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2NickI was just coming back into my office after lunch when my phone alerted me to a new text message. I sat down behind my desk and got myself situated before I checked it. It was from Lindsey, and before I even read it, I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
Come over for dinner tonight? The message read.
I let out a groan, happy nobody was in the office with me to hear my reaction. My best friend had been hounding me for more than a week to go over to her place for dinner. Actually, it wasn’t even her place. It was my older brother Vince’s place. She had started spending a lot more time over there recently, which was exactly where my issue lay.
I don’t know, I messaged back. I have a lot going on with work and everything. I might be working late.
Her answer came almost instantly, and I could almost see her leaned against her bar, holding her phone and waiting for my response.
Just something quick. Nothing big and elaborate. If you have to work late, we’ll eat late.
It wasn’t that I had a problem with Lindsey and Vince being together. The idea of my best friend and my big brother being involved might seem strange for some people, but I thought it was great. They fit together perfectly.
It didn’t even bother me that they were going so fast in their relationship. I figured there wasn’t much point in delaying too long or dragging their feet. It wasn’t like they were teenagers. They were old enough to make their own choices, and once they knew, they knew. It didn’t make sense to slow things down and move through the stages of a relationship gradually just because it was what was expected of them.
And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to see them. I enjoyed spending time with both of them, and it had been a while since we’d spent any time together. I loved Lindsey and her son. Remy was a fairly new addition to my life, at least in terms of spending time with him. Up until recently, Lindsey had been keeping him a secret from everyone but me. I was the only person who even knew she had a son but didn’t spend any time with him. It wasn’t until a nasty custody battle with her ex that she let other people in, and he started spending more time with his mother, and, by extension, the rest of us.
Getting a chance to hang out with them, and with my brother, was appealing. Which was the only reason I was considering taking her up on her offer for dinner. The truth was, as much as I wanted to spend time with them, watching them play out their new role as a happy little family was a bit difficult for me. In fact, it had gotten sickly sweet enough to make it hard to be around them for long.
My label as the last of the Freeman brothers to remain single didn’t exactly help the situation.
First Merry came along. A young, driven social media consultant and marketing expert, she burst onto the scene of Freeman Racing and instantly clashed with company owner and oldest brother, Quentin. The friction didn’t last long. Somewhere between overhauling the company’s social media presence and establishing events that took the fans by storm, she and Quentin fell in love. A baby and wedding quickly followed, and now they reigned over the compound together.
While all that was going on, our youngest brother, Darren, shocked the family by falling in love with a woman who already held his heart. Kelly, a brilliant mechanic, showed up from Canada looking for a new life… and the father of her toddler daughter, Willa. She found both at the complex and now had another Freeman wedding in her near future.
But it was Vince that really surprised us all. His head was always buried in work. As the CEO of Freeman Racing in addition to owning several businesses throughout Charlotte, there was plenty of it for him to do all the time. But Lindsey needing help made him come up for air and he never turned back. The girl he always thought of as his kid brother’s friend suddenly looked different to him, and the rest was, very recent, history.
It left me. The only brother not to stick with the family and work at the complex, and now the only brother not to be linked up with a woman. My parents actually handled me wanting to find my own path in my career and go into investments well. They understood I needed to do what was right for me and find what would make me happy. Just like my father did when he built Freeman Racing.
Mom most certainly took it better than she had been taking me staying single. Up to her eyeballs in babies, weddings, and new daughters, she was in her element and gleefully happy. All she needed was the full grand slam. And she wasn’t being subtle about it. She’d been making plenty of noises about me following my brothers’ examples. According to her, it was time for me to settle down.
