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“It’s Saturday. No school,” I reminded him.
Cole strolled in through the back door. “What’s up?”
“Amelia’s on her period and she feels awful. I was just telling her we could take care of Dylan.”
Cole’s jaw fell open.
“You were my favorite brother,” I told Shaw, feeling my face burn. Cole didn’t blush, but I was blushing for both of us. “But not anymore.”
Shaw picked up the knife block from the counter and stowed it in one of the cabinets, then turned to me and leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms over his powerful chest.
Cole looked at a loss for words for a few long seconds. Then he said, “Would Dylan like to go fishing? We could take out my boat.”
“I bet he’d like that,” Shaw said.
“I don’t think so,” I said, unable to imagine Dylan going off away from me with these men. “Thanks so much, but you don’t need to go through any trouble.”
“It wouldn’t be any trouble. I like hanging out with Dylan,” Cole told me.
The thought made me stumble, because Cole and Dylan did seem to have an effortless bond, and it made me feel raw and aching inside. Nathan had always seemed so annoyed by Dylan, and I was always trying to act as a buffer, to keep Nathan from being annoyed and to shield Dylan.
The tension of that fear uncoiling made me feel light-headed. I wasn’t sure I could trust these feelings of comfort.
“What about me?” Dylan asked sleepily from the doorway. His cow’s lick stuck up from the top of his head. “We’re going fishing?”
“Ah,” Cole said, stealing a glance at me. “No, buddy, sorry. Not today. But hopefully someday.”
He was trying to keep me from being the bad guy, and I sighed under my breath. It made it harder to resist him.
“You guys can go out,” I said, and Dylan’s face lit up. Also, to my surprise, did Cole’s.
He genuinely seemed to like my little guy. That made me smile, even if my stomach was one big knot of pain and anxiety.
Soon, I was back in bed curled up around my hot water bottle, with a romance novel in hand and my coffee on the bedside table. I’d opened the windows to the fall breeze and I was enjoying the way it fluttered the curtains and the view to the winding silvery-blue creek.
There was a knock on the door, and Shaw came in. “Dylan and Cole are off. Karissa went with them, so they have some adult supervision.”
I grinned. “Thanks. Why didn’t you go?”
“Fishing is boring.” He drummed his fingertips on the door; Shaw never seemed to stop moving. “And I figured this way, I could play nurse if you needed anything.”
“I’m content to suffer alone,” I told him.
He frowned. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No,” I said. “But it kind of sounds like a standard line, you know? Playing nurse?”
“Yeah. I guess I can see that. But just because Karissa told you I’m…” He paused. “Does this mean I don’t get to know how the book ends?”
“This book?” I held up my romance novel. “It’s a series, and I’m actually on book five now. The last one.”
“Do they get a happy ending?”
“Do you want me to read to you?” It was a teasing question, but the truth was, I did want Shaw to stay with me. Feeling so terrible made me lower my defenses.
“Very much so.”
The words surprised me, but when I shifted over, he flopped onto the bed beside me. With one muscular arm tucked beneath his head, he stared up at the ceiling, just listening. I kept glancing over at him as I read, studying his handsome face in profile.
