Chapter 2
TWO
DEAN
“How long you think the two of you can attempt to keep this shit under wraps?” Ryland, my younger brother, says over my shoulder as I’m closing out my text with Tully.
“Goddamn it. Warn someone, will you.” Fucking hell, Tallulah is going to lose her damn mind. Any hope of eventually letting the cat out of the bag is now shot to shit.
“Just sayin’.” My younger brother must need or want something.
I’m going to be paying for this, and it’s going to either be in the form of babysitting or working my ass off on his house.
I love my nephew, Case. I’d do anything for the little guy; until it comes time to change shitty diapers.
Hard fucking pass. No one tells you how bad a blowout is with a baby until it happens while you’re holding them in your arms.
“Yeah, yeah. What is this going to cost me?” I know how this works. We’ve all gotten through the years with some kind of bartering in one form or the other. Especially the older brothers. It seemed like every time we turned around, someone had to pay up to keep their mouth shut.
“The baseboards need to be caulked. It’s the final step before painting, and then I can move in,” Ry states.
“Figures. That’s grunt work and breaks your damn back.
I do this for you, your mouth better stay zipped up like your damn jeans.
” Ryland said he was keeping his dick in his pants after Case was born and his baby mamma left town.
My mom always said she was one Friday night away from becoming a grandma, and she wasn’t wrong.
Ry had a one-night stand, she came up to the ranch ten months later, put Case in his hands, and left him with a shit ton of papers.
It took a lot of work to get his name changed from baby boy to Case Johnson.
Luckily, a paternity test, a few signatures, and some money made things to where Case would always be with Ryland, especially considering his mom signed over her rights.
It put a hiccup in Ry’s house being built.
We’ve all helped as much as we can, but it’s tricky when you only have weekends to work on it.
“You wanna watch Case with your woman instead?”
“Keep your voice down, will you?” I look around. Luckily, we’re not surrounded by anything but horses and cattle. We were moving them from one area to another when I took a break to text Tully.
“Jesus. Paranoid much?” Maybe so, but already owing one brother a favor that’s going to suck the life out of me is more than enough.
“Fuck, yeah, I am. I’ll take caulking the baseboards. No offense, but your boy could clear a room with what comes out of his tiny rear end.” I shake my head. Ain’t no way. One time is more than enough.
“Well, then consider this my loyalty. The sooner the painting is done, the sooner Case and I can move in. I swear to all that is fucking holy a man can only handle walking in on our parents so much before he’s reached his breaking point.” He shakes his head.
“Dad walking around naked again?” Our parents have no problem showing their love for one another in any way shape or form. Shit, we’ve all walked in on them at some point.
“You don’t know the half of it. I’m not even going to tell you what they were doing in the living room.” I can only imagine.
“No wonder you were looking for a reason to blackmail me. One day, Ryland, you’ll be in my shoes.
Lucky for you, my place is built, so I won’t need you to do grunt work.
When do you want me out at your house?” I’m sure with Tully not on call tonight, she will be for the next two nights as well as the weekend.
Fucking Herbert and his shit with making the newbies prove their worth.
Don’t get me wrong, we make sure the new ranch hands work, too.
What we don’t do is give them every piece of shit shift or work them to the bone so they’re hitting the first bus out of town.
“Whenever. Not like the house is locked. The sooner the better, though. The painter is literally waiting on this last step. Case has been in some kind of sleep regression stage. It’s all kinds of fucked.
He’s sleeping during the day, but come nighttime, it’s like he’s a night owl.
” Ryland rubs his hands down his mouth. It’s then I notice the dark circles beneath his eyes.
Shit, I should have at least offered to help more before now.
“I’ll be there tomorrow night. It shouldn’t take me more than a night or two, and I’m sure Tallulah will be on call, which means she’ll want to be close to her vehicle in case she gets a call.
” I’ve bitten my tongue a lot when it comes to Tully and her job, so have the rest of us.
The one person who hasn’t is Birdie. She’s on her best friend’s ass like white on rice.
Tallulah won’t listen, persistent on doing everything her way no matter how much we offer to help.
“That’ll do. As soon as you’re closer to being done, I’ll call the painter,” Ryland says.
“Sounds good. You ready to get back to it?” I ask, the sooner we’re done, the sooner we can get back to the barn at the ranch.
I’ve got a woman I’m ready to get to. There’s still shit I’ve got to get done, like taking care of my horse, let Dad know we’re back for the day, head to the grocery store, and somehow manage to stay under any of my other brothers’ radar.
I refuse to think about what they’d have me do.
I’m already getting off relatively easy when it comes to Ryland.
Lawson, Trey, JW, and Lane will be lining up to cash in.
“Yeah, though I may see if Tully will take a look at Case if he doesn’t sleep for more than a few hours a night. I’m damn tired, and there’s no way I’m asking Mom to help do night shifts. She does enough,” he states.
“Bro, you know Tallulah is a veterinarian, not a pediatrician, right?”
“Animals, kids. At this point, I think they’re both the same exact thing.
” Laughter erupts deep from my gut, and Ryland joins me.
Case has clearly given him hell lately, which means I’m going to be the one who caulks his fucking baseboards and who will also willingly offer to babysit the little dude.
I just gotta figure out if Tallulah wouldn’t mind helping out.