Chapter 21 Caleb
Caleb
I was dragging ass as I walked into the Colburn Restorations building. It wasn’t quite yet dawn, that was nothing new, but over the past forty-eight hours, we’d been run ragged repairing the damage the storm had done to our various ongoing jobs.
Since the fire station and search and rescue had called for all hands on deck, we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Tucker. Kiera had kept Hank and the doggos for me, and it was a good thing. I’d been home for a total of maybe four hours over the past two nights.
I slid my glasses off to rub my gritty eyes, trying to wake myself up. All I needed was food, sleep, and a few minutes alone with Emma to make sure she was doing okay. None of that was in the cards for me today.
I could still feel that sweet bod of hers spread out for me, trembling as I took her to the very edge, her arms clutching me tight, fingers fisted in my hair, as if afraid I’d stop.
And those sexy little pants she made right before she’d come…
She’d imprinted it on my brain, and now all I could see was how she’d looked at me. Like I mattered to her.
She’d left the minute Ryder and the guys had arrived on-site and cleared the tree, and I hadn’t seen her since. I’d called, using the excuse that I wanted to make sure she’d gotten home safe and sound, but she hadn’t picked up. Nor returned a text.
Message reluctantly received.
Ryder had leveled me a long look when he’d realized Emma had been stranded with me overnight, but he hadn’t said a word.
Yet.
As I had been doing for months now, I spent the early morning hours at the Colburn Restorations offices.
Ryder might hate the paperwork, the shmoozing of clients, the managing of employees, but I didn’t.
To me, this part of the job was a puzzle, and putting it all together and keeping it that way was a challenge I thrived on.
Except for maybe today, after too little sleep while trying to face an insurmountable backlog of insurance crap, neglected paperwork, and meetings for each of our ongoing jobs.
Grif slid gracefully into my office and set a smoothie before me.
I drank it down gratefully. “You deserve a raise.”
“Wouldn’t say no to that.”
I met his warm, laughing brown eyes. I knew his story, that seven years ago Ryder had found him as a teen living on the streets, kicked out of his house for being gay. “You’re worth it.”
Grif winked. “You know I am.” And then he dumped more shit to do on my desk.
I swore as he cackled and left me alone. Since sleep wasn’t happening, I moved on to my next most pressing need and headed straight into our staff kitchen. The smoothie had been great, but I needed more. By happy coincidence, Penny was there stocking us up.
“You’re drooling,” she teased when she handed me a plate piled high with fresh food.
I was shoveling it all in as fast as I could chew while she added sourdough toast. “You’re marrying the wrong Colburn brother.”
Penny snorted. “So you keep saying.”
“We both know I’m funnier, not nearly as grumpy, and can take Ry in basketball, football, obviously hockey, and sometimes chess.”
“Never in chess,” Ryder said from where he leaned casually against the doorjamb, arms crossed.
Penny gave a little squeak of joy and ran over to him. Ryder straightened, arms out, and she jumped right into them, wrapping herself around him like cling wrap.
Since they were blocking the doorway, I did my best to ignore Ryder’s hands on Penny’s ass, her legs around his waist, and the hungry kissing. But when my plate was empty, I finally said, “Either get a room or break it up, kids. Shit to do, people to see, and all that.”
Penny let her legs drop to the floor and backed away, smiling softly at Ryder as she did. “Sorry,” she said. “We haven’t seen each in two whole days.”
Ryder smiled right back at her, his features softening, and any irritation I had with him drained away.
At least momentarily. Ryder had saved my life on so many occasions, I’d lost count, starting when we were kids and he’d taken it upon himself to draw Hank’s wrath away from the rest of us, and ending when he practically sat on me for a full year after my hockey accident and subsequent surgeries.
He always, without fail, single-handedly kept us siblings together through thick and thin, and there’d been a shitload of thin.
Never once had he put himself first. He deserved this happiness more than anyone I knew, and I was so incredibly happy for him.
While also being envious as fuck.
I was heading out the door when Ryder said, “Caleb.”
Shit. I knew that tone; any softness that seeing Penny had given him was gone. “Let me guess,” I said. “Your office.”
He nodded.
Penny sent me another smile, this one pure sympathy, then grabbed my brother and kissed him one last time. “Be nice to my backup future husband,” she said against his mouth.
“No promises,” Ryder said.
Great. We headed to his office in silence, nodding at Grif behind the reception desk and then Bill, who we passed in the hallway. Neither tried to stop us to talk. No one wanted to talk to Ry when he was in a mood.
It was the one thing he’d gotten from the old Hank. Like it or not, all of us had gotten something from him. I had the man’s stubbornness. I could dig my toes into the sand and not be budged by a hundred-foot wave. It was my superpower.
And usually my downfall.
In Ryder’s office, I went straight to the bank of windows and looked out at the green rolling hills divided by the Russian River meandering along with absolutely zero life worries. I heard my brother come in behind me but remained silent. If he wanted to talk, he could go first.
Two deer bounded playfully along the river.
Summer in Star Falls was usually my favorite season.
My brothers and I had a long-standing camping tradition, where we hiked up Mount Saint Helena, slept on the windblown cliffs, played a hybrid—and vicious—Colburn version of touch football until we were bruised and bloody, and then drank until we were stupid. Or at least, stupider than usual.
I wondered if Ryder would want to go this year now that he was with Penny. Or if Tucker would be able to take the time off from the fire station.
Maybe I was the only one who even cared about the trip anymore. I ground my teeth, tired of Ryder’s silence, which he used as a strategic argument tool. “Just spit it out,” I finally said.
“You should’ve told me.”
Gee, wonder what he’s talking about… “You do realize we didn’t intend to get stuck there, right?”
“Why were you both even there on a Sunday? Why would you take a date to the jobsite?”
I turned to face him. No one, and I mean no one, could get to me faster than a fellow Colburn, and for a beat, I struggled with the urge to punch his stupid face.
“You asked me not to date anyone related to work, and I haven’t.
” Nope, there’d been no dating involved…
“Emma was there to get a measurement she’d forgotten.
” Maybe, because she’d never actually told me what she’d needed there.
“And I was checking to make sure nothing had gotten left out that could get damaged in the storm.”
Ryder’s face was impassive. God forbid he ever be wrong. About anything.
Except.… Fuck. He wasn’t wrong, and I felt like an asshole. In my defense, I hadn’t been this attracted to anyone like I was to Emma.
Ry ran a hand over his face, a rare tell. “Just…keep it clean.”
Since I hadn’t, I went on the defensive. “Like you did?”
Ry inhaled sharply. “What happened between me and Penny had no effect on the job.”
I laughed. “You sure about that? Because I was there when you were so stupid in lust, you walked your face into a wall.”
Ryder’s expression softened, and hell, he even smiled.
I sighed. “She’s good for you, man, and I’m happy for you.”
“Fuck.” He sighed. “I want it for you, too, Caleb. More than anything. But…” He met my gaze, his own serious. “What would you do differently this time? With Emma?”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, once you’ve slept with someone, you normally get bored and move on. And now you’ve already started down the same old path, spending the night together.”
“I didn’t bring that storm,” I said. “And we didn’t…didn’t.” That it was only because Ryder himself had shown up was a detail I didn’t intend to share. Ever.
“She was wearing your clothes,” he pointed out.
“She was cold.”
“When I get cold, you tell me to suck it up,” Tucker said.
I turned and found my brother propping up the doorway, arms crossed, watching us carefully.
If I was The Fixer, he was our arbitrator, because out of us siblings, he alone had a depthless well of patience.
I was tapped out, and worse, I was feeling rough and on edge, emotions I tried like hell to always keep at bay.
Tucker casually moved into the office. He slung an arm around Ry’s shoulders and then mine—thanks to his stupid six feet four inches of lanky, sneaky strength.
Ry and I each turned to glare at him, but he just pinned both our necks in the crooks of his elbows, leaving us nose to nose, cheeks smashed into his chest.
Ry began to struggle, trying to pull his head from Tucker’s death grip, but I merely relaxed and snorted.
Ry gave up and did the same, laughing as he threw an elbow that Tucker evaded, still holding us hostage by the neck.
“You’ve been busy,” I said conversationally.
“Storm was a bitch,” Tuck agreed casually. “Anyway, here’s what’s going to happen—Ryder’s going to apologize for being a dick when he himself recently fell so stupidly in love in this very building.”
Ryder sputtered, but Tucker just tightened his grip, and hell, the guy was stronger than I remembered.
“And,” Tucker went on merrily, “Caleb’s going to apologize because Ryder’s the boss and what he says goes in regard to the business. But Ry gets the right to say he told you so when you get bored or spooked and walk away from Emma, causing trouble on the Henderson job.”