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After Brennan left his apartment, Donovan went back to his studio and started another piece of art. It was like he swapped obsessions, because he kept on painting through the night and didn’t bother to stop for something to eat or drink. He scraped and wiped at some parts of his oil painting and on other parts he dripped extra paint just to brush it away later. He was caught up in a frenzied flow of creativity.
The break of dawn brought him out of his flow of filling his canvas with layers and layers of paint. He took a step back and placed his colorful pallet on his workbench. In front of him stood a masterpiece. He had no doubt that this had to be his best work by far.
As he took several more steps back, he couldn’t help hearing the word “regret” over and over in the back of his head while his eyes traveled his painting from top to bottom and from side to side. Naming this painting “Bitter Regret” was inevitable.
He picked up his phone and was quickly reminded he still had those missed calls and texts from yesterday. Fuck. It was Monday already? Should he call Dunc back or Kayla? Which one was the lesser evil out of the two? Kayla would definitely bite his head off, and rightly so. Kate was her younger sister, and no one messed with Kayla’s family without her going all mama bear on them.
He smirked at the thought of how he and Kayla would spar at the office. Since she’d started working as his assistant, his office had never been more organized or more fun to hang out in. Her addition to his all-male team was like the breath of fresh air they all had needed.
When he’d backed out of kissing Kate at the last minute that one night, Kayla sure had something to say about the matter. She’d said that she’d always rooted for them to be together, but that she no longer stood in his corner. He’d hurt her sister, and she didn’t take it lightly.
Kayla’s words had hurt because he felt like she was the sister he never had. She was the one woman before Kate who could put him in his place. He respected her opinion and felt surprisingly sick knowing she’d lost some of her respect for him.
His phone rang, and sure enough, Duncan was calling. “Dunc. Hey.”
“Open your door, man. I’m here.” He didn’t even bother to wait for his response before Duncan hung up.
He walked over to his front door, and before he could open his mouth in greeting, his brother interrupted him. “Nah, man, I just need to get this off my chest first. I’m so disappointed in you, hearing what you did these past months. What were you thinking, bro?”
Entering his penthouse apartment, he brushed by Donovan and made himself quite at home as he threw his coat on the back of the couch and perched his large frame in his designer chair. Duncan leaned forward with his elbows on top of his muscular, jean clad thighs while waiting for his brother to join him.
Donovan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. “Yeah, I know. It was stupid, and it won’t happen again. I deleted everything. Fuck, I don’t even know where she is right now. She doesn’t respond to my texts. I don’t know what I can do to make this right.”
Duncan stood up from his chair in one brisk move. “Well, you can stop talking for one. And I’m telling you, bringing up Kate’s whereabouts isn’t a good idea right now.”
“Fuck.” His shoulders slumped, and he took a seat on the couch. He was going to get it now from his brother, and who was he kidding, he certainly deserved all the arse ripping he was going to get.
“Old habits die hard I guess?” Duncan said sardonically.
He looked over at Duncan who started to pace his living room. Something must have happened in the meantime, because he was as fierce as if Donovan had hurt his girlfriend. Was Dunc going to throw down as Kate’s protector? Since when was he acting all big brotherly?
It angered him that his brother felt the urge to protect Kate from him. He’d done everything in his power to protect her. “I love her, you know. I’m actually in love for the very first time in my life.”
Duncan narrowed his eyes, but after a moment of assessing Donovan’s sincerity, he curtly nodded. He went back to the designer chair and took a seat. “Okay. Let me say this real quick. Get yer fuckin’ shit together.”
Donovan knew that much already. He was getting real irritated by his younger brother trying to tell him how to handle his fuckup. They were treading new waters so to speak, as Donovan always had his shit together and never, ever fucked up like he did with Kate. He wasn’t used to being reprimanded by Dunc.
But Dunc was on a roll now and took Donovan’s silence as a sign to keep going. “Stop wallowin’ and start thinkin’ positive. Ye love Kate. Well congratu-fuckin’-lations. Now, be the man we all know ye are. Stop obsessin’ over her and start actin’ like my big brother I looked up to all me life.”
Okay, so the “yous” were turned into “ye” again.
He placed the back of his head against the couch, closed his eyes, and sighed. “Who in their right mind would want to be with me after what I did?”
“Ye are one lucky fucker, brother,” Duncan deadpanned.
Donovan opened his eyes and narrowed them in disbelieve at Duncan. “What are ye talking about?”
“Oh no. Ye can’t start throwing those ‘ye’s’ with me, arsehole. Ye don’t even know what I was goin’ to tell ye. I was comin’ over to tell ye somethin’ that would make ye day. Fuck, it probably would make ye life, but if yer not interested, I’mma leave ye arse alone.” Duncan made a big show out of standing up from the chair and grabbing his coat from the couch.
Donovan took a deep breath through his nose and held up his hand. “Okay, just tell me.”
“Say please.” Duncan had the nerve to smirk.
“Fuckin’ arsehole. Tell me or we’re going for a round in yer dojo,” Donovan bristled.
He knew that Dunc would surely beat his arse in the ring, being a former MMA fighter, but maybe he could work out all this anger with himself by beating his brother—or getting beat up for that matter. Look at it as repentance.
Duncan chuckled in response, the clown. He always had to be the goof in the family. Well, he and Ronan were. Usually, Donovan could tolerate Duncan’s wisecracks better than Ronan’s, but now he was not so sure—not if it had anything to do with Kate.
When he was done chuckling, Dunc noticed Donovan’s irritated expression and cleared his throat. Finally he filled him in on the good news he had about Kate.
“There’s still a chance for you to be together. She said—fuck, no, I can’t tell you exactly what she’d said. Kayla would have my balls if she knew I told you word for word. But know this, bro, you can make it up with her. One hundred percent.”
“What? How? What can I do to make it up with her?” He waited for Duncan to answer, but what came next only vexed him more.
“Figure it the fuck out, bro. I knew ye would be wallowin’ and would do shit to get her back. Probably thinkin’ Kate deserved somebody better than ye and all that bollocks. I just came over to give ye a big kick under ye arse and to tell ye to go for it. Kate was with us yesterday, and let me tell ye this, after what ye did to her, she still wants yer arse. I know ye needed to hear this, so here I am.” He spread his big arms in a show.
He continued. “Now, for the part of making it up to Kate, to show her how ye will change yer stupid ways and never fuck it up again—yer on yer own. Ye have to do this right, and let me tell ye this… ye better make it quick. Don’t let sweet Kate wait too long on yer arse.”
