After Her Flower Petals: A Second Chance Romantic Comedy (The Svensson Brothers Book 7)

by Alina Jacobs

  “No he wasn’t,” Nate yelled, jumping up. “Lies and slander. My brother doesn’t hit girls! He was trying to defend himself. She was going to take his eye out! I was just pulling Rose off of him.”

  The principal sighed. “You four are suspended for two weeks.”

  “But…”

  “No buts. You all clearly need to calm down. Go outside. I need to talk to your siblings.”

  “I do not tolerate my brothers hitting girls,” Hunter told the principal, tone serious. “They will be dealt with.”

  “Yes, I know,” she said. “You and your brothers have been very responsive when behavioral issues arise.” She sighed. “Look, I understand both of you have a lot on your plates. And the children’s parents are not in the pictures. Plus, you have already taken on more responsibility than what is probably healthy for an older sibling.”

  “They’re my brothers,” Hunter said, jaw set. “I’d do anything for them.”

  “And I’d sacrifice anything for my sisters,” I said firmly. “It’s not a burden.”

  “I just want you to know that I understand it’s a complex situation, because you can’t have a real sibling relationship with them as you’re too busy being their parent. Maybe over this break you can carve some time out of your busy schedules to spend one-on-one time with them. It might help everyone decompress.”

  Hunter seemed like he wanted to talk to me as we hauled our siblings out to the parking lot.

  “I can’t right now,” I told him, shoving my sisters in the car.

  “See,” Bruno said, getting one more shot in, “she doesn’t even have a working car.”

  Minnie launched a shoe, and it hit Bruno in the eye. He yelped.

  “You asked for that,” Hunter grumbled at him, dragging him to the car. “We’re going to discuss this when we are home.”

  “You can’t let them get under your skin,” I lectured my sisters while they cranked down the manual windows to try to air out the smell of soggy vinyl.

  “They said your campaign was a mess and that Hunter was just sleeping with you because he’s a boss and he fucks,” Rose cried.

  “Watch your language,” I warned her. “I’m sure Hunter doesn’t believe that. They just said that because they’re immature, stupid teenage boys.”

  But on the way back to Hazel’s bistro restaurant, I chewed on my lip. What if that was what Hunter was saying behind closed doors? What if he was bragging about how he was going to win the election and me? His brothers must have picked it up somewhere.

  Still, a part of me wanted to sleep with him. You’re just horny.

  “I’m sure Hazel has some chores you can do around the restaurant,” I told my sisters as they angrily jumped out of the car after I parked.

  Kate texted me after I had given Hazel a rundown of the events.

  Kate: Do you need me to come over for the pre-date-run pep rally?

  Shoot. The date.

  Meg: I’m still dealing with my sisters.

  Kate: Oh okay.

  Kate: Don’t forget to shave! I told Walter to arrive at your place at seven!

  Meg: Maybe tell him to come another time.

  Kate: No! *smiley face* You need to get laid!

  Kate: He’ll wait *wink emoji*

  “You can’t really fault them,” Hazel said as she made grilled cheese sandwiches for us.

  “Of course I can. They started a fight!” I slipped my phone back in my purse, trying to figure out a way to cancel.

  “And it sounds like you won!” she praised them. “Don’t let those boys get you down! Women have to stick up for each other.”

  “Yes, but it’s going on their permanent records.”

  “Exactly,” Hazel said, “and now everyone in school knows not to mess with the Loring sisters!”

  “They need to be disciplined,” I protested.

  “How about working in the shop and earning some money?” Hazel said.

  “You’re not helping.”

  “You’re being a stick in the mud. Go on Tinder and find a hookup. You’ll feel better. Trust me!”

  Of course not all of us can have a billionaire at their beck and call who also adores them and isn’t a liar or manipulative, I fumed as I drove my hunk of junk station wagon back to my apartment. Sure must be nice to have a fiancé who loves you and thinks you walk on water.

  I parked the car then stomped upstairs to my apartment. It is pathetic that you are jealous of your younger sister.

  But there it was. I wanted what she had with Archer. And that was my issue with Walter—I could not see myself building a life with him at all.

  My reflection stared back at me from the small mirror in my studio apartment entrance. I looked tired and frustrated. I smoothed out the frown lines on my forehead. You need onion rings and a chocolate shake and a fun movie. Not a date.

  I fished out my phone to call Kate and ask her to tell Walter that he shouldn’t bother coming up from Manhattan. But when I took out my phone, there was a message from him.

  Walter: I have a very nice evening for us planned. Kate told me you had a rough day.

  The doorbell rang, and I immediately freaked. Was he here? Now? I checked the time; it was only six. Who was at the door? Was it Karen?

  When I opened it, there was a pinched-nosed teenager with a baseball cap with the logo of one of the local florists. He carried a huge bouquet of flowers, with pink roses, chrysanthemums, hydrangeas, and peonies.

  “Delivery for you, ma’am,” he said, thrusting it at me.

  “Thanks,” I told him, closing the door and inspecting the note.

  A part of me wanted them to be from Hunter. But they were from Walter. I stamped down the disappointment.

  “He’s busy with his brothers,” I reminded myself and unfolded the card.

  Walter: I heard you were a fan of peonies.

  I was a fan of peonies. At least my inner starved sex goddess was. Would it be such a bad thing? Maybe a hot and heavy evening with Walter was just what I needed to distress and recalibrate.

  Meg: I’ll see you at seven.

  “Wait! I don’t have anything to wear.” My nicer clothes were still at the house that I wasn’t technically allowed in. I hadn’t thought I would be going on any fancy dates. I’d brought one nice dress, but Walter had already seen it on our last date.

  I fretted as I hopped around the bathroom, trying to shave my legs then the rest of me. If I was doing it, I didn’t need Walter scared off by the overgrown weeds in the garden, so to speak.

  Seven o’clock rolled around, and I still hadn’t decided what to wear.

  My phone dinged.

  Walter: Waiting downstairs.

  “Shoot!” I shimmied on the thong, tugging at it. Maybe I should bring a change of underwear and keep a comfortable pair in my purse.

  Would we have sex before or after dinner? If it was after, I didn’t think I could stay in the thong that long. Should I change in the restaurant bathroom later? Also, I still couldn’t figure out what to wear.

  Meg: Sorry, running a little late!

  Meg: Be there in a second.

  But Walter didn’t respond immediately like he had been doing.

  What if he left?

  I went to the window and peered out. Walter’s car was still parked across the street. And he was standing outside of it, angrily talking to a familiar blond-haired man.

  “Hunter!”

  44

  Hunter

  “And furthermore…” I told my brothers. We were coming up to the thirty-minute mark of my chewing them out. “You made me look bad. You made me look like a sexist piece of garbage. I have never talked about Meg like that. Ever. And I never will. You know I do not tolerate that type of behavior. I will not raise another miniature version of Dad. I will bury you before you turn out like him.”

  “I wasn’t trying to be like Dad,” Bruno said, sniffling.

  “Except that you did,” I snapped at him. “That’s exactly the sort of way h
e would have behaved. And it will not be tolerated.”

  Bruno looked to my other brothers for help. Garrett stared at him coldly. Remy gave him a disappointed frown.

  “Minnie was saying Meg was going to beat you and that no one in town liked you because you don’t have any parents, and you have a weird family,” Bruno said, mouth downturned.

  “I do have a weird family,” I agreed. “Our situation is weird; it’s not normal. It’s not normal for Dad to run a cult. The way we grew up wasn’t normal. You and your brothers aren’t normal.”

  Bruno looked at the ground. I tipped his chin up to look at me. “But you know what? I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love each and every one of you.”

  “Even Garrett?”

  Garrett raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Even Garrett,” I agreed.

  “We love you, Garrett!” Remy said, wrapping him in a big hug.

  “Get off of me!” Garrett said, acting like a cat who had been dunked in water.

  “Now why don’t you start with cleaning out the horse barn then move on to all the windows,” I ordered Bruno and Nate. “You have two weeks.”

  “You can get an awful lot done in two weeks!” Remy said.

  Was it because of my family that Meg was so put off by me? It made no sense that she had refused me for years yet had no other viable prospects. Maybe her insistence that I was a liar and manipulative was a cover for how she really felt. Maybe she thought I was like my father and that my family was too bizarre.

  I needed to talk to her.

  She didn’t pick up her phone when I called her. I drove into town, stopping to pick up the flowers I had ordered for her at one of the florist’s shops in town. They were a mix of blush, champagne, and cream-colored peonies, her favorites.

  I called her again, but she didn’t answer. Where was she? I drove around town. She wasn’t in her campaign office or at city hall. The light was on in her apartment, though.

  I parked my car and stepped out, adjusting my suit. I had showered and put condoms in my pocket; I was for sure getting lucky. I had a whole speech planned with funny little anecdotes and everything.

  “I hope you showed up with more than flowers and a plucky attitude,” a man called from across the street right as I reached the door.

  No.

  “Walter.”

  “Good evening, Hunter,” he said, stepping out of his car. “Fancy seeing you here.” He jerked his head to the flowers. “I’ve already sent her some. Mine was bigger. You might as well take those down to the old folks’ home.”

  “What the fuck are you playing at, Walter?” I snapped at him.

  “Probably same as you,” he said. “I want to bang a hot girl.”

  “I don’t want to bang her. I want to marry her.”

  Walter just laughed. “Sure you do, and that’s why you’re running for mayor against her as opposed to supporting her. You’re such a piece of shit, Hunter.”

  “No, you are. You stole my company.”

  “It was just business. And you were well compensated,” Walter said with a shrug. “You could have stayed, you know. But you refused to play ball.”

  “I refused to be your bitch.”

  “Language,” Walter said mockingly. He gazed at me. “I can’t decide if you actually think you love her, or you’re so tangled in your own web of revenge and half-truths that you are believing your own lies.”

  “It’s not a lie,” I snarled, circling him.

  “You are just like your father,” Walter remarked, his blue eyes piercing me.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “I read up on him. He’s cunning. Wily. Tricky. He always has a plan. That’s why the FBI can’t ever catch him and nail him on anything.” He regarded me. “You’re the same way. That’s why you cooperated with Danielle to try and ruin me, which ended up with my youngest children dead.”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with that,” I said quietly. “I would never.”

  “Keep telling yourself that.” Walter stepped up in my face. “You ruined them, and now you’re trying to ruin Meg.” His lip curled up. “She’s better off without you.”

  “I refuse to let her be with you,” I shot at him. “You just want to use her.”

  “Yes,” Walter said with a self-satisfied smile. “And I want to hear her scream my name while I do it.”

  I snatched the fabric of his jacket, slamming him against the car.

  “Stop, Hunter, stop!” Meg grabbed me, pulling me off Walter. Her hair was half-undone around her face. “What is wrong with you?” she screamed at me. “You can’t just keep showing up on my dates and ruining them.” Her hands were clenched in anger.

  I put myself between Meg and Walter. I would deal with Meg later. “Get out of my town,” I told Walter.

  “This a free country,” he said, not moving.

  “Care to take that bet?” I asked. I may not have been my father, but I could mimic his cold, reptilian demeanor if I felt moved enough to do it. It was unnerving, I knew, because I had been on the receiving end of it. It had felt as if my dad was just on the verge of letting the monster loose.

  “We’ll reschedule,” Walter said to Meg after a moment.

  Meg shoved me after Walter left. “Stop running my life!”

  I grabbed her arms. “I’ll make it up to you,” I promised her.

  “No you won’t! God, I can’t believe I ever thought you had changed.” She turned away from me.

  “I have changed,” I said, frustrated, following her back inside the building.

  “You haven’t,” she cried, rushing to the stairwell. “You’re the same self-absorbed, egotistical prick you always were. You think you own people.”

  “I don’t think that,” I said, slamming the stairwell door behind me and following her up the stairs as she jogged up. “I just know that you and I are meant to be together. I know that I’ve obsessed about you. I need you, Meg,” I begged, running up the last flight of stairs to catch her before she left the stairwell.

  “Get out of my way, Hunter,” she said, eyes narrowed.

  I opened the door for her. “You can’t tell me,” I insisted, as she went down the hall to her studio apartment, “that you don’t want me.”

  She backed up against the door, fumbling for the handle, not taking her eyes off me, her chest rising and falling hypnotically. I grabbed her, crushing our mouths together. I wanted to claim what was mine.

  Meg’s fingers tightened in my hair, then she seemed to think better of it and released me, hopping back into her apartment.

  45

  Meghan

  Maybe if Hunter had been more smug or more obnoxiously self-assured that I was going to cave with him, I could have dredged up a little more resistance. But instead, he seemed slightly ragged.

  “Meg,” he rasped. “I need you. You’re all I can think about. You ruin my nights. I’ve been waiting for you for years. Please take me back.”

  It was thrilling. “I don’t know,” I drawled, slowly unbuttoning my top.

  We’re just messing with him. Not sleeping with him.

  Yeah, sure, my inner sex goddess said. Totally, yeah, uh-huh.

  Hunter’s eyes were glazed over.

  “I think Walter is actually more my style. You know, he’s well established, experienced.”

  “I’m better than him.”

  “Perhaps,” I said as another button on my shirt came undone.

  He followed the movement like a hunting dog.

  “But in order to be extra sure, I’m going to have to sleep with him first.”

  “Never.” Hunter’s head was tipped forward slightly.

  “It’s funny,” I told him, “that you brought me flowers. Walter sent me some too. But I think his bouquet was bigger.”

  Hunter crossed the room, not that it was much in the tiny apartment.

  “I’m going to call him back here after you leave,” I said. “See, I spent a lot of time getting myself all ready for h
im because I really wanted to get laid tonight.”

  Wait, I thought we were just teasing!

  Hunter tangled a hand in my hair and pulled me to him, our lips almost touching. “The only person touching you is going to be me.”

  “Or me,” I whispered back.

  His tongue flitted out to lightly lick my bottom lip, then he nipped it.

  “I don’t think you’re going to pass this up again,” he said, giving me that arrogant grin. “I think you want me too bad.”

  Yes.

  He ripped my shirt open the rest of the way, his hands hot on my skin. Still, his mouth wasn’t on mine.

  “Admit it, Meg,” he said in that deep voice that made me want to rip off the rest of my clothes. “I’m all you can think about.” His large hand caressed my thigh.

  A cock sure would be nice right now! my inner sex goddess reminded me.

  His fingers were tantalizingly close to the band of my thong.

  Just a little lower… I leaned forward, needing to feel his mouth. He drew back slightly.

  “Tell me you want it,” he ordered. “And I can make you forget all about Walter.”

  My panties were soaking wet. He was right. I did need him. “I want it,” I breathed against his mouth.

  Bad decisions incoming! But Hunter’s mouth on mine was worth all of it.

  His tongue swept inside my mouth, claiming and forceful. He tasted like desire. I moaned against his lips, my fingers clinging onto his shirt.

  “You are wearing way too much clothing,” I murmured the moment that we parted for air.

  Hunter slanted a sideways smile at me. Then suddenly, with a gasp of surprise, I found myself pushed down to the springy bed. He climbed over me, his warm lips kissing down my neck. I arched into it as his hands found the hem of my shirt, tearing it off me the rest of the way. I raised my arms and pulled my bra over my head in one smooth motion.