Give and Take

by Lee Kilraine

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because most of my family has IQs so high they’re dancing right around that delicate line that separates geniuses from psychos.”

  “No. I mean, why is your family trying to set you up?”

  “Oh, that. My parents have given up on me being successful like the rest of my family. So, they’ve decided if I can’t cure cancer or invent some world-saving polymer, then I can begin breeding the next generation of little Einstein’s. To that end, they continue to send these men my way on a regular basis. And not just any men; they’re all card-carrying members of Mensa.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “The Mensas?”

  “Ah, that. Well, my working theory is they’re trying to compensate for my average intelligence. Mensa plus average equals above average, aka like most of my family.”

  “That’s not only insulting to you, but it’s crazy, and it’s been interfering with my work.”

  “I said I was sorry. Trust me, it’s annoying as heck, but other than moving to Alaska or showing up to Sunday dinner with a boyfriend in tow, I haven’t found a way to get them to stop.”

  I’d checked with Sam and Beck yesterday. Sam’s fire-damaged building would take at least three more weeks. Probably more. If I hadn’t failed my last test, then I was scheduled for the next test in less than a month. I was not going to live with those phone calls and visits for the next three weeks.

  “What time on Sunday?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “What time is Sunday dinner? Because we’re getting those phone calls stopped. As far as your family is concerned, I’m your boyfriend. This shit stops now.”

  Rhia blinked over at me, then nodded once.

  “Okay. It’s worth a try. And if you succeed, I’ll owe you big.”

  * * * *

  “Mr. and Mrs. Hollis, it’s an honor to meet you. Rhia’s mentioned you both work at the university.”

  “She told us nothing about you.” They examined me closely, their faces looking unimpressed and doubtful. “We didn’t even know Rhia was dating anyone.”

  “Well, she is.” I wrapped an arm around Rhia’s shoulders and pulled her into my side. “We spend almost every waking moment together.”

  Rhia grinned up at me, because that was pretty much the truth. Yet, when I turned back to her parents—hell, her whole large family—they all stared at us like we were some species they’d never seen before.

  I felt Rhia go stiff in the circle of my arms, because her family wasn’t buying our story.

  Rhia’s constantly ringing phone during work had been annoying. But witnessing Rhia’s family look at her as less than pissed me off. Hell, she deserved a break from that constant parade of nerds.

  “And the non-waking moments.”

  Her family gasped en masse.

  “That’s right. In fact, we’re pregnant. We’re having a baby.”

  Pretty much all hell broke loose. Obviously, I hadn’t thought that through. I hadn’t thought at all. I was just thinking that claiming pregnancy would give Rhia nine months of peace before we’d have to come up with an explanation.

  “Wait, I remember you,” her sister said with a snap of her fingers. “I met you and your brothers at the expo. The super-sperm brothers.”

  That got everyone in Rhia’s family quiet again fast.

  “I guess you made that sperm donation after all,” Steph said.

  Oh, boy.

  “What do you do, Wyatt?” This from Rhia’s father.

  “My brothers and I own our own construction business, sir.”

  “A construction worker,” her mother said, a frown on her face.

  I could have set her straight…but why? “Yes, ma’am. That’s right.”

  Rhia turned and smiled softly up at me, her eyes glowing. Now, her parents could judge the shit out of both of us.

  Her mother shook her head, then announced it was time to eat. Everyone gravitated into the dining room before sitting down to a long table with fancy-looking china and silverware. I quickly met her brothers, Cole and Paul, various aunts, uncles, cousins, and more. Each one seemingly smarter than the next.

  Rhia pulled me down in a chair next to her at the end away from her parents. Good call. A platter of fried fish, plus bowls of scalloped potatoes and brussels sprouts got passed around.

  “Well, the combination of your dominant genes will make for beautiful babies.” Rhia’s sister eyed us both across the width of the table. “If you both give me a blood sample, I’ll run it through and tell you what traits you can expect the baby to end up with.”

  “Gee, Steph. I think we’ll just wait and be surprised.”

  “Oh, I was hoping to breed out the red hair from the Murphy side. I guess it’s too late for that now.” Rhia’s mother stared at Rhia’s hair dispassionately. What the fuck? I loved Rhia’s hair. And red didn’t even come close to describing its color. Copper, umber, mahogany, burnt orange, and gold lived in the flames of her wild curls.

  “And her freckles,” an aunt added.

  I’m sorry but the light dusting of freckles across Rhia’s nose was fucking adorable. What was with this family? They acted like they were some genetic strain of superior humans, and Rhia was the root of the family tree they were trying to tear out.

  “We’re probably stuck with those too. I know for a fact Dexter Meeks has no redheads in his family. Plus, both his parents are fellows in my department. His IQ is off the charts.”

  I leaned over and kissed Rhia right on her soft, pink lips. When I pulled back, she blinked up at me in surprise.

  “What was that for?” she whispered, her eyes looking into mine.

  “Well, unless it’s gone out of style while I’ve been busy with school, my understanding is couples use kissing as a way to communicate their affection.”

  We smiled at each other, a protective little bubble, shielding her momentarily from her insensitive family.

  “Rhia, with a baby on the way, I think it’s finally time for you to take the job with your uncle.”

  Her uncle pointed at her from three seats over. “Solid business for twenty years now.”

  “I appreciate it, Uncle Monty, but I’m fine.” Rhia smiled stiffly.

  “Parties, Rhia. I mean, if you’re serious about your business, at the very least you should be in corporate events. That’s a bigger deal and where the big money is.”

  Rhia’s body tensed up against mine, and the crease in her forehead dug deeper.

  I leaned over and kissed her again. Her frown disappeared, and her muscles relaxed.

  Every time her family dinged her, I kissed her.

  “Face it, Rhia, you’re an underachiever compared to the rest of us,” one of her brothers said, waggling his eyebrows at her. “I think it’s on account of she was born via C-section. The rest of us had to struggle through the birth canal and came out fighting.”

  “I’ve actually read a study on this very thing,” the other brother said, looking over his nerd glasses. “You got pulled into the world with no effort on your part whatsoever. So hard work doesn’t come naturally to you.”

  Jesus Christ, this family.

  Hell, I might have had a crap childhood with abuse and neglect, but at least I had my brothers’ support. In the midst of my brothers, I’d always felt loved and valued. They’d never made me feel like I wasn’t good enough.

  Who the hell did Rhia have in her corner? I couldn’t imagine being made to feel like an outsider in an otherwise close-knit family. That must be frustrating and lonely as hell.

  I kissed Rhia again, taking my time before turning back to the idiot brother who glowered across at me. I sent him a wink. That’s right, buddy. I was on Rhia’s team.

  Rhia kept looking at her plate, methodically making her way through her meal.
But she had a secret smile on her face now, and her hand reached over under the table and held mine.

  Chapter 12

  Rhia

  If someone asked me to list my top three hobbies, they would be: reading, listening to music, and watching Wyatt Thorne. I tried not to watch Wyatt, but I found him so very fascinating. And it had nothing to do with how good-looking he was. Probably. Because so far, every Thorne brother I’d met was hot, but I didn’t stare at them the way I stared at Wyatt.

  I didn’t exactly stare. It would be more accurate to say I peeked. Because the one time he’d caught me staring, he sent me a look. Yet, I couldn’t resist looking at him.

  One reason was how gosh darned nice he was. Even when his brothers were giving him shit—and I was pretty sure half the time they came in the office they were trying to get a rise out of him—he stayed calm and took it. I wasn’t sure I’d ever met anyone as purposeful and careful as Wyatt. As regimented. That ridiculously uncontrollable imagination my family was always bemoaning kicked into high gear, and I found myself scribbling notes when he wasn’t looking.

  Which was not my usual routine. Not that I was great at sticking to routines, but I tried. Up until two months ago, I looked at life like a freestyle performance, often just going with the flow. But with my new business venture, I had to come up with a regimented schedule and stick with it.

  “Did you hear that, Rhia?” Wyatt sat leaning back in his chair, hands clasped behind his neck, elbows splayed.

  “Hear what? I haven’t heard a thing since I walked in an hour ago.”

  “Exactly. A full week with no distractions.” He sat forward, resting his elbows on his desk, and smiled. “No poindexters showing up to woo you. No constantly ringing phone you refuse to answer. No kitten meowing her head off for a bite of my sandwich.”

  “Tell me you did not give that cat human food. Cats need cat food.” Which reminded me, bunnies needed bunny food. Especially the three I had in a box under my desk. Parents should never give their children baby bunnies for Easter. And never ever give a child two bunnies!

  “It was a tuna fish sandwich.” He shrugged. “Now, this is the way I like my office. Quiet.”

  “I haven’t had a phone call from a potential date or my family all week.” A situation I was loving. “If I’d known how great it would work, I’d have pulled the fake boyfriend/fake pregnancy thing ages ago.”

  “Sorry about the pregnancy thing. That just slipped out. You’ll have to deal with that one.”

  I shrugged, still enjoying my peace too much. “Eh, I’ll kick that can down the road and deal with it in a few months. Some women don’t even show until six or seven months.”

  “I doubt you can drag it out that long.” Wyatt opened his books, fired up his computer, and rolled up his sleeves.

  “Hey, if I get desperate, I totally can. Watch this.” I stood up and grabbed a decorative pillow from my client chair to stuff under my stretchy aqua T-shirt. I adjusted it, then turned in profile to Wyatt. “Ta-da! What do you think?”

  Wyatt did a double take on my belly. His intense gaze moved from my belly up to my hair all over my face and then back down to my belly. “It looks like you’ve got a pillow up your shirt.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” I pulled the pillow out and tossed it back onto the chair. “I’ll probably explain the pregnancy test was a false positive at the next dinner. Can I keep claiming you as my boyfriend, though?”

  “Absolutely.” His attention was back on his computer.

  While I owed Wyatt for helping gain much-needed breathing space with my family, there was one negative thing about the whole event. Ever since last weekend’s Sunday dinner. Ever since Wyatt leaned over and kissed me softly seven times—of course I counted. Ever since I held his hand under the dining room table… All I could think of was how much I liked it. How much I liked Wyatt. And how much I’d like to kiss Wyatt again.

  But just because he’d helped me didn’t mean he wanted the same thing. In fact, according to him, he wasn’t helping me but selfishly looking out for himself. But his selfish actions sure were generously unselfish.

  “Thank you, Wyatt.”

  “For what?”

  “For your help with my family. For being a good sport about sharing your office. I guess just for being so nice.”

  “Nice?”

  “Yeah, that’s okay, isn’t it? Nice is…nice.” He was frowning at his computer, so maybe telling him he was nice wasn’t good. He was a lot more than nice, but I wasn’t going to tell him all of that. Smart, dedicated, hot, gorgeous eyes, nice nose, a nicer butt, strong shoulders, and hands and forearms I might have been fantasizing about. That was all…huh… All that together sort of made Wyatt great boyfriend material. I wasn’t talking fake boyfriend, either. I was talking the real deal.

  He was nothing like the men my parents and family had been shoving into my life for the past few years now. Nothing. Which might explain why I was so fixated with him. A classic case of rebelling against my parents. Sure. That’s all it was. So, I could go ahead and fixate on him. Drool away. Dream about us all night long.

  Except that my fixation was distracting me a little more each day.

  Not good from a work standpoint, not when I needed to focus on growing my client list and reputation. My eyes tracked over to Wyatt, though, as if he were made of metal and my eyes magnets. I refocused on my computer but before long, my gaze was back over on Wyatt.

  “Yes?”

  “What?”

  “You’re looking at me.”

  “Well, dang it, Wyatt, have you ever looked in the mirror?” He knew he was good-looking like all his other brothers, right?

  “Every morning when I shave,” he said.

  He had no clue how good-looking he was. Not a clue. Clueless, as it were. No wonder he even looked at me. He probably didn’t understand that we weren’t on the same level in the looks department. He was on the “Gah! Drop dead gorgeous” level, and I was on the “She’s got a nice personality” level.

  This might be my only chance at a man like Wyatt Thorne. He was almost like a captive audience with our forced togetherness. Maybe Wyatt was my prize for staying strong and trying to make something important out of my life. Like my participation trophy. Thank you for playing; here’s one round with gorgeous, distracted hunk, Wyatt Thorne.

  Or… Rhianna Hollis, come on down and let’s see what you’ve won… You’ve won a romantic fling with…Wyatt Thorne!

  Stop it right now. I shook my head and shoved every hot, crazy thought about Wyatt out of my head. I woke up my computer and proceeded to work out a people flow chart for a retirement party and then scour Pinterest for new inspiration on two proposals I was working up. I was a bit surprised at the amount of research I did as a planner. It wasn’t my favorite part of the job, but I knew it was important, so I made sure to set aside time every day to scour the Internet for food trends and hot new venues and locations.

  The word “hot” reminded me of Wyatt again, and my gaze floated his way. He caught me looking. I bit my lip and was about to whip my gaze away when movement behind Wyatt’s chair caught my attention.

  Oh, no. One of the bunnies was hopping silently behind his desk. I casually looked down at the box at my feet and saw it. The darn things had chewed a hole in the box and escaped. I started humming and tapping my pencil as I figured out what to do.

  “Spill it, Rhia.”

  “What? I have no idea what you’re referring to.” Denial was my knee-jerk reaction in most situations.

  “Tell me what you’re trying not to tell me. You can trust me. I mean, you’re having my baby, right?”

  Ha! Another joke from Wyatt. Well, what do you know?

  I looked him straight in the eyes and let it fly.

  “There are three baby bunnies loose in the office, and I think I want to have sex with you.”
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br />   Crap. Why did I add that last part?

  “Uh, how about we deal with the bunnies first?”

  “Right. Good plan. Only, don’t move your chair.” I jumped up and moved around him. Sure enough, bunny number one was sitting behind his chair. I scooped him up, then held it out to show Wyatt.

  “Well, that’s adorable. So, two more.” Wyatt stood and we both walked around the office, easily rounding up the other two baby rabbits.

  Wyatt cleared out a large plastic bin from the closet to hold them, and I added their food and water. Bunny emergency over.

  “How did you end up with the bunnies?”

  “A family in my apartment complex gave their kids two bunnies for Easter.”

  “Uh oh.”

  “Exactly. And they were just going to release the babies into the wild, but they’re too young and they’re pets. They have no survival skills.” Honestly, sometimes people didn’t think things through. “So, office bunnies! We have office bunnies for a few days, but I promise they won’t be here long.”

  “Not that many people have pet rabbits. It might be harder to find homes for them.”

  “You’d be surprised. Rabbits make very good pets. They can even be taught to use a litter box.”

  “No shit?”

  “Well, yes, but in the litter box.”

  Wyatt’s lips wiggled, like he was trying not to encourage me by laughing.

  “Anyway, I have friends with a petting zoo who said they’d take them.”

  And then we stood staring at each other, the container of bunnies between us, and awkward silence just dangling in the air.

  “So… Are we good?” Wyatt’s eyes veered away from mine before swinging back to me. “Or do you want to hit me with the second thing again?”

  His gaze was locked on my lips. Which was why I think I had the nerve to say what I wanted a second time. I sucked in a breath and went for it. Nona always said, “if you don’t ask for what you want, you surely won’t get it.”

  “I think I want to have sex with you.”

  “You think?” Wyatt’s gaze roamed my face.