by Taryn Quinn
“Yeah. And Cohen. Maybe I’m better off just keeping it to myself.” She slid off my lap to her side of the truck.
“Whichever way you want to go, I’m with you.”
She leaned back to me and cupped my face. “God, I love you, Thor.”
“Holy shit.” My heart thudded so loud I couldn’t hear the wiper blades over the rush of blood in my ears.
“What?”
“You said it.”
She punched my arm. “Oh, stop. I just told you a bunch of ways how I feel.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I dragged her back over to me. “Say it again,” I said against her mouth.
“I love you, you idiot.”
“Close enough,” I said and kissed her brainless.
Twenty-Five
I didn’t even realize talking it out with Lucky would settle me. Then again, I wasn’t used to leaning on anyone, let alone someone outside of my family.
Ha.
Well, he was family regardless at this point. Even if the baby was the size of a kernel of corn. Which was just mind-boggling. I laid my hand on my belly again. Well, not really a belly yet. Unless I kept eating candy and salty snacks at the rate I had since finding out. Then I might start showing even before the little corn nut grew into the next fruit size, according to the book I’d downloaded on my phone.
The storm had eased, leaving a blue sky and eye-searing sun bouncing off the snow.
Lucky was singing with Christmas songs as Butch howled along. I hung the ornament he’d gotten for us on the crisscrossed lights tacked to the ceiling of the truck. It swung merrily, the colored lights refracting in each facet.
I wasn’t sure how I’d ended up with such a romantic…what? Boyfriend? That seemed lame and not even close to how I felt about him. And hoo boy, did that sneak up on me.
I glanced over at him. He’d put the antlers back on, bending them to look more like floppy ears than bone. Bonus points that it pushed his wild hair back.
His wild fistable hair that made me crazy. A good kind of crazy. Maybe a tiny bit more intense than the annoyance levels he brought out in me with the renovation.
A renovation that didn’t even need to happen.
Then again, I might not have Lucky in my life if I hadn’t had to move the project up. Maybe things happened just as they were meant to.
I pointed to the exit we needed to take to my dad’s place.
He turned down the radio. “You seem a little…thinky.”
“Astute observation.”
“And snarky with it.”
I reached across the seat and squeezed his hand. “Yeah. I’m a little nervous about talking to Co. Maybe forcing this on him wasn’t a good idea.”
“Maybe. Or maybe it’s just what both of you need to start talking again.”
“Stop being so annoyingly smart.”
“I keep trying, but then you have a problem and I gotta help.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ass.”
His face lit up with a smile. “I just realized that every time you call me an ass, you really mean I love you.”
“If that makes you feel better, Thor,” I pinched his rock hard middle, “then you can keep your delusions.” But I was smiling just as widely as he was.
“Did you give anyone a heads up that you were coming?”
“I figure Rhett did. Though he can be a freaking coward, so maybe not.” I pulled out my phone and flipped it around in my hand, then stuffed it back in my hoodie pocket. Too late now. “Take your next left.”
My dad’s ranch-style house came into view. When my brothers had moved out, he’d turned part of the house into an extension of the garage. My dad had two full bays. One for his precious Stingray and one to tinker on whatever project car he was doing on the side.
One of the bays was open, and my dad stood up straight as we came up the drive. He wiped his hands on the red rag he always had at the ready.
“So, does your dad have a vest or anything?”
“Vest?”
“You know, motorcycle club.”
A laugh rolled out even with my stomach in knots. “No, my dad isn’t affiliated with a club. He’s a grease monkey more than a bike guy. He’ll probably like your truck actually. My dad’s all about American made.”
“As he should be.” He cleared his throat. “He’s not going to kill me or anything though? You know, for putting a baby in his little girl or some shit.”
“Probably not,” I said as I slid out.
“Hey, wait. What do you mean, probably not?”
I closed the door on him and ran up the walk. “Hey, Daddy.”
“Hey, Ging. I didn’t know you were coming in.” He scratched the back of his neck and put his glasses in his shirt pocket. “I didn’t decorate or anything.”
I went up on my toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He was a few inches taller than me and still as fit as my brothers. He’d gone on a workout kick after he hurt his back a few years ago. “You look good.”
He shrugged. “Started running with…a friend.”
My eyebrow rose. “A female friend?”
“Maybe. What are you doing here, kid?”
I turned to see Lucky hovering by his truck. I held out my hand to him and he straightened his shoulders, then strode over to me. He took my hand, lacing our fingers. “Well, we kinda did a drive-by with the memorial.”
“We were surprised.” My dad gave Lucky a once-over. “Jeff Burns,” he said and held out a hand.
Thor rubbed his palm down his thigh, then clasped my dad’s hand. “Lucky Roberts, sir.”
My dad’s eyebrow rose. “Sir? Wow. More manners this time than the last time you came running through with my daughter.”
Lucky slid his arm around me. “I was a little more worried about Ruby at the time, sir.”
“Ruby?”
“No one likes to use my given name, what can I tell you?”
“Hmm.”
I resisted the urge to smile. Thor looked like he was ready to pee his damn pants. Then again, I got my intimidating face from my dad. “I was hoping I could talk to Co.”
My dad’s smile slid away. “I don’t know, Tish. He’s been really hard to talk to.”
I sighed. “Let me at least try. Then we’ll take you over to Bob’s diner for dinner. How’s that?”
“I could go for an open-faced sandwich.”
I pulled down Lucky to kiss his cheek. “Behave.”
His eyebrows snapped together. “You’re leaving me alone?” He swallowed. “With your dad,” he said under his breath.
I slapped him on the arm. “You’ll be fine.” I turned to my dad. “Hey, can you check Lucky’s truck?”
“There’s nothing wrong with my truck.”
I knew that if my dad had something to do, Lucky would be better off. “We had a little bump into a snowbank the other day. It’s been making a noise.”
“I’ll check it out.” My dad took out his glasses and set them on the end of his nose. “You keep her pretty nice.”
Lucky tucked his hair behind his ear. “Yeah. First truck I bought when I settled in the Cove.”
“Well, let’s open her up.”
Lucky gave me a helpless look. I opened the passenger door and scooped up Butch. “I’ll just take Butch in to meet Cohen.”
My brother loved dogs. I’d use any way to get him to open up, even if it was a little underhanded.
I curled B up against my neck. Maybe Butch would help me too.
I wove my way through the living room to the hallway that led to the bedrooms. The walls were full of photos from Ezra’s various shoots. Some published, some just for his family.
Co and Rhett mugging for the camera at Christmas. A family portrait on the lake when I graduated from high school. One of Jimmy and Cohen when they finished their first training.
The frame was crooked, and the corner of the wood was chipped. I frowned as I straightened it.
Finally, I reached the spare bedroom. A room I�
�d crashed in a million times. Butch seemed to feel my nerves. She burrowed into my neck and licked my jaw. I nuzzled her and kissed her head. “Thanks, girl.”
I lifted my hand and knocked.
“I told you I wasn’t hungry.” The door swung open. Cohen was leaning on a cane. A plastic boot encased his leg up to his knee. His eyes shuttered, then his gaze dropped to the floor. “Ging. What are you doing here?”
“Checking on my big brother since he decided not to show his ugly mug at my place.”
He hobbled back to the well-loved brown recliner in the corner. “I wasn’t in the festive mood.”
“I get that.”
He put up the chair’s footrest. “No need for it to be a downer for everyone.”
I sat on the edge of his bed. Like the angel she was, Butch curled on my lap. “You’re not a downer. What happened was shocking and horrible.”
Stark, red-rimmed eyes met mine. “I watched him fall.”
I set Butch aside on the bed and went onto my knees next to the chair, gripping his arm. “Oh, Co.” Butch jumped down and hid behind me.
All of his muscles were tight, his shoulders ramrod straight. “The whole thing was a shit show. The flight into the flames. We were just supposed to Phos-Chek and get the hell out of there. But then the perimeter was a mess.”
He didn’t see me as he was talking. I could tell he was back there again.
“We’d been fighting all day. Me and Jimmy.”
I frowned. “You guys never fight.”
“We were packing up the day before. Jimmy left the packing to me, as usual. Asshole never wanted to do the hard stuff. ‘You’ll take care of it right, Co?’”
His voice slid into the cajoling charming tone that sounded so much like Jimmy that I shivered.
“‘You like organizing. It’s not for me, bro.’” Cohen swiped his hand through his overlong hair and pushed it away from his face. Clearly, he hadn’t been eating. His face was all sharp angles and his skin looked pasty. “Why should he do anything that had even a shred of responsibility?”
All I could do was hold onto his hand. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay. It’s never going to be okay. He broke protocol and geared up to jump. It wasn’t safe, but he wanted to anyway. Our captain ordered us back, but he wanted to be a goddamn hero. Or just get away from me.”
“Co.” I pulled him down to me, but he stiffened. I let him go and just held his hand.
“He couldn’t face me, Ging. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I stilled. “What?”
“Why didn’t you tell me he hurt you?”
I looked down at his hand. “He told you?”
“No. He definitely didn’t tell me you guys were together. I figured it out a long time ago. You guys weren’t exactly subtle.”
Butch sniffed my leg and crawled in front of me “It’s okay, B. I’m fine.” I sat back on my feet and cuddled the dog close to me. “It didn’t last long. I didn’t want to come between you.”
He let out a rough laugh. “Come between us? Is that what you call this?”
It felt like he meant more than just a breakup. “Co—”
“You didn’t tell us he stole from you?”
I stumbled back and landed on my ass. Butch scrambled away. “I didn’t want anyone to know.”
“My best friend stole from my sister almost four years ago, and you didn’t tell me? You let that man stay in our lives?”
“It was just money, Co.” It wasn’t just money. I didn’t even have an excuse. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t get to be sorry. It was his fault. He’s the one that made you go away.”
“I didn’t go—”
“You did. You took off to what? Colorado then somewhere else. You didn’t come back for almost a year.” He shoved down the footrest. “You didn’t tell us.”
“I was ashamed.” I stared down at the scarred wood floor. “I was so stupid. I didn’t want anyone to know that I could be that stupid.” The shame rolled over me as if it was that day so long ago. “I practically handed him the check.”
“No. You trusted him. You trusted him like I did. He was family.” Cohen’s eyes were bright red with anger and pain. “I knew he took shortcuts. I was always cleaning up after him, but I thought we were best friends. You take care of your own. But I let you down.”
“No. No, you didn’t.” I crawled toward the chair, pushing into his space though he held himself at arm’s length. “No. It wasn’t like that.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“We were sneaking around and then I was just so…embarrassed that I let him have that much control over me. Over my money. He kept telling me he was helping me. Saving me money.” I gave a harsh laugh. “But then you guys were in the middle of wildfire season and I just couldn’t.” I leaned upward to wrap my arms around his shoulders. They seemed so frail. So unlike my big, strong brother.
We stayed like that for a long time. I wasn’t aware I’d started crying in there somewhere. When I eased back, I saw Cohen was as well.
I pressed my forehead to his. “I’m so sorry.”
“I hate him. Hate what he did to us. Hate that he stole from you. That he could do that to my baby sister. That he dared to touch you to begin with, but that? No.” He dashed at the tears then tipped back his head to inhale a deep breath. “I just want to bring him back so I can throttle him myself.”
I cupped his cheeks. “No. It’s not important anymore. It was a really shitty lesson.” I barked out a laugh. “Really shitty.” I sniffed. “How did you find out anyway?”
He stretched out his booted leg. “Moving, remember? Jimmy was such a fucking slob. His papers were everywhere. I found the residual check. Is that what it’s called? I don’t know. There was the check stub and some report.” He drilled his fingers into his hair. “Now that I think about it, every year he would spend a lot of goddamn money.”
I settled back on the floor and tucked Butch in the middle of my crossed legs. “Yeah, part of the contract was that I would get a percentage of the cost of using the machine.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “So he stole from you yearly. That’s great.”
I leaned forward and patted his knee. “About that. I made a new machine and made like…way more.” The number seemed rude to give him. But I’d improved on my design and kept the copyright. “People pay me for the use of my machine now. No one else.” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “I charge a lot.”
He laughed and the heaviness in his eyes lightened a bit. “A lot, huh?”
“I don’t want to make you cry again with the number.”
Cohen laughed and slumped back. “Just like you to rub his nose in it.”
“Yeah, well, you know how much I hate to lose.”
“That I do.” He nodded at Butch. “Who’s your friend?”
I lifted up B and set her on Cohen’s good leg. “Meet Butch. She’s my feisty fur baby. Well, my guy’s baby, but she’s mine now too.”
Not our only baby, but one thing at a time.
“Well, hey there, Butch.” He gave me a raised brow. “Her?”
“Long story. My guy is sorta odd sometimes, but I like him.” I propped my elbows on my knees and tucked my chin in my hand. “Actually, I love him.”
B burrowed into my brother, her tail swishing against Cohen’s track pants. “Whoa? Love him?”
“Yep.”
“The big guy who came to the memorial?”
“That’s the one.”
“Well, if you’re happy...”
“I am.” It almost seemed like tempting fate to say it, but I was learning to let myself enjoy whatever this was between us. Trying to anyway.
Kinder, gentler Tish was still a work in progress, but luckily, my guy was patient.
“He seems pretty protective of you. That’s kind of interesting.”
My palms were now officially sweating. “I’ve got a little more news for you.”
<
br /> “Uh oh.”
“You know, since I kept the other thing from you.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Yeah.”
Time to just go for it. “You’re going to be an uncle.”
“What?” He set Butch on the arm of the chair and scrambled to his feet. “Oh, shit. Fuck. Shit. Ow.”
I laughed and sat up straighter. “Careful.”
“Dammit, I haven’t been doing my exercises.” He hissed and rubbed his leg. “Uncle?”
“You should be doing your exercises.”
“And you should know better about birth control.”
“Yeah, well, that’s a story too. I live in a strange little town that seems to be a tad baby-crazy.”
“It’s gotta be if you got knocked up.”
“Hey.”
He laughed. “Can you grab my cane?” He grimaced. “I can grab it myself but—”
“Let me help.”
“You sure, preggers? You don’t need to strain something.”
“I’m not that pregnant.” I rolled to my knees and had to admit I was a tiny bit winded. “I have been eating a lot of candy though.” I laughed and got to my feet then crossed the room to grab the cane.
I passed it to him and Co used it to take a couple of steps toward me. I hoped he hadn’t hurt himself with his sudden movement. As per usual, Butch circled around us, excitedly barking.
Then my brother tossed the cane against the chair and dragged me in for a hard hug.
My eyes went damp all over again as I hugged him back.
“Does Dad know?”
“You’re the first.”
“Ezra is gonna shit.”
“Nice.” When I stepped back to open the bedroom door, B charged down the hall as if she’d been imprisoned. Probably heading right back to her daddy. “You know you’ll have to clean up that firefighter language around my kid.”
“Like your kid won’t swear.”
“I’m trying to clean up my act.”
“Sure.”
I leaned into him and rested my head on his shoulder. “Are we okay?”
“We will be.”
“That’s good enough for me.” I felt as if a whole car had been lifted off my shoulders. Cohen still looked haunted, but nothing like he had been when I walked in the room.