Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

KYLE

F uck. Fuck .

I slam my palm to the steering wheel of my truck, the one I had to rush home to get because as awesome as Peanut Butter is, he can't ride on my motorcycle. That detour has put me arriving even later at my brother and sister-in-law's place in the suburbs. And I was already going to be late.

Cole used to have a place downtown, with an office below and a fancy as shit apartment upstairs. Well, he technically still has that building and uses it as his homebase for his work as a high-level private investigator, but when he fell in love with Janey, he somehow morphed from a quiet lone wolf sort who would drift in and out of town and our lives at will into a suburban, picket fence around a mowed yard type. I mean, he's still weird as fuck and the little house I'm pulling up to is quietly wired for surveillance like it houses national defense secrets, but that's because Cole would do anything to protect Janey, especially when he's traveling, like he is now.

I'm guessing that's why there are three extra vehicles already parked in the driveway, forcing me to line up at the curb out front. At least here, that's not a problem. The women inside? Huge problems.

By the cars, I know Janey's home, as she should be since she's had Peanut Butter all day, plus my sister, Kayla, and other sisters-in-law, Samantha and Luna, are here. And that's what has me cursing. Four against one. I'm dead before I even put it in park.

My only hope for survival? I pick up the soda I grabbed from a drive-thru on my way here as an apology-slash-appreciation for Janey. But I've got nothing for the other women. It won't matter to them that I didn't know they'd be here. They'll think I should've divined that information from the fucking atmosphere or some shit and brought goodies for them too.

Oh, actually… on second thought… I reach into my console and come out with a box of mini Slim Jims for snack emergencies. There's four left. Perfect. I slip them in my back pocket, planning to save them for the right moment, a.k.a. when they give me shit, as they have a habit of doing.

I step up on the porch and a disembodied voice comes from the doorbell. It's not a Ring. Nothing that mass-marketed would do for Cole, but it's the Pentagon-level version of the same thing. "Where the hell have you been?" the voice says.

"Good to see you too, Cole." I get right up close to the camera, peering into it with one eye from mere inches away. I hope Cole can see the zero fucks I'm giving on his end of the video feed. When I move back, I'm grinning like I've amused myself and go as far as giving the doorbell a little tap. "You in there?"

"You're late," Cole informs me, as if I don't know what time it is. I might not write it in surveillance reports like he does, ‘ person of interest has stripper on his lap 23:14' , but I know I stayed at Dani's later than I intended to. I'm not the least bit sorry for it, especially given how things ended, but I know it's well after my usual six-ish o'clock pickup time.

" Aww, did wu miss me? I miss wu too, big bro ." If he can be brusque and get a pass, I can be sarcastic and expect the same. Or at least that's my theory. I pat my chest, right over my heart, and screw my face up like tears are imminent in less than three seconds. "Come home soon so I can hug your neck, m'kay?"

"God, you're annoying as fuck. I can't deal with you today." I hear his sigh, can virtually feel his annoyance in the sound.

I lean back down to the camera and ask more seriously, "How much longer are you gone?"

"Three days. It's my last assignment, and I almost bailed on it because I couldn't bear to leave her, but she forced me to go."

I bite the insides of my cheeks… hard. Janey is my sweetest sister-in-law, and she basically wakes up smiling about the new day, lives under an awning of happy rainbows, and goes to bed feeling at peace. She's like golden glitter confetti in person form. So the idea of her forcing my brother to do anything is hilarious. Fucking. Hilarious.

"I'll make sure Janey's okay."

Cole doesn't get a chance to answer back because the door opens as I'm reassuring him. "Well, you've already fucked up that job, haven't you?"

Yep, that'd be my sister, Kayla. Blonde, blue-eyed, ball-busting, bitch—which is a label she wears with pride, claiming if a man resorts to calling her that, it's because she's already proven her balls are bigger than his and he's pouting about his own inadequacy. To be clear, she's definitely got bigger cojones than me and I'm under no disillusionment about that.

"Good to see you too, Sis," I tell her, pushing my way inside.

In the living room, I find Janey, Samantha, and Luna sitting on various pieces of furniture. It looks like Kayla just vacated a chair because there's a blanket swirled up on the seat like she's been nesting there.

Samantha is married to my brother, Chance. She's the perfect shot of moonshine whiskey, with a filterless mouth that she can back up with major brains, just the right contrast to my brother's green tea-vegetable smoothie. Chance is the equivalent of white bread toast as far as the rest of us are concerned, with a good guy reputation and image that he's actually earned and definitely deserves.

Luna and Samantha are besties, which must be an ‘opposites attract' deal because Luna is a quiet, bookish art nerd who tends to be nervous about any direct attention unless it comes from her husband, Carter, who's also my brother. Even now, behind the lenses of her oversized glasses, she's not looking at me, but rather just over my head. I think she's secretly amused by my antics, though, as I've caught her biting her lip to keep from laughing at some of the more outrageous ones, like when I had a whipped cream speed-eating contest with my niece, Grace, and ended up blowing white snot out of my nose… at Mom and Dad's dinner table, onto a linen napkin.

"Sorry I'm late, ladies. I didn't know we were having a party or I would've brought beer. As it is, all I have is this." I hold out the Styrofoam cup to Janey, and she reaches for it, fighting hard to hide a smile but not succeeding.

A quick look around lets me know that Kayla and Samantha have fixed their faces into perfectly blank, neutral expressions, and Luna is covering the lower half of her face, unable to reach the same degree of flat disinterest as the others.

Apparently, they're going with the ‘Kyle sucks' agenda tonight. A classic for sure.

"What is it?" Samantha asks, one brow arched so high that it disappears into her newly trimmed bangs.

"Strawberry-apricot Sprite," I tell Janey. "I know it's not the same as your favorite Red Bull, but I thought it'd be a good substitute given your current caffeine restrictions." I point to her baby bump. I swear, she's gotten bigger since I dropped off Peanut Butter this morning. Not that I'm stupid enough to tell her that, of course, but with the way her legs are criss-cross-applesauced in front of her, her round belly is literally sitting on her swollen ankles.

Janey's job at a nursing home is both physically and mentally demanding, so she's taking an extended maternity leave, starting well before her due date and lasting basically as long as she wants it to. One of the definite benefits of being a part of this family is the financial security to do that if she wants. This is day three of her being home, and I know she's missing her coworkers and patients, who she loves like family, which is why I asked her to watch Peanut Butter, thinking a furry, friendly distraction would be good for her. Plus, it gives me a chance to check in on her every morning and evening, something I know Cole appreciates but would never dream of asking for.

"Ooh, thank you," Janey says in delight before sucking down at least a quarter of the drink in one go. She sighs in happiness, and I'm glad I made the stop, even if it made me a few minutes later.

"How's my boy been today?"

I look around, expecting Peanut Butter to divebomb me when I least expect it. We don't affectionately call him Nutbuster for nothing. He'll run at you full-throttle, his nose aimed right where you least want it. But he's nowhere to be seen.

Janey laughs. "Already in bed. It was so nice out that we played fetch in the back yard for an hour today, and I think I wore him out. He's already claimed Cole's place on the bed, so you can leave him. I could use the company." She glances up to the camera in the corner of the room and sticks her tongue out at it. "Yep, gonna have another man in my bed tonight. One that likes to snuggle."

She's talking to my brother, who probably switched from the porch camera to the inside camera when I came inside. Like I said, he's a weirdo, but Janey doesn't seem to mind and apparently talks to Cole like he's here even when he's keeping a lookout from hundreds of miles away. Or wherever he is. With him, you never know. He might literally be across the street or in another country, depending on the job.

"Oh, if I'd known that, I wouldn't have interrupted this." I wave a hand in a circle, indicating the four women. "If you want to keep Peanut Butter, that's fine. He snores like a demon, though, so don't plan on a great night's rest."

Janey rubs her belly absently. "I don't sleep much these days anyway, especially when Cole's not here."

I cut my eyes toward the camera, frowning, and then see the other women look at each other. It seems that's why they're all here too, checking on Janey while my brother's out of town.

Not too long ago, the rest of us Harringtons wouldn't have even known Cole was gone and definitely wouldn't have known what he was doing. He came and went like the wind, vanishing at the drop of a hat and returning without notice. But Janey helped change all that, and now that Cole shares more with us, we look out for him and Janey, and their little one who's on the way.

"Speaking of not here, where have you been?" Kayla asks.

I pull the beef sticks out of my back pocket. "I forgot, I did bring you something. Slim Jim?" I ask, holding them out to Kayla first, then Samantha, then Luna, in order of greatest threat to least likely to dig into things I don't want to discuss.

But Kayla isn't swayed by the mighty draw of the spicy stick of quick protein and sees right through my distraction technique easily. In fact, in trying to avoid the question, I think she sees an even bigger question mark target. Her denim blue eyes, the same as everyone in my family except me, narrow as she looks at me sharply.

Samantha's quicker to the punch, though. "Probably screwing his latest and greatest."

She doesn't say it with any judgment. As a relationship therapist with a specialty in intimacy, she's about as pro-sex as they come. Samantha's motto is more ‘I scream, you scream, we all scream, and then we live a happy, satisfied life.' And to be clear, I'm not talking about ice cream here. But still, the off-hand comment that normally wouldn't bother me in the slightest because I intentionally don't tell my family anything about my dating life—or life in general—hits differently tonight.

"I was dealing with a work issue," I snap, my tone more clipped than I intended.

"Oh, no! I hope everything's okay," Luna says kindly.

But Kayla smells blood in the water… mine. "What kind of work issue are you dealing with hours after the city's noise nuisance rules started?"

Fuck. Of course Kayla knows that all construction has to stop at seven o'clock. Why does she know that? Because she knows every damn thing, that's why.

"Got an upset neighbor at the job I'm working, was trying to smooth things over." It's not a lie. It's important to tell the truth, or some version of it, to Kayla, because she's got a sixth sense for lying and liars. I swear, she can hear it if you so much as embellish the tiniest bit, a skill I'm sure serves her well at work but is annoying as fuck when you're trying to keep her out of your business.

"Upset neighbor?" Kayla echoes. "Guess it went well, then, because you're smiling as you talk about her."

I scrub my hand over my mouth, physically wiping away this supposed smile. It's a split second later when I realized that I fucked up and basically told on myself.

"You didn't correct the ‘she' assumption," Samantha notes. "Is she pretty?"

It's on the tip of my tongue to say there's no ‘she', and if there is, she's ugly as a troll, just to keep them off my back. But I can't. Kayla would hear the lie, but that's not why I can't do it.

It's because Dani shared a lot with me tonight, something I don't think she does easily or often, and I won't shit on that or her by talking smack about tonight.

"She's fucking gorgeous. Pretty much hates my guts too," I reveal with a huff as I collapse to a chair, throwing one leg over the arm and slouching down so my head rests on the chairback, deciding that if I'm gonna be a part of this little chick-chat, I might as well get comfy.

"Smart one," Kayla says.

At the same time, Luna says, "I'm sure that's not true."

I shrug, not clarifying which woman I'm agreeing with. "She runs a lunch service out of her kitchen, and my trucks are screwing up her routine. Can't fix it, which sucks for me and her both, so yeah, she hates me."

Except when I left tonight, it didn't feel like hate. It felt like… spring. Like something new and alive was blooming between us after a hard freeze, or some poetic shit I can't make up.

"And you're smoothing it over how?" Janey asks, leaning forward with both hands wrapped around her cup and her gray eyes bright as though this is the most exciting thing she's done all day even though I know fetch with Peanut Butter is a laugh riot of fun.

"Washing dishes?" I answer, though my voice tilts up at the end because I don't have a fucking clue what I'm doing to fix things. "At least that's what I did tonight. And I rode my bike so that my truck didn't take up as much space. And I'm paying for a few of the guys I ran off."

I don't explain that I didn't run them off with the parking situation but by ripping Joshua away from Dani. They'll read too much into that, so I keep that on mute.

"Sounds like you're doing a lot," Luna offers with a smile. "Does she appreciate that you're trying?"

I scoff. "If by appreciate, you mean flipping me off, telling me to do better, and threatening me with a chef's knife, then yeah, Dani appreciates it."

Okay, that's not exactly how the knife-sharpening went down, but it's funny. Except the women's jaws drop open.

"She threatened you with a knife?" Samantha repeats. I'm pretty sure the look that passes among the women now is some version of ‘we ride at dawn to show this bitch who she's dealing with', and I rush to dial down their appreciated-but-unnecessary defense.

"Not really," I correct. "But she got off on my jumping like a cat on a roof when she turned around with it." I grin at the memory of Dani standing in her kitchen, hair a mess and eyes even messier as she tried to figure out my agenda, but I didn't have one beyond spending time with her.

"You're smiling," Janey says, an easy smile on her face too.

" Tsk … I do that all the time," I quip, trying to play it off. "I'm like Chuckles the Clown over here. All smiles, grins, and good times."

Kayla points a perfectly manicured nail my way. "Not like that, you don't. That's real."

My smile falls instantly, and I clench my teeth together. I smile around my family all the time. That's who I am—the surface guy, nothing heavy, nothing serious, everything's fine. But hearing Kayla say that she can see the difference in my smiles is jarring. I don't like being seen for real.

I roll myself out of the chair, letting my body thud to the floor before hopping up to my booted feet dramatically, yanking the attention away from my traitorous mouth that apparently shows too much. "On that note, I probably need to get going. Early morning tomorrow. Janey, you sure you want to keep Peanut Butter? He can go home with me." I whistle and pat my thigh. "Pee-Bee-Jay, come here, big guy."

A tan, fur-covered head pops out of a doorway at the end of the hall, peering out but not coming. I hold out a Slim Jim to entice him, but he sighs, turns around, and all I see is the wag of his tail before I hear his feet land on the bed again.

"Guess that answers that," Janey says, laughing.

"He did not just turn down a Slim Jim and lovin' from me. I think my feelings are hurt." I stare down the hallway, incredulous. "How much fetch did you play?"

Janey only laughs harder. "He's fine. I really would prefer to have him here while I try to sleep. If I need to, I'll drop him off at doggie day care tomorrow."

I nod, accepting her declaration at face value. "Alright. Thank you, and you should have enough food left in his Tupperware." She nods, agreeing there's plenty. "Bye, Asshole," I call down the hallway to my two-timing dog, who apparently loves Janey as much as he loves me now. "And bye…" Four sets of eyes pin me with warning glares. "To you lovely ladies too," I finish with a bow of my head, peeking up to see their rolling eyes and tiny smiles.

I close the door behind me, leaving the women to continue their girls' night in with Janey, but before I can step off the porch, Cole's disembodied voice asks, "Want me to look into your neighbor situation?"

It's a generous offer, especially from him. It's Cole's way of saying he gives a shit about me. But I want to learn about Dani from her, like how she told me about her family and their restaurant tonight. Information on a page doesn't show the hitched breaths, pain in her eyes, and fire in her words the way hearing her tell it does, and that's what I want.

"Thanks, but I'm good for now," I tell my brother. "I'll keep an eye on Janey for you," I vow again. "So will Peanut Butter."

And then I stride across the yard, hop their fence that's more for aesthetics than security, but only because Janey wouldn't let Cole electrify it, and climb back in my truck. I hope Janey gets some sleep because I'm not gonna get a wink, thinking about Dani and everything I learned about the sexy, mouthy, strong-willed woman I can't wait to see again tomorrow.