Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78542 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78542 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Ryder turns to face me and smirks. “How’s Stella?”
I shrug. “How would I know?” I dropped her off to get her car on Monday and texted to make sure she got home okay and didn’t have any issues. I haven’t heard from her since. Not that I really expected to.
“Come on now,” Archer chimes in. “You two looked pretty cozy last weekend.”
“She was in a bind. I helped her out. How is that cozy?”
“You stayed by her side the entire time,” Rushton speaks up.
“She didn’t know anyone. Besides, I was eating… she was eating.” I shrug. It’s not a big deal, but I should have known my brothers would make it so. I mean, Stella is a beautiful woman. Of course they would assume I’d want more from her. I really was just trying to be a nice guy and help her out.
Declan clears his throat and gives me a pointed look. I glare back at him. I know what’s about to happen. There are no secrets in this family. “How’s her car?”
“Fine. I dropped her off to pick it up, and that was that.”
“Really?” Orrin asks. “I was certain a little birdy told me that you took her and her daughter out to dinner before you took her to get her car.”
“Stupid small town,” I mutter under my breath.
“And…” Sterling grins. “I heard she might have had some assistance with the bill.”
“You know, now that you mention it,” Merrick muses, “he’s been on his phone a lot lately.”
“What?” I turn to look at my twin. “I haven’t been on my phone any more than usual.” I glare at my brother, and he laughs.
“Let me rephrase that. You’ve been checking your phone more frequently.” He holds his hands up in the air as if he needs a line of defense against my look.
“Just because I’m bored out of my mind sitting at home with you at night.” Fucking twin. Everyone knows that Merrick and I are practically the same person, and if he makes a claim, when it comes to me—and me when it comes to him—it’s ninety-nine percent fact. Most of the time.
“That’s what we do. We go to work, come home and chill, hang with the fam, and hit the club sometimes. You’ve never been bored before,” he challenges.
“Are you done?” I ask him.
He taps his index finger against his chin as if he needs to think about it. “I will be when you admit you’re hoping to hear from Stella.”
“I didn’t expect to hear from her,” I defend. “I didn’t know you were monitoring how many times I looked at my phone.”
“Leave him be.” Dad comes to my defense. He’s laughing, which tells me he’s sided with my brothers. I’m annoyed, but I shouldn’t be. I’ve been on the giving end of dishing out shit on my brothers my entire life. I guess it’s only fair, I get my turn receiving as well.
“Yeah, leave me be,” I tell Merrick. We may be fully functioning adults, living on our own, working full-time jobs, and paying our own bills, but we’re also still the little boys who grew up together, and I hope like hell that will never change.
I fight the urge to stick my tongue out at him, but I like to think I’ve grown out of that stage, even if the will to do so is strong.
I love my brothers—all eight of them, including Deacon. I love them even when they’re riding my ass about things that don’t matter, like how often I look at my phone.
“So, it’s settled then. A trip for us next month, and then with the entire family in the fall?” Dad asks, turning the conversation back in the right direction. After raising nine boys, he’s a professional at deflecting an argument and rerouting a conversation. Not that we’re arguing, really, but you get the point.
“Sounds good,” Brooks says. “That’s my weekend off, so we’re all set. I need to go. Palmer has some photos she needs to edit. I told her I wouldn’t stay long so that I could help with the kids while she gets her work done.”
“You should have brought them with you,” Sterling tells him.
“Get your own,” Brooks fires back. There’s no heat in his tone. It’s common knowledge that we’re all baby hogs. All of us. Currently, there are not enough babies to go around, which is why my mom snatched up baby Ada last Saturday to love on her.
“Working on it.” Sterling grins.
It’s not just an “I’m happy I’m having lots of sex with my hot wife” grin. It’s an “I know something you don’t know” grin.
“Spill it,” I tell my brother. I probably shouldn’t be calling him out, because if that grin means what I think it means, his wife will have his balls if she finds out he told us without her.