“You going to see her again?”
“See who?” Bryant joined them. “Don’t tell me Nolan’s got himself a new girl.”
Nolan groaned. “Tell me why my dating life is so interesting to you guys?”
“Hey, you’re the only one left,” Bryant said. “Who knows when Ric will get home again and Liam and Dev are happily solvent on the other side of the ocean.”
“Stop talking like a finance guy.” Adam took a sip of his beer.
“I am a finance guy. What’s wrong with being solvent?” Bryant gestured his desire for a beer, too. “It’s important for a couple to be financially secure, especially once they decide to start a family.”
“You score points with the missus with all that money talk?” Nolan asked, getting his brother a cold one.
“Thanks to doctor’s orders, I’m not scoring much of anything these days.” Bryant grinned. “I’m okay with that.”
Nolan knew that to be true. Laurie had suffered through a rough miscarriage a year ago. She and Bryant were over the moon about this pregnancy and were taking every precaution the doctors handed down. He and Adam were the celebrating dads-to-be today even though their wives got all the attention.
“No worries,” Adam said. “Nolan’s getting the job done.”
“Halloween party, right?” Bryant asked, lifting the bottle to his lips.
Adam answered before Nolan could open his mouth. “I was about to find out if he plans to see her again.”
“See who?”
“Who is the question. He never told me her name.”
“Well, don’t let me interrupt your girl talk. Go on. Spill.”
Nolan stared at his brothers’ grinning faces. This conversation was getting away from him. Fast. He needed to come up with a diversion, but his mind was a blank.
Except for Katie.
Story of his life for the last two weeks.
He had projects up to his eyeballs. The kids were at each other’s throats. Mom’s accident threatened to derail her complex holiday plans for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Still, he couldn’t concentrate on anything but what had happened between him and Katie.
This had to stop. He had to find a way to fix things. Now.
Only once he let his brothers in on the truth, they would either kill him for dipping into the company office pool or bust his chops based on nothing but sibling code.
He was so screwed. “Forget about it.”
“No can do. Come on, who was she?” Adam pushed.
“No one.”
“No one important?” Bryant asked.
Nolan’s fingers tightened on his glass. “I didn’t say that.”
“So she is important. Or could be. Maybe we can help.”
Now he was confused. “Help with what?”
“You’ve been an SOB for the last week and if you can’t get help from your bros—” Bryant shrugged “—who can you turn to?”
“I haven’t been an SOB.”
“Yeah, you have,” Adam and Bryant said in unison.
“Hell, even Dad thinks you’ve gone off the deep end,” Adam continued. “You’re either snapping our heads off or shutting down completely. With everyone. Even—”
“Fine.” Nolan tossed back his drink, the rum burning his throat. “It’s Katie.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he wished for them back. Especially when the blank expressions on his brothers’ faces said they had no idea whom he was talking about.
“Forget I said—”
“Katie?” Bryant asked. “Katie who?”
At that moment the object of their discussion turned, her gaze catching and holding Nolan’s.
She stood on the other side of the room, near the dining room table covered with gifts. Too far away to hear, but something made her glance his way, her facial expression the same as it’d been since that night. Cool. Professional.
No matter, the stiff set of her shoulders said plenty. Someone called out to her and she turned away.
“Yeah, who’s Kat—” Adam started, then stopped. His head whipped to the crowd of ladies then back. “Wait a minute. You mean...” He leaned forward, lowering his voice. “That Katie? Our Katie?”
Bryant’s brows were dipped in confusion for a moment longer before understanding dawned. “Whoa, Katie? Are you nuts?”
Yeah, he was. Especially for opening his big mouth.
“Jeez, she’s practically family.”
He turned to Adam. “Don’t say that.”
“She’s been like a sis—”
“I really wish you wouldn’t say that.” Nolan cut him off, pushing aside his desire for another shot. He instead went for a beer and got two more for his brothers. They looked as if they needed them.
“What in the world made you pick her?” Bryant asked, matching his tone to Adam’s. “Of all people?”
“I didn’t exactly pick—we sort of ran into—hell, she was in costume,” Nolan growled. “So was I. She was drinking. I was drinking. It was late. It was dark—”
“Spare us the details.”
“I didn’t know—she didn’t know. It wasn’t until the next morning we realized what happened.”
“How could you not know?” Adam demanded.
Before Nolan could explain anything else, there was commotion at the entryway. Devlin and Tanya came into the room, loaded down with suitcases and presents, surprising everyone.
Thankful for the interruption, Nolan swallowed half his beer as his folks welcomed home another of their wayward sons. Soon, Tanya joined Fay and Laurie just as they were about to start opening the gifts.
Devlin spotted his brothers and headed their way, but stopped to give Katie a big hug.
A flash of something hot filled Nolan’s gut. Don’t be stupid!
Still, the burn didn’t fade, especially when his brother left a lingering kiss on Katie’s cheek.
“Hey, guys, surprised to see me?” Devlin asked with a big smile when he joined them.
“Believe it or not, you showing up isn’t the biggest surprise today.” Adam shot Nolan a hard glare. “It’s good to have you home.”
“You back to stay?” Nolan asked. He got his brother a cold root beer, as close as Dev got to the real thing since getting sober over a decade ago. “For good?”
“Sure are. Tanya finished up her schooling early and we wanted to be here for Thanksgiving.” Devlin nodded his thanks for the drink. “When we heard about today, we hoped to make it back in time.” He held out his hand to Adam. “Congrats again, Daddy.”
Adam returned his handshake.
Devlin repeated the gesture with Bryant. “You, too, Pops. Geesh, two more rug rats to add to the family. So, what else is new around here?”
Nolan stared at Adam, knowing what he’d told him and Bryant was about to be shared with another brother.
Needing more privacy, he gestured to the leather couches in a nearby alcove.