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“Still your only older brother, smarty. I’m doing well. Work is keeping me out of trouble.”
“Quincy said you’re one of the founders of Tech Horse,” Knox said. “You guys are having quite a year from what I’ve read.”
“We are. It’s been a crazy ride, mostly in a good way. We’re planning to go public in March.”
“I read a rumor about that in one of the financial blogs I follow,” Knox said.
And just like that, they were off, talking about a subject I didn’t understand in depth, but I was fine with that. Business wasn’t my thing, especially not the financial aspects of it. Hello, eye glaze, but I loved that my brother and Knox connected—and then I had to remind myself it didn’t matter. I wasn’t bringing a boyfriend home to meet the family after all.
“So how’s the fam, Quincy? Any Cynthia drama of late?” Ryan asked once their business talk had been interrupted by our food arriving.
“Isn’t there always Cynthia drama?” I asked after I finished chewing the first bite of my burger.
“When it comes to the two of you, always,” my brother confirmed.
Looking between Ryan and me, Knox asked, “Is this mainly a Quincy-Cynthia thing?”
I nodded, and my brother said, “They’re like water and oil. Always have been. To be fair, I was out of the house by the time my dad remarried. I’ve never had to live with Cynthia. But I think there’s also some kind of unspoken female dynamic going on.”
“There is,” I acknowledged. “Knox suggested I try to make peace with her.”
I looked up in time to catch Ryan’s appraising look at Knox.
“And?” Ryan popped a fried mushroom into his mouth.
“I’m thinking about it. I want peace,” I said. “I’m just not sure how to go about it, what to say. I don’t know if it’s even possible.”
“I can tell you for sure it’s not possible if you don’t make the first move,” Ryan said.
I narrowed my eyes and looked between him and Knox. “Are you sure you two have never met before and discussed this?” I accused, joking.
“It might just be easier to see with some distance,” Knox said.
“So let’s say I take her to lunch.” I dipped a pretzel bite into the cheese sauce and let it drip. “What do I say to her?”
By the time we’d finished eating and hashed out my Cynthia problem, I’d decided to give it a try and ask her to brunch. I knew the guys were right when they said my stepmom would never make the first move. She seemed to have issues with being the bigger person even though she was the mom.
Once the server had cleared our plates, Knox excused himself to change Juniper’s diaper, picked her and the diaper bag up, and headed to the restroom, leaving me alone with my brother.
“I like him,” Ryan said as soon as Knox was out of earshot.
That shot a spike of relief and happiness through me, but I quickly tamped it down, reminding myself my brother didn’t have to like my employer. Particularly my very short-term employer.
Instead I said, “He’s easy to work for. I was lucky to be working when he first brought Juniper into Henry’s.” I laughed. “You should’ve seen him and Cash and Ava. None of them had any experience with babies.” Though my brother had never lived in the same house with Cynthia and our half-siblings, he’d been around plenty and had helped with diapers and feedings and baths many times.
“He was lucky you were there.” He pushed his empty plate back. “You two seem close.”
I went on alert. “I guess we’ve become friends,” I allowed. It wasn’t a lie, just wasn’t the whole truth. “I’ve known him for less than a month though.”
“You live in his house.”
“That’s what a live-in nanny does,” I said with a laugh.
I racked my brain for whether Knox or I had slipped up and said something to get my brother on this topic of our “closeness.”
“Has Dad met him?”
“Not that I know of. He could’ve gone in for insurance from Dad or something.”
