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“Which one of them cooks?” Peter asked.
I gave him a questioning look as I brought my hot food to sit down at the table with him “What?”
“You said that the whole kitchen would be full of food if we were at the compound.”
“Oh. Right. My mother. She bakes, mostly. When she’s stressed or thinking about something, she does it more. So, you can imagine with all the weddings and babies and everything, she’s been making a lot recently. Sometimes she brings things by here. I’m sure you’ll get a chance to eat some soon,” I said.
“It must be great having a big family like that.”
He sounded almost sad, and I noticed him poking at the salad in front of him with his fork.
“What about you? What’s your family like?” I asked,
Peter shook his head. “Nothing much to tell. I’m an only child. My mother died when I was just a kid, and now Dad lives all the way across the country. So, it’s pretty much just me.”
“No, it’s not,” I said. “You’ve got all of us. And you’re coming to the bar tonight to meet everybody. We usually celebrate a race win the night of the race, but Lindsey rented out the bar last night for a private event, so we’re doing it tonight.”
Peter’s eyes lit up, and he nodded. “That sounds great.”
That night I met Peter outside the bar. Throwing my arm around his shoulders, I brought him inside and up to the bar. We hopped up onto the stools, and Lindsey turned around with a grin.
“Hey, Nick,” she said. “You’re the first to get here. Vince just called and said everybody is on the way.” She eyed Peter. “Who do we have here?”
“This is Peter. Peter, this is Lindsey, my best friend,” I said. “Lindsey, we’d like a pitcher of the IPA please.”
“Sure thing.”
She turned around and filled a pitcher, then put a beer mug in front of each of us. I poured the beer into each mug and handed one to Peter. Just then, the door opened, and Vince, Quentin, and Darren poured in. Merry and Kelly came in after, followed by Darren’s best friend, Colby, helping Greg, the team’s other rider. He was still recovering from a horrific accident during a race, but he was doing much better, and it was great to see him out and about again.
“Hey,” Vince said, coming up to the bar and pounding me on the back. He leaned across the bar toward Lindsey. “Hey, babe.”
They kissed, and everybody rolled their eyes but laughed.
“Good timing, guys,” I said, holding up my mug of beer. “Everybody, this is Peter. He’s new at the office, and tonight, I am making him an honorary Freeman brother.”
Peter’s eyes widened and his mouth opened, but no sound came out. My brothers cheered and welcomed him, while Colby and Greg, two men who had been given the same honor, patted Peter on the back and introduced themselves. That night, I took Peter under my wing, determined he was never going to feel alone again.23BrynFor all the extra work I was able to pack into last month, it looked like this month was going to be a close call to whether I got my usual workload finished. At least, if the last few days were any indication of my productivity. I had gotten next to nothing done. My computer sat on my table, waiting for my next brief bursts of actually doing something.
There was very little chance of that happening anytime soon. I hadn’t touched it in more than an hour. Like I had been the last three days, I was curled up in the armchair next to the window, clutching the papers I had read probably a thousand times by that point. I memorized every single word on those papers, but I couldn’t stop myself from going over them again and again.
Maybe I’d missed something. Maybe if I just read it one more time, I would find where it had somebody else’s name. I would find that it was a mistake and they had given me the wrong paperwork.
Of course, that wouldn’t make any sense. It wasn’t the paperwork that broke the news. It was my doctor who stood beside the examination table and gave me the diagnosis. That afternoon after seeing Nick, I went straight to my doctor’s appointment and told her I was still experiencing the same types of stomach ailments and fatigue I was when I came in the month before.
I told her about my call with Sandy, the after-hours nurse, and assured her I was doing my best to find as many ways as I could to reduce my stress. I didn’t elaborate. At that moment, I didn’t figure she needed to hear the gory details about how the situation was unfolding with Justin, or about my intense feelings for Nick. Especially after we spent the night together.
