Chapter Six #4
we’re living together.”
He was worried they might not be if they let her find her
own way home. She might not remember they had a new temporary home. She might
decide to go back to her brothers’.
“Are they rehearsing tonight?” Jamie asked. “I thought they
were taking weekends off right now.”
“They’re rehearsing this afternoon but clearing out before
dinner. That’s why she’s working late.” She’d explained it to them as they’d
driven her out to the Elk Creek Lodge so she could meet with Gemma Wells. “The
theater is going to be quiet, and she’s basically coming in and trying to work
with what they have.”
“Well, let her know if she needs fabric, Beth went through a
sewing period when she couldn’t sledgehammer walls,” Trev replied with a
chuckle.
“Yeah, she and Hope decided they were going to make all of
Miranda’s clothes,” Jamie continued. “I think they made a hat.”
“Oh, they made a lot of things. None of them actually
resembled clothes. Our wives are excellent at many things, but sewing isn’t one
of them,” Trev concluded. “So there’s a lot of stuff in the storage if Brooke
wants to use it.”
Oh, he liked the sound of that. He’d been walking around
this house trying to envision how they could use it to tempt Brooke to think of
them as something more than sexual stress relief. What if he split that room
with her? “Is there a sewing machine?”
Trev nodded. “Two. And at least one basket of all the
accessories. Are you thinking about setting up a room for her? I thought she
wasn’t staying long.”
“Maybe she stays longer if she likes the theater gig.” Shane
sounded surprisingly positive. “I don’t like the idea of her coming home with
the Farley brothers. I think we should pick her up.”
Jamie sighed. “We’re going to have to walk them through
this, aren’t we?”
“I told you,” Trev replied with a shake of his head. “They
know how to get a woman in bed, but I don’t think they’ve ever tried to get a
woman to stay with them outside it.”
He wasn’t saying anything untrue. “We never wanted one until
we met her.”
Trev put a hand on his shoulder. “Then let’s make sure you
know how to tempt her to open up and view you as something more than a fun
time. It starts with not letting her sit up at the theater alone. She’s got to
eat dinner, right?”
“She said she would get something from Stella… We should
take her dinner,” Bay said, finally getting the point.
Shane smiled at him like he was a toddler learning to use
his words. “That’s good. We should take a whole picnic, and while we’re
waiting, we should set up a place for her to work here. We can split the
upstairs room. I bet she would like that light, too. If someone will give me
the code to the storage locker, I’ll get started. My stepmom used to sew, and I
think I remember a little about how her room was set up.”
Not that Shane had been allowed in there. “I’ll help. And
I’ll call the bee lady. I hear she does picnic baskets now.”
Jamie pointed his way. “Now you’re talking. But you should
also know that how you handle sex is going to be important.”
Trev snorted. “Yeah, listen to him. He thought it would be
better to hold out, and his brother got in there first. He never lets Noah hear
the end of it.”
“Oh, we did her at the same time.” Bay frowned. That sounded
bad and not at all like the passionate intimacy they’d shared. “That didn’t
come out right.”
“We began as we mean to go,” Shane corrected. “She knows
we’re a packaged deal, and I feel like most of our intimacy should be the three
of us for now.”
“Good.” Trev nodded as though he approved. “Then it seems
like you know what you’re doing. Now let’s talk about how you can pay us back
for giving you this lovely house to live in and access to a ridiculous amount
of toys. You see we haven’t been on a date alone in six months.”
“We can watch the kids.” Bay wasn’t going to pretend to not
understand. He liked Miranda, and honestly, he was good with kids. They tended
to think he was a weirdo, but kids were way more tolerant than adults. Would
Brooke think it was a good thing that he probably fit better with kids than
normal adults who didn’t view the world as one big art project?
He could feel the sculpture that had been playing in his
head. Feel the wetness on his hands as he smoothed the clay, running over and
over until he got her curves right. Until he could see in a piece of art what
he felt the night before. Love and lust, and an odd sense of peace he’d never
had before.
“I promise we won’t abuse it,” Trev said solemnly. “Normally
we switch off.”
“But Hope’s been so sick. This kid might be an only,” Jamie
said with clear worry in his eyes.
“We don’t mind helping out. Brooke likes kids. She’s got so
many pictures of her niece and nephews on her socials,” Shane said.
Trev winced. “You have to stop that, son. You sound like a
stalker.”
Shane shrugged. “Well, how else am I supposed to keep up
with her? I can’t call her up and ask how the designs on the fall line are
going. Though apparently someone should have because that went south.”
“Yeah, I’d like her to tell us something more than it all
went to hell,” Bay admitted. “How can we help solve the problem if we don’t
know the extent of it?”
Jamie’s head shook. “Nope. Don’t you put it like that. Have
you spent a lot of time around women like Brooke? I suspect not. They don’t
want you to solve their problems. They want you to listen to them. To be
sympathetic and then feed them chocolate or whatever their preferred sweet of
the week is. They definitely don’t want you making reasonable suggestions.”
“You told a pregnant woman you thought the tea she was
drinking was upsetting her stomach,” Trev shot back. “Rookie move, my man.
Because she came right back with ‘oh, it’s the green tea and not the eight
pound baby.’”
Jamie’s face flushed. “I was trying to help. She won’t
listen to Noah because apparently the pregnant dogs and cows he’s handled over
the last decade aren’t the same. She barely listens to Caleb. She says she’ll
talk to him when he pushes a baby out of his dick. She treats Rachel like a
wisewoman. I don’t think her inability to make birth control work should be
more important than Caleb’s medical degree.”
“So don’t offer to help?” He wasn’t getting into the
pregnancy stuff. They were far from that. He just wanted her to acknowledge she
liked him in an I’m-not-trying-to-piss-my-brothers-off way. “Because I was
mostly going to kick the shit out of the asshole who stole her designs and then
told her if she wanted to move up in the company, she should blow him.”
“What?” Shane sounded outraged.
“Yeah, I probably should have led with that,” Bay replied.
“But I didn’t want to upset her.”
“I want a name,” Shane demanded.
Trev stood up straighter. “All right, now this is where you
can’t fix the problem for her. You have to listen to her and accept her
feelings and tell her how much you sympathize with her.”
He had not expected that reaction from his boss. Trev seemed
so protective. Not only of his kids and Beth. He was protective of Bo and
everyone on the G. “I shouldn’t defend her? I’m going to be honest. That’ll be
hard for me. I’m not sure what we’re here for if we can’t handle that
situation.”
Jamie shook his head. “Not what he’s saying.”
Trev continued. “You listen and hold her and then we quietly
take a trip to the city and that fucker gets jumped. Now the key to this is to
not take credit. You will want to say something like ‘this is for Brooke’ or
‘don’t touch my woman again.’ Do not. You take him down in the form of a dude
in a back alley whose features he can’t remember. But you never tell her. If
she sees a news report, you nod and say yeah, baby, we always knew karma would
get him. She doesn’t need to know that you were karma.”
“But we’re going to need a name, and I think maybe the way
to get her to open up is to show her how nice it can be to have two
boyfriends.” Shane pulled out their cell. “I’ll call and order some dinner, and
then we can work on her room.”
“You boys let me know when you need to take that trip. I’m
sure there’s something we can do in New York,” Trev said, heading for the door.
“Yeah, like hiding because my wife might kill me.” Jamie
followed him, talking as they both walked out the door. “I really was worried
about her ankles.”
“I told you. You say nothing but ‘yes, baby’ and ‘damn, you
look pretty.’” Trev’s voice cut off.
Shane was quiet for a moment, his eyes on the door that had
just closed. “You sure this is what you want?”
“Brooke? I thought we talked about this.”
“No, I mean the whole foreman thing,” Shane replied. “Of
course we want Brooke, but we have to figure out what to do when she inevitably
wants to go back to the city. You’ve never been able to work in a city.”
“Then I won’t work.” He knew it in his bones. “Or I’ll find
a way. She’s everything. I know you don’t understand this impulse of mine.”
“It’s called genius. It’s called a gift. It’s not an
impulse. It’s who you are and what you do.” Shane’s stare nearly burned through
him. “You have a damn calling, Bay.”
“She’s more important.” He didn’t want to think about this
right now. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I don’t think we should go into this thing without a plan.”
“Or you can chill.” His brother could be over the top when
it came to staying in control. “Look, let’s take it one day at a time.”
Shane started for the door. “Those days are going to go real
fast, and she’ll be walking out the door before we know it if we don’t figure
out what we can offer her that competes with her career. Not a lot of fashion
designers here in Bliss. Anyway, I’ll order the food and get things ready for
the picnic. If you need me, I’ll be out at the storage shed.”
“Shane,” he began.
His brother turned and gave him a slight smile. “No worries,
right? We go with the flow.”
“That’s not what…” Bay began. But his brother was gone.
He stared at the door for a moment. What had he missed? He
didn’t usually miss cues from Shane because Shane always explained it to him.
Or did he? Did Bay roll through life expecting his brother would be there? What
was in his brother’s head?
He took a long breath and banished the thought. He had some
time.
He pulled out his sketchbook, the one he’d been working in
for the last couple of months. It had been fresh and clean when they’d taken
the jobs at the Kingman Ranch, and now he was down to four or five pages left.
It made him oddly anxious. When he got this deep in a sketchbook, he kind of
wanted to start a new one. To feel fresh and new. This one chronicled the last
year of their lives. There were sketches of Kale Kingman lording over his land
like some Greek statue. A drawing of one of the only female hands he’d worked
with there. He studied it for a moment. She was walking away from the main
house with the saddest look on her face. He’d taken a mental picture and
thought he’d done a good job capturing all the chaos going on as the woman was
walking toward the truck that would take her to the bus stop.
The later pictures were of Bliss. There was one of everyone
sitting in Stella’s in the early morning light. One of Trev and Bo on their
horses, riding out to work. One of Beth and her children in the sunlight.
One of Shane standing alone in the bunkhouse. It had been a
question of light at the time. He’d liked how the sun lit his brother up like a
halo, but now that he was looking at it there was a loneliness to the drawing,
an ache for something. For a home.
How hard had all the wandering been on his brother? He’d
never thought about it but had Shane ever had a real home? One where he was
welcome and loved simply for who he was and not what he could do?
What if Brooke could give him that love?
What if he couldn’t handle living in the city? What if he
couldn’t breathe?
Well, he was here now. He wasn’t thinking about that. He
pulled out his pencil and started to draw his perfect future.