by Anna Castor
Caitlin had been eighteen and a rebellious teenager. Kera was fourteen, Fianna nine, Bree eight, and Gwenn only six years old.
Joan did everything to raise her girls into independent, strong women. Opposite of the needy girl Bree had been last night.
“Don’t tell anyone about last night, okay?”
As if Bree’s reasons suddenly dawned on her, Gwenn nodded and picked up their plates. Bree, by choice, would never speak of this night ever again.
“Tommy Aiden Mills. Get your butt down here,” Keenan shouted. Declan’s cousin leaned with one shoe on the lowest step and eyed the top of the stairs expectantly.
“Why do you always have to shout the boy’s middle name when he’s done stupid shit? Makes me jump too.” Aiden grinned. Instead of cracking jokes, Declan wanted to be there for his cousin. He’d just entered the house behind his cousins and waited for Tommy next to Keenan.
“Shut the fuck up,” Keenan said, not bothering to look over at Aidan, who walked past them into the living room.
The small feet padding the upstairs landing froze at Keenan’s words.
“I know you’re up there. Come down, son. And apologize to Miss Tully.”
Tommy peeked around the corner on top of the landing, showing his honey blond hair.
“Miss Tully stinks!” Tommy shouted before he took a step back, making himself scarce again. Declan winced and gave an apologetic smile to Miss Tully. She didn’t react as he’d hoped when she snubbed him. Tommy could be quite a handful, but Declan loved him with every fiber of his soul.
Keenan sighed and shook his head. His fatigue rolling off of him. Being a single dad for the past two years had been taking its toll on Keenan.
They had been having a few drinks at Lucky when Keenan’s babysitter, Miss Tully, called. She needed him to come home immediately, and Aiden and Declan had tagged along. It was no inconvenience when Keenan lived directly across the street from Declan.
Miss Tully stood next to Keenan and pursed her lips. Just when Declan figured she would take the high road, she said, “Such a misbehaved, rude boy. And to think he’s only five years old.”
“Excuse me?” Keenan said as he whirled around to look Miss Tully in the eye. The sixty-something year old woman took a step back and cleared her throat.
“You should be more strict with him. He almost drowned my cat tonight!”
Keenan went red in the face. Declan had enough training to diffuse this situation, so he said in a gentle voice, “Miss Tully, I believe Tommy only wanted to wash your—”
“Pussy!” Aiden shouted. He just had to go there and derail Declan’s attempt in peace making. It took Declan off guard and he quickly coughed to hide his laughter.
Miss Tully gasped and turned red. “That’s what I mean. How despicable!”
“He gets it from me, just like his middle name,” Aiden said, laughing loudly.
Keenan pulled in a large breath and slowly blew it out while staring up at the ceiling. He was probably counting till ten in his head before reacting.
“I can see that,” Miss Tully said. She yanked her trench coat from its hook and walked over to the carrier where she’d stored her drenched cat. “Come, Missy. I’m taking you home. And we’re never coming back!”
Without bothering to put on her coat, she grabbed the carrier in her arms and stomped out.
“I’m counting till three and your butt better be down here,” Keenan boomed.
“One… Two…”
Tommy’s angel face appeared on top of the landing. He ran down the stairs and jumped from the third lowest step into the waiting arms of Keenan. “I’m sorry, Dad.”
Keenan snuggled his son into his arms, and Declan heard him sniff. Declan smiled at father and son.
“I know, son. But cats don’t like water. I hate to think you were bullying the animal.”
“I wasn’t, Dad. I promise. I was in the tub and wanted to wash the cat. Why’s that bad?”
“You were taking a bath? Where was Miss Tully?” Keenan searched Tommy’s eyes for answers. Had something bad happened with him tonight? Declan shifted his stance and listened closely while observing Tommy. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the little boy.
“Downstairs. Talking on the phone. Miss Tully said I smelled.”
Keenan bristled. “You are not to take a bath by yourself, she knows that! Anything could’ve happened to you.”
Declan put his hand on Keenan’s arm and tried to calm him down when Tommy flinched at his father’s words. “Nothing happened, Keen. It’s okay. Tommy is okay.”
Keenan closed his eyes and nodded. He kissed the top of Tommy’s hair and held on stronger.
“Damn old bat,” Aiden said from the living room.
“Bats are cool,” Tommy said. He looked over to Aiden. “Miss Tully is NOT cool!”
The Mills men all laughed. They settled into the living room, Tommy sitting on his father’s lap. Tommy eyed Aiden and said, “Take it back. She’s not a bat.”
Aiden leaned in. “I take it back. But do you know what she is?”
“Aid….” Keenan said in a warning voice.
Aiden winked at his brother and looked down to his nephew. “She has the face of a blobfish.”
Tommy giggled and said, “What’s that?”
Aiden said, “Look it up. Here, I’ll give you my phone.”
As they searched blobfish on Aiden’s phone, Keenan and Declan shared a look.
Thank God nothing happened with Tommy all alone in that bath upstairs while the old blobfish was yapping on her phone.
Declan nodded and busted out laughing the moment he saw a white gooey figure on Aiden’s screen, with a protruded nose above turned down lips.
“The resemblance is striking, Cuz,” Declan said.
Aiden laughed again. “Damn, your taste in nanny’s is bad, Keen.”
“Not as bad as yer taste in women,” Keenan said.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Aiden said, before he held up his hand. “Although I like to see myself more the type for the ‘blowfish’ kinda girls.”
Declan snorted, and Keenan narrowed his eyes once again at his brother.
“What’s a blowfish?” Tommy asked as he stretched out his arms to return Aiden’s phone so he could scroll for a picture of the animal.
Aiden’s upper lip turned up. “It’s the best kind. They can hold their breath, even with their mouth stuffed.”
Keenan growled. “Stop talking if ye know what’s good for ye.”
Aiden laughed it off. “It’s actually a myth that they hold their breaths, Blondie.”
“But they look like they’re gonna explode!” Tommy said.
“They do that to scare off other fish,” Aiden said.
“Why?”
“Because he doesn’t like to get eaten, Blondie.” Aiden tickled his nephew.
“Maybe you would like to get eaten? I’m feeling reeeal hungry…” Aiden said, aiming for his best cartoon villain tone. Declan laughed at his bulky cousin acting like a kid again.
Tommy shot off Keenan’s lap and ran from the living room and up the stairs. “Come and get me, uncle Aiden. You’ll never find me!”
“When you find him, take him to bed, will you?” Keenan shouted. “I’ll be up in five.”
Aiden didn’t bother to answer his brother. He took the stairs two steps at a time and shouted, “Boe-ha-ha-haaaa!”
Declan and Keenan smiled at Tommy’s high-pitched squeal, followed by spirited laughter by them both.
“Damn, he’s a great kid,” Declan said.
“He’s the best. I can’t believe I’ve let that woman babysit him. I knew in my gut something wasn’t right with her. I always go with my gut. Shit, what do I do now?”
“Do you need help to find a replacement?”
“I know my sisters and Mom are happy to help. There’s so much going on right now with me and Aiden finally taking over the business from Dad. I need to work. But he needs structure. I can’t have
him hopping between my sisters and Mom. Tommy needs someone who can pick him up from Kindergarten. Someone who can stay with him four workdays of the week. Take him to play dates and all that shit. He needs a stable home after all that’s happened.”
“You’re such a great dad, Keen. I hope you don’t beat yourself up about—”
Keenan scrunched his nose. “I don’t want to talk about her. Let’s talk about you. How are things?” Keenan asked.
Declan let his head fall back on the brown leather sofa and stared at the ceiling. He sighed. “She’s not returning any of my calls.”
“Does anyone else know what happened between you?” Keenan asked.
“No. I’ve told no one. You know why I haven’t told Ro any of this. He’s this close at getting his nose punched if he makes one more wise crack about the Ryan girls.”
“You haven’t even told Bren?”
Declan closed his eyes and shook his head. Normally, he would tell his oldest brother everything. He’d talked multiple times with Brennan about his feelings for Bree.
“No. Bree texted me she wanted to keep it a secret. If you hadn’t seen her sneaking out of my home this morning, I wouldn’t have told you either.”
Keenan snickered. “Yeah, it was quite the show. Tommy said, ‘Why is Miss Bree running, Dad?’ and then he asked me, ‘What happened to her hair?’”
It vexed Declan that he’d missed the sight of her mussed up hair. He’d wanted to hold her in his arms this morning. To give her a kiss on the nose before he got out of bed and make them both breakfast.
An omelet with the sunny side up for Bree, scrambled eggs with crispy bacon for him. He knew what his girl liked for breakfast. And after last night, he also knew what she liked in bed. He had to shift his seat at the image of her shredded panties he’d kept in his underwear drawer.
“Still, what are you going to do about it?”
Declan leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. “I’m giving her some distance. I haven’t texted her since this morning. But she’s never going to reach out to me, Cuz. I just know it. She wants to forget it ever happened, and I have no clue why. It was the best night of my life. The best fucking sex of my life.”
“Now we’re talking!” Aiden said as he hopped down the stairs.
“I’m upstairs for one moment and you guys start the pillow talk. Who did you have sex with?” Aiden plopped down on the sofa.
“No one,” Keenan and Declan said at the same time.
“Ooooh, now I know this is going to be juicy. Juicy as the pussy you were talking about, am I right?”
Declan cuffed the back of Aiden’s head. “Shut ye damn face.”
Aiden winced as realization dawned. “Sorry, Dec. Didn’t mean to talk about Bree like that. I take it back.”
Declan grunted and gave a brisk nod.
“So, how was it?” Aiden said.
“I’m not going to—”
“Ye were just telling me brother ye had the ‘best fucking sex of ye life’ and ye didn’t want to tell me? And I’m supposed to be one of ye best mates?” He brought out his Irish brogue, so Declan was sure to know Aiden was pissed.
Aiden stood from the sofa to walk over to the kitchen. He was probably in search for something to drink. Or to grab an utensil to knock Declan on his arse.
Declan followed his cousin into the kitchen. “Bree wants to keep it a secret. She regrets it ever happened, and she doesn’t want to talk to me.”
Aiden searched for something in the fridge, his back to Declan. Declan rolled his neck back and forth and then took a deep breath.
“Keenan only knows because he saw Bree leaving my house this morning. She hightailed it out of there at the crack of dawn. Too damn afraid to stay and talk.”
Aiden handed Dec a beer. “Okay. I get it.”
“Thanks,” Declan said as he accepted the beer and took a pull. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand and leaned against the kitchen table.
“Now that you finally made your move, it’s time to work on closing the deal.”
“I fucked up, Aid. I should have handled things differently. I never should have taken her home and—”
Keenan walked into the kitchen. “Let’s work out a plan.”
“Guys, I don’t think—” Declan tried, but his cousins were like dogs without a bone.
“I hate seeing you this way, Dec,” Keenan said as he accepted a beer from Aiden.
“Blondie’s asleep?” Aiden said, and Keenan nodded.
“And I hate seeing you the way you are, Keen. You need to let us help you more with Blondie,” Aiden said while closing the fridge again.
Keenan scratched his beard. “Aid… I’m doing the best I can. Evangeline—”
“And that’s another thing. I hate seeing you still pining over her arse!” Aiden said while pointing his beer at his brother.
“It’s because you’ve never been in love,” Keenan said. “Once you’ve been there, you’ll know. Until then, shut the fuck up.”
“Guys…” Declan tried to stop the brothers from saying things they would regret later. He stepped closer to Aiden and placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. But Aiden was on a roll now. A vein in his neck bulged as he clanged his bottle on the kitchen counter.
“She left you. And left that beautiful angel boy upstairs. He was only three years old,” Aiden's voice hardened.
“I was there, Aid. You don’t need to point it out every two weeks,” Keenan bristled and widened his stance. Declan placed a hand on Keenan’s chest. He wanted to remind Keenan he was there in case he’d forgotten and wanted to knock his brother on his arse.
“What kind of mom does that? He still cries about her in his sleep. I can never forgive her.” Aiden let his words trail and wiped at the corner of his eye.
“Luckily, you’re not a factor in this,” Keenan said, his nostrils flaring as he tried to calm himself down by taking a deep breath.
“This isn’t helping any of us,” Declan said. “Keenan and Tommy are on their own now, and Keenan, you’re doing a damn fine job at being a single dad.” He slapped Keenan on his back. Keenan cleared his throat and looked down at the kitchen tiles in front of his feet.
“Evangeline is gone,” Declan told Aiden. “She left and is probably never coming back. Aid, you know it’s still painful. Not only for that sweet little boy upstairs in his dinosaur pajama’s, but also for your brother. You don’t need to be a dick about it, okay?”
“Okay. Sorry,” Aiden held out his knuckles for Keenan. As their knuckles touched, Declan let out a sigh of relief. “Okay,” he said, reluctantly. “Let’s talk about a plan for me to work things out with Bree.”
Bree jumped when the hot-blooded Arab kicked his long leg against his stable door. Fianna had just taken him out and guided the glossy brown animal with her hand on his rope halter. “Easy,” Fianna said as she placed a hand on Bree’s arm.
“If you make sudden moves, you’ll scare him.”
“I know. He just took me by surprise. I guess I was daydreaming.”
“Hmm.” Fianna pursed her lips.
Northstar clip clopped his hooves next to Fianna, echoing throughout the stable. Bree appreciated this regal beauty even more when Fi let it gallop into one of the enclosed fields at the Moore ranch.
Fianna watched her horse run after two other horses and smiled. She shifted her stance and her smile fell the moment her eyes found Bree’s.
“Are you not even going to tell me what’s been on your mind?”
“What?” Bree feigned to be clueless, but the fiery Ryan sister was back in Austin and wouldn’t stand for being left in the dark any longer.
“Daydreaming, eh? Thinking about that yummy co-worker of yours?”
Fianna and Bree turned at the sound of Gwenn snorting behind them.
“What did I miss?” Fianna tilted her head to the side and narrowed her emerald eyes at Bree. “I’m always the last one to know… What haven’t you told me?”
&nb
sp; “It’s nothing, sis.”
Fianna didn’t seem to believe Bree’d dismissal as she huffed and walked away into the field. Her sister stuck out against the greens with her bright red, long hair. Bree held up her hand when Gwenn opened her mouth.
“Before you say anything, you know how she gets about the Mills guys. She’ll go on and on about how it’s stupid that I’m still in love with Dec. I’m sorry, but not today….”
Bree placed a booted foot on a low wooden board and leaned her under arms over the top wooden board that made up for a makeshift fence.
She gazed around the Moore ranch. Bree waved at Declan’s cousin Emmy, who sat a hundred feet away on her knees, planting something in her fall vegetable garden. She waved a dirt-covered hand back at Bree.
After months of scorching hot Texas weather, October offered cool nights and bearable days. Bree loved coming to the Moore ranch when they were kids. She didn’t have a feel for horse riding, but loved to groom the horses. Whenever Bree was on the ranch, Emmy would take her under her wing to help farm the land.
“Well now, isn’t that Gwenn Ryan standing on my land?”
The Ryan sisters looked over at a bundle of gray hair that sneaked up on them from behind. Before Gwenn could react, Shauni Mills-Moore had already taken her in for a bear hug. With a strong and weathered arm, Shauni engulfed Bree’s shoulder to tug her into a three-way-hug.
“Shauni!” Gwenn said.
“I’m so glad you’re safe and sound. We’ve missed you,” Shauni said. And in a whisper she added, “Thank you for your service, darlin’.”
Gwenn nodded and cleared her throat before she settled her gaze at something in the distance.
“I was so upset when we couldn’t make it to your welcome home party! But unfortunately these farm animals give birth at the most unlucky times.”
“It’s okay, Shauni. I came to see you instead.” Gwenn shrugged.
“And I’m so glad you did.” Shauni turned her attention to Bree.
“Hey, darlin’. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.” Pops’ daughter Shauni gave Bree a kiss on top of her hair. “I’m so glad your sisters are back. Does this mean we’ll be seeing more of you now too?”