He huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. “You know what? I came here to make peace. Let me know when you want that too.”
He turned and walked away, getting in his truck and slamming the door. But he didn’t leave, not until I went inside and shut the door. Okay, I may have misjudged him a little. I just had to figure out how to get over that.
Eric
I hammered the nail into the wood harder than necessary. I was still fuming over what happened last night. I was fucking pissed. The whole fucking thing had started off wrong between Katherine and me. It seemed the harder we tried to make things work between us, the worse things got. I just couldn’t seem to do anything to get on her good side. Maybe I should have waited for a return phone call from her, but I felt the need to set things straight with us. Maybe if we just sat down and talked, things might be somewhat normal between us. And I needed that.
“Whoa, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?”
I ignored Will as he walked up behind me. It was a Saturday, so he didn’t have school. He usually swung by on the weekends to hang out and shoot the shit, if I wasn’t working. I had jobs to finish, but I sent the guys out on them and took the day to work around the house a little. I had porch steps that needed to be fixed, and I needed them fixed before it got too cold. Besides, I had other projects that I wanted to finish up around the house before the baby came. It was time to stop putting off these jobs and get them done. There were no excuses anymore.
“I’m just trying to get some shit done around here.”
“Work’s been busy?”
“Yeah, and I don’t have enough guys to finish up all the jobs I have coming in.”
“So, why are you here instead of on a job?”
“Because I needed to get this shit done.”
He walked up to the steps and tested the weight of one of the steps I had yet to replace. “It doesn’t seem that urgent to me.”
“Well, it needs to be done.”
Will stood there watching me as I pounded in another board. “What’s really going on?”
“Nothing,” I ignored him, pretending everything was fine.
“Well, Robert’s coming down in an hour. We can help you out with some of this shit.”
I snorted, trying to imagine Robert getting off his fucking phone long enough to hold a hammer.
“Where are the Bobbsey Twins?” he asked, picking up a board and bringing it over to me.
“Probably still sleeping.”
“It’s eleven o’clock,” he said incredulously. “I say we go throw water on them, wake their asses up. What do they do anyway?”
“Fuck if I know. They come and go as they want.”
“You should charge them rent.”
“I do. They buy groceries and everything.”
“So…where do they get the money from? I’ve never seen or heard them talk about a job.”
“Neither have I and I’m scared to ask.”
“You don’t think it’s drugs, do you?”
I shook my head. “Nah, I would have noticed if they were into that shit.”
“Huh. So, what else are we doing around here today?”
I stood back with a sigh and looked at the house. “I need to finish up these stairs and rip out the ones at the back. I need new supports in there. The roof has to be replaced before winter and I’d like to put in some new windows.”
“Whoa, that’s quite a list. Why does this all have to be done before winter?”
Before I could answer, a car pulled in the driveway, and not just any car. It was Katherine. Fuck.
“Uh, you want to go inside for a minute?”
“Why?” he asked curiously as he stared at the car. “Who is it?”
“Nobody,” I said, hoping to kill his curiosity.
Yeah, that didn’t work.
He threw down the hammer he had just picked up and started walking toward the car. When it stopped, he walked right up to the driver’s side window. “Is there something I can help you with?”
The door opened and Katherine stepped out. She looked different today. She wasn’t wearing her scrubs and she looked refreshed, like she’d gotten some good sleep.
“I just came to see Eric.”
Will’s jaw dropped and he looked back at me. “That asshole? Seriously, if you’re looking for a good time, you’re not gonna find it with him. He’s about as boring and straight-laced as they come.”
Her eyes flicked to mine in question and I shook my head slightly, letting her know that he didn’t know yet.
“I’m Will,” he said, holding out his hand. “The more handsome, devilishly charming brother. In other words, I’m what you’re really looking for.”
I sighed and walked over to her, deciding to save her from Will. He was a good guy, but he thought he was God’s gift to women. I mean, he wasn’t as bad as Andrew and Joe, but he could lay the charm on just as thick.
“Katherine, this is my younger brother, Will. Will, this is Katherine.”
“And how do you happen to know my older, tediously boring brother?”
The porch screen door swung open and Joe stepped out looking sleep-ridden. That is, until he saw Katherine.
“Quiche-girl! You’re back. See? I knew you’d be his bae.”
“Quiche girl?” Will asked.
Joe plodded down the steps, his steps a little too jaunty for having just woken up.
“Man, I am so turnt to see you again. I thought for sure after my bro was all cancel that we would never see you again. And here you are!”
“Joe, don’t you have someplace to be?”
“Wait, how does Joe know you?” Will asked Katherine.
“Um…”
“He was here one day when Katherine was here,” I jumped in.
Joe laughed out loud, throwing his head back. “We’re family. Can we just spill the tea here? Katherine is his bae, or should be. See, they had this Netflix and chill moment that wasn’t at all Netflix, if you know what I mean.”
Will stared at him, then looked to me for clarification. “Katherine was here one morning after…after we met in a bar.”
Will looked to Katherine and then back to me. “You slept with her?” he said incredulously.
“Hey!” Katherine said indignantly. “I’m not that bad.”
“Not you. Him,” he pointed to me. “I don’t know what’s more unbelievable, that he was in a bar or that he took you home.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Sorry, not sorry,” Joe interjected, “it’s true. She’s all on fleek and you’re so basic.”
I rolled my eyes. This was going nowhere fast. I needed to get my brothers away from Katherine. Obviously, she came out here to talk, and that wasn’t going to happen if they were hanging around. I hadn’t even told them about the baby yet.
The screen door opened again and Andrew walked out. Fuck, I was so screwed. “Will, can you guys give us a minute?”
“Holy shit! It’s the baby mama with all the drama! How’s my soon to be bae-in-law?”
“Your what?” Will asked. “What the fuck is he talking about?”
“Whoa!” Joe said, running his hand over his head. “Is he serious?” He glanced at Katherine and then back at me, his hand moving between the two of us. “This is so…I can’t even…”
“Can’t even what?” Will asked. “What are they talking about?”
“I’m pregnant,” Katherine interjected, filling them in when I obviously couldn’t.
Will’s eyes flicked down to her stomach and then to me. “As in…”
“As in having a baby,” Katherine clarified. “Your brother’s.”
“Are you sure it’s Eric’s and not Joe or Andrew’s?”
She rolled her eyes, but I punched him in the face. I didn’t need him implying that she slept around, let alone with all my brothers.
“Ow. What the fuck was that for?”
“For implying that she would sleep with that many of us.”
&nbs
p; “I’m just saying…I could see it happening with Joe or Andrew, but you? How the hell did that happen?”
“The way it usually happens,” Katherine said.
“I know, but…seriously? I mean, it usually takes you forever to close the deal.”
Katherine quirked an eyebrow at me. God, they were making me sound like a monk. A horn honked as another car pulled up the driveway. Great. Now Robert was here. He pulled up, eyeing Katherine warily as he got out. “What’s going on?”
“This is Katherine,” Joe piped up. “Eric knocked her up.”
Robert’s gaze shot to mine. I stared up at the sky, hands on my hips as I willed this day to just swallow me whole. It really couldn’t get any worse.
“Uh…” He started chuckling and then he started laughing. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t funny, but…holy shit. When did this happen?”
“A little over a month ago,” Andrew answered, a grin on his face. “You should have been there. He was all cancel and she was like as if. What did I tell you? Pics or it didn’t happen.”
“Obviously it did and we don’t need pics,” I said testily.
“Right, right,” he nodded. “Well, now that everything’s ratchet, I’m gonna bounce. Got my own bae that’s fire.”
Robert sighed, stuffing his hands in his sleek pants as Joe and Andrew got in Andrew’s car and left. “Do you ever think that maybe they were adopted?”
“Nah, Ma would have returned them,” Will said.
“So, you and my brother, huh?”
“You know, we’re kind of working on that,” Katherine smiled. “Believe it or not, I came to talk to him about the baby, and not all of you.”
“That’s cool.” He pulled out his card and handed it over to her. “If you guys decide to get married, keep that on hand.”
“Why?” she asked, staring down at his card.
“Because I’m a divorce lawyer.”
I had finally gotten rid of my brothers after convincing them that I couldn’t tell them anything more until I worked a few things out with Katherine. Robert was pissed about driving the hour down from Chicago, but Will just shrugged it off and left like he had better shit to do anyway. Katherine and I just stood there for a few minutes in awkward silence, neither of us knowing where to go from here.
“What are you doing?” she asked, pointing to the stairs.
“Uh, I had a few loose boards. I have to rip out the set of stairs on the other end of the house and replace the whole thing.”
“You know how to do that?”
I gave her a funny look. “Yeah, I know how to do that. I’m an engineer. It’s sort of what I do.”
Understanding lit her face. “Well, that explains the clothes when you showed up for the appointment.”
“Yeah, I was running late because the plumber didn’t show up.”
“I didn’t realize…we haven’t really discussed anything about ourselves.”
I laughed slightly. “No, we haven’t.”
“Do you have the time now? I mean, I don’t want to interrupt your day, but…” She took a deep breath and blurted out, “I was a bitch last night. I had a rough day and I wasn’t expecting that you wanted to get to know me.”
“Sure.” I held out my hand for her, helping her up the steps that were torn up.
“So, why does everything have to be replaced?”
“Well, it needed to be done, but now that the baby’s coming…I just want to be prepared.”
“Wow, you really are taking this seriously.”
I was about to open the door for her, but stopped and turned to her, wanting her to see just how serious I was. “Look, I get that we got off on the wrong foot, but there’s nothing I won’t do for my child. No matter what our custody deal is, when my child is here, it will be a safe place for him or her. So, I’m doing what needs to be done to make sure that when the baby’s born, I’m ready for it.”
I watched as her throat bobbed and she nodded. I opened the door and waited as she walked inside. She looked around the place, like she hadn’t seen it the first two times she was here. Although, the first time, she had been hungover and probably hadn’t been paying attention. And the second time she was here…well, I wasn’t really sure because I was too busy freaking the hell out.
“This is a big house.”
“It was my parents’. They moved to North Carolina and left it to me, as long as I take care of my brothers.”
“That was generous of them.”
“Well, they didn’t want to sell. There are a lot of memories here. They just wanted to live somewhere warmer.”
She nodded to herself as she looked around a little more. “So, Eric, I know that you have four very nosy brothers and now I know that you’re an engineer. I know that you like to do things responsibly, current situation aside, and that you’re already preparing for a baby that won’t be here for months. So, what don’t I know about you?”
That could take a lot of time. We sat down at the table and I tried to think about where to begin. She had most of that right, but this was all backwards. We weren’t at the awkward first date, but the awkward morning after, plus a few days.
“Uh…I actually have six brothers. One is out in Pennsylvania and he works at a security firm. He was in the Army for a while, but then he got out and bought into this security company. We don’t see much of him, but he did just introduce us to this woman he’s been seeing.”
“Is that a big deal?”
I grinned. “Yeah. I never really thought he would settle down. He likes the danger, but it turns out that his girlfriend is a little crazy, so it works.”
“And your other brother?”
My face dropped, along with my eyes. “We uh…we don’t know where he is. He disappeared about six years ago. We haven’t heard from him since.”
“Disappeared, like something bad happened?”
“We have no idea. He was here one day and everything was good, and then…and then he was gone. We don’t have a single lead on where he might be or if…if he’s dead. He just vanished.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. That must be very hard.”
I shrugged, like it wasn’t something I really thought about, but it was on my mind every fucking day. I wasn’t sure how my brothers handled it. We didn’t talk about it, but I felt it deep in my bones. I kept waiting for the day that he would walk back through that door and grin at us like he used to. I never changed the locks on the doors and the spare key was still hidden in the same fucking place, just in case he made it home to us one day.
Katherine
That was a great way to start off. I had gone and fucked up that conversation with one innocent question. No wonder he was the way he was. His brother had gone missing and he was the oldest. He probably felt some degree of responsibility for it, though he tried not to show it. I could see that darkness in his eyes though.
He quirked a small grin at me. “So, that’s probably the darkest thing about me. Other than that, what you see is what you get. I work a lot. I’m trying to build my business right now, and it takes a lot of my time, but I’ll always be there for you whenever you need me.”
“I can see that now. I’m sorry I didn’t before. I just…”
“It’s not your fault. I think this whole situation is something neither of us was prepared for.”
I laughed slightly. “Yeah, I definitely didn’t think this was going to happen.” It occurred to me that there were so many small details that I didn’t know about him. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-six. You?”
“Thirty-one.”
His eyes danced with humor. “I find it hard to believe that you’re not taken yet.”
“Well, honestly, I didn’t want to get attached to anyone.”
“Why’s that?”
I shrugged slightly. “I saw all my friends running out to get married at such a young age. And I just kept wondering what else was out there. I sort of lied to you that night in the bar. I don’t do
one-night stands. I just don’t tend to have long relationships. See, I have this theory that if you can’t picture spending your life with someone after six months, then you shouldn’t be with that person.”
He nodded. “I could agree with that.”
“So, I just ended it if I wasn’t in love with the person, or if it just didn’t seem to be going anywhere. I didn’t want to waste my time on someone that I wouldn’t stay with.”
“That’s actually very…responsible of you.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“No, really. You’re not leading someone on when you know it won’t work.”
“And what about you? No big relationships? Were your brothers right? Does it take you a long time to seal the deal?”
I couldn’t help but tease him. Obviously his brothers thought he didn’t get laid enough.
He rolled his eyes slightly. “I don’t just jump in bed with women. To them, that means that I’m too uptight and choosey. I just don’t want the mess of a one-night stand. I want a meaningful relationship. Point in case, we had a one-night stand and look at us, pregnant and now trying to figure out how to navigate a relationship.”
“So…” I glanced down, nervous to ask him this question. I was afraid he would respond in some outrageous way. But we needed real solutions right now. “How do you see us navigating this relationship?”
He chuckled slightly. “Well, since you turned down my marriage proposal and my offer for you to be my fake girlfriend, I guess we’ll just have to do this the old fashioned way and get to know each other.”
I nodded, relieved that he hadn’t suggested that I move in with him again, or something equally crazy. “That actually sounds like a really good plan. So…”
And now it was awkward. I didn’t know what else to say. Where did we go from here? Did we just sit here and talk? Or maybe we should just leave it at this amicable place before one of us inevitably said something to screw things up.
“So, what about you?” he asked, before I could stand up and leave. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Maintenance Required: A small town romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 1) Page 10