Chapter 6

chapter

six

Graham

“You going to tell me what’s bothering you?” Bram asks.

“I never said anything was bothering me.”

Bram and I have been thick as thieves, as my mama used to say, since we were born. Bram and Graham. Stupid fucking rhyme, but he’s my best friend, so I can’t do anything about it if his name is stupid. And technically, it’s Abraham, but no one calls him that.

He kicks my calf where my legs are resting up on the chair across from me. We’re sitting on his screened-in porch having some long necks. I came out here because yeah, of course, something is fucking bothering me.

“You’ve been peeling the label off that bottle for the last ten minutes. Emma’s gonna come out here with the hand vac any moment.”

I glance down at the pile of scraped paper on the floor next to me. I set my beer down, then rub my hand down my face.

“I slept with my nurse,” I say.

Beer sprays from Bram’s mouth. “Carol?!”

“No, you dumb fuck. My new nurse.”

“Well, I guess that makes more sense. But didn’t she just start? Like today? That doesn’t sound like you, oh -so-cautious-one.”

“Like you should talk. You almost missed out on having a second love of your life because of being too cautious.”

He waves two fingers between us. “Our stories are nothing alike.”

“Right, because you get to have two soulmates like a greedy motherfucker.”

“You never even wanted one, remember? Also you’re convinced all the girls only wanted you for your money.”

“Happened to my uncle and my brother. That’s pretty telling evidence.”

“Old news,” Bram says. “Tell me about this nurse and how it happened.” Then he holds up a hand. “Not like details of the physical parts of it happening.”

“I’m not sharing my moves with you.”

He snorts.

“He has his own moves,” Emma hollers from inside the house.

Bram gives me a cheshire cat grin.

“Whatever. She’s your wife. She’s legally obligated to say things like that.”

“Nurse,” Bram says. “You came here, remember? You clearly wanted to talk about this. So talk.”

I blow out a breath. “I met her Wednesday night. I was at Martini’s, you know, that bar by the lake house.”

Bram nods.

“She walked in and it was like there was a fucking spotlight on her. I couldn’t stop staring. She came up to me after a while and asked if I was just going to eye-fuck her or do something about it.”

Bram whistles through his teeth. “Ballsy. I like it.” He takes a pull off his beer. “So you took her to the lake house, I’m assuming?”

“I did. Spent the night losing myself in her and then woke up and she was gone. We didn’t exchange anything but first names.”

“So you didn’t know she was your new nurse?”

“Not until this morning when she walked into my office wearing cute as fuck scrubs. She’s damn good at her job too.”

“You can’t fire her,” Bram says.

“Know that. Don’t even want to.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “There’s more.”

Bram chuckles. “I’m not even going to pretend that I’m not enjoying this shit out of this.”

“Fucker.” I down the rest of my beer, then reach in the cooler between us and get another. “She’s living in my pool house.”

Bram laughs heartily, at my expense, because of course that’s what friends do.

“With her two kids,” I add.

He’s wiping the corners of his eyes. “This just gets better and better.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know what the fuck to do.”

“Do about what? Don’t fuck her on the exam tables.”

“This is your advice? No wonder your youngest son still comes to me as a fully grown man.”

“Felicity is gonna whip Garrett into shape eventually,” Bram says.

“Yeah, so you keep saying.”

My best friend stares at me for a moment. “I see. I’m getting where your problem is. You like her.”

I just nod because I’m not going to bother denying it. “She’s the only woman I’ve ever wanted for more than a single night. I hadn’t stopped thinking about her all weekend. Then she walks into my office and I accuse of her of trying to steal my money.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Bram says. “You don’t even like most of your money. You’re always looking for ways to get rid of some of it.”

“It’s not really about the money.”

“I know. It’s about you worrying about knowing if someone loves you for you and not for what you can buy them.” He shrugs. “You can always use a pre-nuptial agreement. I know Blake, in town, drew all of them up for the Crawford kids when they had to marry for will purposes.”

“I never said anything about marriage,” I snap. Usually, just hearing that word makes my skin crawl. But when I think of it in to reference Lizzie, none of my panic surfaces. I don’t even begin to want to know why that is.

“Can you keep it in your pants?”

“Yes, jackass. I’m not a teenager.”

He holds his hands up in surrender. “You said yourself that this woman is different. I’m just asking.”

“You didn’t ask me if I would be tempted. You asked if I’d cross that line. You know me better than that.”

“I do. But I also know,”—he glances over his shoulder and then a genuine smile appears on his face—“that sometimes love shows up when and where you least expect it and I was almost an idiot. Thankfully, my kids talked some sense into me. And if memory serves me right, it was you who forced me to meet her. Telling me I needed to get back in the game. When you’ve never even stepped foot on the field.”

Emma comes out, the screen door slamming behind her. She plops herself into Bram’s lap and he pulls her in close, wrapping his arms around her body. A pang of something I can’t quite name rattles through my chest.

“He’s not wrong, Graham. If you like this woman, then why don’t you just ask her out on a date like a normal person?”

“Can’t now. She works for me.”

Emma nods. “Yeah, and it never works to mix business and pleasure. Maybe we should call Jared and Audrey and let them know their relationship is doomed.”

“I don’t know why the fuck I come over here,” I grumble.

“Because you love us,” Emma says with a smile. Then she leans forward and pats my knee. “We love you too. You deserve to be happy.”