The Freeman Brothers: A Secret Baby Romance Collection

by Natasha L. Black

  “You own the bar?” I asked, feeling stupid.

  “Yeah,” she said with a grin. “This is my place. I inherited it from my father. So I can tell you with pretty good authority there’s a position open.”

  “Please don’t take my getting through three beers during my conversation with you as an indication of my character,” I said.

  Lindsey laughed. “I won’t. Like I said, it’s just a job in the kitchen. I’m going to be really honest with you. It’s low pay and crappy hours to start, but if you show results and trust, and you fit in well around here, you can move up easily. Especially considering we’re starting to think about expanding a bit. The restaurant side of the place is getting more popular, and I’m thinking about adding on.”

  “That sounds amazing,” I said. Then I thought about it. “Wait. Do you have cherry pie on your menu?”

  Lindsey narrowed her eyes at me slightly. “No.”

  I let out a sigh and smiled. “Good. Then I can definitely help. And I promise I won’t let you down.”

  6

  Greg

  I hadn’t heard from Maya all day, and it was starting to worry me. I figured she would keep me updated throughout the day while she looked for a job. When we’d talked about it over breakfast, she seemed optimistic about finding work and settling in. She didn’t want to just coast, even though I would have been fine with it if she did want to take some time to decompress.

  I wouldn’t have blamed her if she didn’t want to jump right back into the normal grind of life. After the shock and disappointment of what she went through, it would make sense for her to be angry. A lot of people would want some time to just clear their heads and try to figure out what life was going to be like moving forward.

  After three years with Marshall, Maya needed to figure out who she was on her own. There was a big difference between being twenty years old, still in college, and just working out the details of life, and three years later. Not that those three years had aged her beyond recognition, but people did a lot of learning and changing during those years.

  I was perfectly willing to be there for her. When I said she could come stay with me and I’d get her added to the lease, it was because I wanted to help her. She needed somebody now more than ever. Even though we’d spent five years apart, I still considered her extremely special. Those few years didn’t change everything we’d gone through together, and I wasn’t going to leave her dangling when she needed me the most.

  Maya seemed ready to jump right into her next chapter, or at the very least ready to forget about the last one by distracting herself. I figured she would let me know how she was doing throughout the day, or at least tell me where she was applying for jobs. By the end of the day, I hadn’t even gotten so much as a text from her.

  Maybe she had changed her mind, and after I left for work, she decided to just relax for the day. It wasn’t uncommon for me to hang out at the compound for a few hours after the official workday was over, but that day I started getting ready to leave as early as possible. I wanted to get back to the apartment and make sure Maya was alright.

  I parked in front of the building with a nervous feeling in my stomach. She was a mess when she’d first showed up at the compound but seemed oddly put together that morning. Maybe a bit too put together. I worried I’d walk into the apartment and find her having suddenly come to the realization of what was happening in her life and falling apart.

  I would do anything I could to help her and make her feel better, but I didn’t know if I was totally prepared to see her like that. Maya and I had helped each other through a lot when we were younger, but a life-changing breakup wasn’t one of those things. I prepared myself with as many of the comforting statements and platitudes as I possibly could, then headed inside.

  “Hey,” Maya said when I got inside. “You’re home earlier than I thought you’d be. How was your day at work?”

  She didn’t just sound okay. She sounded downright perky. I didn’t know if that was a good thing, or if I should be more worried about her. I walked into the living room where she was reclined on the couch with a beer in her hand. The rest of a six-pack sat on the coffee table in front of her next to a restaurant to-go bag.

  “It was pretty good,” I said. “Just kind of same old same old.”

  She laughed. “Somehow, I can’t imagine working on a motorcycle racing complex could ever be just same old same old. But I guess anything can become routine if you do it enough. Come on, sit down. I was just getting ready to watch a movie.”

  She didn’t look sad or like she had disconnected with reality, so I plopped down beside her and reached for one of the beers. I grabbed the bottle opener and popped the cap on the bottle before tossing both back to the table. Maya waited while I took a deep swig, then picked up the white paper bag.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “I brought you dinner,” she said. “I had the same thing. It was really good.”

  I looked at the bag and noticed it was from Lindsey’s bar. “You ended up at Lindsey’s?” I asked. “Did you get to meet her?”

  “I did,” she said. “She’s really nice. I didn’t even realize who she was when I went into the bar. I wasn’t exactly having the best day, and I went in there to grab a drink. Then I got a job.”

  She slipped that into the conversation so seamlessly I nearly dropped the burger I had unwrapped from its white waxed paper. Finishing the bite, I wiped my lips and stared at her. My eyebrows pulled together as I tried to figure out if she was being serious or if there was some sort of joke I’d missed along the line.

  “I think I missed a step,” I said.

  Maya laughed. “That’s how I felt, too. The whole day was kind of a bust. I went to all the places you told me to look, but nobody was hiring. Apparently, there was some sort of employment boom around Charlotte. None of the business owners needed more staff. Either that, or they took one look at me, saw me as an outsider, and decided they weren’t going to give me a job.”

  I laughed and shook my head, taking another bite of the burger. It was delicious, but that was no surprise. Lindsey was known for making the best burgers in town. She even had a special one she’d created in honor of Nick Freeman, her best friend.

  “I don’t think that was the case,” I said. “Something like that might have happened in Shelby, but Charlotte isn’t that kind of small town. So, you didn’t find anywhere that was hiring? How did you get a job?”

  “Well, I found two little stores that were hiring. I figured I had some experience with work like that. Remember that gift shop I worked at in high school?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “It was the only place that would hire you when you were fourteen. Of course, that was probably because they never got any customers, so you didn’t really have to do anything.”

  “They got some customers,” Maya argued.

  “Maybe a few, but if those stores need you to actually be able to interact with people or run a cash register, you might not be the best choice,” I said.

  Maya gave me an aggravated look and shook her head. “Well, that doesn’t really matter. I filled out applications for both of those, but they didn’t seem very motivated to hire me. That’s actually how I ended up in the bar. I was feeling kind of bummed and figured I deserved a drink and maybe an early dinner. You had mentioned you sometimes stay at the compound late, so I didn’t know when you were going to be back.”

  “I guess that’s as good an excuse as any,” I said. “But how did you know it was Lindsey’s place? I don’t even think I mentioned to you that she owns a bar.”

  “You didn’t,” Maya said. “I was sitting there at the bar feeling sorry for myself, and she came up to talk to me. She brought me a beer and some food, and I noticed a picture next to the cash register.”

  “The one up on the mirror?” I asked.

  “Yeah, that one. I pointed it out, and she told me who she was. So, I told her how I ended up in Charlotte, and the whole m
essy story just kind of came out.”

  I nodded. “Lindsey’s a really good listener. She can get anybody to open up about anything. And the best part about it is that she usually has a way to make people feel better.”

  “Well, she definitely did this time. She asked me if I would be okay working in a kitchen, which would be the point in the conversation when I humiliated myself by asking her if the owner of the bar was actually looking for help,” Maya said.

  I laughed. “That’s okay. She’s used to it. A lot of people around here still think of it as her father’s bar.”

  “She was understanding about it. Then she offered me a job. It’s nothing glamorous or anything. It’s low pay and crappy hours. Her words, not mine. But she mentioned I would have room for moving up if I did well. So, that’s what my day was. I got a job and a really good burger,” Maya said. “Oh, and got a ride home from my new boss because I had three beers before she offered me the job. So, memorable first impression achieved.”

  “I would say that’s a pretty successful first day in Charlotte,” I said.

  She smiled at me. “I would, too. Thank you for encouraging me.”

  I put my burger down on the coffee table and pulled Maya in for a tight hug. I was so happy for her. I came home worried I would find her an absolute wreck and not know how to help her through it. Now she seemed ready for what was ahead. Or, at least, ready to give it a try.

  “Good things will happen here, I promise,” I said. “It’s such a great town.”

  “It has to be,” she said. “You chose it, and you stayed here for this long. It has to have something to offer.”

  “It does. You’ll see. and I’m excited to show it all to you,” I said.

  “Well, I feel like maybe I’ve had enough new and exciting things for the day. I was thinking we could go back in time a bit this evening,” she said.

  She reached for the remote and hit the Play button. One of our favorite movies from when we were teenagers came on the screen, and I laughed.

  “That’s a throwback,” I said. “How many times did we watch this thing?”

  “About a thousand,” she said. “All that old furniture down in the basement was the one good thing about having to stay with my aunt and uncle all the time.”

  That brought back a lot of memories, but not all of them were ones we wanted to dwell on. Both of us had ghosts in our past. They were what brought us together, but I was more than happy to just keep them behind me.

  We settled in for the movie. When I was done with my burger, I went to the kitchen and made popcorn. We followed up the first movie with another, and by the time it was over, I was getting tired.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” I told her. “I need to get some sleep.”

  I got up and mussed her hair, smiling to myself as I walked away. Having my best friend in town was going to be great. If only I could convince myself I’d let her go when she was ready.

  7

  Maya

  I woke up early the next morning and lay there on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. I really didn’t have any reason to be up that early. I wasn’t starting my new job at Lindsey’s bar until the next Monday, but even when I did, my hours wouldn’t start until the late afternoon.

  I couldn’t go back to sleep. I wasn’t anxious or particularly unhappy. This wasn’t the kind of being awake that usually left me tossing and turning trying to go back to sleep. I didn’t feel any sort of lingering negativity from a nightmare I might have woken up from and forgotten. Instead, it just felt like my mind was ready to start my day. I got up and walked quietly into the bathroom to take a shower.

  Greg didn’t have much longer to sleep, and I didn’t want to disturb him. From what I’d watched during the day I’d spent at the compound with him, he worked hard. He needed good, solid sleep to be in top shape. And knowing Greg, he didn’t get that sleep as often as he really needed it.

  From the time we were kids, if he got his mind on something, he didn’t let go. He would push and push until he ground himself into exhaustion to make sure he achieved what was in front of him. He had told me all about the horrific accident he’d had and how it took him out of racing for an entire season.

  It was enough to motivate him to push as hard as he possibly could to get back into his best form. Greg wouldn’t just settle for recovering. He wanted to be better than he ever was. He wanted to prove to everybody that the crash hadn’t ruined him and that he would go on to achieve everything he would have if he had never had that accident.

  After my shower, I got dressed and twisted my wet hair up on the back of my head to secure with a clip.

  Once I was dressed and ready for the day, I went into the kitchen and started searching through all of Greg’s cabinets and his refrigerator and freezer. It was surprisingly well-stocked for a bachelor who lived alone. Being around all those domesticated Freemans all the time must have been a good influence on him.

  Suddenly inspired, I pulled out a few armfuls of ingredients and spread them across the wide counter along the far wall. Finding the right pots and pans wasn’t the quietest of endeavors, and I was sure I had woken Greg up.

  Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, I heard the shower running in the bathroom. Greg came into the kitchen a while later, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and yawning wide.

  “Did I wake you?” I asked. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I needed to get up, anyway. Last night was just a late night. What are you doing in here?”

  He was looking at everything I was working on suspiciously.

  “I’m making breakfast,” I told him.

  “For how many people?” he asked.

  I laughed. “Well, I’m making breakfast and a couple of other things, too. I found a bunch of really great things in your kitchen and got inspired. I have breakfast burritos with sausage, eggs, cheese, peppers, and onions cooking for you it to bring to work for everybody.”

  I walked over to the counter and swiped my finger across the screen of my phone where I had it propped up. Checking the recipe that showed up, I measured out a few more ingredients and added them to the mixing bowl in front of me.

  “What are you working on there?” he asked. “That looks suspiciously like baking.”

  I laughed.

  “It is, actually.”

  “Should I brace myself for disaster?” he asked.

  “Maybe,” I said. “But I’m feeling pretty optimistic about this one. I found a good recipe for banana walnut muffins, and they just sounded delicious. You had a few really ripe bananas in your fruit bowl, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

  “I’m sorry,” Greg said. “I came in here looking for my best friend. Maybe you know her. Maya Klein? Cute little thing, big eyes, dark hair, tragedy in all things baking?”

  I made a mock gasp, but then nodded. “Yep, that’s me.”

  “Then what’s going on? What’s prompted this cooking frenzy?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s weird. I just woke up this morning feeling like I had another chance. Does that make sense? Like moving here wasn’t just about getting away from Shelby or Marshall. It’s about having a whole new experience with life. And maybe I shouldn’t just keep going with the way I have always thought of myself. Like I get to be whoever I want to be now.”

  “And who you want to be is someone who makes breakfast burritos by the dozen?” Greg asked, pouring himself coffee and looking at me like he wasn’t following me completely.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. But the point is, I can try. I can do all these things I’ve avoided, or I’ve thought of myself as being bad at, and see if maybe something can change.”

  “I can respect that,” Greg said. “That was pretty much what I did when I came to Charlotte. I put as much of my past behind me as I could, and I started a new life. So, other than making the biggest breakfast known to man, what are you doing today?”

  “Nothing that I had plans for,” I sa
id. “I don’t start working until Monday, so the next few days are pretty much open.”

  “Great. Come back to the compound with me. I want to introduce you around to the people you didn’t get to meet,” he said.

  “Sure,” I said. “I’ll bring the burritos and muffins.”

  I had always found that sharing food was the fastest way to make new friends, and that’s exactly what I wanted to do. I trusted Greg and his evaluation of people. If this circle were his friends, then that’s where I wanted to be.

  When we first got to the complex, I saw Darren and Gus again. A woman was there with Darren, and Greg introduced me to Kelly, Darren’s wife. She was a mechanic there, working on the race bikes and also building custom ones for customers. She was friendly and seemed sweet and down-to-earth. We talked throughout the day, and I found myself really liking her.

  I was having such a good time watching Greg work and getting to know everybody around the garage that I was surprised when it was already time for lunch. We walked up to a large, sprawling field in the middle of the compound. Several other people were arriving from other angles as we walked up. An elegant-looking woman in a long sundress walked over to a long picnic table and added several containers of food to the ones already sitting there.

  “Do you guys eat lunch together every day?” I asked Greg.

  “Pretty much,” he said. “It started with them just ordering a time or two a week, but then we enjoyed eating together so much that it just became something Minnie and Gus do for us.”

  “Hey, Greg,” a woman cradling a baby said as she came from the direction of the main complex buildings. “How are you doing?”