The Big O Series

by M. S. Parker

  “Sorry, man. I don’t do that anymore. And I never took on guys.” He gave me a solemn look. “But I do know a few who do. Want their number?”

  I threw a shop rag at him, and he dodged it with a laugh. “You want to go back to your room and shower?” he asked, looking me up and down. “You’re a fucking mess.”

  I flipped him off on my way to turn off the open sign and make sure everything was locked up. The woman I employed part-time to help with the books and run payroll only came in the latter half of the week, and Bryce Tanner, my only full-time guy, worked from five in the morning until two in the afternoon, so for the past few hours, it had just been me.

  To be honest, I preferred it that way, but my garage wouldn’t ever grow if I only took on the work I could handle on my own.

  Besides, there was no way in hell I was going to handle contacting insurance companies and all those other headaches. That was what Sandra Parr had been hired for.

  “Why don’t you come on back?” I told him. “You can watch TV while I clean up.”

  He complied, ambling along next to me with a loose-hipped gait that made me think he must have been a cowboy in Texas, but he’d just been a kid, an all-around jock who’d been everybody’s best friend up until he’d made a stupid mistake. He’d paid for it and then some. But hell, it was amazing how he’d turned his life around.

  While he kicked back on my old, beat-up couch, I retreated into the tiny bathroom to scrub off the dirt. As I did that, I mentally tried to figure out when I’d done laundry last and what I had to wear that wasn’t just grease-streaked blue jeans and beat-up old band shirts or graphic T’s with rude suggestions on them.

  Just over an hour later, we stepped through the brightly lit, oversized loft apartment where Jake now lived with Michelle. It was more than twice the size of the apartment where my mom lived with Austen, and everything about it screamed class and money. Just like the sweet lady who lived there with one of my best friends.

  But as he called out for Michelle, there wasn’t any answer.

  “She must have gone out,” Jake said, tossing his keys down on the small wooden table that looked like it belonged in another century – and not the 1900s.

  He gestured for me to follow him into the kitchen. “Come on. I’ll go ahead and start dinner since she’s not here. We always eat around seven, so she’ll be here soon.” He frowned and pulled out his phone to check it. “She hasn’t texted me so she’s probably just out shopping.” He rolled his eyes. “She’s falling in love with shopping.”

  I chuckled. “Aren’t all women in love with it?”

  “She didn’t use to be.” He shrugged and went over to the sink to wash his hands. “She plans the week out when it comes to food. Today’s supposed to be pasta. That okay with you?”

  “Any food I don’t have to cook is fine with me,” I answered. This was turning out to be a good week. Two home-cooked meals that I didn’t have to go to the trouble of cooking.

  Not that I had much ability in the kitchen other than nuking a pizza or making macaroni and cheese.

  I’d just managed to pull up a stool to the kitchen island where Jake had put some water on to boil when the door to the apartment opened.

  Michelle’s voice rang out, and a grin split my buddy’s face. “She’s here.”

  “Is that a fact?” I responded with a straight face as he cut around the island to head for the living room.

  I got up to follow him but stopped dead.

  Michelle wasn’t alone.

  And the petite woman with flame-red hair standing next to her?

  It was the drop-dead gorgeous woman I’d kissed on New Year’s Eve.

  Ten

  Raye

  I so wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but I was already here.

  Michelle and I had spent the afternoon together, dropping into stores as we talked, and she shopped. After she asked where I worked, we dropped by my boutique, and inside, she hadn’t been like a demon with a credit card. She’d been like a kid in a candy store…with a credit card.

  I was in awe.

  Or at least I had been.

  Now I was feeling a little sick as I stood behind her, holding the few bags I’d talked her into letting me carry.

  She shot me a grin as she opened the door. “Relax. It’s better this way. Get it all over with in one shot, okay?”

  “And what if he doesn’t want to meet me?” I asked in a hurried whisper.

  “If I thought that was the case, you wouldn’t be here.”

  “But…how well do you know him?” I demanded. Then it dawned on me that she was unlocking the door – not knocking on it. “You live here. Are we going to his place next?”

  “This…is his place,” she admitted softly. She made a face and chewed her bottom lip for a second. “I wasn’t sure how to cop to that part. We’re…uh…the two of us have been living together for the past six months or so.”

  My mouth fell open in surprise, but I managed to snap it shut just as she pushed open the door. “Hey, Jake…we’re here!”

  Jake…?

  A tall, lean blond appeared in the door, a smile curling his lips as he looked at Michelle. That smile lit up his entire face, and I fell a little in love just looking at it.

  I wanted somebody in my life who looked at me like that.

  Movement behind him caught my eyes, and I glanced past him. Although I’d successfully managed to shut my mouth a few seconds ago, I found my jaw hanging open all over again.

  It was the big guy who’d saved me on New Year’s Eve.

  The guy who’d then kissed me.

  The guy who I’d been daydreaming about ever since.

  Oh…and the guy I’d slapped.

  Oh, shit – what if he was Matthew? Talk about awkward! Maybe I’d misunderstood Michelle. If that guy was my brother…my belly twisted violently at the thought, but as the blond stepped forward, Michelle reached back and took my hand. “Come on,” she whispered.

  She tugged on my hand persistently, pulling me forward and I went, still holding three shopping bags in my right hand. She’d dropped hers near the door, freeing her hands to hustle me deeper into the apartment.

  “Jake, there’s somebody I want you to meet,” Michelle was saying.

  Heat suffused my entire face, and I uneasily looked at the blond in front of me before shooting another look at the tall, dark stranger looming in the background.

  “Raye, this is Matthew – MJ – Jakes. He goes by Jake now.” Michelle winced, and I looked from her to Jake and saw that his mouth had gone tight. “Don’t look at me like that, baby. I’ve got a reason for telling her. She’s…” Michelle looked at me. “Do you want to tell him, or should I?”

  Matthew…

  I stared at the tall blond in front of me, stared into his blue eyes. Eyes a lot like mine, I realized. And the shape of his nose. Even the shape of his chin. He was Matthew, not the other guy. My knees might have melted in relief, except everything in me had gone rigid the moment he shifted those blue eyes my way.

  I couldn’t speak.

  Michelle was waiting for me to answer, and I couldn’t speak.

  “I guess I’ll tell him,” Michelle said lightly. She squeezed my hand in support, then looked back at Matthew. No. Jake. She said he went by Jake now. “Honey, Raye…Raye tracked me down because she wanted to talk to you. She thinks she’s your sister. And…”

  Michelle pulled out her phone. She’d had me text her the picture my mom sent me, and I guess that was what she was showing him.

  His mouth parted as he stared at the screen.

  “Where did you get that picture?” he asked, his voice rough.

  “Raye’s mama sent it to her. She said it was her father.”

  Jake looked at me, shaking his head. “I don’t understand.”

  To my horror, tears flooded my eyes, and all I could do was stare at him. Again. “I…um…” I finally squeaked out a few words after Michelle looked at me, waiting. This part
had to come from me, I realized. I understood the reason, and it made sense, but I couldn’t tell him yet. “Can I get some water?” I asked desperately. “Please?”

  Michelle poured me a glass of wine instead. I would have refused. I hated most wines unless I cut them with Sprite or something. They always made me feel like I’d shoved a handful of crackers into my mouth. But I was desperate for something to loosen my throat, and wine would probably do a better job than water would. Taking a gulp of it, I braced myself for the chore of swallowing – and hating it – only to be surprised by the sweet, fruity taste of the pale golden liquid.

  “Wow,” I said, the band around my throat loosened either by surprise or by the booze. “That’s good.”

  Michelle laughed. “I don’t do dry wines. You looked like you were preparing to eat a mouthful of sour grapes.”

  “I was.” I made a face at her, then took a second, smaller sip. After that, I put the glass down and made myself look at Matthew – Jake – standing across the island from me.

  “This is awkward,” I said softly. “I’m sorry.”

  “Just tell me,” he responded. It wasn’t said in a rude voice, just a…direct one.

  I got the feeling I was dealing with a blunt, no-nonsense sort of guy. I could appreciate that. Typically, that was how I preferred to face things. Just then, I could use a bush to beat around.

  “My mom had an affair,” I blurted out, just to get the worst of it over with. “It was with a married man. He…he traveled some because of his work. He lived in Texas, but he met my mom on a business trip when he was in Illinois. His name was Leland.”

  Jake’s mouth tightened slightly, but he didn’t say anything, gave no other reaction.

  “I didn’t find out about that until I was a teenager. Whenever I’d ask about my dad before that, I’d just get these vague answers.” I didn’t offer any of them because it didn’t matter just then. But I could remember the hurt I’d often felt on days when parents could come to field trips or to school parties, and nobody had been there. Mom always had to work, and…there was no father. “Finally, she told me about this guy she was with. She didn’t find out about me until a few weeks after it ended, and when she told him…well...”

  I hesitated for a moment, uncertain, but Jake pressed. “Well, what?”

  “He told her he didn’t want anything to do with us. I guess he had one family. He didn’t want a second.”

  “That doesn’t sound like my dad,” Jake said, shaking his head. “He and Mom always wanted another kid.”

  “But that was your mom, baby,” Michelle said gently.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Jake snapped, then softened his tone. “He’s not the kind of guy who’d brush off his responsibility like that.”

  “And how about how he treated you?” Michelle stared at him.

  I sensed a world of unspoken words between them and felt more out of place in that moment than I’d felt all day.

  Finally, Jake shook his head. “I’ll figure all of that out later.” His gaze came back to mine, speculation lurking there. “You’re sure this guy your mom was with…it was my dad?”

  “That’s what my mother says,” I answered weakly. I gestured toward the phone he still held. “She called me the other day, said she’d found a picture of him. She texted it to me and told me that on the back, his name was written down…” I looked away for a second, gripping the stem of the wine glass in my hand. Finally, I looked back at him and added, “And yours. MJ.”

  At the name, he flinched slightly and shook his head. “That’s not me anymore. That kid died a long time ago.”

  “But it was you,” I said, clinging to his words.

  “It was,” he allowed.

  I was dimly aware that the big guy was still watching us and part of me wanted to turn on him, tell him to go away. Why was he here? Listening to this private conversation? But this wasn’t my home. Jake and Michelle lived here, and if they didn’t care, I had no right to say anything.

  Yet I had the feeling that Jake had forgotten about him.

  He continued to eye me narrowly for the longest time, then finally lifted the phone with the picture still on display so he could study it. “My mom kept a copy of this picture on her dresser for most of my childhood. It was taken when I was in first grade,” he said softly. “Bring Your Dad to School Day. We were supposed to bring our dads in and…well, show them off. And I did. We had matching suits and Mom spent about ten minutes trying to make my hair stay down. You can tell it didn’t last.”

  “Yeah.”

  He shot me a look, a faint smile on his face.

  “So, I’ve got a sister.”

  “I think so.” I bit my lip, reluctant to let myself do much of anything just yet. Did this mean he believed me?

  “And Dad doesn’t know,” he said slowly.

  I shook my head.

  In the next moment, I was caught up in a tight hug. A watery laugh escaped me.

  Jake was hugging me. My brother was hugging me.

  I didn’t even know how to process that.

  I still clutched my wine glass, and if I didn’t think it would make me look like a lush, I might have tried to drink a little more of it, just to steady myself. Instead, I wrapped my free arm around his neck. Over his shoulder, I saw the other guy watching us and making no attempt to disguise it.

  “This is unbelievable,” Jake said, lowering me back to the floor and taking a step back.

  I managed a watery smile. “I know.”

  He glanced around, then frowned as he caught sight of the other guy. “Man, Kane, I’m sorry. I totally…anyway. Raye…it is Raye, right?”

  I nodded at him.

  “Raye, this is my friend, Kane Jonson.”

  Kane. As the big guy nodded at me, I tucked that name away in my heart like a secret.

  Kane continued to stare at me.

  “Kane, as you heard…this is Raye.” Jake was grinning at me, looking like he’d won the lottery. “Raye’s my sister.”

  “So, I heard,” came a deep, rumbling reply.

  The sound of his voice sent a shiver down my spine.

  Now that I was no longer caught up in a bear hug, I lifted the wine to my lips and emptied the glass.

  Eleven

  Jake

  She was a pretty little thing.

  Hesitant and shy…sort of. But there was something ballsy about her, too. How much guts had it taken to come here and meet Jake face to face?

  For all she knew, he would have laughed in her face and thrown her out on her ass.

  Some people might hear they had a brother and they’d only care about it if they stood to gain from it. Calie’s face came to mind, all her bold, brash ways and I found myself a little irritated by the fact that I’d even ever associated with somebody as cold as I knew Calie could be.

  Then there was Michelle, elegant and confident. If she’d been in Raye’s shoes, I thought she would have reached out, but not in person like this.

  She would have sent an email or written a letter. Something polite, like she was, and…aloof. Yeah, that was the word.

  “How did you track me down?” Jake asked.

  I tuned in on that part of the conversation as Jake led her over to the island, taking up the seat where I’d been sitting a little while ago. I wasn’t worried about it. It was easier to lurk on the fringes, and I didn’t want Jake to get it in his head to ask me to leave yet. I was…hell, the only word to describe it was intrigued. I felt stupid getting intrigued by a woman, but I was.

  This slim woman with the short red hair and the big blue eyes was intriguing. She wasn’t like some of the rougher women who ran with the guys I knew from my old life, and she wasn’t the smooth elegance that defined Michelle Nestor.

  I didn’t know how to define her yet, and I wanted to. I wanted to understand more about her, so I could classify her and put her in a neat little space in my head, and maybe stop thinking about her.

  “I started googling you,”
she admitted, sounding sheepish as she met his eyes. “I…” Her gaze fell away, and she said softly, “I read about your mother, and what really happened. I’m so sorry.”

  No beating around the bush for her, I thought. She just came right out and said it.

  I liked that.

  Jake’s mouth went tight, the way it always did when he was hiding his emotions. He just nodded and said, “Thanks. It’s been a long time.”

  “Finding out you got used like that…that wasn’t a long time ago. It had to be like reliving it all over again,” she said, voice gentle.

  “It was,” Jake admitted.

  I slid my gaze toward him, a little surprised to hear him admit it. He’d never told me that. But then again, I’d never thought to ask. I would have thought being cleared of the crime would…well, not change things. I didn’t know how I expected him to feel, I suppose. He’d never really understood that he was innocent. Not until years later. He’d been drunk on that terrible night and hadn’t realized that somebody else was driving the car that killed his mother. Hadn’t realized he’d been wrongly accused. Framed.

  Finding out he was innocent hadn’t brought his mom back. But knowing he hadn’t been the one to kill her had to make things…hell, I’d think it would make it better.

  But this girl with the sad, too-wise eyes had figured out something that hadn’t ever occurred to me.

  All of it had brought the hurt back.

  An awkward silence stretched out, and I was thinking about leaving. This wasn’t the night for an action flick or even just hanging out.

  But before I could suggest it, Michelle looked at me. “You still planning on joining us for dinner? Jake texted earlier, said he was dragging you over.”

  “Uh…”

  Raye’s eyes slid my way.

  “Seems like this is a weird night to do it,” I said finally.

  “Sit your ass down, Kane,” Jake said without looking at me. He crooked a grin at Raye. “He’s the closest thing I got to a brother. Guess you’ll end up getting to know him sooner or later. Might as well start now.”