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“Dude, don’t try and get these guys off your back by throwing me under the damn bus. Besides I don’t have anyone in my life so you won’t be seeing me joining your little club anytime soon,” Lyric mocked.
I raised my eyebrows. “Really? I may not have been right there but don’t think I haven’t heard the ladies talking about your exchange with the red-headed nurse at the hospital. Tell me. Have you pulled your head out of your ass and went back to talk to her?”
The room erupted in a round of laughter from everyone except for Lyric, who shook his head. “Deflection isn’t going to work with me and that was nothing. Now let's move on.”
“I call bullshit,” Kace chimed back in. “I was right there and the sparks that were flying off the two of you almost burned us all. And my wife is not gonna let what she saw that day slide.”
Lyric groaned and I laughed. “How does it feel, man?” I asked him.
“Everyone will forget about me by the time they are done watching your love life unfold, so it’s all good,” Lyric replied.
Love?
I’d said family and they were, but where did love come from?
I was shocked when Landon opened his mouth. He was the quietest one out of all of us.
“Don’t fight it. Admitting to being in love may be scary as hell, but trust me and just embrace it,” he said looking at me before turning his gaze to Lyric. “And you,” he said, pointing at him. “You’ve met my wife. Alley doesn’t forget shit. Trust me when I tell you that she and the other ladies have probably been plotting how they will get you with the nurse again.”
“It’s only a matter of time Summer has said,” Gyth added. “She said they are just busy with Rowan right now but it won’t be long.”
“Geez, your guys' ladies are crazy meddlers,” I said to the room, laughing.
Nobody took offense, they knew I liked every one of their wives. It was said in complete fun. But then my gaze landed on the paper laying on the table and my mood soured straight away.
Everyone else must have noticed and they sombered all at once. Braxton grabbed the paper, walked over, and handed it to Gyth first.
“Pass it around so each of you can take a look, then I am open to hearing what anyone has to say,” he told the group.
It didn’t take long for everyone to read it, the note was short, threatening, and to the point. And as each man looked it over, their demeanor changed and each of their faces looked as pissed off as I felt.
This was family.
It wasn’t just blood relatives, the mother of your child, or your kids alone. It was everyone who had your back. The people who looked out for you and you looked out for them. Those you could count on to take something like that note as personal as it was and be ready to kick someone's ass for you and those you love.
And I had just said love without a second thought.
The whole day and night were turning into a revelation.
I tilted my head back and blew out a breath, sending a silent thought out to not only my mother but my baby sister. I was battling so many feelings right now. The usual one that tore me to shreds inside of how I let my sister down and what that loss did to me. How I should have been a better son to my mom who had lost her husband, my father, and then lost her daughter because while we were close, the grief that consumed me always had me holding back.
Then Luke and Brinley deserved more of me growing up as well as after I joined the Army when they had stood by me no matter how I acted. And of course, when I finally let myself cave to the intimate feelings I had for Brin, I shouldn’t have walked away scared later.
Why didn’t I stay? Or fight for what had always been there?
I’m sorry so damn sorry to everyone I let down.
But I was going to be different. I had the chance to be there for Brin, Zander, and all my friends. And that was what I was going to do.
“Rowan.” I heard my name being said but didn’t know who said it. My thoughts had been spiraling like a winding, never-ending staircase.
“Sorry, what was that?” I said to the room.
It was Gyth that spoke. “We’ve filled you in on everything that our ladies have gone through and some have had similar situations, so I can without question feel this is not random, but very personal.”
Everyone nodded in agreement and then Lyric picked up the conversation. “Do we know if there are cameras in the parking lot where you were parked?”
I had been so wound up I hadn’t been thinking clearly and that hadn’t even crossed my damn mind yet. I was slipping for sure when it came to using my head and I couldn’t afford to do that when people could get hurtagainbecause of me.
