Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Myles
This was a bad fucking idea.
“I need you all to be quiet and let me talk,” Wynn announced as she pushed into the house. “If you don’t, I’m going right back out this door and taking Myles with me.”
Okay, then.
I stepped into the kitchen behind her and hostility closed around me like my suit coat—which I had put on to cover any lingering stains from Wynn’s release.
Mae’s arms were crossed, and she was giving her kids individual hard stares. A woman I didn’t recognize was tucked under Tate’s arm. In his other arm was a baby. Fuck if I knew the age. An older kid slipped out of the kitchen and disappeared into the living room.
The house looked the same, but new appliances gleamed in all their stainless-steel glory, the cabinets had been updated, and the hardwood floor must’ve been redone recently.
The kitchen was tucked into the corner, the ceiling arching higher toward the rest of the house.
It’d peak in the open-concept living room.
An upper level over one-half of the main floor had a couple bedrooms, and the lowest level had four more.
Unless they had remodeled, or Wynter had moved to a different room, her bedroom was downstairs.
“Well. Explain,” Tate said.
The three brothers glared at me. Tate and Teller were dressed much like they had looked when I lived here.
Jeans, boots, and T-shirts. A utility knife was clipped to their belts, and they wore the same scowls.
Tenor looked the most different, and if he hadn’t been one of the three guys in the Bailey house, I wouldn’t have recognized him.
He looked like a lighter-haired version of his brothers, but with an aversion to snug clothes.
As for the girls, their names were easy to remember. The seasons, except June was named that instead of spring. June—because most of June is technically spring, she’d told me once.
Memories flooded back the longer I stood in place and soaked in my surroundings.
I’d already figured out Summer was the highlighted blond with the suspicious look in her eyes, a lot like her brothers.
Autumn was the redhead, and June had the pink streaks and wasn’t fighting the mirth dancing through her expression.
I remembered avoiding Summer. She’d been a bossy little thing, and the one time I’d told her I wasn’t listening to someone whose feet didn’t touch the ground at the kitchen table, she’d burst into tears and told me she’d been in the car when her parents had crashed and died.
So, yeah. Steered clear of her.
Now that I wasn’t purposely suppressing memories of them, details poured back. Wynter had been in the car. All the girls had.
I couldn’t soften toward her. She’d lied to me.
You were the one who didn’t remember me.
I had changed the subject whenever Darin had tried to talk about his family. The last thing I had wanted to hear about was family. And here I was with Wynn, with all her siblings and Mae, too. A group of people I’d never been a part of even when I’d lived among them.
Wynn scooted closer to me. “I wanted to get to know Myles because I remembered him as a thoughtful boy who read to me when I was scared.”
I did not want to be here right now.
“He did not,” Teller said.
“He did,” Mae said and lifted her chin. “I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive those first years. The tears and the crying and the storms. I didn’t know how to console Wynter. Then Myles started reading.” She looked at me fondly. “I never had to ask. He just did.”
“He just did a lot,” Tate snapped.
Wynn held her hand up. “We’ll get to that later.”
“No, we won’t,” I said.
She gave me an are you serious? look. “Nothing, Myles?”
“It’s not their business.”
“The hell it isn’t,” Teller shot back.
“Whatever Myles did, he did with your father’s blessing,” Mae announced.
Silence descended. I squirmed under their stares. Darin wasn’t around to speak for himself. I felt like I was feeding him to the wolves. “Mae, you don’t have to—”
“I do. Darin can’t tell me to keep quiet. And I’m not staying silent while my kids are mad at you for their father’s decision.”
I wouldn’t let her take the heat for me. I tossed out the only thing that would take the focus off her. “Darin was my one and only investor.”
“What the hell?” Teller held his arms out like I’d lifted his wallet.
“That’s where the money went,” Tenor said, and everyone’s heads swiveled his way. He shrugged. “Dad withdrew a large amount of money, gosh, must’ve been almost twenty years ago.”
“Nineteen,” I clarified. “I was twenty-one and was…stuck. He put up money and told me to use what I knew to make a living.”
“So how much do you owe the company?” Tate asked, his biceps flexing while his arms were crossed.
“He doesn’t,” Tenor said before I could respond. “The same amount went back into holdings. Five years ago.”
Darin hadn’t let me pay interest. I had tried. It’d taken him long enough to accept the money, and only when I’d told him I’d sell and find another career if he didn’t.
The pleasant tickle of Wynter’s attention was on me. How much had I missed that sensation in the days since she’d left?
Summer tapped a sandaled foot on the floor, her arms crossed and her expression incensed. “This is the guy who was a dick to you and made you drink a bottle of wine?”
Wynn’s eyes widened, and she shot Summer a why’d you do that? glare. “Yes. His people skills can be rusty.” She didn’t look at me.
My people skills were rusty when I only thought of fucking my assistant and not reviewing reports.
She’d told Summer I’d fired her? Did I have a bottle of wine to thank for her storming into Foster House to tell me off?
Then I’d hired her without checking her background.
Mrs. Crane wouldn’t have known what to look for when it came to Wynn’s résumé.
“I was right not to trust why she wanted the job,” I said.
Summer’s lips thinned. “You hired her for her qualifications. Or was there another reason?” she asked, deceptively innocent.
“I was in immediate need of an assistant,” I replied smoothly. If I thought about this as a pitch to a distributor I wanted to work with, perhaps I wouldn’t get irritable and tell the whole family to fuck off. “She had experience, and I had no choice.”
“It’s true.” Wynn nudged my elbow. “But you were extremely picky, which didn’t leave Mrs. Crane with many choices.”
“I don’t get it,” Teller interjected. “How could you not remember her? It’s not like Wynter Kerrigans grow on trees.”
I tugged hard at a cuff link. The AC was going, but the heat of the Baileys’ stares was death by a thousand laser beams. “I might’ve recognized the name Wynter Bailey, but that’s not how she applied.”
“He didn’t know we stayed Kerrigans.” She pulled at the hem of her dress. The one she wore no underwear under.
I was tempted to drag her out in the car and return to that private spot. I’d make her leave on the dress and cowboy boots while I bent her over the hood. My inner furnace ramped to unbearable levels.
“And I went by Wynn.”
“To make sure I didn’t connect any dots,” I growled.
She rolled her eyes at me. “Can you blame me? I was a perfectly qualified assistant, and you barely let me in the door. You’re not the easiest man to work for, you know.
” She tipped her head. “Actually, that’s not true.
You were completely professional, and except for long work days, you respected my time off. ”
Justifying myself in front of an audience was the equivalent of one of the circles of hell. Getting complimented in front of that same audience was being trampled by an angry herd of cattle and left to rot in the sun.
“Is that what you two were talking about when you both ran out of here?” Autumn asked. The twinkle in her green eyes was my only warning that this family meeting would get more intolerable. “Your long work hours?”
Junie’s lips quivered, and her shoulders shook. “Maybe about how hard the job was?”
Autumn snickered, and Junie lost control of her suppressed laughter. Summer sucked in an audible breath. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Mae.
I briefly closed my eyes. Could I sink through the floor?
Not once had I had to explain myself when it came to a girl.
I was either chased off because no one wanted their daughter to date a moody foster kid, or I was an adult and the woman wanted the prestige of being with a guy who wore a suit and drove an Audi.
I didn’t have to look at Wynn to know her face was beet red, and she was as stiff as a board.
“No fucking way!” I didn’t know which brother said that.
“Boys,” Mae chided. “Stay out of Myles and Wynn’s personal business.
” When I opened my eyes, Mae was directing her strongest mom glare at the girls.
“That goes for you, too. Don’t think I don’t know what you did.
” Her face broke into a smile when she looked at me, and I was propelled back in time to when she’d seen me reading to Wynn.
First, she’d sagged with relief that Wynn had quieted down, but then, and each time after, she’d grinned, thinking I couldn’t see her, and tiptoed away.
“Now, Myles. I wanted to let you know we have room here for you.”
“No, that’s not—”
“No, we don’t,” Tate said, cutting me off.
“I can’t sleep with a strange man in the house!” Summer exclaimed.
“You don’t even sleep with your own man in the house,” Tate retorted.
“Because he never stays here,” Teller added.
Summer narrowed her eyes, her jaw tight. “Boyd is working and will be here for the funeral.”
“Stop.” Mae held her hands up.
“I got a room in Bozeman.” I wasn’t crazy about being so close to Gianna, but I counted on the anonymity of a larger population.
“I’d love for you to stay and update me on everything Myles and Foster House,” Mae said firmly.
“I’ve only been able to keep up through Darin and snooping online, and we both know there isn’t much out there about you.
As for the rest of you—Myles is my guest. And I know all of you are keeping visitors away until Thursday because you don’t want me overwhelmed.
That makes these next couple of days perfect to catch up.
” She met her kids’ gazes one by one. “Don’t give me guff about him being a stranger.
I’ve known this man for over half his life, and I couldn’t be prouder of him. ” Her eyes misted over.
Tate let out a heavy but silent sigh. Teller exchanged a defeated glance with him. Summer glared at Wynn, still being a brat when she didn’t get her way. Autumn and Junie looked like they couldn’t wait to witness the fallout while staying at the Bailey house.
Should I?
Mae had said her piece, but, to be juvenile, she wasn’t the boss of me.
I glanced around the room. I’d expected more arguing, yelling at the very least, but they succumbed to Mae’s wishes rather quickly. Did that mean I had to look for rattlesnakes in my blankets and mice in my shoes?
A large part of me wanted the refuge the Bailey home provided. Gianna wouldn’t come close to the funeral or Bourbon Canyon at all. However, if she caught a glimpse of me in Bozeman, then she wouldn’t let up. I’d be dealing with more than phone calls.
Being in the house was bringing back memories, but something inside me wasn’t chasing them away again.
Maybe if I let them come, that’d be the end of their power over me.
The Bailey house held the best memories of my childhood.
The Bailey boys hadn’t been cruel. They’d been dicks, but no less than what I’d witnessed between other sets of brothers.
At the time, it had felt personal, and in a way it had been, but not because I hadn’t been good enough.
It was because they’d known I could do better and didn’t want to pick up my slack. They’d forced me to prove I was better.
In their position, I might’ve acted the same way.
Nor could I forget that Wynn was staying under this roof, and her presence was a far larger factor in my decision than I cared to admit.
“If that’s what you’d like, Mae, I’ll stay.”
Wynn stared at me, and this time I was the one avoiding her gaze.
Tate grunted. “Rules are still the same, Foster. You stay under this roof, you’re getting your hands dirty.”