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“Five brothers?” she asked, the softness of her voice suggesting she had a sense of the subject to come.
“Four brothers,” Marcus said, his voice gruffer than usual. “And one sister.”
Tyler nodded. “Kristen, our baby sister. We lost her about a year ago.”
“Car accident,” Marcus added. “Some piece of shit drunk driver slammed into her, barreled through a red light.” There was tightly controlled rage in his voice—the mere mention of the driver who took our kid sister away was more than enough to get him, or any of us, good and pissed off.
Aubrey’s face turned serious and sympathetic. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say to a tragedy like that.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “And might as well answer the question you’ve no doubt got in your mind.”
She nodded. “The father.”
“He’s a loser, through and through,” Tyler said through gritted teeth. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that his right hand was clenched into a tight fist, as if he wanted to deliver a hard punch right to Seth’s face. “Barely there when he and my sister were together. More interested in drinking and stepping out on her.”
“Thankfully, Kristen had the good sense to divorce him when she realized he had no interest in being a father. She’d been on her own since six months after their birth.”
“God, what a prick,” Aubrey said. “And what happened when he found out about your sister?”
“Guy didn’t even bother flying in from LA to come to her funeral. Guess he figured that if he were to come in and face us, face his kids, he’d understand that it was his turn to step up, to be a man and a father.”
“The dickhead sent us a card,” Marcus said. “Afucking card.” After he dropped the f-bomb, he closed his eyes and composed himself. We were all hard men, but we knew better than to swear like that in front of company. “Sorry.”
I picked up where he left off. “Sent us a card that said, ‘his current situation didn’t leave room for the kids.’ Left it to us to tell the twins that their dad wasn’t coming back.”
“Sounds like a real charmer,” Aubrey said sarcastically, adding an eyeroll. “Now those poor kids don’t have any parents, really.”
“That’s how we looked at it,” Tyler said with an affirmative nod. “Lost their momandtheir dad, just in different ways. One’s gone for good, the other one might as well be.”
“You hear from him at all over the last year or so?” she asked.
“Not a word,” I said, rage building in me more and more the longer we talked about the asshole. “Far as we know, he’s still in LA, still living the loser barfly life.”
Aubrey shook her head, her expression darkening. I could tell that she was moved by the story, that she cared enough to be bothered. It was a good sign—it meant she had a healthy sense of empathy.
“Well, the less said about him, the better,” Aubrey said. “I’m sure you guys don’t want to waste any more breath on a piece of shit like that. Excuse the language.”
We all chuckled. While we did our best to hold our tongues when it came to talking foul, there was something about a woman who didn’t mind swearing now and then that was hard to resist.
“So,” she went on. “Tell me more about this job you’re offering me.”
“Well, like we said it’s a nanny gig. You’d be looking after the twins for the upcoming winter. You’d be responsible for them while we’re on our mission, and during the day while we’re in town.”
She shook her head, running her hand through her hair. “I can’t believe I’m even considering doing this. I don’t have a damn bit of experience as a nanny, and besides that, I’m not all that experienced with kids in general.”
“But you’ve got a knack,” Adam said. “I saw you with Henry, and we all saw how you handled things just now when we showed up unexpectedly. You’re a natural.”
She pursed her lips. “Listen, I hate to jump to this, but… the pay. Don’t get me wrong, the kids seem great, and I’m sure it’d be a pleasure to look after them. But I’m so damn busy around this place that it’s hard to justify taking time away for another gig without knowing the compensation.”
I reached into my back pocket, pulling out a small notebook and pen.
“Not to mention that I’m still doing freelance accounting work when I can,” she said.
I chuckled. “Trust me, we can offer more than any freelance gig. I jotted down a number, showing it to the guys. We’d discussed the subject of compensation before, but I wanted to make sure they were all still on the same page. The boys nodded all around, and I folded the piece of paper and handed it over.
Aubrey, a touch of hesitation on her face, reached forward and took it, sitting back as she unfolded the paper and read the amount.
Her eyes widened and her brows arched.
