Chapter 34
My living room was chaos. Empty pizza boxes, a half-drained bottle of bourbon, and my idiot brothers were sprawled across my furniture like they owned the place.
Malibu had given up trying to take her dog bed back from the six-pound demonic black cat with the bent ear better known as Phoebe and instead had made herself at home on my recliner, forcing me to sit on the floor.
Why Mark had brought that beast over remained a mystery.
The second he removed her harness, she hissed at me, swatted Malibu on her nose, and sat in the middle of the floor demanding treats.
Mark, the whipped asshole, took a bag of salmon jerky from his pocket and fed her while I stared open-mouthed, wondering when I became the ringleader of this circus.
I shook my head and stood, swiping the bottle of bourbon from the table and taking a long swig.
The liquor burned my throat and churned in my stomach, but I kept it in my hand, pacing the room like a caged lion and wishing they’d go the fuck home.
They had to have better things to do on a Sunday night than sit there with me.
“Sit back down, Romeo,” Magnum called from where he was sprawled on the sofa, throwing his elbow over his face. “You’re making me dizzy.”
“I’ve been sitting enough, while the three of you invaded my house and my liquor cabinet. It’s bad enough you didn’t bother to order the pizza I like.”
“Yes, well, maybe we would have if you hadn’t insisted that you were fine and demanded that we leave,” Miller added, raising his head from the back of the couch and scowling. “Do you have any Tylenol around here? My head hurts.”
“Probably because you thought pouring half a bottle of vodka into a quart of orange juice and then drinking it was a good idea.”
“Shut up, Mark,” Miller huffed. “Just because you refused to have more than one drink doesn’t mean you get to shame the rest of us.”
He picked up a beer bottle cap and threw it at our youngest brother. Mark caught it and tossed it to me, rolling his eyes and collapsing onto the couch between Miller and Magnum.
“Yeah, well, Jenna will be stuck at Feathers and Fur for ten hours tomorrow doing spays and neuters, while I start a twelve-hour shift at the station. I can’t be hung over, but we all needed to be here to knock some sense into you, Mav.”
“I take it that’s why you brought the spawn of Lucifer over?” Magnum asked, gesturing to Phoebe, who was licking her paw and slow blinking at us.
Creepy-ass cat.
“Most people let their animals stay home alone from time to time,” Miller said, rolling his eyes.
“I have no problem leaving her at home, but you know Eloise started daycare last week and has been fighting all kinds of germs, so Phoebe hasn’t been given that much attention.
” Mark walked over and leaned down, scratching under the cat’s chin and cooing.
“She gets along fine with Malibu, so why wouldn’t I bring her over? She loves riding in the Tahoe.”
“If ‘gets along fine’ means your cat bullies my dog, then sure, they get along.”
I glared at Mark as I continued to pace, walking into the kitchen and pulling a bottle of headache reliever from the cabinet.
Maybe I should have held it hostage until they left, but I wasn’t that much of an asshole, and chose to be the bigger person, even grabbing a few bottles of water from the fridge.
“You’re my hero, oh wise one,” Magnum groaned, passing the medicine to Miller after shaking several pills into his hand and chugging the bottle of water. “Remind me why we drank so much?”
“We were bored. Maverick was wallowing in self-pity. Mark spent the evening glaring at us. And we needed to celebrate your impending fatherhood.”
“Ah. That’s right,” Miller said, rubbing his hands together. “Emma and I have her first prenatal appointment on Thursday.”
“That’s great and I’m happy for you,” I groused. “Now, can the three of you please leave me alone so I can sleep once this bottle is empty?”
“Not a chance bro-nado,” Magnum said, cracking his knuckles and spreading his legs. He rubbed his hands on his thighs and tilted his head, glaring. “We’re not leaving until you talk about this. This is just the beginning. The three of us have decided to camp out here as long as it takes.”
“What about after this weekend? Are we just not going to open the store?” I growled, running a hand through my hair.
“If that’s what it takes. You weren’t coming in any way, were you? Isn’t Summer’s court hearing coming up.”
“As if she still wants me there after I fucked up so badly.”
“Ah, now we’re getting somewhere,” Mark said, blocking my path and putting his hands on my shoulders. I let him steer me to my recliner, shoo Malibu off, and push me down. I rested my elbows on my knees and dropped my head forward, closing my eyes.
“So what? You said some things you shouldn’t? We’ve all been there.”
“None of you have been where I am, Miller.”
“Back off, asshat. This is what we mean. We get it. Things have been rough. But you have a great girl who, for some unfathomable reason, is nuts about you. What more is there to think about?” He punctuated his reply by leaning over and elbowing me in the ribs.
I winced and batted his hand away, raising my head and furrowing my brows. “She hates me. That’s all there is to it.”
“You’re not that special,” muttered Mark, cracking open a bottle of water and taking a drink. “Most women hate you eventually.”
“Wow. Not helping,” Magnum said, glaring at our youngest brother.
“Actually, he’s kind of right,” Miller chimed in, laying his head on the back of the couch and rubbing his temples. “You are spectacularly bad at women. It’s like a gift. Some people waterski. You self-destruct relationships.”
I threw the remote at Miller, who caught it, laying it on the coffee table next to a handful of empty beer bottles.
“Shut up, Miller.”
“What? Am I lying?”
I groaned, leaning back in the recliner and kicking up the footrest. “You don’t get it.
Summer isn’t like any of the few and far between women I’ve hooked up with.
She makes me feel things. And I yelled at her.
Told her I wasn’t the right guy for her because I couldn’t just fall into a relationship. ”
My brothers stared at me until Magnum broke the silence. “Idiot.”
“Not just an idiot,” Miller added. “A poetic idiot. That was some woe-is-me, Nicholas Sparks-level tragedy crap.”
“Did you write that in your diary afterward?” Mark quipped, clutching his chest in mock anguish.
I grabbed a pillow from the floor and hurled at him, but he ducked, cackling like a madman.
“This isn’t funny!” I barked, throwing my hands in the air and slamming the footrest down. “She doesn’t deserve a coward. She deserves better.”
The laughter died as Magnum leaned forward on the sofa, elbows on his knees.
He turned to face me, as Miller did the same, voice dropping to something cool and serious.
“Maverick. We all miss her. Autumn was our family long before you got married. But you’re not honoring her memory by staying miserable.
You think Summer doesn’t understand your grief?
She may not have had a spouse die, but her marriage ended in a flaming pile of dog shit. ”
“Yeah, brother. Why won’t you let yourself have the damn good thing that was standing right in front of you?”
“We know you love her,” Mark said, hovering over the recliner with his hands on his hips. “You’re just scared you’ll bury her too.”
“And we all have that fear. It’s not something that goes away. But I’d never give up Brooke just because I might lose her one day,” Magnum said.
“Also, and I mean this with love, bro—if you don’t show up to the courthouse, I will personally drag your sorry ass there in my underwear. And you know I’ll do it,” Miller said, grinning. “After all, we have a cop in the family to make that infraction go away.”
“Don’t use me as your one phone call if you get arrested for public indecency,” Mark said, shaking his head.
“Fuck, you three are impossible,” I groaned.
“That’s brotherhood,” Magnum said, pulling me from the recliner and slapping my shoulder. “Now go shave, shower, put on an actual shirt, and stop being a douche. You have a woman to win back.”
“Shut up,” I said as my lips twitched, just barely, toward a smile.