Before she could stop herself, she approached him, running her fingers over the body art, and then laid a kiss in the center of his back.
He peered over his shoulder at her. “What was that for?”
“You just being you,” she said before going over to her neatly folded pile of clothes and dressing.
“It’s a shame,” he said as she pulled on her sandals.
“What is?”
“You having clothes on.”
“No, the real shame is when you have your clothes on. Anytime we’re at the house and you want to walk around buck naked, you won't hear a peep of complaining from me.”
He snorted. “Remember my mother has a key.”
“Oh yeah. That could be awkward.”
When they were both dressed, he held out his hand for her and she took it. He led her from the barn.
The sun had dropped and dusk crept in. They heard a noise from the direction of the bakery next door.
Amanda finished locking the back door and turned toward them. “And here I thought we had a herd of in-heat barn cats. Oh yeah. Now all the Brysons have christened that pile of straw,” Amanda said, picking up Hannah’s carrier and heading toward the farm house. Chaos ran circles around her as she walked. “Actually, that’s kind of gross when you think about it,” she called out over her shoulder, still laughing.
They let her go ahead and strolled hand in hand back to their vehicles to head home.
16
“About time he invited you to dinner,” Mary Ann clucked, squeezing Carly’s shoulder as she leaned over her to place an overflowing dish of homemade mashed potatoes on the already stuffed table.
“Ma, don’t start,” Matt grumbled.
His mother put up her hands in surrender. “I’m just saying.”
“Thanks for having me, Mary Ann. Do you need help with anything?” Carly asked.
His mother waved her hand absently. “No, you just sit there. The girls are bringing in the rest of the food.”
As if on cue, Matt’s sister-in-law and future sister-in-law did what Ma said. They bustled into the room, their hands full of steaming dishes and bowls.
He knew Leah was just as good a cook as his mother and Amanda was almost there. Not quite, but she was still learning.
Matt leaned over to the woman next to him. “Can you cook?”
Carly blinked at him.
“You’re such an asshole, Matt,” Amanda said, placing a green bean casserole in the center of the table. “She’s a freaking doctor. She doesn’t have to cook.”
“No one has to cook,” Leah pipped in.
Greg, of course, only picked up on the important words of the conversation and laughed.
Everyone turned towards him, waiting on bated breath for him to shout out the curse word. When he remained silent with only a crooked smile on his face, everyone’s jaw dropped and they all gave each other questioning looks.
“Bud, are you feeling all right?” Amanda asked her younger brother.
“Uh huh,” he answered, his arms flinging wildly as he bounced in his seat.
“You sure?” Amanda asked again, her eyebrows lifted halfway to her hairline.
“Yes, asshole!” Greg yelled.
The whole table relaxed as one. Leah hid her smirk behind her hand.
“There we go,” Marc muttered, stealing a roll from the bread basket.
“He had me worried for a minute,” Max said, moving the butter out of Marc’s reach on purpose.
Matt turned to address Carly. “I know you hate when I apologize. But just hear me out for a sec… I’m so sorry for what you’re about to be subjected to at this dinner table.”
“Can we not just have a nice peaceful family dinner for once? Can we all be on our best behavior since we have a guest?” his mother asked, clearly fretting at the head of the table.
“Carly’s not a guest, honey, she’s part of the family,” Ron told his wife.
“Yeah, they’re practically living together,” Marc chimed in.
“No, he’s still living in that godda—” Mary Ann’s eyes flicked to Greg. “Gosh darned tent.”
Just then Menace, Marc’s oversized Mastiff, approached the table, squeezed between Matt and Carly, and released a belch.
“Holy shit, dude, get your beast,” Matt yelled at Marc, attempting to wave away the toxic fume that escaped the dog’s mouth.
Menace was almost big enough now to lay his head on the table, but not quite. However, the smell of food was making him hungry apparently, since he had two strings of saliva coming from his jowls that almost reached the floor. Someone call Guinness, because that had to be a world record.
“So disgusting,” Matt said, glaring at his middle brother.
“He’s just a baby,” Marc answered, defending his dog.
“That thing is hardly a baby.” Matt shook his head. He attempted to shoo the dog away. “Go away, Menace.”
The clumsy Mastiff gave him a look with pity-me-I’m-starving eyes before lumbering off, leaving one long slobber string clinging to Matt’s pant leg. He made a what-the-fuck face at Marc.
His brother smirked and shoved the unbuttered roll in his mouth.
“Can we pass the dishes, please?” Ron asked impatiently.
As if synchronized, everyone grabbed a dish and started filling their plates.
Carly glanced down the table at the empty chair. “But aren’t we waiting for someone?”
“Teddy. He’s always fashionably late,” Max said, air-quoting fashionably.
“Teddy’s a homo,” Greg crowed, then laughed with a mouthful of mashed potatoes.
A collective groan rose from the table. Amanda covered her eyes while shaking her head. “I so did not teach him that.”
“That’s homosexual to you, sir,” Teddy said, bursting into the dining room with flair. He patted Greg on the head and pulled out the empty chair. “So, what did I miss? Ooo. Ma made her yummy mashed potatoes. Give me those, handsome.” Teddy accepted the bowl from Marc and slapped a big scoopful onto his plate. When he finished, he looked up and around the table. “I didn’t miss anything? No surprise pregnancies? No shotgun engagements? No drama at all?” His last two words ended up coming out higher pitched than normal. He vehemently shook his head. “No. Impossible.”
Everyone ducked their head and ate quietly. Teddy shoved a forkful of green beans in his mouth, then sat up straight like he’d been goosed. “Wait,” he whispered. He glanced down the table at Carly. “Hey, Doc! How did I miss you there?”
She gave him a smile and shrugged.
“How’s the vaginas been treating you?”
“Holy fuck,” Max groaned.
Ron slammed his hand on the table next to Matt, causing him to just about jump out of his skin. Then his father’s face turned dark red. Matt wasn’t sure if he was laughing or mad… Or choking.
“You okay, Pop?” Matt asked, patting him on the back.
He nodded his head in answer and quickly took a gulp of sun tea.
Matt leaned around Carly, gave Teddy a glare and mouthed, “What the hell?”
Teddy simply shrugged and gave him a big smile before going back to concentrate on his food.
“Speaking of vaginas…” Amanda started.
“Oh no,” Max groaned. “Baby—”
“Hush.” She waved a hand in Max’s face to shut him up. “Carly, what do you know about vagina rejuvenation?” She leaned forward and added, “Asking for a friend.” And she followed it up with an exaggerated wink.
Marc snorted. Leah put her fork down and covered her face with her hands, her body shaking uncontrollably. With laughter, Matt presumed, and hoped she wasn’t sobbing with second thoughts about marrying into the family.
Max wore a horrified expression. Mary Ann sighed. And Ron just shoved another piece of chicken marsala into his mouth, smiling around his food.
Greg asked, “What’s a vage…vagina?”
Teddy turned to him and answered, “A scary, scary
place.”
Carly finally responded with a simple, “Umm…”
Matt placed a hand on her thigh, squeezed, and said, “Don’t even answer that.”
“Can we please just eat for once like a normal family?” his mother asked, wearing a frazzled expression.
Max scraped his chair back, starting to rise from his seat.
Ron jabbed his fork toward his oldest son. “Sit down. No one is leaving the table until after dessert.”
“I have to check the baby.”
“The baby is fine. Sit down.”
Max plopped back into his chair like a scolded child.
“You gonna pout?” Marc asked him, chuckling.
“Shut up.”
“I swear…” Mary Ann grumbled, pushing her plate away before throwing her hands up into the air. “Just once… It’s all I ask for.”
Ron glared at each of his sons one by one. “Apologize to your mother.”
A deep chorus of sorry’s rounded the table.
Amanda opened her mouth and Ron raised his palm to stop her. “Uh, uh, uh. Next one who says one word does all of the dishes. And I mean all of the dishes.”
For the rest of the meal not one peep could be heard.
Though dinner had been a bit crazy, Carly couldn’t help but enjoy sitting around afterward surrounded by the family. However, all three of the boys quickly disappeared after dinner, Marc and Matt claiming they had to help Max with some unspecified repair in Amanda’s dog biscuit bakery.
On their way out the door, Max had told his father to “watch the women.” She wasn’t sure what he meant by that since all of them were independent and none of them needed “watching.”
She’d have to ask Matt about that later when they were alone.
But Ron, who Carly now loved like a second father since she greatly missed her own, agreed to the job and boomed out, “No problem, they’ll be like my own little harem.”
The guys had then filed out, groaning and shaking their heads.
The last thing they heard was Marc claiming, “I want to be just like Pop when I grow up.”
Now, Carly sat in an old rocking chair in the living room with Hannah in her arms. She gently pushed the chair back and forth with her foot. The baby was awake, but blessedly quiet, staring up into Carly’s face. Hannah probably wondered who was the stranger cradling her.
“I was there at your first moment on this earth,” she cooed to the baby.
Hannah’s lips pursed and then curved into a smile. She smiled back, though it was most likely just gas. Carly couldn’t wait to hold a child of her own, even if she wasn’t the birth mother.
“I never get tired looking at that angel’s face,” Mary Ann said softly from the couch, where she crocheted what appeared to be a baby’s blanket.
Ron snored softly from his recliner after claiming earlier that watching his harem was hard work. Amanda napped on the couch next to Mary Ann, while Leah and Teddy huddled in the kitchen discussing her wedding plans. Greg sat on the floor, quietly petting Chaos as the dog lounged over his lap, his tail thumping in a slow rhythm against the floor.
Carly felt lucky to have found this family. Or them find her. Whatever way it happened, they made her feel a part of them.
She heard a ruckus from the direction of the kitchen and heard the brothers’ deep voices as they entered the house in the middle of busting on each other. Carly glanced at her watch. They had been gone over two hours.
That must have been one hell of a repair they had to make.
Matt burst through the entrance to the living room first and came to an abrupt halt when he spotted Carly. Marc slammed into him and cursed. “Watch out, asshole.” He shoved his younger brother out of the way and pushed past him into the room.
Carly met Matt’s eyes and smiled. He seemed more relaxed in the past couple days since coming home from his self-imposed in-patient treatment. He had actually slept the last two nights in her bed with arms wrapped around her tight. Not that she didn’t like a little cuddling, but he seemed to need to hold onto her in his sleep. Otherwise, he ended up flopping around restlessly. And then Carly couldn’t sleep at all.
She gave him a questioning glance when he remained frozen in the doorway of the room. Was he freaking out because of the baby?
Then he approached, a wary, but determined, look in his eyes. He stopped in front of her and regarded the baby in her arms. “You’re a natural,” he said softly.
“You want to hold her?”
He hesitated, then roughly cleared his throat. “Not today.”
Well, “not today” sounded better than “No. Never.” Carly took it as a good sign. A promising one that he was at least making an effort.
“Maybe tomorrow,” she suggested.
“Yeah. Maybe.”
“If not tomorrow, then possibly the next day,” she said gently.
“Yes. Possibly.”
“Are you ready to go home?” she asked.
“If you can tear yourself away from Hannah.”
Carly glanced down at his niece. “Sure.”
“I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh?”
She quickly handed the baby off to her grandmother, gathered her things, and after saying their goodbyes they headed out. It was hard to miss the sly looks his brothers gave Matt as they walked out the door.
Something was going on and her mind raced, wondering what it was.
He hardly said a word on their way home, but when he wasn’t shifting the SUV, he laid his hand on her thigh, occasionally squeezing it. She wasn’t certain if he attempted to reassure himself or her.
Now, not only her mind raced, her heart did as well.
“Give me a couple minutes, then come find me in the house.”
“Matt, what’s going on?”
He leaned over, gave her a quick kiss, then climbed out of the Toyota. “Just do what I ask, please,” he said before shutting the truck door.
She sat frozen in the passenger seat, watching him enter the house. Even though it was after dark, he didn’t turn on one light.
Her chest tightened as she counted the minutes. Was this a new sex game? Was he going to surprise her with some new sex toy? They had discussed adding new—
Fuck it.
She shoved the truck door open, and rushed into the house, slowing down only long enough to let her eyes adjust to the dim interior.
“Matt?” she called.
“Come find me,” he answered. She tilted her head, listening for any other sounds, trying to figure what direction his voice had come from.
“Marco?”
“Polo,” came his answering call.
She giggled at how ridiculous it all sounded as she ran up the stairs. Bursting into the master bedroom, she felt disappointed to find it empty. She tore across the hall, the bathroom was empty too.
He wasn’t in Greg’s old room either.
She jogged back down the steps and through the kitchen to find the sunroom just as empty as the rest of the house.
What the hell. He must be in his damn tent.
She rushed out of the back door, almost stumbling down the three short steps to the yard. When she caught her balance and looked up, she gasped.
The yard was empty. The tent gone. From what she could see in the moonlight, nothing remained but a large patch of brown grass.
“I’ll need your help,” came his gruff voice from behind her.
She swung around as he approached her, his face solemn. “Of course. We’re in this together,” she assured him.
He nodded and held out his hand. “I hoped you’d say that.”
She took it and he pulled her close. “What’s this about?”
“I’m moving into the house with you.”
It was her turn to nod. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Am I missing something?”
“Just my love and the desire to spend the rest of my life with you. You’re a part of me, Carly. And I can’t live without you.”
/> She pressed her lips together in a fruitless attempt to not cry. “I don’t know if I can live without you either, Matt, but…” She trailed off, her heart unable to decide whether to soar or to break.
He lifted her hands to his mouth and brushed her knuckles softly with his lips. “But you don’t know if you can spend the rest of your life with someone who doesn’t want children,” he finished for her.
She nodded, afraid to speak.
He regarded her for a moment, then two. “I know,” he said finally.
She looked up in surprise and searched his face. Did he mean…
“I can’t promise you I’ll ever be ready and I don’t want to break a promise to you ever. However, I will do my best to be who you need. And when I’m with you, I seem to be getting better every day.”
“It’s not just me.”
“Yes, I realize there are other factors. Although, it’s because of you I’m working so hard at it. You are the reason I’m so determined to get my life back. I want to be with you and I do promise to never disappear again. I will never leave you no matter how hard it gets.”
“But Matt—”
He lifted a hand. “I love you, Carly. I’ve loved you since the minute I saw that fucking bump on your head at your crash. I just didn’t know it then, though I know it now. It was never just sex between us, no matter how hard we tried to convince ourselves of that.”
“You mean how hard you tried to convince yourself of that.”
He lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “I’m an asshole. I’ll admit it.”
“But you’re my asshole,” she told him with a grin. “And believe it or not, I think you’ll make a great father.”
“I have a great role model.”
“You do,” Carly answered, thinking of Ron. “I’m not in a rush, Matt. We’ll take all the time you need.”
Nodding, he pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “I don’t want to make you wait too long.”
His embrace made her feel so secure. “You won’t. I know you won’t.” Wrapping her arms around his waist, she squeezed. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
Brothers in Blue: The Complete Trilogy: Brothers in Blue Boxed Set - Books 1-3 Page 55
