Chapter Thirty-Five
“DUDE, HOLD IT still,” Tobias said.
It was Saturday afternoon, tunes were blaring, and Zander’s cottage looked like a construction zone.
The guys were helping him finish the living room.
They’d been giving each other a hard time for hours as he, Tobias, and Zeke hung and taped drywall and Blaine and Maverick did the stonework around the fireplace.
“I’m holding it as still as fucking stone,” Zander said, holding the drywall in place for Tobias.
“Still, my ass. You’re twitchy as shit,” Tobias said.
Zander glared at him. “I’ll give you twitchy.”
“Shut up and hold still so I can screw the damn thing,” Tobias barked.
“That’s what she…Fuck,” Blaine uttered. “Never mind. That’s our sister.”
The guys laughed.
As Tobias screwed in the drywall, Zeke looked down from the ladder he was standing on and said, “Hate to tell you this, but that drywall doesn’t look straight.”
“My ass it’s not straight,” Tobias grumbled, and stepped back to assess it. “Damn it.”
“Are you kidding me?” Zander eyeballed it. “It looks better than Zeke’s dating life.”
The guys laughed, and Zander and Tobias fixed their mistake.
“Speaking of Zeke’s dating life,” Maverick said as he set a stone in place. “How’d your date go last night?”
Zeke shrugged. “We had a good time, but we didn’t have much in common.”
“Isn’t that the chick you met when you were hiking last week?” Blaine asked.
“Yeah, so?” Zeke said as he taped a seam.
“Sounds like you have hiking in common,” Maverick said.
“Maybe she didn’t like his tiny pierced dick,” Zander teased.
The guys laughed.
Getting no reaction out of Zeke, Zander said, “Come on, man. Every time you take a woman out, you find something wrong with her. She’s too talkative, not interesting enough—”
“Not smart enough or too judgmental,” Blaine added as he chose another stone for the fireplace.
“Mads thinks it’s because they’re not Aria,” Tobias said.
Zeke scoffed.
“I was trying not to go there,” Zander said carefully. “But now that we have, Zeke, you’ve had a bug up your ass about Aria acting squirrely. Did you ever get to the bottom of that?”
Zeke climbed down from the ladder, his jaw tight. “This isn’t about Aria. I just have standards.”
“Hate to tell you this, bro, but you’ve been saying the same shit for years,” Blaine pointed out. “One of these days those standards are going to strangle you.”
“And you think marriage won’t?” Zeke moved the ladder.
“Hey, even if that’s the case, then I’m a willing victim,” Tobias said. “I’d do anything for Mads. November, baby. I expect you all to cry at our wedding.” He and Madigan were getting married in November at the Salty Hog, where they’d first met.
Zander laughed. “That ain’t happening.”
“Nobody’s going to be crying at my wedding,” Blaine said.
The room went silent, all eyes turning on Blaine.
“Your wedding?” Maverick asked, his brow arched.
“You finally going to make an honest woman out of Reese?” Zeke asked.
“She’s been an honest woman her whole damn life,” Blaine said. “I’m just making her my wife.”
“You going to tell us when this wedding is, or are we supposed to guess?” Zander asked.
“Next spring, when Lettie is on school break.” Blaine secured the stone in place. “We’re going to Santorini, Greece, for our honeymoon.”
“Are you taking Lettie with you?” Maverick asked.
“No,” Blaine said. “I offered, but I let Reese decide. She struggled with the decision, but I’m happy with her choice. I love Lettie, but I’m glad I’ll get to have Reese all to myself and spoil the hell out of her.”
“You spoil both of them every day,” Maverick said.
“Like you don’t spoil Chloe and Marybelle?” Tobias pointed out.
Zander listened to their banter, and finally he got it, because nothing made him happier than doing things for Shauna.
He was all about her pleasure, but it was so much bigger than that.
He never realized making someone coffee every morning just the way she liked it, or sneaking notes into the duffel bag she took to work or leaving them on her windshield with wildflowers could make him feel so good.
“Hey, bro.” Maverick stepped into Zander’s line of sight, pulling him from his thoughts.
“What?” Zander snapped.
“Chill. You were daydreaming or something. I said your name three times.” Maverick pointed his trowel into the dining room. “What is that? In the corner.”
They all looked at the shiny pole leaning against the dining room wall.
“It sure doesn’t look like a scratching post for Kitty,” Tobias said.
“It’s a pole for Shauna, and you’re going to help me put it up.”
“Are you kidding?” Blaine asked.
“Guess we know how she’s paying him back for that loan,” Zeke said.
“Shut the hell up,” Zander said, stifling a laugh. “She takes classes. It’s exercise.”
Tobias smirked. “Is that what the kids are calling it now? Exercise?”
Blaine’s expression hardened. “Dude, is there something you’re not telling us about you and Shauna? We’ve all seen how close you’ve gotten. We assume you’re hooking up, but is this still temporary, or have things gotten serious between you two?”
Fuck.
“And don’t tell us you’re not sleeping with her, because we’re not that stupid,” Maverick said.
“I’ve got no reason to lie about that,” Zander said.
“Shauna is the coolest woman I’ve ever met.
I like spending time with her, and I love having her in my bed every night.
But we’re still temporary. It was never supposed to be anything else.
We’re just having a good time. You know I’m not built for long term.
I’ll get bored eventually, and she’s got a life to go back to and a guy who’s going through rehab because she’s his world.
” He fucking hated saying any of that out loud, but he needed to hear it as much as they did.
Most of the time when he was with Shauna, it was too easy to forget Brian even existed.
“How’s that going? How’s he doing in rehab?” Blaine asked.
Zander shrugged. “I can only assume it’s going okay since he’s still there.”
“And the whole inheritance thing?” Maverick asked. “Has that attorney checked up on you two? When does she get the money?”
“She told him we got married, but the attorney hasn’t done shit as far as I know.
She’s going to request the money after the Fourth.
We thought it would look suspicious if she requested it right after the sixty days were up.
But if all goes well, she should have the money by the time Brian comes home next month. ”
“Isn’t that when your arrangement ends?” Zeke asked.
Zander’s jaw clenched. He hated talking about this. “Yeah.”
“Then why put up a pole for such a short time?” Zeke asked.
“I’m just being a supportive husband. Don’t you think she deserves that? She’s doing all of this for Brian. She’s like me. She never wanted to get married. It wasn’t even on her radar.”
“I get being supportive,” Blaine said skeptically. “But it’s going to cost you a pretty penny to replace the floors and patch the ceiling when you tear it out.”
He didn’t care what it cost, and he’d had enough of this conversation. He cocked an arrogant grin. “Who says I’m getting rid of it? We don’t need a marriage certificate for her to come back and give me private performances.”
The guys erupted in laughter and joked about how Zander would never change, leaving him to wonder how he could feel like he’d already changed so much that he’d never be the same again, when nobody else saw it.
SHAUNA AND MADIGAN bumped the car doors shut with their hips, balancing casserole dishes and bags of side dishes they’d made with Reba, Ginger, and the other girls while the guys were renovating.
Shauna had tried to absorb the cooking lessons, but she was having so much fun, she wasn’t sure she’d remember much of them.
Leah had brought Junie and Rosie, and Chloe had brought Marybelle.
The little girls had been right in the thick of it, helping with every step.
Shauna loved how Reba and Ginger hadn’t treated them like they were babies or in the way.
They’d given them jobs just like they had Shauna and the others.
She was glad those little girls would never know what it was like to feel unwanted.
“What do you think they’re up to in there?” Madigan asked as Shauna came around the front of the car. “Talking about tomorrow’s ride while they pretend to work, or kicking back watching the waves roll in?”
Shauna and Zander had gone riding with Madigan and Tobias and some of the others last weekend, and she’d loved it.
She wished she could go tomorrow, but she had to work.
“Zan and I watch the waves roll in first thing in the morning while we have our coffee, but I can’t see him doing it at this time of day.
He’s always doing something.” Mornings had become one of her favorite times of the day, when it was just the two of them, before real life stepped in.
“He’s never been good at sitting still,” Madigan said.
“I believe it. He’s been working his butt off on this place, so if they are kicking back, good for them. As long as nobody complains about the burned ziti casserole, I don’t care what they do.”
“The way they wolf food down, they won’t even notice,” Madigan said as they climbed the porch steps. “Besides, you didn’t burn it. It’s just a little brown.”
They headed inside, and Shauna couldn’t believe her eyes.
When she and Madigan had left earlier, they’d had tarps sealing off the living room from the rest of the cottage to keep the drywall dust confined, and the living room had been stockpiled with stones and tools and tarps.
All the tarps and tools were cleaned up, except the tarp between the living room and dining room.
The entire living room was drywalled and taped, and gorgeous stonework surrounded the fireplace, climbing all the way up to the ceiling.