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“Sure. It’s kind of my thing. I worked at a garage right up until I came to own Forbidden.” He canted his head as if he couldn’t believe I didn’t already know that.
I hadn’t. Honestly, it was startling and a little unnerving to learn he’d been a mechanic. His father had been a mechanic. That’s one of the few details I knew about his sperm donor, outside the fact the guy had been killed at nineteen on the same day Pick had been born. That, and my mother had referred to him as Chaz.
Okay, fine. She’d told me plenty about Chaz, the guy she’d considered her one true love, but it’d mostly been shit a seven-year-old boy didn’t want to ever hear about his mom. So I’d blocked most of her sexually explicit stories from my memory banks. The mechanic thing though, I figured Pick might get a kick out of knowing cars were in his genes. If I were him and knew nothing of my origins, I’d want to know.
But for some reason, I didn’t enlighten him. I wasn’t ready to go down that road, too leery where it might lead. However, I knew he was all fired about the brotherly bonding idea. He was ready to travel the shit down that road.
And yep, the first thing he said as he put the car into gear was, “I was thinking maybe we could tell everyone.”
“Hmm?” I played dumb. It was a stupid, useless stall tactic that got me nowhere, but anything to prolong the inevitable sounded good right about now.
He didn’t pretend to think I had no idea what he was talking about. He carried on as if I knew exactly what he meant...since I did. “I mean, I have a feeling everyone pretty much knows already. I told Tink, of course.”
When he glanced at me, I shrugged, completely unsurprised. Tink—aka Eva—was his girlfriend, though most of us called her his wife already. They had one of those rare, close, bonding relationships I’d never seen in play before I’d come to Forbidden. But it was the type where both parties shared everything. So I’d already figured he would’ve informed her.
“And I’m sure she mentioned it to Reese.” Eva’s best friend and first cousin. “Who would’ve blabbed to Mason.” Reese’s fiancé, who also happened to work behind the bar at Forbidden with me. “And you know he probably told—”
“The rest of them,” I finished lamely. Scrubbing my face with my hands, I tried to beat down the panic, since there really was no reason to panic...but I felt panicky anyway. I just couldn’t help it; this shit was beginning to get way too real for me.
“Exactly,” Pick was saying with a shrug. “So, I was thinking why not make it official and public so everyone doesn’t have to keep pretending they don’t know.”
I lifted both hands, horrified to find they were beginning to tremble. “Look, can we just...I don’t know...put off any big announcements for a while?”
Pick’s disappointment came with a five-second pause of silence. I bit the inside of my lip, hating that I’d given him an answer he didn’t want to hear, but hell...I wasn’t ready.
Finally, he said, “Sure,” in his easygoing way, but I knew he had wanted more from me. “You need some time to adjust to the shock. I get that.”
God, did he have to be so freaking understanding about it? The guy was so noble and nice and had such good intentions; it made me feel shittier because I couldn’t get down with all this touchy-feely family shit as freely as he could. I knew I wanted the same thing he wanted. I did want to be his brother and have one of those close relationships any pair of good brothers had. I just couldn’t—
“I’m sorry. I know I’m wigging out about this more than I should. But I just don’t...I don’t have the best of luck with the whole...family thing. Which...” Damn, I was such an idiot, “I know, sounds really stupid since you obviously don’t either.”
“Actually...I’ve had remarkably good luck with the family thing lately.” His gaze strayed to his sun visor where a snapshot of a sexy blonde and two little toddlers grinned back at him. A sharp pang of envy ran through me. He had the most devoted girlfriend and two kids any lucky bastard should have. And what was even cooler was that they loved him right back with the same intensity.
Pick glanced at me, his eyebrows raised. “That includes you.”
I sighed and sank lower in my seat, feeling even worse and undeserving.
But he didn’t let me stew in my guilt. Pulling into the driveway of a nice, suburban home with a For Sale sign sitting in the spacious front yard, he put the Mustang into park and killed the engine. “But we’ll keep it quiet for a while if you prefer. No problem.”
“Thanks,” I answered distractedly as I eyed the place. It was exactly the kind of home I’d always dreamed of growing up in but had never even lived in the same neighborhood as.
When I couldn’t stand the curiosity any longer, I glanced at him. “Where are we?”
Pick eyed the house with the same kind of yearning I felt inside me. “Tink and I have been house hunting.”
I zipped my attention to the yard. Then pointing, I dropped my mouth open, completely incredulous. “And you’re considering this one?”
He glanced my way. “What? You don’t like it?”
“No, I...I do! It’s amazing. I just...nothing. That’s cool, is all. House hunting. Wow.” I couldn’t tell him I might commit unspeakable crimes to live in a place like this. That seemed a bit dramatic, so I just pushed open my door, dying to see what the inside looked like. I didn’t get to see the insides of nice, suburban homes very often.
“So...why aren’t you doing this with your Tinker Bell?” I asked as he followed me with much more reservation toward the front door, where a realtor was waiting to greet us.
I glanced back when he didn’t answer. Pick sent me a chagrined, embarrassed wince. “I kind of pissed her off when I vetoed everything we’ve looked at as soon as I stepped out the back door and saw the yard.”
I sent him a curious glance, but he waved me silent. “Long story. To say the least, we’re looking for houses separately. After she checks them out, she gives me a list of her favorites until I find...the one.”
“O...kay,” I said slowly, thinking that an odd way to house hunt with your significant other, but whatever.
