Working Back

by BJ Harvey

  Abi pulls me in for a hug when we reach Ronnie’s car. I squeeze her tight, loving that I have her back in my life the way we used to be.

  “One piece of advice,” she whispers in my ear. “If you want to break through that last wall Bry has, use a wrecking ball, not a sledgehammer. Wrecking balls are more final. You swing one of those, and the results are definitive, and while it takes a lot of effort to do, they leave no doubt.” She pulls back and meets my eyes. “I know you wouldn’t have gone through with any of this unless you loved him even more than he has always loved you. Whatever you do, go so big that he knows without a shadow of a doubt that this is it forever. And if you need any help whatsoever—or twin baby nieces to distract him while you’re setting plans in motion—let me know.”

  “I missed you, Abi Jane Carsen.”

  “I missed you too, Faith Marie Bake—Cook,” she says with a huge grin.

  “Wait, I thought full-naming was a big no-no?” April says, sidling up beside Abi.

  I shoot both of them a smile. “Sometimes it’s like shouty caps. It has to be done.”

  Ronnie clears her throat and looks at us from her open car door. “Speaking of doing things—can we get going? These pregnancy hormones have me wanting to go for a ride… and I’m not talking about driving.”

  April, Abi and I share a look that screams, ‘Did she really just say that?’

  “Jax is so screwed,” Abi says. A snort escapes my lips, followed by a giggle from April, then a snort from Abi before we’re all laughing our asses off.

  “You guys are nuts,” Ronnie grumbles, which just sets us off all over again.

  I can definitely see more sex-toy parties in my future, and I can’t wait.

  Having waved goodbye to the sisters, I let myself inside, lock the front door behind me, and quietly make my way to our room. Undressing as I go, I throw my clothes over my shoulder and move to my side of the bed. Crawling between the sheets, I roll over and spoon Bryant’s warm, naked body from behind. He slowly wakes up, his hand sliding along my arm as he holds me to him.

  “Did you have a good night?” he asks sleepily.

  I press a soft kiss to his shoulder blade. “Yeah.”

  “Good.”

  “Did you beat Cohen?”

  “Nah, the little shit kicked our asses. Probably because you weren’t there.”

  “I’ll get him back next time.”

  “You can be my not-so-secret weapon.”

  I giggle at that and burrow in closer, pressing every part of me into him. “I missed you tonight, but I also liked spending time with the sisters and everyone else.”

  He turns to face me, moving in close and nuzzling my jaw, peppering kisses in a gentle trail to my lips. “Good,” he says, giving me a squeeze. “I missed you too. Especially ’cause I kept thinking about what you might bring home with you.”

  I smile against his mouth before slowly kissing him, the feel of his warm skin against mine waking me in delicious ways.

  “I liked coming home to you,” I whisper against his lips.

  “I liked knowing you were coming home to me,” he says, dragging his tongue along the seam of my mouth. “So these toys…”

  “No toys. Just you.”

  “I guess you better start playing with me then,” he says, pressing his hips against mine before rolling me over onto my back and pressing his lips to mine, “No batteries required.”

  Faith

  It’s a Friday-night paint party with all hands on deck to get ready for the new kitchen to be installed on Monday. I’m like a kid at Christmas because I can see the house all coming together now and I’m excited to get involved in even a small part of the brothers’ business.

  I’m kneeling on the floor and taping up the trim to protect the newly sanded, yet-to-be-polished original floorboards Bry and Jax inadvertently found when ripping up the old vinyl a few weeks ago. What was going to be timber-look tiles is now going to be a gorgeous dark polished wood. I was so excited when I came home from work last week and Bry told me, I may have bounced up and down and clapped my hands. This earned me a wry grin and a messy kiss on the lips before Bry asked for my opinion about the countertops. Since then, I’ve been chomping at the bit to do stuff—anything—to help put my stamp on this house flip.

  Ever since Natalie’s drinks, I keep thinking about what Abi said about using a wrecking ball with Bry. Someone less determined than I am might be wary of rocking the boat, but if it takes something epic to demolish the lingering doubts my husband may have about me, then a wrecking ball is what I’m going to use.

  “Damn that’s a nice sight.”

  I lean up on my knees and look over my shoulder to see Bry pushing off the doorframe, his eyes flashing with heat. “You always did like me down here.”

  “I like you anywhere,” he says, closing the distance between us.

  I scoot around so I’m facing him by the time he reaches me. He stops in front of me. My face is scandalously close to one of my favorite parts of him. Unable to help myself, I run my gaze over his ratty old UC Davis T-shirt to his hips, smirking when his interest becomes evident.

  He narrows his eyes. “Keep looking at me like that and I won’t care that we’ll be interrupted, and I won’t stop until we’re done.”

  “Is that a promise? Because I’m not opposed to putting on a show.” I lick my lips, loving the twitch in his jaw as he hungrily rakes his eyes over me. He bends down and hooks his hands under my armpits and hauls me up his body. After turning me around, he backs me into the nook where a refrigerator will go and crowds me in. He dips his head to run his nose along my jaw, his lips dragging against my skin and putting all thoughts about sanding and painting out of my mind.

  “You can give me a show later…” He nuzzles my neck. “But for now, you can give me a small preview.” He pushes his body into mine, leaning his weight against me with delicious intent. I hook my leg around the back of his thigh and grind into him. Needing more, I cradle his face in my hands, jerking his mouth to mine and kissing him like he’s the very essence of my existence.

  I pull back and catch his bottom lip between my teeth. His responding guttural growl sends me from a simmering burn to scorching with want.

  “Fuck later,” he rumbles before his fingers tangle in my hair. His mouth slams down on mine, and then he’s plundering me. A loud moan escapes me as I lose myself in this hot-as-hell kiss when a clearing throat breaks through my Bryant-fueled haze.

  He tears his lips away and leans his forehead against mine.

  “Good evening, brother.” Jax’s amusement is more than evident. “Looks like I got here just in time.”

  “For the show?” Ronnie asks with a laugh.

  “Seems like inopportune interruptions are a Cook family tradition,” my husband’s doppelgänger murmurs.

  Bry lifts his head, his expression one of resigned amusement with lingering heat. His eyes roam my face, warmth suffusing his features. He brushes his lips against mine one more time before stepping back, hooking an arm around my shoulder, and situating me in front of him. I struggle to stifle a giggle when I realize he’s done that to hide his enjoyment of the interrupted make-out session.

  “Five more minutes, Ronnie, and you would’ve had your answer as to just how identical we are,” he says, pressing his lips to that special sensitive spot below my ear, giving me goosebumps.

  “You’re just lucky we got here first. Jamie and Axel pulled into the driveway behind us, and somehow I think eight is a little too young for a birds-and-the-bees talk.”

  “Bees?” Axel asks, appearing out of thin air. Speak of him and he shall come. “I don’t like bees. Birds are pretty cool though.” He shrugs and looks between the four of us. “Dad is just outside looking at stuff. He told me to come in and make sure you guys were working hard. Are you?” he asks, putting his cute little hands on his hips and looking every bit like a mini Jamie, right down to the bright yellow hard hat on his head.

  “Bryant was
trying to do something,” Jax muses. Ronnie shoulder-bumps him, and a snort escapes my mouth.

  Bry gives me a squeeze and looks down at me, his eyes narrowed. “He thinks he’s funny.”

  “Uncle Jax is funny, but you’re the cool uncle, Bry. And Dad is the boss, but he’s funny and cool.”

  Jamie comes through the living room, his eyes soft on his son, obviously hearing what Axel just said.

  “And Dad says I can help pick the colors for the guest bedroom walls today with Aunty Faith’s help since it’s her house with Uncle Bry.”

  Bryant drops a kiss on the top of my head before letting me go and moving towards his nephew. “It’s not our house, Ax. We’re just living here, like when your dad lived next door to your old house,” Bryant explains.

  “Oh. So will you live in your place after this? Or will you be like Uncle Co and live with Nana Marcy and Grandad Rick?” Axel asks, speaking a mile a minute.

  Bry laughs and ruffles Axel’s hair. “Maybe we’ll live with you in that awesome room Jax designed for you.”

  Axel’s eyes widen. “That would be so cool! We could have sleepovers and stuff.”

  We all chuckle at his adorable innocence. Maybe Bryant and I will have a son like him one day.

  I shake that thought off. We’re definitely not there yet. “Before that though,” I say, walking over to join them, “I’d love to pick colors with you. We don’t want Jax and Bry picking them. They’ll pick bright pink or something.” I scrunch my nose up.

  Ax bursts out laughing and reaches out, grabbing my hand. He looks up at Jamie, who’s standing there grinning down at him. “Dad, Faith is my new favorite, and it’s not ’cause she works with elephants.”

  I grin. I totally love this kid. “Tell you what. If you tell me your favorite pizza, I’ll let you steal me from Uncle Bry,” I say with a wink. I bend down and bring my mouth to his ear. “Besides, you’re much more handsome than he is.”

  I straighten and bite my lip to hold back a laugh when his chest puffs up.

  “Okay, let me think.” Ax taps his chin as if contemplating how to solve world peace, not choose pizza toppings.

  Ronnie grins at me and comes up behind Ax, loosely looping her arms around his neck and shooting me a fake filthy look. “Back off, Aunty Faith. Ax is all mine.”

  The boy giggles and pats Ronnie’s arm before looking up at her. “It’s okay. There’s enough of me to go ’round. I have girls fight over me at school all the time. It’s exasperating.” He sighs dramatically.

  Jamie rolls his eyes. “As you can see, my son does not lack confidence.” That makes us laugh again. “So, what’s the plan? Kitchen is getting installed Monday. Jase says the main bathroom will be finished Wednesday, and then it’s just painting, fixtures and staging, right?” he asks, getting back to business.

  “Sounds about right,” Bry says, claiming me as his arm hooks around my shoulder.

  “About the staging—I’d love to help out with that,” I say, looking between Jamie and my husband. “I’ve kind of fallen in love with this place, and I like the idea of putting a little bit of me into it.”

  Jamie smiles. “Sure thing, Faith. I’ve got to choose paint colors as soon as possible, so if you want to sit down and give me your thoughts on it, I’ll take any ideas you’ve got. We’re good at the construction and design side of things, but I usually defer to one of the wives for colors and interior styling.”

  Ronnie snorts and turns to me. “You should’ve seen the plans for the Pink Lady before April and I stepped in.”

  “Hey, it wasn’t that bad,” Jax says.

  Jamie, Bry, and Ronnie all tilt their heads at my brother-in-law with identical ‘You think?’ expressions.

  “Dude, you wanted fuchsia trim, and I didn’t even know what fuchsia was, let alone that you knew about it,” she continues.

  Jax chuckles. “In my defense, I wanted to retain the building’s history.”

  “The Pink Lady?” I ask, completely lost.

  A little hand grabs hold of mine, and I look down to see a grinning Axel. “That was the last house. It was pink everywhere. I thought I was gonna turn into a girl just walking inside,” he says with an adorable scrunched up face.

  “Oh,” I say, my eyes widening. “I don’t think that will ever happen, Ax. You’re definitely a boy.”

  “Thank Go—” he goes to say. He stops short when Jamie clears his throat and shoots a pointed look at his son.

  “Thank golly gosh for that,” Ax finishes. I can’t help but laugh again. The kid is hilarious, but I do have a new appreciation for April. That boy would definitely keep anyone on their toes.

  “So, Bry, you all set to move back into your place once we have an offer here?” Jamie asks.

  My eyes jerk to my husband. When he doesn’t say anything, I feel compelled to answer. “Bry and I haven’t actually talked about it yet.”

  Bryant tenses, his body language no longer relaxed and comfortable. His jaw is tight; his lips thin. “Yeah. We don’t have any plans right now so moving back into my duplex makes sense,” he says nonchalantly. His eyes drift to mine. “I guess we should talk about that soon.”

  Ya think?

  Jamie studies his brother before turning back to me. “Okay. Well, obviously, you can stay here until we close. We’ll just have to factor that in when we have a buyer.”

  “All good. We better get to work then if we’re ever gonna finish prepping for Monday,” Bryant says, giving his brother a nod before leaving the room. He passes Jax, Ronnie, and Axel on his way out.

  “What crawled up his a—butt?” Jax asks, glancing down at Ax, who lets out a loud sigh and looks to Jamie.

  “Dad, how am I ever gonna buy a house if everyone stops swearing?”

  I snort and shake my head while Jamie just chuckles. “Around this lot, you’re bound to earn enough money. Just bide your time, buddy. You’ll be richer than all of us soon enough,” he says to his son.

  “Good, ’cause it’s hard to buy presents for all the girls if people stop cussing. It’s not like I didn’t know Uncle Jax was gonna say ass.”

  “Axel!” Ronnie and Jamie say in unison.

  To his credit, the boy just shrugs before walking over to me and tugging my hand toward the hallway. “C’mon, Aunty Faith. Let’s go talk animals.”

  “We’ve got to get the rooms ready for painting, Axel.”

  “I s’pose we can do that too. But animals are a lot more fun,” he says, leading me to the door.

  I look back to see Jax, Ronnie, and Jamie just grinning at us.

  “Good luck with that,” Jamie says with a short wave.

  “FYI, he can talk the as—butt end off a donkey,” Jax adds.

  Ax narrows his eyes. “Don’t scare her off. She’s my new favorite.”

  Ronnie feigns hurt, clutching her hand over her chest. “You wound me, Ax.”

  To his credit, Ax shoots her a cute grin. “Don’t worry, Aunty Ronnie. You’ll be my favorite next time.”

  “I’ll hold you to that, you little charmer,” Ronnie retorts.

  “Okay, work to do, animals to talk about. Axel, out,” he says, pulling me from the room. I bite my lip to hold back a laugh, but I needn’t have bothered since the others don’t bother hiding their amusement.

  As we walk away, Axel looks up at me.

  “So, how big is an elephant’s doodle?”

  Bryant

  I hear footsteps on the cement driveway, coming toward me. A quick lift of my head finds two sneaker-covered feet framing mine beside the truck. I slide out from under the engine to be met by an amused Faith looking down at me. She stands her ground, not fazed that I’ve slid out between her skirt-covered legs.

  “Nice view?” she asks.

  “Best I’ve seen in at least nine hours,” I say with a huge smirk.

  Faith shakes her head, her lips twitching. “Smooth talker.”

  “That’s not the only thing that’s sm—”

  She shrieks and sits on
top of me, her legs straddling my hips. She covers my mouth with her hands, but her grin is unmistakable. “Mr. Cook, that is offensive.”

  I give a quick thought as to how annoyed she’d be if I ruined her outfit and the next second, I knife up, wrap my arms around her back and pull her down on top of me. Her narrowed green eyes shoot daggers at me but tangling my fingers in her hair and crushing her mouth against my welcoming lips soon solves that problem.

  When we finally come up for air, she braces her hands on either side of my head and glares at me.

  I lift an arm and run the pad of my thumb down the middle of her mouth, dragging her swollen bottom lip with it. “You’re cute when you’re trying to be mad at me.”

  Her eyes flash. “You ruined my shirt.”

  “Give me five minutes and that won’t be the only thing.”

  Her eyes drift down before she closes her eyes and shakes her head. “I will not succumb to your wicked words and dirty imagination.”

  “Oh, it won’t just be my imagination for long,” I say, earning me a laugh.

  “You’re rather pent-up today, aren’t you? Does working with your hands get your motor running?”

  “You and the fantastic view up your skirt does.”

  She dips her head and kisses me of her own volition this time, something she’s been doing every chance she gets lately. I tighten my arms around her back, holding her to me as her tongue languidly strokes mine. My hips lift as she presses hers against me and a low groan rumbles in my chest.

  When we finally pull apart, her cheeks are satisfactorily flushed. “You’re home early,” I say roughly, lifting a hand to hook a loose tendril of hair behind her ear.

  “I couldn’t do much more today, and my mind is mush, so I decided to surprise you and maybe help with sanding or painting or something. But you’re out here, which means you’ve finished?”

  Damn, I got lucky with this one.