Chapter 21
21
CONNOR
I’m walking to my pickup truck when I see my brother.
It is a surprise; I have to say.
I wasn’t expecting to see him here, now.
Professor Spencer Penmayne is running on the sidewalk, making long, gliding strides as he pounds the ground beneath his feet. He’s got the latest designer running gear on. Expensive stuff, surely. I’m not surprised in the slightest by what he’s wearing - my brother is someone who takes his exercise very seriously, like all of us Penmaynes. Sure, we’ve been gifted with great genes, but we also very much take care of our bodies.
“Hello, Spencer.”
My brother doesn’t act shocked to see me - that’s not his way. Instead, he takes out his earphones and stops his run, walking up to me by my pickup truck. He’s breathing heavily, but he’s not winded or spent. He makes running seem effortless.
“Connor. Hello. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
I nod at the fire station across the street.
“This is my work,” I explain with a healthy dose of sarcasm. “This is where I usually park.”
My brother smiles, glancing over at the station, then at my pickup truck, and then back to me.
“So it is your place. My bad. I should’ve guessed. It’s been a long time, how are you?”
It has been a long time.
Cutting off Father has meant cutting off my brothers, and that is something I very much regret. I hold no pain against my siblings. I like them. I like Spencer.
“Good,” I reply. “And how are you, brother?”
Spencer knows me well enough that a single-word answer like that is enough for a full monologue of my feelings explained. He knows I’m a man of few words.
“Still teaching,” my brother replies. “Still learning. Still trying to survive in this crazy world despite everything it dares throw at us.”
“And how’s Olivia?” I ask him.
I like the girl. She’s been good for my brother. I can see true love exists between them. Spencer has become a better man due to their union.
“She’s better than ever,” Spencer says. “I honestly thought I wouldn’t find love again, but here I stand. To tell you the truth, it’s kind of disgusting to me how much in love I am.”
“Must be nice.”
“You should try it sometime, Connor. Find a girl.”
I nearly snort in abject derision at his comment.
“What? Fall in love? You must be joking.”
“I’m sure you can make a woman feel good,” Spencer says with open sincerity in his voice.
“There’s no one out there for me,” I reply. “I have no room in my life for a girl to come and rearrange everything.”
“That’s nonsense, and you know it,” Spencer remarks. “You may be a strong, independent alpha, Connor, but I know you have a softness hiding there. Somewhere. You have space for a woman. She’s just going to be hard to find, and presumably harder to tame.”
I growl and look away. It’s starting to get dark. I don’t want to make eye contact with my brother.
I know he’s speaking the truth.
“Sure.”
Spencer doesn’t seem like he wants to run home. It seems like he wants to say something else to me.
There’s something on his mind...
“You know you’ve created a little stir?” he asks me quietly. “People are talking in this town. Word has got back to me about something brewing around you.”
Fuck.
I very much do not want to be the center of any rumor. Especially not one springing up in this small town.
“Is this about that journalist our father has hired?” I quiz my brother.
He nods, gauging my reaction with his darkly intelligent eyes.
“Yep.”
“Great,” I mutter angrily. “That’s not me creating a little stir, though. Blame that all on the man who raised us. He’s behind it all. He’s got her swooping into this town to spy on me. I can’t shake her, despite my best efforts.”
It always comes back to Ember. It always comes back to the girl who makes my heart skip a beat and my body to tense when she’s around.
I really can’t shake her. Not physically. And not from my thoughts.
“She came to see me, you know?”
I freeze.
“Ember did?” I ask Spencer, nearly uncharacteristically stuttering over her name.
“Yes,” he replies with a glimmer of a smirk. “She’s a nice girl, Connor.”
“Don’t give me that crap.”
“She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
“Stop it right there, brother.”
“Olivia thought that, too. She reckons you two would get along.”
“Spencer, stop.”
“Why don’t you talk to her?” my brother asks.
“You know why,” I reply. “I don’t want to be known . I don’t want there to be a fucking article about me going up online. I just want to be left in peace.”
“It’s a bit hard when you have the Penmayne last name,” Spencer says.
“Yep. That’s true. That’s hard enough as it is without some journalist sniffing around the fire station.”
“Royce told me she went to his Air Force base as well,” my brother says. “She had questions for him.”
“So, she is really gathering information,” I reply. “She’s good at her job. What did you say to her?”
My brother smiles even more.
“I told her nothing except that you’d be impossible to talk to.”
I look at my brother.
He looks back at me.
And I begin to laugh and laugh and laugh.
“Yeah, you were right about that, brother.”