers grabbing on to my pants had my collar feeling too tight around my neck, and I didn’t even have the top two buttons done. I took a breath and undid one more button.

  “Don’t listen to them. Kids’ parties are fun. Hell, the clown act alone is worth any sticky-finger smears on your clothes.” Eli sat forward, catching my eyes. “The last clown I saw was even worth the dent in my truck when one of the rug rats ran his tricycle into it.”

  “Whoa, wait. Clowns and dents?” Maybe Gray was right. Maybe I didn’t want to go to the party after all.

  “Would you all knock it off?” Beck’s lips twitched like he was trying not to laugh. “Ignore them, Wy. Go to the party and celebrate with your friends. Give them the gift you probably bought the day after you got the invite and leave when it gets too crazy.”

  “You said when—not if.” I narrowed my eyes on Beck who only grinned back at me.

  “We’re nothing if not honest around here,” Beck said. “Gray and Ash are right. It’ll be loud, messy, and crazy. But Eli’s right too. A kid’s birthday party is a fun time. Hey, Sam and I just attended one for her cousin’s niece, and I lived through it.”

  “Fine, I’m going.” I’d simply leave before the loud, messy, and sticky part. And the clown. Like a lot of people, I didn’t care for clowns. “Okay, now that you’ve all weighed in on my social life, can we get back to the meeting?”

  “I’ve got news for you.” Ash shook his head. “A friend’s party for his kid isn’t a social life, Wyatt. You’ve got to get out more, bro.”

  I ignored Ash like I did every time one of my brothers brought up my social life. Because as much as I’d love to get out more and find the perfect woman, I didn’t have time to look for her. No time for a social life. I had a goal and a tight timeline to accomplish it. There was no time for distractions.

  I couldn’t add up all the ways I owed my brothers. The things they’d done for me—from taking the beating that was supposed to be mine, to raising me, to finding a way to pay for my college—I’m not sure I could ever pay them back. But I sure as hell was going to try. And the sooner I earned my architect’s license, the sooner I could start.

  “Moving on from Wyatt’s social life, let’s get back to this week’s meeting,” Beck said. “Thanks to our work on Lila King’s house and the spread in House Beautiful, we’ve picked up two more large, high-profile jobs. The sweetest is helping convert the historic Whistler Mansion into a full-time wedding venue. That’s scheduled to start next week. I’ve sent everyone the final files, so look them over and let me know your thoughts and any potential issues you see. Wyatt, where do we stand on the paperwork?”

  “The paperwork to the neighborhood architectural committee was approved last week. Since the home is listed in the city’s historic registry, the city has to approve every color and structural change. I’m hoping they’ll sign off this week. If you have any amendments to the plans, I need them yesterday.”

  “No amendments.” Gray grinned his pleasure at that situation. “I love these clients. I wish all our clients were this easy. This couple knows exactly what they want and agree on everything. They’re also willing to listen when I offer my suggestions.”

  “Nice. How about the Madigan job?” I asked. Confession time. I knew about the Madigan job. We all knew about the Madigan job. Gray came away from each new meeting with the client frustrated and fuming. He’d slam back into the building snarling a few choice phrases before heading right out the back door to the batting cage we had set up next to our workshop and smack some baseballs with all his pent-up fury. We had bets on who was going to quit first, Gray or the client.

  And the funniest part? The Madigan job hadn’t even started yet. All these fireworks were already happening in the proposal phase. Gray had begged Beck to let this one go, but to be honest, we were all having too much fun, so Beck insisted Gray keep at it. Plus, a job was a job.

  “Why’d you have to bring that up and ruin my day?” Gray asked, his grinning face gone in an instant. He swiped a hand through his hair and swung his face toward Beck. “I swear to God, Beck, you accepted this job as payback for some horrible, evil transgression I committed in our childhood. But trust me when I say, no one—not even me—could have done something so bad as to have to deal with this woman.”

  “Well, keep trying,” Beck said, his face serious. “Getting the Madigan job will get us exposure to a younger demographic of clientele.”

  Gray’s gaze stabbed at Beck, which made Ash snicker and Eli smile. At least I kept my face straight, even though I enjoyed the situation too. I loved my brothers. We all liked and loved the hell out of each other. Our crappy childhood bonded us in a way that was unbreakable. But that crappy childhood also manifested itself in a few not so great neuroses and hang-ups. And like any average person, it was always easier to see other people’s problems than your own.

  So yes, one could say each Thorne brother was a tangled up, emotionally closed off, hot mess of a human being thanks to our parents. But something Beck went through recently made all of us realize we didn’t want to keep letting our pitiful excuse for parents continue to steal happiness from us. And so, we pushed each other out of the safe, isolated, barbed wire spaces we each had escaped to.

  And right now it was Gray’s turn. Which let me off the hook. Not that I had the issues my brothers had. I wasn’t kidding when I said I got off easy by being the youngest. But still, I appreciated being left alone as I needed all my focus and time to study.

  “Just a reminder, I’ve got the next part of the ARE coming up.” Not that they needed me to tell them as it would be obvious enough when I was submerged in my books again. Passing the Architect Registration Exam was my number one goal.

  “It feels like you just took the last one,” Ash said around a bite of doughnut. One glance down revealed he’d added to the sprinkle collection. Which I ignored. “I thought you had five years to complete all seven tests?”

  “True, but most people complete all the tests in two and half years.” I planned to cut that to one and a half. I couldn’t start paying my brothers back until I’d passed all the exams for certification. It was as simple as that. My brothers would never say it, but I knew I could save our company thousands of dollars every year by not having to hire outside architects.

  “There’s no rush, Wy.” Beck’s gaze narrowed on me. I knew that gaze well. It was his “oldest brother trying to solve all our problems” look.

  But I didn’t have a problem for him to solve. Hell, they’d protected me and guided me. I was the lucky one. Because of them I was normal.

  My gaze wandered down to the table where the chocolate sprinkles had melted in the coffee rings. I tried to avoid looking, but those random sprinkles were an eyesore. Leave it. Leave it alone. Leave it be. It’s not harming a thing. My palms itched, and I noticed my
knee was bouncing up and down. Stop looking and—I grabbed up a napkin from the stack and wiped up the carnage, restoring order.

  “You know me. I’ll admit I’m a bit compulsive—”

  “A bit?” Gray snorted, his gaze on the table where I’d just cleaned up the sprinkles and coffee rings before rising to meet mine. “That’s like saying the Appalachians are a bit of a slope.”

  “I’d just as soon finish, is all,” I said to the doubting faces of my brothers. So, I was a little more than a bit compulsive. I liked order. I liked to feel I had control of my environment. I didn’t see anything wrong with that. And passing the ARE was important to me.

  “I sort of get it,” Ash said, giving me a supportive nod. “When I was trying to make it up through the minors into the pros, everything I did revolved around hockey. I had a goal, and everything I did went toward that, so yeah, I can see it. On the other hand, you’ve been studying for years now. Maybe fit in a little time for fun, Wy.”

  “Sure.” The fact that my brothers were still trying to look out for me only made me more determined to dig deep and finish my testing.

  “Okay. Unless anyone has anything else, we’re on the last item on the meeting agenda: choosing the applicant for our Pay it Forward project,” Beck said. “We received over forty applications, and I’ve narrowed them down to three. You’ve had a few days to look over the résumés, so now it’s time to make the selection.”

  “The three are about evenly matched as far as experience and motivation. Their mission statements were equally impressive,” Gray said with a shrug. “So, it honestly might come down to which person we think we’d like hanging around the office for a year.”

  “Good point,” Eli said. “Except, since only three of us worked the SBC expo booth, the rest of you haven’t met them.”

  “That’s why Beck was in charge of narrowing down the field. It made the finalist selection objective.” Gray’s eyes were focused on the three résumés in front of him. “Now that we need to pick a winner, and they’re each equally deserving, we can rely on our gut instinct. We’re trying to do a good deed and help out a struggling new business the way we would have appreciated. But let’s be real—a year is a long time to share office space.”