by Ferraro, W
Looking at his watch, he realized he still had time to get through this certain tomb for the case law he was working on before taking a late lunch and heading out the door at precisely five. Get home, shower, head to the restaurant to pick up the hot wings, and then get to the guys’ place and watch the hockey game with a few beers and the comradery of his brothers.
Reed left his office five minutes before he had intended and hit no traffic on his way home. Making it in just over fifty minutes, he entered his home with the full intention of getting right in the shower. Climbing the stairs to the main level, he deposited his mail, keys, and briefcase on his kitchen island before stripping off his suit coat and draping it over one of the high back stools there.
He climbed the second flight of stairs to the bedroom level, passing the empty room that still had moving boxes and things with no permanent home yet. Going through the rest of his stuff was on Reed’s list, but he just had yet to get to it. Not really paying any mind to the closed-off room, he entered his bedroom and began to strip off his clothes. When he was down to his bare feet and trousers, he entered the master bath and turned on the shower. Wanting the water to be as hot as possible, he left the bath and reentered his room.
When he first moved, he had full intentions to make the other bedroom his home office, but the master bedroom was so spacious that his desk fit in there fine. Most nights when Reed worked on cases, he was sprawled across his oversized king bed. Generally, he would read over and through file after file from the comfort of his bed with whatever late-night talk show playing in the background. So it made sense to keep his desk there too. Maybe someday, he would get around to cleaning and convert the other room. God knows he did not intend for it to be a second bedroom like when Hunter lived there with his daughter.
Finally bare of all his clothes, Reed stepped into the scalding water and appreciated the pressure that never failed to pummel every one of his muscles. Once washed and freshly shaved, he stepped out of his glorious shower and padded into his bedroom with just a thick black towel draped low across his hips. He pulled out a pair of jeans and a black sweater from his closet and got dressed.
As he walked down the stairs fully dressed, he clasped his watch into place and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. Chugging it, he now noticed the top piece of mail. It was a petition for signatures to stop the refurbishing of the old church. A contractor, a kind of real estate mongrel, had bought the eyesore that hadn’t amazingly fallen in on itself. But now that the project was almost complete, the hoity-toity of the town was grasping to keep it from completion. However, for the years it remained in ruins, never once had the town or any sort of diocese shown interest in it. Only when someone else had visions that some didn’t agree with was it a problem. As far as Reed was concerned, let them bring new life into the town.
It was these kinds of concepts that Reed was so anxious to see come to fruition when he took office. No longer would new and fresh be equivalent to wrong nor was old and well used synonymous with outdated. There was a balance to everything. New enterprises meant new money; keeping the old church untouched just meant that eventually the fire department would have a new training ground.
Throwing the piece of mail in the recycling bin, Reed grabbed his keys and headed downstairs. He removed his leather coat from the closet and headed off to his evening plans.
Stopping quickly at Molly’s, where his beautiful sister-in-law Molly had his order packaged up and waiting for him, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and got back into his SUV to head to the old fabric mill. Finding a spot on the street, he grabbed the warm-to-the-touch bag. While heading in, he noticed the small moving truck backed up toward the door with its back door open.
Climbing the four flights of stairs, Reed walked down the hall toward his destination. He passed the only neighboring apartment and noticed its sliding door open. He heard its occupants complaining about which box had a certain item. When he reached his brother’s door he didn’t bother to knock, he just slid the oversized warehouse door to the right and entered the apartment.
A round of cheers met Reed’s entrance. Around the expansive room, four of his brothers—five if you count the adoptive one, Jamie Dwyer—all focused on the pregame commentary on the large eighty-inch flat screen currently suspended on the wall between the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Reed walked to the open seat on the equally large brown leather sectional sofa, placing the bag on the glass coffee table, and removed his coat.
“When the hell did you guys get that thing?” he asked indicating the television.
Mason looked up, meeting his brother’s eyes as he was already placing wings on his plate, and answered, “What? That old thing?” Pointing his thumb over his shoulder to where the flat screen was, he wore a devil-like smile on his face.
Casey popped up from his seat on the end of the sectional, grabbed a wing, and added, “What’s a bachelor pad without a huge ass TV?”
Reed met his older brother’s eyes to his left, and all three just shook their heads with humor. It was easy to tell that Casey, Mason, and Jamie were indeed living the life of bachelors. They never spared any expense when it came to new toys. Each were driving brand new vehicles—trucks for Casey and Jamie and an over-the-top Mustang Cobra for Mason. Their apartment never went without the newest gaming system or gadget.
All their electronics were sitting nicely on glass shelves in a sleek black TV stand below the flat screen. To the left of the couch was a large corner kitchen with black cabinets topped with polished granite counters. Four high back black stools lined the eat-in counter. To the right of the kitchen and behind the couch was the stairs to the loft which housed Mason and Jamie’s bedrooms, and Casey’s was below tucked behind the staircase. Reed knew the two bedrooms upstairs shared a bath between them while Casey had one downstairs. Overall, it was a great space and fit the needs of its three occupants perfectly.
As the national anthem performance concluded, Mason ran to the kitchen to grab everyone a beer. As he handed one to Reed, Reed remarked, “So I noticed your neighbors are moving out. Couldn’t keep the noise down or something?”
With a mouth full of chicken and a dribble of sauce on his chin, Casey grabbed a napkin and said, “Nah, they were a cool couple, but the tall one, Frank, got transferred to Maine for work so they were relocating there.”
“At least everyone won’t think the top floor of the building is only for same-sex couples anymore,” Mason interjected, as the game began.
Hunter laughed, took a sip of his cool beer, and added, “Oh yeah, between the three of you and that couple, I did hear a rumor or two.”
“Rumor, my ass. My cock is the only cock in my relationships,” Mason all but shouted, more so because of the stupid opening penalty called at the Bruins than the sexual orientation topic.
“I only wanted to cuddle that one time. Jeez,” Jamie exclaimed, ducking the pillow that Casey threw at him.
Licking his own fingers, Gage spoke up. “Do you know if it is taken yet because I know Bree is looking to get out of where she is.”
Reed wondered if he was the only one who noticed the way Jamie’s head turned toward Gage when he mentioned their little sister. Maybe it was because he was sitting next to him, but he seemed a little too eager for information to be nonchalant.
Bringing his now empty plate to the trash in the kitchen, Mason responded. “Too bad for little sis. I spoke with Grant, the building manager, and he said it had already been rented.”
Reed tried to block out the round of oh wells and now in-apartment commentary about the on-ice fight that just broke out, nearly cleared both benches, and tried to focus on the game. It wasn’t until the ring of a cell phone that his head came back to the occupants of the room.
Gage took out his phone from his pants pocket and stepped away from the couch. Reed turned his head to watch as his oldest brother stood off to the right of the door wondering if everything was okay with his pregnant sister-in-law,
Gage’s wife, Delaney.
Catching the tail end of the conversation, he heard Gage say, “Yeah, no, that is fine, Paige. Just make sure Dustin can cover the shift, and you are good to go. No problem. Okay. Bye.”
Walking back and taking his place on the sofa, Gage settled as Hunter asked if everything was okay.
“Yeah, it was just Paige. She wants to use some vacation time at the end of the week and just wanted to run it past me.”
“Oh, and where is the delectable Deputy Kinsella taking that gorgeous body of hers? Mexico? The Caribbean?” Mason asked, oblivious to the many sets of eye rolls at his obvious infatuation with Gage’s female deputy.
With a quiet laugh, Jamie egged on Mason’s soft spot for Paige. “Still won’t give you the time of day, will she? When will you ever learn, Mase? That girl is way too smart for you, and she knows it. Take it like a man and move on.”
With an annoyed down curve of his eyebrows, Mason tried to convince everyone in the room, including himself, that he was, in fact, no longer crushing on Paige. “I gave up a long time ago on her; can’t I just appreciate God’s chiseling skills when such a perfect specimen is in the vicinity?”
Always up for a good brotherly ribbing, Gage added fuel to the fire. “Yeah, gave up. Weren’t you just hanging around my station the other day badgering the poor girl to have dinner with you?”
“No, that was me, Gage. Jesus, thirty-five years and you still can’t tell us apart,” Casey joked, as he leaned his face close to his fraternal brother, who looked the least like him compared to all the brothers.
Mason, the youngest twin by four minutes, was the only one who got their maternal grandfather’s brown eyes opposed to the signature Dennison blue. Mason was the only one to break the mold. When Bree was born six years later, the big question was whether she would continue with the Dennison tradition of blue eyes or be a rebel like her closest-in-age sibling. Considering Bree’s eyes were as blue as the sky meant Mason was the only one to break tradition.
Before too long, the game was over, the Bruins victorious by the gleam of their skates, and it was time to head out. With a good-bye to everyone, Reed headed out the door toward his car. Reaching the stairs, Reed came to a halt when Hunter and Gage called out to him.
“You seem in an awful rush to run off. Meeting someone?” Hunter inquired from his left as they began down the stairs.
Ignoring the obvious look into his life, Reed focused on his feet connecting with the next sequence step. Gage’s heavy foot treads behind him reminded Reed that neither of his older brothers would let such an opportunity pass by.
“Meeting up with a hot little lawyer or some smoking dirty paralegal?” Gage gleefully added.
The three men reached the outside entrance, and Reed turned to both men and smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” He began stepping backward away from the two shit-eating grins in front of him.
“We would,” Hunter answered standing shoulder to shoulder with Gage.
Reed stopped and pointed his finger at the duo. “Just because the two of you are in marital bliss doesn’t mean the rest of us are on the same road.”
“So that would mean you are going home to a lonely wank or two, huh?” Gage offered as an answer.
Reed just shook his head. With a quick salute, he turned around and climbed into his SUV.
Gage and Hunter remained where they stood watching Reed’s Escalade pull out and head down the street.
“He is definitely going home to jerk off by himself,” Hunter said.
Gage agreed. “Definitely.”
Five days later, Colby was loading the last of her boxes into her cousin Paige’s Yukon. She climbed into the passenger seat, throwing her head back against the leather seat, and let out a long deep breath.
“Every time I move, I say it will be the last when deep down inside I know it won’t. But goddamn, all that stuff is heavy.”
Paige laughed, as she gulped down a bottle of water, before swallowing and responded. “Well, if you grew a little meat on your bones, you might not think all that stuff was so heavy?”
She was only giving her cousin a hard time; after all, Paige considered herself in top shape physically considering her job, and even she was exhausted. And they hadn’t even got to the unloading part. But at least Colby’s new apartment building had an elevator. That should help. Not to mention, if they played their cards right, Paige was counting on Colby’s new neighbors to be around to help move all these boxes.
Colby and Paige were first cousins. Colby’s mom and Paige’s dad were brother and sister. Colby’s dad was never in the picture, so Uncle Patrick had stepped in as her father figure until he passed away when Colby was just seven and Paige just shy of her sixteenth birthday. Colby’s mom passed just a few years ago after a brief but aggressive battle with brain cancer, leaving Colby alone. Luckily, she and Paige had always been close despite their age difference.
“I’ll have you know I’ve gained ten pounds since I saw you last,” Colby answered rather begrudgingly, self-conscious of being so small. Her mother was a very petite woman as well, and Colby took after her in body and spirit. To Colby, the recent weight gain was obvious on her frame, but apparently, she was the only one who noticed.
Giving up on the subject, the girls began to chat about the excitement of finally living in the same town. They had been talking about it for years, especially after Colby’s mom had passed, but Lancaster was as close as Colby got. Excited about the promise of a new adventure, Colby was grateful for all of Paige’s help. Paige had gotten Colby an apartment and a job. With the help of the decent savings she had from her mom and a job already in place, Colby was confident money wouldn’t be an issue for a while. They would be moving all the boxes into the apartment tonight then they would head back to Paige’s for dinner and to crash. Tomorrow, the plan was to move the bed from Paige’s spare room over to Colby’s new place. Paige had only kept the extra bed in hopes Colby would come and stay, even though that never happened. Paige always went to Colby; she used the opportunity to escape every now and then. She had lived in Clearwater Falls since her dad died and her mom moved her there to live with her grandmother so she could take off and find herself after her grief. As far as Paige knew, her mother was still looking; she hadn’t heard from the woman in over ten years.
The hour-long trek flew by as the girls caught up with each other and formulated a plan of attack on how to unload the truck quickly. Paige kept the intention to get some help when they got there to herself.
When they pulled into town, Paige pointed out many places to Colby including the station house, her house, and of course, Molly’s, where Paige got Colby a job. They continued down Main Street finally pulling off where the fabric mill was, and Paige pulled right up to the door. Low and behold, their timing was perfect; Paige’s eyes fell on the three men walking toward the entrance to the building.
Paige climbed out, indicating for Colby to do the same. Mason spotted her first.
“Hey, Kinsella, you know there are parking spots for a reason, right? Just because you have four-wheel drive doesn’t mean you have to use it.”
Mason stepped right up to Paige so he stood next to her, gently bumping her with his shoulder. Paige just rolled her eyes. Not one of the three noticed the petite girl walking around the back of the SUV to stand next to her cousin.
When Colby joined them, Casey was the first to respond. “Hey, you a friend of Paige’s? Haven’t seen you around before.”
Before Colby could respond, Paige beat her to it. “This is my cousin, Colby Jackson. Colby, this is Mason, Casey, and Jamie. Guys, Colby is going to be your new neighbor.”
“Thank God, a pretty thing to look at on the fourth floor,” Mason said with his head tilted up toward the sky.
Paige looked bothered; Casey and Jamie shook their heads while Colby laughed at Mason’s theatrics.
“Well, I will take that as a compliment,” Colby responded, extending her hand to Mason. He took and
shook it gently while a smile graced his face. Casey and Jamie were next to greet her, and without Paige having to suggest, they offered to help unload the truck.
Colby and Paige each carried a box while each of the men carried two. The elevator was still the original warehouse style, with the pull-down doors and cage locking security, but that meant it was easily large enough for all five to fit comfortably with the boxes. When the elevator reached the top floor, Colby listened to Jamie’s explanation of how to disengage the security cage and then led the way down the hall to her new apartment door.
Thrilled with seeing the refurbished yet original mill parts, including her sliding industrial door, Colby balanced her box on a raised knee and unlocked the door with the key that was in her jeans pocket. Sliding the door and stepping in, she took her first look at her new home. The two-story ceiling with equally high windows would bring amazing light into the room. A quaint yet complete kitchen was straight ahead along the wall of windows. To the left was an alcove underneath a loft that Colby had full intentions of using as a bedroom area, leaving the open loft above for storage for her paint supplies. From what she could see, a bathroom was to the right of where she assumed would be the living room area. Overall, Colby was speechless as to how perfect this place was. She didn’t think there were even words to thank Paige for this amazing find. Lost in her euphoria, she didn’t notice that the guys had asked her where to place the boxes, but thankfully, Paige was there to answer. “Anywhere would do.”
The three men went down to get another load of boxes, leaving the two women alone. Paige stood next to her cousin, draping an arm around her waist and pulling Colby to her. Colby returned the hug wholeheartedly, allowing her appreciation to remain wordless.
The girls were discussing decorating options when Mason, Casey, and Jamie returned again carrying two boxes each. Colby and Paige came out of their dawdling and joined the trio for another round, and hopefully, the last of their trips. Granted, she didn’t take a lot with her—given mostly everything other than her clothes and paint supplies were furnished with the apartment—so thankfully that resulted in it all fitting in one vehicle. The few canvases in Paige’s backseat were the only things left. Colby was having the large canvases and finished paintings delivered to her at the beginning of next week; she didn’t want to damage them in transit.
