Chapter 4
Warren Atwell’s Legal Briefs: Always insist on a DNA test to verify parentage.
The wind chimes tinkled in the air outside my yoga studio as I breathed through my evening meditation: in through the nose, out through the nose. I lit a candle for the practice, but the jasmine scent only reminded me of how badly I botched speaking to Avery this afternoon.
“Are you a settlement agreement?” I wanted to punch myself in the face.
In through the nose. Out through the nose.
Focus. Focus. Focus.
I did my best to allow the thoughts to move through my mind without making any judgments about them, but it was challenging as I replayed Avery’s laughter in my mind.
In through the nose. Out through the nose.
“Because I feel like we were meant to resolve things together.”
I shook my head and got out of the lotus position. Maybe a headstand would rewire my brain chemistry and get the blood flowing differently so I would not have to relive the embarrassment.
I moved through several yoga poses before pressing the top of my head to the mat and lifting my legs. I tightened my core and quieted my mind. That was better.
In through the nose. Out through the nose.
A click and a creak of hinges were the only warnings I received before my younger brother burst into my house. “Yo! Warren! Pizza time!” He hollered.
I kept my eyes closed and tried to maintain the headstand for a few more seconds. Maybe if I ignored him, he would…
He flung open the door to my studio. I slowly opened my eyes to see Tyson Atwell standing in the hallway. The redhead had the body of a giant and the manners of a raccoon. And while he refused to knock on any of our family’s doors, he had the good sense not to enter my sanctuary.
Tyson bent upside down to look at me. “Nice headstand, bro. How long you been holding that?”
I sighed. “I am unsure. You are disturbing my meditation practice.”
“Sorry, War, but it’s family dinner time.
Get your ass up and out of there before Mom and Dad get here.
” Tyson straightened, and his presence filled the entire room, as always.
“I brought pizza. Get a move on!” He clapped loudly and returned to the front of the house, where I heard him banging pots and pans to aggravate me.
We needed no additional cookware for this evening’s dinner.
The man owned a restaurant, so I was confident he knew his way around a kitchen. However, I was less optimistic that he would return my kitchen to its tidy state when he was finished.
I wiggled my toes, splayed my hands across the mat, and slowly emerged from the headstand. Standing, I brought my hands together over my heart chakra and said, “Namaste.”
“Yo! Bro! Where are the plates?” Tyson yelled from the kitchen.
I shook my head. It was going to be a long evening.
The dining room chandelier cast prisms across the stack of the Hot Box pizza boxes at the center of the round table.
My mom had thoughtfully placed trivets underneath the boxes so they wouldn’t ruin the finish on the table I spent several weekends reworking.
The skin at the corner of her brown eyes crinkled as she smiled at us, slowly stacking the dirty china plates and taking them into the kitchen.
“Mom, I can do that,” I started.
She pressed me back into my seat with a light touch. “You hosted. Ty brought the food. I can clean up.”
“Would you like some more wine, son?” Dad held up a bottle of red from my collection.
I shook my head. Any more than one glass made my brain fuzzy.
My youngest sister, Callie, held her glass toward Dad without looking up. She was engaged with something on her tablet and had not spoken much during dinner, but we knew better than to interrupt the genius when she worked on an engineering problem.
Dad walked around the table, refilling everyone else’s glasses, and my eyes caught on the empty chair on the far side of the room. “Anyone heard from Bellamy?”
“She’s busy,” Callie answered while typing on her tablet.
I looked toward Dad, but he shrugged. No one ever knew what our second-youngest sibling was up to.
“Thank you for bringing the pizza, Tyson,” I said. “That was thoughtful.”
He waved off the compliment and leaned the dining room chair back on two legs. “It was nothing, bro. We always have a few extra ‘mistakes’ on Fridays.” He winked at me, and I heard the chair creak.
“Tyson, please do not lean back in those chairs. They’re antique.”
“Ty,” Mom chided him as she returned to the dining room with pie and pie plates. “Don’t aggravate your brother.”
Tyson thumped the chair back to its proper position. I winced. I was not sure the chairs could withstand the wear and tear from a lovable giant.
Callie finally looked up from her tablet and said, “Aggravating the robot is too easy.”
“Doesn’t make it right, kids,” Dad said, throwing his arm across the back of Mom’s chair.
I bit back a complaint about being called a robot by my siblings. They thought it was so funny to laugh at my discipline. But they were not the eldest child, and they had no idea what sort of responsibility came with that role.
The chocolate silk pie beckoned me from the sideboard. I stood to dish out slices to everyone. “Who would like pie?”
Callie raised her hand, engrossed once again in her tablet. Tyson handed me a plate. Mom and Dad smiled and nodded. Once everyone had a slice, I cut myself a thin piece and returned to my seat.
“This is delicious,” Mom said. “Where is it from?”
“I was over at the courthouse yesterday and picked it up on the way back,” I answered.
“Big case?” Tyson asked with his mouth full.
I frowned at him. He snapped his jaw shut.
“Settling the Benton divorce,” I said. “Arbitration concluded yesterday. My client is quite pleased.”
“Sounds like you got her what she deserved.” Dad nodded toward me. “That’s great news, son.”
I smiled. “Yes. We caught her husband in quite a few lies. That is settled, now.”
“Does that mean your workload will be a little lighter?” Mom asked.
Suspicion wormed its way up my spine. “Perhaps. Why do you ask?”
She shrugged and lifted her eyebrows. “No reason.”
I narrowed my eyes at my parents. “What are you up to?”
“Can’t we ask about our son’s wellbeing?” Dad feigned innocence. Now, I was even more suspicious.
“You can, but you do not normally. What is going on?”
“They’re trying to fix you up,” Callie answered, shoving another bite of pie into her mouth and typing one-handed on the tablet.
I turned back to my parents. Mom looked at Dad with a flushed face. Dad held up his hands in surrender.
“Son,” he started.
“No. Do not go there,” I warned.
“She’s a real nice woman,” Mom tried.
“I am sure she is. However, I do not need my parents to set me up on a date.”
“You need something, bro.” Tyson laid his fork on the edge of the plate and leveled his green eyes at me. He was a head taller than I was and knew how to intimidate. However, he forgot I had taught him that move, so I glared back at him.
“Dude. You need to get out of this house and out of your head.” He tapped his temple with a finger. “We get it. You’re smart. You’re all: ‘Look at me! I’m a Yoga Lawyer Guru!’ But you need to talk to someone who isn’t family or a client.”
“I am not a guru,” I admonished. “And I speak to people.”
“Really? Who have you talked to lately?” Callie jumped in on the conversation. She placed her tablet face down on the table, and it was all I could do to stop from groaning.
My entire family waited for an answer with expectant faces.
I swallowed. “Well, I spoke to Avery Hunter yesterday at the courthouse.”
“Holy shit, bro! That’s great news!” Tyson drummed on the table with his meaty fists.
“Bout freaking time,” Callie added with a golf clap.
“How’d that go for you?” Mom smiled.
I opened my mouth and closed it quickly. There was no way I would tell my family what a spectacle I made of myself. “It was brief,” I finally said. “She was on her way out. I needed to file paperwork.”
“Still, that’s a good start, son!” Dad beamed like I won the Nobel Prize.
Should I be embarrassed that my entire family knew of my crush on Avery Hunter? Probably. Would I let this stop me from moving forward with my life? No.
“Did you ask her out, or did you choke in the face of the open net again?” Callie asked.
“Callie!” Mom chastised.
Callie shrugged. “What? We’re all thinking it.”
I glanced at the members of my family. Damn. They were all thinking it. That was embarrassing.
“I did not ask her out because I have a date with someone else this weekend,” I answered.
Their jaws dropped, and they stared at me like I told them I wanted to become a doctor. Not that I would do that. I shuddered. This must be what a record-scratch moment felt like. I would file that away to think about later.
“Shut the front door!” Callie shoved my shoulder.
I shook her off. “I will not.”
“You have a date?” Tyson’s eyes were as wide as saucers. “Holy shit!” He squinted toward the front window. “Has Hell frozen over?”
“Ty!” Mom warned, then turned to me. “This is great news! Who is she? Do we know her? How did you meet each other?”
I sighed and pushed the remnants of pie around on my plate. “You do not know her. I met her on that relationship app Ship Yes.”
Dad blinked at me. Callie sucked in a breath. Tyson clasped his hands on the table and leaned closer. Mom shook her head.
“What?” I frowned. “Why are you all acting like someone died?”
They all began talking at once.
“No, no, no. Not acting like that. Just so proud of you, son.”
“I bet she’s beautiful. Do you have a picture?”
“Maybe you’ll get laid this weekend. That should work on that stick up your ass.”
“We should get the Facebook FBI on her. What’s her name?”
I rapped on the table twice to get their attention. “Everyone, simmer down. I have not met her yet. I do not have a picture, either. Ship Yes matches you based on several criteria, but looks are not one of them.”
“How will you know it’s her?” Dad asked.
I shrugged. “I guess she will be the only woman who shows up at Bonnair Flights on Sunday looking for a single man.”
Tyson waggled his eyebrows and threw his hands up in the air in some exaggerated semblance of a football referee. I glared at him.
“Bonnair Flights? Why does that sound familiar? What is that?” Mom pulled out her phone and began typing.
“I am unsure. I believe we are taking a plane ride somewhere. I asked if she wanted to choose our date activity, and she agreed,” I explained.
Mom looked up from her phone, the light glinting in her eye. “A plane ride? But you’re afraid of heights.”
“I am working on it.” I rolled my shoulders back. “A plane ride is fine. It will be entertaining and give us time to talk as we sightsee from the air. I will not even notice the elevation.”
Mom showed her phone to Dad, and his eyebrows shot to his hairline. “Is that so?”
“What?” I reached for Mom’s phone, and she kept it out of my reach.
“I think you have the right idea for this date, Warren,” Mom said, putting her phone back in her pocket. “Go in with an open mind. You never know what will happen.”
“Have you talked to this woman before? Is she aware of your—” Tyson gestured to me.
“My what?”
“Your stick-in-the-mud-ness,” Callie finished.
I rolled my eyes. “We have chatted for weeks through the app. She suggested we meet.”
Tyson dabbed the corners of his eyes with a napkin. “I never thought I’d see the day when my big bro fell in lurrrrrve.”
Mom threw her napkin at his face and bit back a smile. “Knock it off.”
“You’re excited because you might finally get those grandbabies you want.” Tyson clasped his elbows and rocked his arms back and forth like he held a baby. “War and Strange Lady sitting in a tree—”
“You are a child,” I said without any venom.
I shook my head. My younger brother may be ridiculous, but he was my ridiculous.
While he teased me about my… preferences …
he was never mean-spirited. And when bullies tried to beat me up on the playground in high school, my giant little brother came to my rescue and pounded them into the ground.
I glanced at my parents, who were holding hands underneath the table.
Although they had been married for more than forty years, they still acted like teenagers in love.
There was a stark difference between them and the Bentons, and I wondered, not for the first time, what that kind of love would feel like.
No matter how often I meditated on it, the feeling was just out of reach.
The thought of finding out in less than 48 hours?
A wave of calm washed over me for the first time this evening, and I knew I would sleep like a baby tonight.