“That’s right, buddy.”
“Quarterback is an important position, Mr. Tyler.”
“It sure is,” Tyler agreed.
“I love football. I play sometimes on my game at home or at recess at school. My friend, Billy, is always the quarterback ’cause he can throw far, but I’m fast so I run. What’s that position called again?” He snapped his fingers, thinking.
“Running back.”
“Yes!” He pointed at Tyler. “I’m the running back, and …” Diego continued on, teaching Tyler everything he knew about the game of football. I watched, thoroughly entertained by the interaction between all three ― Tyler, Diego, and Carter. They all got a kick out of one another.
“Mother,” Tyler stood after a few minutes, calling over Carter and my shoulders.
I turned to find Mr. and Mrs. Townsend, both dressed in the team’s black and white jerseys and wearing jeans. Even in jeans, Mrs. Townsend appeared just as elegant as the night I’d first met her at the Townsend Industries gala.
“Look, Richard, it’s our two bookends,” she laughed.
“Mother.” Carter smiled warmly and pulled his mother into a big hug. “Father.” He shook his father’s hand and they embraced as well.
For some reason the warmth between the two surprised me. Whenever Carter spoke about his family, especially his father, there was a certain reverence in his voice. However, he’d also pointed out that his father was particularly disappointed when he decided not to work for the family business.
“Son.”
“Mother, Father, this is Michelle and her son, Diego,” Carter introduced, his hand on my lower back and one hand resting on Diego’s shoulder. The move was both protective and presenting us, in some way.
Deborah peered at me with careful eyes that were the same color as her eldest son’s. Slowly a smile moved over her face and this one met her eyes.
“Pleasure to meet you.” I extended my hand but was surprised when she clasped it, and then pulled me into a hug. I looked over at Carter who simply smiled the biggest grin I’d ever seen from him.
“And Diego, aren’t you just the cutest.”
“Hello, Mrs. Townsend.”
“And so well mannered.” She turned back to me. “That’s a sign of good parenting.” She winked and I surmised that at least two of her sons had gotten some of their charm from her.
Mr. Townsend, on the other hand, was much less effusive but still polite when he introduced himself. To my surprise, he squatted low to get eye level with Diego and shook his hand. The pair quickly struck up a conversation on football. Either it was just my imagination or this family was nothing like I had imagined.
“I think you Townsend men have a thing for charming my son,” I whispered in Carter’s ear as his father and Diego continued speaking.
“He’s the charmer. And I know he gets it from his mama. She charmed the pants off me, multiple times,” he stated low in my ear and my face flamed. Completely unbothered by my embarrassment, he actually nuzzled the side of my face and neck with his nose, causing me to squirm.
“Carter, stop!” I whisper-hissed.
His mother peered at the both of us and giggled.
“Here comes Josh,” Tyler interrupted.
“Late as usual,” Mr. Townsend grumbled.
“Lay off me, old man. I was busy selling properties, making your company a few million,” Joshua stated nonchalantly, as he slowly removed his sunglasses and placed them into the pocket of his jeans.
Surprising me again, Mr. Townsend laughed off his old man comment, patting Joshua on his back. “Only a few million?”
“It was a slow week.” Joshua turned dark eyes on me. “Michelle Clarke, how nice to meet your acquaintance again.” He pulled my extended hand to his lips while peering at Carter from the corner of his eye. Before his lips were even able to make contact with the back of my palm, Carter’s firm grip was pulling my hand free.
“Lips to yourself.”
A sly grin met Carter’s jealousy. Joshua turned to me, eyes glittering with humor. “My brother can hunt terrorists halfway around the world without batting an eye. Pulls people from burning buildings daily and barely thinks twice about it. But greet his woman a little too friendly and he responds like a trapped animal.”
I covered Carter’s abdomen with my free hand, stopping his lunge in Joshua’s direction. But his darkened eyes remained trained on his brother.
Joshua’s gaze fell to my hand on his brother, and the sparkle grew even more. He didn’t say anything else to Carter, instead pivoting in the direction of their father.
“Anyway, why’re you on my case for being late when Aaron hasn’t even shown yet?”
I swallowed at the mention of their missing brother. Aaron made me nervous for some reason.
“Because unlike my third youngest son, Aaron had the courtesy of calling to inform us that he would be a little late.”
“And here he comes now,” Tyler interjected.
We all turned to see Aaron making his way across the field. As opposed to everyone else who’d shown up, he was dressed in a full-on three piece suit, and paired with shiny, expensive looking shoes. The dark, tailored suit jacket was unbuttoned, and his left hand rested inside his pocket as he confidently strode our way. The scowl I’d seen on his face the two times I’d ever seen him was present on the field as well.
“Aaron,” Mr. Townsend spoke first.
“Father, Mother,” he greeted, leaning down to present his mother with a kiss on her cheek. He shook hands with his father and then all his brother’s before turning dark, scowling eyes on me.
“Don’t fucking stare at her like that,” Carter began.
Aaron slow blinked, turning hazel eyes from me to Carter. “I wasn’t staring at her like anything. Simply waiting for an introduction.”
“You’ve already met.”
“A refresher is in order, don’t you think?”
A scowl appeared on Carter’s face that matched his brother’s. “Aaron, Michelle. Michelle, Aaron.”
He reached out his hand and I extended mine, shaking his. Unlike his other two brothers, he did not even attempt to flirt, if even just to get under Carter’s skin.
“And this is her son, Diego.”
For the first time I looked down, realizing Diego hadn’t returned his hello. To my amazement, Diego seemed … awestruck. Not afraid as I had guessed, but he was simply staring at Aaron, as if seeing something he couldn’t believe.
“Diego, say hi to Mr. Aaron,” I encouraged.
“You have fairies!” my son said instead.
I frowned, looking from Diego to Carter.
“Kids always seem to respond to Aaron … strangely.”
I lifted an eyebrow, tilting my head. Carter just shrugged a shoulder.
“Excuse me,” Aaron grumbled as his phone rang. He stepped away from the group, pulling his phone from his pocket and answering it. I looked down at Diego who was still silently observing Aaron even though his back was now to us and he walked farther away.
“Hey, little guy, you want to get in the race?” Tyler asked, picking Diego up when he reluctantly broke his gaze away from Aaron to answer yes.
Carter’s family followed Tyler, who had Diego up on his shoulders. The coaches had set up a relay race for the kids, followed by a potato sack race.
“What was that about?”
Carter shook his head a little. “Aaron’s always had a weird way with children. He’s obviously not the most charming or easiest guy to get along with, but children and animals always seem so drawn to him.”
“Animals too?” I questioned.
Carter nodded. “We had a dog named Georgie growing up. Tyler chose the dumbass name. Damn thing followed Aaron everywhere. When we left the house in the morning, he’d whine and sit by the door all day until Aaron returned home. Slept right outside his door. Strangest thing.”
“He must’ve been nice to Georgie.”
Carter shook his hea
d adamantly again. “No. That’s the odd part. He all but ignored him. Said pets were frivolous endeavors he didn’t have time for. But Georgie never let up, not until the day he died. After that, Aaron was adamant that we not have anymore pets.”
Before I could respond, a yelling sounded and I looked up to see Aaron barking at some poor soul on the other end of his phone.
“I don’t have time for this shit!” he snarled.
I’ve always heard of animals and children being attached to certain people who were just innately kind or sweet―like teachers or social workers―but as I glanced at the man reaming someone out over the phone, I knew he wasn’t anything like that. He was a complete enigma.
“Want to get in on the sack race?” Carter questioned, taking my hand in his.
I nodded, laughing. “I’m going to kick your butt,” I teased.
“I just might let you, sugar.”
The next few hours were filled with laughter, fun, and lots of food as the team had provided more than enough of everything for the families of their players. A few times I took notice of the photographers that had evidently been hired by the team owners, but didn’t think too much of it.
“Enjoying yourself, hun?”
I grinned, looking over at Mrs. Townsend, whose eyes were now covered with square-framed sunglasses.
“Yes, Mrs. Townsend, I am. I can’t thank Tyler enough for inviting us to come with Carter and share the day with you all.”
She waved a manicured hand in the air. “My eldest wouldn’t have allowed this day to go by without your being here. Let’s get some shade.” She hooked her arm in mine and we started in the direction of the sidelines where there was a large canopy set up with beverages on a table.
“I’ve been attending football games since Tyler was seven years old.”
“I guess you’re a huge football fan by now.”
“Oh no, hun. I still abhor the sport.” She pressed her free hand to her chest.
“Really? All this time and you haven’t grown accustomed to it?”
She shook her head, her dark tendrils of hair falling around her shoulders. “Not in the least. What’s to like about a sport in which the objective of the opposing team is to tackle my son to the ground and strip him of a ball made out of pigskin of all things?” We both laughed.
“I see your point. Diego has been begging me to put him in the pee-wee league for more than a year now but it frightens me. Lately, though, he’s been thinking of being a firefighter when he grows up instead of a football player.” I snapped my mouth shut, not meaning to reveal as much.
“Yes,” she stated as we stopped at the table, both of us taking cups filled with Gatorade. “My son appears to be just as smitten with your little Diego.” She smiled, glancing out on the field. I turned to look in the same direction to see Diego running with a football under his right arm, being chased by Carter and Tyler. Everything inside of me warmed at seeing the effervescent smile on Diego’s face when Carter caught him, lifting him high in the air.
“They love hard, you know.”
Her comment drew my attention from my love and my son back to her. “I’m sorry, what was that, Mrs. Townsend?”
“We’re past familiarities, hun. Call me Deborah. I said, they love hard.” She nodded toward her family. “Those men. All of them. They’re all unique in their own way, most obvious in how different they appear from one another, but just as those freckles are a common trait among the Townsend men so is the depth at which they love. You can rely on it, depend on it just as sure as you can bank on the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.”
“W-why’re you sharing this with me?”
Deborah finally looked back at me. “Because I want you to know what you’ve walked into.” She took my hand without the cup in hers. “My Carter was always destined to do great things and follow his own destiny. It took his father a little time to learn that, but he learned it eventually. I always believed his greatest joy would be his family. I see he’s finally found that. You keep his heart safe because I assure you he will guard yours and Diego’s with his entire life… and then some.”
My mouth fell open and shut a few times as I racked my mind for some sort of response. But everything I came up with seemed ridiculously shallow in the face of what she’d just shared.
But Deborah seemed to read my mind when she said, “You don’t have to say anything. It’s a lot to take in. Trust me, I know.”
At that moment, movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I glanced over and saw Aaron walking past us, again reaming someone out on his phone. He’d been distracted with calls for much of the time we’d been there.
“You sure about all of the Townsend men loving hard?” I mumbled. I hadn’t meant to blurt that out loud.
I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t for a mischievous grin to appear on her face as she carefully watched her second oldest son. “You know what they say, the meaner they are the harder they fall.”
I was pretty sure it was the bigger they are the harder they fall, but I kept quiet.
“That one,” she tilted her head at Aaron, “will fall the hardest. Especially since he already has.” Her eyes narrowed.
I wrinkled my forehead, wondering what the hell she was talking about, but she looked back at me and clapped her hands. “Enough about that. Tell me about that charming son of yours.” We went on to talk for another few minutes before all the men started coming over to the table. It was the end of the day and the family day was wrapping up.
Just as Carter and I were saying our last good-byes, Diego’s shrieks of laughter pierced the air. I glanced over to see my little boy running circles around a scowling Aaron.
“Diego, leave Mr. Aaron alone,” I scolded my son.
“But he has fairies around him, Mama!” Diego exclaimed, again in awe of something that so obviously wasn’t there. I highly doubted any fairies ― should they exist ― wanted anything to do with the mean looking specimen in front of me. And once again I highly doubted Deborah’s words from earlier about Aaron loving the hardest. The man was as movable as a brick wall, and I wasn’t just talking physically, though he was as tall and broad as the rest of the Townsend men.
“Come on, buddy.” Carter scooped Diego up. “How about we head home and I fix us some pizzas while your mama and I discuss how she’s going to decorate the house?”
I cut my eyes at Carter. I still hadn’t spoken to him about the interior designer he’d hooked me up with. When I’d brought it up earlier, he simply said that he trusted my opinion and I had free reign to furnish and decorate however I wanted. The man was beyond impossible.
****
Carter
“Roll call!” Eric yelled out as he stood in the center of the main room, clipboard in hand. “Carter, you’re on equipment duty today. We need a total count of everything. Brass wants it within the week.”
“Everything?” I questioned, just to make sure I heard him correctly.
He nodded. “I don’t make the rules, I just follow ’em.”
“This is bullshit,” I grumbled. It could take weeks to properly inspect and count the station’s entire equipment count. “I’m definitely giving the rookies some of this bullshit task. Corey too.”
“Why me?” Corey called out from the other side of the room.
“’Cause unlike the rookies, I’m pretty sure you know how to count,” I chuckled.
Corey frowned but eventually laughed, too.
“Let’s get started, shall we?”
“Whatever, man. Hey, Harvard, to make it up to Carter and I, I say you have that wife of yours bake us up another one of her chocolate lava cakes.”
“My wife doesn’t take baking orders from your clowns.” Eric pointed his pen in Corey’s direction. I had a laugh at his possessiveness. Now, I knew exactly what he felt whenever someone in our squad mentioned his wife’s name. Immediate and swift protection is what mine felt like.
Speaking of M
ichelle ... I had finally gotten her onboard with the interior designer idea. She was reluctant from the start, especially pointing out that I’d had Diane ambush her at her office. She was right on that account. I’d told Diane to take some pictures and samples with her, knowing that once Michelle saw them she wouldn’t be able to turn her away. It was a risky move but it won her over. I waited a couple of hours after she sent that angry text when Diane first showed up. By then, she was much calmer having looked at the layout. Still, she was insistent that it wasn’t her place to design. After we spent family day together with my brother’s team, she was less hesitant. I took that opportunity to schedule another appointment with Diane for the following evening. That one was scheduled at my house and Michelle couldn’t help but get excited about decorating. We were making progress.
“Oop! That’s us!” Corey yelled seconds after the firehouse alarm sounded. We both tossed down the equipment we’d been sorting to grab our boots and fire repellant gear, and headed straight for the trucks.
“What address did they say?” I stopped in my tracks. Oddly, a feeling of trepidation moved through my entire body. I never got nervous when calls came through, but the address …
“One Townsend Squ–” Corey paused, realizing what he was saying. “Shit!”
“Let’s go!” I ordered, climbing into the passenger side of the truck without thinking about it.
Eric was behind the wheel and in no time we were pulling out of the garage.
“You know the layout of the building better than anyone,” he yelled over to me.
I nodded, looking straight ahead, pulling the lever for the horn to sound. These fucking cars were taking their sweet ass time to get out of the way.
“Carter! Are you listening to me?”
I turned back to Eric. “What?” I growled impatiently.
“I said that maybe you’ll wanna sit this one out. Watch from the ground.”
I scowled at Eric. “Why the fuck would I do that? You just said I know this building better than anyone. That’s my fucking family in there!”
“Alright. Alright! I was just making sure. We’re going to need your total attention on this. No distractions.”
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