“Is that for me?”
He glanced at the pizza box, seeming to come to a decision. “Well, I initially bought it for me, but then I decided to share it with you.”
He held out the box and I took it warily, opening it up to see what kind it was.
“This is cheese.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t eat cheese.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine, bust my balls about this. I bought the pizza to share with you, and since you like cheese, I got cheese.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You told me that you would never share a pizza with me.”
He snatched the pizza box back and glared at me. “Fine, I won’t share it with you.”
I took it back and walked into the townhouse, leaving the door open for him to enter. I heard him shut the door as I plopped down on the couch and opened the box. “There’s water in the fridge. Sorry, I don’t have any beer.”
He nodded and grabbed a couple of bottles, then sat down across from me. “Don’t hog all the pizza. I said I would share, not give it all to you.”
“Then eat faster,” I shot back.
He took a bite and glanced around the house, grimacing at my decorations. “This place sucks.”
“I know.”
“I mean, it’s nice, but….”
I shrugged. “I know. It’s not the same.”
I took another bite and tried to ignore the awkward silence between us. He wiped his hands on a napkin and tossed it on the table. “Look, I’m just going to put this out there. You need to come home.”
I sighed and dropped my pizza back in the box. “Andrew, if you came here to try and convince me to go back to Eric, you can save your breath. We just don’t work.”
“What? What does Eric have to do with any of this?”
I looked at him strangely. “Um…why else would I move back to the farmhouse?”
He sighed deeply. “You know, he’s not the only one there. I have no one to do my laundry, and you cook better than Eric. Don’t come back for him. Come back for me. I miss you.”
I laughed out loud, my first genuine laugh in a long time. “Andrew, you’re crazy.”
He grinned at me and took another bite. “I’m serious, though. It sucks not having you there. You always folded my laundry so neatly and Eric refuses to fold my clothes, and that’s like the worst part about doing laundry!”
“You forget that I yelled at you any time I had to do your laundry.”
“I didn’t forget. It was kind of hot, even if I think of you as a sister.”
I grimaced. “You know, that just sounds disgusting.”
“Well, I never said we were a biological family. You can still daydream about a step-sibling or an adopted sibling.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Of course, I am. As much as I love you, it would never work between us. Frankly, I’m in my prime and you’re going to turn into an old spinster, especially dressed in sweats and a t-shirt,” he said, nodding to my clothes. I tossed my balled-up napkin at him.
“Be nice, or I’ll take the rest of the pizza.” I snatched another piece and shoved it in my mouth. “So, did you find a job yet?”
“Nah. I’m just doing side work for now.”
“You mean, you’re still a hacker.”
He shrugged. “It pays good money.”
“Eric’s gonna be so pissed when he finds out how you actually make your money,” I laughed.
“Hey, it’s not completely illegal. I still pay my taxes.”
I shook my head at him. He was going to have to grow up at some point and get a real job.
“So, when do you go back to work?”
“Tomorrow. I can’t sit around here any longer.”
“That’s because you’re not doing it right. You need to watch a movie and relax with some popcorn.”
“I don’t know of any good movies.”
He grabbed the remote and found a movie to watch. I wasn’t really sure what it was, but I didn’t care. I found that even though I didn’t want company, I didn’t mind Andrew stopping by. He didn’t ask me about how I was feeling or anything like that. He just joked with me and tried to make me feel better.
Andrew moved to the couch, his eyes glued to the TV as he got comfortable. I watched the screen with little attention, more content to just be sitting here with someone and not having to put on a good face or talk about anything. Only a half hour into the movie, I was yawning and ready to fall asleep. Even though I had been sleeping the days away, it was rarely restful. Andrew pulled a pillow from his side of the couch and plopped it against his leg, then patted it for me to lay down. With anyone else, it might be a little weird, but this was Eric’s brother. And if I couldn’t have Eric, I could enjoy this one simple pleasure of feeling like I was at least close to him. I laid down and it wasn’t even a few minutes before I was asleep.
Eric
Andrew walked into the house at six o’clock that night, grinning like a fool.
“What’s so amusing?”
“Nothing. I just spent the afternoon with a beautiful woman.”
Will snorted, barely looking up from his cards. Robert and Joe were also concentrating hard on the cards in their hands.
“Figures that you would miss poker to screw a woman,” Robert replied, tossing two cards on the table. I passed him two more off the top of the deck and waited for Joe to take his turn.
“Oh, I didn’t screw her, but she was laying down on my lap.”
“Wait, you spent the day with a woman, but you didn’t screw her?” Will confirmed.
“Oh, I’m not saying that it wasn’t kinky. I mean, her head was in my lap,” he grinned, waggling his eyebrows at me.
“Another bimbo?” I asked. “Where did you meet this one? Another bar?”
“Nope. I’ve known this one for close to a year now.”
“And you haven’t sealed the deal yet?” Robert asked curiously.
“You know, there’s something so great about having a woman that’s so comfortable with you that she’ll just put her head in your lap,” Andrew said, staring off with a smile at absolutely nothing. “Yeah, she was definitely comfortable with me.”
“So, what’s her name? Obviously, she means something to you if you’ve gone a year and haven’t fucked her.”
He winked at me. “Kat.”
We all stopped and stared at him. “Sorry, what did you just say?” I asked, my anger shooting sky high.
“You heard me. I brought her some food and we talked. You know, I know what you saw in her. She’s smart, beautiful, and man do I like her head in my lap.”
I shoved the chair back, ready to attack Andrew, but Joe stood and held me back, shoving me away from Andrew.
“Why the fuck were you with Kat?”
“Why the fuck aren’t you?” he shot back. “Hey, if you don’t see what you have, I’ll happily move in and take over.”
I charged again, barely being held back by Joe. Then Will was there, holding out his hands to calm me down. “Just hold on a minute. This is Andrew. You know he’s not moving in on your girl.”
“His girl?” Andrew snorted. “Like he deserves to call her that. No, she’s not his girl anymore, and since he’s made that perfectly clear, it’s open season on her.”
“The fuck it is,” I snarled. “Stay the fuck away from her.”
“No, I don’t think I will. I’m thinking by this time next week, she’ll be my bae, and it’ll be me that she’ll Netflix and chill with. Though, I’m really hoping for more of the chill than the Netflix, if you know what I mean.”
My nostrils flared, because I knew exactly what the fuck he meant for once. But as if he was trying to rub salt in the wound, he leaned forward and whispered, “That means there’ll be lots of sex and not so much hanging out.”
“You fucker,” I growled, lunging forward and breaking Joe’s hold on me. Will skittered out of the way, watching as I tackled Andrew to the ground
and buried my fist in his face. The fucker smiled up at me.
“I knew she would be worth it.”
I threw another punch, slamming his head back into the floor. All I could see was red, his hands on her. Her laying in his lap. She was mine, or she used to be. She could go after anyone else, but not my family. No one in my family was allowed to touch her, to know her intimately like I did.
Will and Robert dragged me off Andrew, and Joe helped him to his feet. “Do you have a death wish?” Joe asked.
“Oh, relax. I went over there to see her because this fucker is refusing to get off his ass,” Andrew said, jerking his thumb in my direction. “She’s starting back at work tomorrow. I went to check on her and see how she was doing. I brought her a pizza and we talked. Then I got her to watch a movie and she fell asleep because she’s fucking exhausted.” I glared at him and he rolled his eyes. “I put a pillow against my leg so she could lay down and relax.”
“You shouldn’t have gone over there,” I said accusingly. “She’s not yours.”
“You’re right, she’s not mine, but she is my family. We’re all her family, and you’ve just abandoned her.”
“I didn’t abandon her. She abandoned me!” I shouted. “Did you forget that she’s the one that wanted to leave?”
“She’s hurting,” he shot back. “Everyone else is moving on with their lives. You’re going to work and we’re all doing our own thing. She’s lost, man. She doesn’t know how to move forward.”
“What the fuck do you want me to do? She wanted out. I asked her to stay and she didn’t want to. I can’t change her mind one that. I can’t make her want to be with me.”
He shook his head disappointedly. “There was a time that you were willing to make her see what you could have together. What happened to that man?”
I sighed, not knowing what else to say. When she left, she took that part of me with her. Everything was different now. “That man disappeared the moment she walked out the door.”
I headed into the grocery store on my way home. I had been a chicken shit about coming in here since I blew up at everyone for watching me. But I couldn’t hide out forever. I had to eventually move on with life, and going back in the fucking grocery store was part of that. I grabbed the cart as I walked in and watched as one of the workers backed away from me slowly with wide eyes.
“I’m not gonna snap,” I muttered, more to myself than her. I pushed the cart down the first aisle and started loading up the cart. The stock boy at the other end of the aisle looked up, but when he saw me, he quickly moved out of the aisle, abandoning the pallet of canned goods he was stocking. Tightening my fists on the cart, I pushed on and continued loading my cart. I only had myself to blame. I moved down the next aisle, ignoring the way people hurried past me. I may have been forgiven for my bad behavior, but it was obvious that everyone still thought I was a ticking time bomb.
I was halfway through the store when I turned down an aisle and my heart stopped in my chest. I came face to face with Kat, but I didn’t have a fucking clue what to say. She looked better, a little less pale and weak from when I moved her into her house. She was in her scrubs from work, but she had never looked more beautiful. Those green eyes held just a little more life and she didn’t look so defeated. But the longer I stared at her, the more the sadness crept into her face. She was sad because I was a reminder of all she’d lost. That’s what she told me when she moved out. I was breaking her heart by just existing.
“Hey,” I finally said. I couldn’t just ignore her and pretend like she didn’t exist, no matter how much easier that might be.
“Hey.”
Awkward…”You look good.”
“Thanks. You do too.”
It was like our first date, only so much worse. “So, you’re back at work?”
She looked down at her scrubs and then back up to me. “Um…yeah. It’s been about two weeks now. Just a light schedule until I’m ready to go back full time.”
I nodded, trying to come up with some magical way to disappear so I didn’t have to feel this pain in my chest. Staring at her just made me sad. I wanted to pull her into my arms. I wanted to kiss her and feel her arms around me. I wanted a drink.
“I should…” I gestured to the aisle and she quickly moved aside, brushing some loose hair behind her ear.
“Right, sorry.”
I gave a slight smile and slowly moved past her. Each step was torture. I could feel my heart pulling to be with her, like it was leaving my body to be closer to her. I gripped the handle of the cart and kept pushing, staring at the shelves and shoving anything in my cart just so that I could appear normal. When I was about halfway down the aisle, I turned back to look at her. She was gone and my stomach dropped out. My face fell in sadness, but there was nothing I could do. I took a deep breath and shoved the cart forward. I passed an older woman that smiled kindly at me, and I returned the smile to the best of my ability.
I made it through the store, doing my best not to look for her around every corner. I didn’t see her the rest of the time I was in there. When I got to the check out lane, I started unloading the groceries onto the conveyor belt. My eyes landed on her through the window, loading her groceries in the trunk of her Jeep. I stared at her, watching as she moved quickly, swiping at her cheeks before she slammed the back door. She got into the driver’s side and quickly tore out of the lot.
“Mr. Cortell?” I glanced at the bagger at the end. He looked at me expectantly.
“Sorry, what?”
“Paper or plastic?”
“Anything,” I said. “Anything’s fine.”
But nothing was fine, and it never would be again.
I walked in the door and immediately regretted it. Andrew sat at the table with Will and Robert, and they were all grinning at me.
“What?”
“Somebody’s trending on Facebook,” Robert grinned, shaking his phone from side to side.
“You don’t trend on Facebook. That’s on Chirp,” Will said.
“Chirp is a book site,” Andrew chimed in. “You’re thinking of Twitter.”
“Twitter. What a fucking stupid name for a company about sharing every fucking thought in your head with the entire planet,” Will groused.
“They call it Twitter because it’s like birds talking. Twittering or some shit,” Andrew informed him.
“Why can’t you trend on Facebook?” Robert asked.
“What the hell is the difference?” I asked, taking a seat at the table.
“Trending means you have several people replying to the tweet,” Andrew explained.
“Well…how many people are talking about me on Facebook?” I asked.
Robert scrolled through his phone and snorted. “The whole fucking town.”
“Well, isn’t that trending?”
“Trending is for Twitter only,” Andrew explained. “And stop acting like you don’t know what this shit is. You may be older than me, but you’re not ancient.”
“I don’t know what this shit means,” I said, irritatedly. “This fucking hippie millennial generation, with all your made up words and hipster talk. And what’s with those fucking jeans? Do you not realize that real men don’t show off their ass like that? And get a fucking haircut. You look like you cut half your hair the wrong way.”
“You know, you’re technically a millennial too,” Andrew shot back.
I snorted, snatching a beer from the center of the table. “Not a millennial. You can call it whatever the hell you want, but I don’t mind getting dirty, I don’t sit with my face buried in my phone, and I definitely would rather be sweating my ass off outside than sitting in that pretty shirt you’re wearing,” I nodded to his purple button down.
“There’s nothing wrong with my clothes.”
“Bullshit,” Robert coughed into his fist. “No man dresses in purple. And Eric’s right. You look…” He examined Andrew’s hair, shaking his head slightly. “Like an exotic bird.”
I chuckled, trying not to laugh too hard at my brother. At some point over the last ten years, my baby brother had started dressing and talking like an idiot.
“Whatever. Laugh at me all you want, but don’t be surprised when I clap back.”
“Clap back?” I asked with a grin. “Are you going to cheer me on?”
He shoved away from the table and headed for the stairs.
“Hey, I was joking!”
He gave me the middle finger and went upstairs. I shook my head, drinking my beer. I almost forgot about what happened today. And it was nice, not to have to think about that shit for a while. But then I got angry with myself. I needed to stop thinking about her, and schedule my grocery shopping for when I wouldn’t see her. The more I wanted to see her, the harder it would be to stay away. As much as I didn’t want to do it, I had to stay far away. I couldn’t see her again. It would hurt too much.
I cleared my throat, grinning at my brothers who were looking at me the way they did after we lost the baby. “So, what are they saying about me this time?”
Robert shook his head. “Uh…you know, just town bullshit.”
“Okay, so what’s the word today? Is this about me losing my temper with the welder? Because that idiot had it coming.”
Robert glanced at Will and then back to me. “You know, same old bullshit.”
But the way he was being dodgy, I knew it was more than that. I snatched the phone out of his hand before he could react, and then turned so he couldn’t get the phone back.
Jeannie Jax
Did anyone else see Eric at the grocery store today? What happened?
Carl Roverton
Katherine was in the store. They ran into each other.
Jeannie Jax
OMG! That poor man.
Carly Summers
I saw her at the deli counter. She was practically in tears. And then I saw him watching her through the window at the checkout lane. You could practically see the man’s heart breaking.
Maintenance Required: A small town romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 1) Page 34