Page 25 of Stepping Up

“Kind of,” I admitted with a grimace. “Sorry, I know it’s overstepping?—”

“You think?” she huffed.

“It’s just—it just occurred to me. I want to be there for you. For Ella. I wasn’t able to be there for the past five years, and if I’d known…” I let myself trail off, let her fill in the I would have been there herself. “It’s not the most conventional arrangement, and I haven’t thought out all the logistics. But I have a lot of lost time to make up for. Maybe this would be a good way for me to get to know Ella, and you, and to get out of the newlyweds’ way.”

Her expression softened. What I wouldn't give to know exactly what was going on inside her head as she carefully chewed her lip in thought. I knew I wasn’t going to get an easy answer just yet—at least, not the one I was hoping for, and she’d already had plenty of opportunity to give me a flat-out no—but I was willing to meet her wherever she was right now. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be another five years before she decided.

“Jesus Christ.” Carly laughed. “I’m not saying yes, but… well, maybe I’m insane, but I’ll think about it.”

That wasn’t a no, and that was good enough for me.

15

NATE

Another day in paradise, I thought idly as I strode into the back door to Forge just before the start of my shift. Like some goddamn sitcom character, I said hello to my coworkers as I passed them on the way to the back office, a casual spring in my step.

Even though I was a co-owner at Forge, it still felt like I was intruding as I pushed open the door to Logan's office. Especially when I found him hunched over his desk, a pile of paperwork scattered in front of him. I blinked, wondering if I’d seen that right.

"Hey, big bro,” I started casually. “Not that it’s not great to see you, but… what brings you in on your day off?"

Logan glanced up, a flicker of surprise crossing his features. "Hey, Nate. Just needed to check on a few things. You know how it is."

I raised an eyebrow, leaning against the doorframe. "Uh-huh, sure.” I did not know how it was, and the normal Logan wouldn’t expect me to. We had very different views on work-life balance. Namely, I had one. “Everything okay?"

Logan let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, everything's fine. I just… didn't want to be at my apartment right now."

I could sense there was more to it than he was letting on, and if I were taking a page out of his book, or even Bennett’s, I wouldn’t have pushed. But I was always a nosy bastard. "Why not? You bury a body under the floorboards or something?"

Logan rolled his eyes at me. “I’m a little busy.”

“Not too busy to tell me what’s going on with you,” I countered. I came further into the room and flopped hard into the chair across from him, leaning back casually to prop my feet up on the edge of his desk. I gave him a shit-eating grin, too, since I knew he hated when I used furniture in not the way that God intended. “Please, share with your much handsomer, more charming younger brother. Anything new?”

"Actually, yes,” he finally huffed out, and I didn’t expect the words that came out of his mouth next one bit. “I, uh, I slept with Carly."

My jaw practically hit the floor. For a second, I thought I’d heard wrong. Logan had slept with Carly? My uptight, always professional brother had crossed the ultimate line and slept with one of his employees, and she was our stepsister now to boot?

And hell, that wasn’t even the most shocking part. There was also the fact that, if I heard him correctly, this was the same Carly that I'd been harboring feelings for longer than I cared to admit. It knocked the wind out of me for a second, the realization that my brother had beaten me to the punch.

"Seriously?" I managed to choke out, trying to mask the surge of jealousy that coursed through me.

Logan nodded, his expression a mix of confusion and uncertainty. "Yeah. It was… unexpected, to say the least."

I swallowed hard, trying to wrap my head around the idea of Carly and Logan together. Had I manifested this somehow with all of my gloom-and-doom thoughts of how Carly was too good for me, how she deserved someone who had their shit together more fully? Fuck, that would be so annoying if it were true. And just so typical of my luck, honestly.

"So, uh, does this mean you guys are… dating?" I asked cautiously, unsure whether I even wanted to hear the answer. Logan wasn’t really the type to hook up outside of the confines of a commitment. Not that he’d had a lot of committed relationships in recent years, either.

Logan shrugged, his shoulders tense. "Fucking hell, I don't know. Probably not, right? I mean, we barely even talked. We definitely didn't talk about that."

“Kinda hard when you’re too busy boning each other’s brains out,” I said, and Logan cringed at my crassness. I felt a surge of hope flicker within me at his words, but I quickly squashed it down. This wasn't about me, it was about Logan. I loved the guy, wanted him to be happy almost more than I wanted it for myself. And if he wanted Carly, then who was I to stand in his way?

"Well, hey, as long as you're happy, man," I said, forcing a smile. It turned real, though, when my joking instinct kicked in. "And if you're not, well, you let her know I’m still available. She knows where to find me if she wants her world rocked for real."

Logan reached over to knock my feet off his desk, which had me laughing in a half-assed way, more subdued than I would have been if I weren’t struggling to choke down my envy. But then we met each other’s eyes, and some flicker of feeling passed from me to him and back again, and goddamn it, I was not looking to have a brotherly heart-to-heart right now. Logan called the shots, though, as usual, and he knew me too well. “Wait. Shit. Are you… are you into Carly?”

My sigh blew out from between my lips in that horsey way that made Bennett laugh when he was younger. My own hand came up to drag through my hair, and wouldn’t you know it? It didn’t help one bit. I had no clue why Logan did that shit so often. He’d go bald for sure.

“I mean, yeah,” I finally admitted. “Of course, dude. But I’m not the commitment type she probably wants, and you are. Plus, if I have to share her with anyone, you’d be my number-one pick. Couldn’t happen to a better dude, you lucky bastard.”

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