Chapter One #2
But lunch and swimming lessons turned into driving them home when it started raining or got too dark to ride their bikes on unlit county roads, digging out his old clothes for the boys, and sitting with the group and DeeDee to cheer Meg on at her first swim meet.
It turned into a cheering section of his own at church-league softball games, a car full of kids to take out for ice cream after, and a house that sometimes rang with laughter.
Joe was furiously glad he’d lucked into these four siblings by choice. But like hell was he going to let Gavin fail grade twelve English.
Gavin Chalmers: Whoops gotta go bye Joe!
Joe sighed, checked the clock again, and opened a message to Starling instead.
Joe Romano: Remember when you said adopting four children as a teenager was a bad idea?
Starling Bell: Will asked you if the house guy is hot, didn’t he?
He really needed to get some friends who were less good at giving him shit.
Two thirty came around, and a door opened deeper in the building. A woman of fortyish came out, dressed in dark slacks and a purple sweater that looked like cashmere. She smiled. “Mr. Romano. Good to see you again.”
Joe shook her hand and she ushered him back to her office. “Hi, Ms. Kelly.”
“It looks like Mr. Taylor isn’t here yet. I’ll let Shawna know to send him in when he arrives. Just have a seat.”
Like Joe’s ass wasn’t numb from sitting already. But he sat.
“So.” He cleared his throat. “You found him, I guess.”
Ms. Kelly dropped into her wheely desk chair and rolled a few feet with the impact. “Do you know how hard it is to find people who don’t have Facebook these days?”
Joe snorted. He didn’t know from experience but couldn’t say he was surprised. Phonebooks were just a hazy memory of his childhood. Could you look up a private cell number?
“About four-months-long hard?” he suggested.
Ms. Kelly dipped her head in acknowledgement and smiled. “Something like that. There’s no point going through all this without Mr. Taylor.” She waved at the pages on her desk with an apologetic little shrug. “Can I get you anything to drink while we wait?”
Joe opened his mouth to decline, not wanting to put her out just because this Austin Taylor guy couldn’t keep an appointment, but now that she mentioned it. “Water would be nice.”
She nodded and turned to pour him a glass from the pitcher behind her desk.
Joe’s phone buzzed in his lap and Starling’s latest text popped up on the screen. So… is he?
Figuring such a question was better ignored than addressed, Joe turned back to the lawyer.
She passed his drink across the desk, and as Joe took his first sip, she asked after his business.
It had been a year and a half since Joe’s life completely imploded, leaving him without a fiancé, home, or job.
It hadn’t been the most ideal circumstances to open his own tree-trimming and landscaping business, but at least he had a few contacts willing to hire him on faith and share his details with their friends.
Even his mom gave him an assist and hired him to spruce up some of her properties in preparation for the market.
Fortunately, the weather had cooperated for today’s meeting—it had been raining on and off all day, leaving everything soaked. Not ideal for yard maintenance or tree doctoring.
Business wasn’t exactly booming, but Joe had a steady stream of work and enough of a cash inflow he wasn’t worried about paying the bills.
He told Ms. Kelly as much as he awkwardly sipped his water and wondered why this Austin Taylor guy couldn’t show up on time.
Her cell rang and she answered it with an apologetic smile.
Whatever she was talking about was, apparently, not so confidential that Joe couldn’t overhear.
Or maybe she just wasn’t worried about it, since her comments about having sent the email and “Did they read the document and notice subsection 2b?” were so generic as to tell Joe nothing.
His phoned buzzed once again in his lap, and he looked down in time to see a notification that Garden Depot had uploaded a new reel to Insta he might enjoy.
Before he could even think about it, he unlocked his phone and tapped.
His screen was suddenly filled with Paul standing in the middle of the greenhouse.
He was still beautiful, still had Ken-doll-perfect looks and blond hair that begged to be tousled.
His teeth practically glinted when he smiled for the camera and made jokes about how luscious their plants were.
A giggle from behind the camera told Joe who was holding it.
So Paul was also still seeing Nikki, the mutual coworker he’d left Joe for.
Joe could have forgiven Paul for falling out of love with him. It happened. But fucking someone else in their bed and doing so bad a job sneaking around that everyone at Garden Depot knew about it before Joe found out?
Yeah, he couldn’t forgive Paul that one.
Joe aggressively turned off his phone, ignoring the notifications from the group chat. Gavin might have turned off his phone so he could focus on English, but Meg, Will, and Alex shared an afternoon spare and were happy to keep pestering him with questions.
As if Joe could tell them about Taylor’s relative attractiveness when the man wasn’t even here. Even though their appointment was ten minutes ago now.
Joe and Ms. Kelly were back to making awkward small talk as the clock ticked closer to the hour when her PA rapped once on the door and swung it open.
“Mr. Taylor is here,” she announced, and Joe and Ms. Kelly suddenly transported straight into a porn film.
Austin Taylor stumbled into the room, blurting apologies and rubbing abashed at his cheek.
He wore a threadbare T-shirt under a leather jacket and over a pair of sinfully tight black jeans.
To complete the cliché, he wore lace-up black biker boots.
All of which would already make him hot as fuck, but the look was topped off with two droolworthy touches.
First was the hint of grease on his hands and smudged across his cheek. Apparently Austin Taylor was a mechanic of some sort by trade and in his haste had failed to properly clean up.
Second, and worse, was the hair. His jaw was covered in stubble, highlighting his jawline, and above that was a mess of long dark curls.
Joe suspected, based on the apparent age and disrepair of Taylor’s clothes, that he wasn’t very vain or much into fashion.
He probably kept his hair long out of laziness or cheapness.
It was thick and glossy and fell around his face in a tousled mess of beautiful haphazard waves.
Joe wanted to touch it.
“Sorry,” Taylor said again as he sat down, barely glancing at Joe.
Joe frowned. Late and rude, even while apologizing. “It’s fine. It’s not like our time matters or anything,” he said cheerfully.
Taylor turned and eyed him. Joe smiled wider.
“Well,” Taylor said, “the next time we have an appointment and an elderly client calls me while stranded on the highway with a flat tire, I’ll be sure to let them know I can’t help because your time is so precious.”
Joe flushed, embarrassed that Taylor managed to look like the better person when he was half an hour late.
“Why don’t we get started?” Ms. Kelly smoothly cut in as she slid two folders across the table, one for each of them.
Joe flipped his open and found a stack of official paperwork—a copy of DeeDee’s will, a property deed.
“So, as you are aware, DeeDee Mitchell left her house to the two of you in equal share. So until you make further decisions, it’s a shared asset.”
Joe nodded. That wasn’t unexpected. He’d had months to get used to the idea of Meg’s relative leaving him half a house, even if her motives remained a mystery.
“The estate has been paying the property taxes for the past few months, so you’ll be billed for that,” she continued.
“Last month the house was appraised and valued at two hundred and ten thousand dollars in its current condition. You can either sell the property and split the proceeds, or one of you can buy out the other.”
Joe glanced at the ripped knee of Taylor’s jeans and doubted the guy had a spare hundred thousand lying around. Mechanic work could pay well if you owned an established business, but someone in that position would’ve sent someone else to change the flat.
“Of course, before you make any decisions, you should visit the property yourself and investigate. Mrs. Mitchell left you the contents of the house as well as the structure and land, and those assets have not been evaluated.” She eyed them both with a shrewd look.
“As a lawyer, I feel the need to point out that as strangers, you should take on the task of cleaning it out together.”
“Wait,” Taylor said, “she left us the contents?” He licked his lips and finger-combed his mess of waves out of his face. It looked even more disheveled and touchable. “Like, all of them?”
Ms. Kelly nodded.
“But… that house is full.” He sounded daunted by the prospect.
“Yes. All of it. In the past few years, Mrs. Mitchell had already gifted the few items of sentimental value to the relevant family members, a common act for people who want to ensure inheritance or see the enjoyment of the younger generation.”
Taylor blinked. “So. She left us her house worth a couple hundred thousand dollars and everything inside?” He looked down at the closed folder in his lap, then back up at Ms. Kelly. “Was she crazy?”
Joe bristled. Where did Taylor get off? Sure, DeeDee was eccentric, but she’d adored her family.
And while Joe himself was surprised by her move, he also knew that she never would have done it if it put Meg’s future in any sort of peril.
But Meg was well taken care of. DeeDee and her late husband were no fools, and they’d raised equally practical children.
Meg’s dad and his wife hadn’t been hurting for funds when DeeDee was still around, but they were even better established now that they had her nest egg.
Joe suspected that not leaving them the house that Meg hadn’t ever set foot in was an act of kindness.
Cleaning out the house for sale would be an undertaking.
“Such gratitude,” Joe muttered.
Taylor flinched and then looked at him sideways.
“Sorry, but I haven’t exactly lived the kind of life where someone just leaves me a house with no strings attached.
” Then the corners of his mouth twitched up and his dark eyes sparkled.
“Or one string, I guess, in the form of an unlikely house husband.”
Joe’s cheeks went furiously hot and words deserted him. His hand clenched reflexively around the pen.
Austin couldn’t know the sick feeling that gave him in his stomach as he thought of Paul. Joe thought it was a pretty reasonable reaction, really. Anyone who’d had a broken engagement a week before they were supposed to close on their first house together would’ve felt the same.
Ms. Kelly cleared her throat. “Keeping the joint asset is also a possibility, of course.”
Joe wished the floor would swallow him. Jesus. He scrubbed a hand over his hair. “Uh, I think we’ve taken up enough of your time for the day. Maybe we should just get these signed.”
Blessedly, Austin Taylor did not argue.
Filling out the rest of the paperwork didn’t take long. Ms. Kelly’s assistant took copies of their driver’s licenses, then of the ownership transfer papers. Then Ms. Kelly slid two identical brass keys across her desk. “Here you are, gentlemen. Congratulations.”
Joe stared at the key with no small amount of trepidation, suddenly aware he was being kind of a freak show. He wasn’t usually this socially inept. He pasted on a smile and picked up his key, then turned to Taylor. “I kind of feel like we should be toasting to something.”
Next to him, Taylor had picked up his key as well and was holding it up as though it held the answers to life’s questions.
On a whim, Joe touched the keys together. “Cheers, I guess.”
Taylor quirked that wide mouth again. The hint of a dimple appeared.
Joe’s kids were going to give him the business forever.
Ms. Kelly looked between them and then offered, “I’m going to get a refill on my coffee. Why don’t you take a moment to exchange contact information.”
Subtle, Joe thought. He fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose like his mom did when her clients were being particularly obtuse.
The door clicked shut.
“Do you feel like you’ve been called to the principal’s office for being naughty?” Joe asked.
Taylor smiled. Definitely a dimple. “Now what makes you think I’ve ever been in the principal’s office?”
That smile, for one. “Call it a hunch.”
“Hmm.” He studied Joe for a moment, eyes mirthful. “What would you know about getting into trouble, Mr. Punctuality?”
Joe held up his hands. “Hey, I’m sorry I was a dick. I am not a great wait-around-er. But in full disclosure, at least half the time I got sent to the principal’s office it was because of chronic lateness.”
Austin gasped theatrically, palm pressed to his chest. “A hypocrite?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“That’s a shame.” He shook his head. “Are you a hypocrite who’s free this weekend?”
Joe’s heart thumped too hard in his chest. Was this—Austin wasn’t asking him out now, was he? After Joe had been a complete hot-and-cold-running disaster?
“To check out our house?” Austin finished, eyebrows raised. “I work Saturdays—hazard of the job, everybody else has it off so that’s when they bring in the car to get fixed up—but I close on Sunday.”
Right. Yes. The house. Duh. Joe took a moment to shake off his disorientation.
“Um, let me just—” He pulled out his phone to demonstrate, opened the weather app when Austin nodded.
There was a late hurricane system moving up from the Gulf, and it was still on schedule to drop buckets of rain on Southern Ontario on Sunday.
Not a good work day. The jobs Joe had lined up for the week would have to wait to start until Monday. “Sunday works.”
Austin smiled again. Joe told himself several things that even the kids would call harsh, because sure it had been over a year since he and Paul broke up, but that didn’t mean Joe needed to react like a hot guy had never smiled at him before. This was embarrassing.
“Great,” Austin said. “It’s a date.”