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Chapter Four
Lowell
Hux had been wandering around the house for days like a forlorn Labrador retriever and if he didn’t knock it the fuck off, Lowell was going to drag him out to the pool and shove him in. Hopefully shock some sense into him.
Since when had his brother become despondent over a woman? Plenty of fish in the sea and all that. What did he, expect to meet the little girl of his dreams his first real night at Hive?
Lowell was currently sitting at his desk in the room he’d claimed as his office in his brother’s house as soon as the closing had gone through. It had made sense at the time, as his right hand man, and though it didn’t anymore, he’d just never left.
Lowell ran his tongue across the bottom edge of his top teeth. Knowing Hux as he did, it wasn’t so far-fetched that his twin had assumed he’d fall in instalove.
His golden boy of a brother. Charming, charismatic, the half of them people liked. Sure, people would do as Lowell asked but not because they liked him. More like because they foamed at the mouth with the idea of him owing them a favor or because he scared them.
Did it really matter the motivation when the result was the same? He didn’t think so. But that was another difference between him and his twin.
That along with Hux thinking his soul mate would trip and fall into him and they’d live happily ever after. Lowell had no such delusions. He was a realist, and as such he knew they were in for a long haul. Because really, finding someone who would enjoy both of them and…both of them? At once? In porn, no problem. In real life? Mmph, they’d see.
Most of the time, Hux was the moody one. As in, the twin whohadmoods. Feelings. It wasn’t fair to call his older brother mercurial because he wasn’t. More like passionate. Possibly emotional. And that was probably exaggerating some. It was just that next to him…
It’s not that Lowell didn’t have moods. He did. It was just that most of them were some variation on surly. He didn’t need Hux’s sour mood amplifying his own.
It wasn’t that things were going badly with Holland’s campaign, or rather what there was of it, but his younger sister was essentially a shoo-in for mayor of Clover City.
Yes, it was something for him to do. But she didn’t need him. She’d called and he’d answered because of course he had but to be honest, she could probably win this thing with a campaign staff of college interns. It was a bit like getting a super-charged sports car and only using it for school drop-off and going to the grocery store. Could cars feel humiliated?
That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t as though Clover City was some podunk town. It was one of the biggest cities in the state, the state capitol, and had a history of its mayors being elected to higher office like governor. Not a bad stepping stone, but it also wouldn’t step on Cabot’s toes. His younger brother would likely be running for Hux’s former seat in the House. It was his turn after all.
Lowell occasionally felt a twinge of irritation in his chest—when would it be his turn? Why did the torch get passed from Hux to Cab right over his fucking head? That wasn’t right.
But his pique was always extinguished by imagining himself in the shoes Hux had worn for fifteen years. They sure wouldn’t be any more comfortable for him to wear than they’d been for Hux. Hell, they probably wouldn’t fit at all. He’d be like the stepsisters in that creepy as fuck Grimm brothers’ Cinderella and have to cut off parts of his feet to make it work. Probably for the best that he got passed over and would forever be in the shadows of the family torch bearers.
He couldn’t sit here anymore though. His brain had ceased to absorb information and he’d be best off with a break. Maybe some food? He wasn’t hungry but he needed something to do.
Hux was in the den when Lowell got downstairs, parked on the couch and watching the same thing he always watched when he was in one of his rare long-lasting dreary moods. Why his brother found it comforting to watch their former NHL team’s only bid for the Stanley cup—which they lost—on loop when he was upset, Lowell did not know. Maybe that old bit about misery loves company? His own misery did not love company; he had to get out of here.
He stalked into the kitchen and opened and closed the fridge, all the cabinets that had food. Nothing looked good. Which was perhaps the way Hux felt about the rest of the women at Hive. Not bad, exactly. Just, not precisely what he wanted. He did notice however, that they were out of the godforsaken dairy-free creamer Hux used since he’d had his heart attack.
Well, he probably wouldn’t find anything that could satisfy his hunger—probably because he wasn’t hungry—but he could at least do something useful. Hux needed his coffee in the mornings and the man did not drink it black. No, he needed that fucking creamer or he’d resemble Lowell more than he would himself. And a quick trip to the grocery store would be a break from listening to the game that had been the nail in the coffin of the Whalers’ only Stanley Cup hope.
“I’m going out,” he announced, not bothering to wait for Hux’s response before he headed out to the garage and closed the door behind him.
* * *
Tamsyn
It was possible she should’ve grabbed a cart when she’d come in, but the baskets had been right there, and she really wasn’t going to get that much food, was she? Except that Tamsyn was still in the produce section of the upscale grocery store, running her fingers over still more luscious looking fruit. She hadn’t known going to a grocery store could make her drool, but here she was, and she hadn’t even made it to the bakery yet.
Some people thought Clover City was a low rent city, and maybe it was. But she’d never been to Boston, never mind Paris. This sort of selection of gorgeous ripe strawberries alongside rows of plump blueberries and fat, glossy blackberries was not something she would have ever found in Penshaw, so it felt luxurious. But also, given the prices, it really would be an indulgence to pick up any of it.
Except that she had money now. The raise she’d gotten when she’d accepted the promotion had been substantial. Some of it had gone to renting her new place, which was a damn sight more expensive than the apartment she’d shared with Maddie, but only a fraction of it. She’d still picked a not-so-great neighborhood to live in instead of the trendy places some of her colleagues called home.
Plus, she wasn’t paying for two now. Maddie had contributed to rent and groceries and other stuff, but her job as a remote customer service rep had never brought in a ton of money and Tamsyn hadn’t minded paying a bigger share.
But Maddie was fine now. More than fine. That trip to Rawhide Ranch had worked out better than Tamsyn’d had any right to expect, and now her friend was living with her fiancé daddy in Montana.
That was good. Really good. Reid was a good man and he’d make Maddie really happy and if he didn’t, she’d stab him in the eye with a fork herself and Maddie-nap her bestie to come live in Clover City with her. Not that she would’ve let Maddie even contemplate moving to Montana if she didn’t believe with her whole heart that Reid was a wonderful daddy who would handle Maddie with care.
Yep, they’d be very happy, and maybe now she would have time to look for her own happily ever after. It would’ve been incredible to find that with Reid’s friend Fitz but she just…hadn’t. She liked Fitz, a lot, even enjoyed playing with him, but there was something missing she couldn’t put her finger on.
