Page 19 of The Brothers Next Door

Chapter 9

Layla

“Taste this,” Nate said, causing me to turn my attention to him. We were at an Italian restaurant, in a wrap around booth with me seated between the brothers. I opened my mouth and accepted a bite of the ravioli he was offering, feeling a little uneasy performing what I felt was an intimate act when his brother was at my other side. Up until now it had felt rather normal, albeit a little nerve-wrecking spending time with them both—until this moment. Now it was odd again.

“It’s good.” I gave a nod, smiling at him, our eyes locking a moment and causing my heart to skip a beat.

Gathering myself, I turned back to Darrin. “Have you had the ravioli here?”

“It’s good.” He smiled. “But have you tried the lasagna?” Before I could answer he scooped up a piece on his fork and held it to my mouth. I accepted the lasagna and began to chew, heat rising to my cheeks. Both men were as sexy-as-sin and both were lavishing every ounce of attention on me. As our meal progressed, it started to feel as though there was a competition going on between them. If there was, then I was the winner. I’d never had this much attention lavished on me before and had to admit I loved every second of it.

“I feel like I’ve talked about myself a lot tonight. I would like to hear more about you both.”

The brothers looked at each other and shrugged. Darrin was the one who spoke first. “We started on the force at the same time. We’ve been working for the NYPD for eight years now.”

“Who’s the better cop?” I asked, teasing.

Darrin was the one to answer. “I made sergeant first.”

“Show off. He made sergeant first because he’s a kiss ass,” Nate retaliated. “Your promotion only beat mine by five months. Next thing you’ll be bragging you were born eight minutes before me.”

“But we’re in different divisions. I’m in the anti-gang unit. Nate is narcotics.”

“Hmm.” My attention was fully on Darrin now. “Why did you choose anti-gang?”

His smile faded and silence overtook the table.

“There was an opening,” Nate offered for him. “Pretty much how it went down for me as well. There are a lot of people fighting for promotions so you take what you can get for the most part.”

“Do you like what you do? The division you’re in?”

“They suit us well enough,” Nate answered.

I chanced a look at Darrin, who was drinking down the remainder of his beer, his expression unreadable. It got me wondering if there was more to the story than they let on. Or maybe I was just reading more into it than necessary.

“What about you? Your job. It seems so…”

“Boring,” I filled in for Darrin, who’d finally decided to speak up and rejoin the conversation.

He grinned. “I’d never insult you like that.” It was nice to see the smile return to his lips and the dark cloud which had seemed to be floating over him at the mention of why he was in anti-gang unit lift away. “It means you have brains and smarts, which are always a sexy quality on a woman.”

“Liar.” I returned his grin. “It has its moments. It may not be out there cleaning up the streets of bad guys and keeping New Yorkers safe, but it’s a good wage under a semi stress-free environment. Numbers never lie and are never wrong. And there’s a sense of satisfaction knowing I’m helping people keep their hard-earned dollars where they belong—in their pockets.”

“Oh, so I should probably do my taxes then, huh?”

I laughed, looking at Nate. “Not until next spring. Unless you haven’t sent in this year’s yet? Please tell me you filed, the penalties for late filing are horrid!”

“I haven’t for a few years.”

I swear to God, my heart stopped beating and not in the sexy way he’d made it stop in the past. The expression on my face must have matched the feeling of horror and anxiety I was feeling because both brothers burst out laughing as I sat dumbfounded.

Nate grabbed my hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m messing with you, Layla. Of course it’s done.”

“And you’re up to date? If not, give me the returns and…” He may have been laughing but I was getting some serious anxiety from this.

“He’s really teasing, honest.” I felt Darrin take my other hand. “I do the taxes for both of us each year. Now if he didn’t have me to do them, then that would be another story entirely.”

Air returned to my lungs and I gave him a wobbly smile, feeling a little embarrassed for my overreaction. I saw people fall into the same trap every day and it upset me each time I saw people having to spend thousands of dollars they didn’t have needlessly. Why put off for tomorrow what you can do today, especially when it came to the important stuff like filing tax returns?

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