Page 31 of A Package Deal

“Those are for you,” Warrick said gruffly, turning from the new stove top and clapping his hands. “Shall we go, Peaches?”

Georgia saluted him, something I’d never seen her do before and began to march for the front door, forgetting to say goodbye to her mother. I shook my head as Warrick marched after her, calling out silly marching orders that I was certain the military had never used, for good reason. Left, right, left. I know a soldier in Georgia. She feeds the goat-dogs corn dogs.

Georgia’s giggle trailed behind her as they went out the door. I stood there with a hot plate of pancakes staring after them. Pip scared the shit out of me when she stuck her head into the kitchen. I hadn’t realized she’d arrived already.

“Hot bratwurst you have there, Mrs. Wolfe. Kind too.” She shot me a lusty wink and began to sing a bawdy song as she got her supplies ready to keep staining the wood floors.

I wanted to tell her that he was not mine in any way, nor was she to call me Mrs. Wolfe, but the smell of the pancakes had made my stomach perk up and emit some terrible noises. Instead of arguing something Pip probably wouldn’t listen to anyway, I sat down at the dining room table and shoved the pancakes in my face until I was groaning at the tight fit of my jeans. With a full stomach, I got to work on the screened-in porch.

The two side walls and the front wall were framed, a true miracle that they’d gone up without a single hiccup. Next would be the ceiling joists, a heavy job of bracing two-by-sixes in the joist hangers. I took a small break to gulp down a full water bottle and was just about to get up on my ladder to start installing the hangers when my cell phone rang. Hoping it was a lawyer finally calling me back, I grabbed the phone and answered.

“Emmy!” my oldest brother called out.

“Anton, hey.” Disappointment flared that it wasn’t a lawyer, but I always loved to hear from one of my brothers.

“What project are you working on now, little sis?”

“Just framing out a screened-in porch. How about you?” I could hear machines whirling in the background. He had to shout to be heard over the racket.

“Just building a custom Corvette that had a bit of rust but a lot of promise.”

I shook my head. My oldest brother got paid an ungodly amount to restore old cars for rich guys who had nothing better to spend their money on. For my brother’s sake, I was happy about it.

Before I could answer, I heard a door close on the other end and the machine noise got a lot quieter. “Hey, I wanted to give you a heads-up.”

My stomach knotted. Given my bad luck streak, this serious tone from my happy-go-lucky brother didn’t bode well. “I saw Cayden in town over the weekend and he’s dating a woman. Looked serious.”

It was refreshing how much I found I didn’t care. “Is that all? I would assume he’d move on at some point.”

“I wanted you to hear it from me before any gossip got to you.”

Anton was a sweetheart for calling me with such uneventful news. He and my other brothers had been there for me when Cayden broke my heart. I couldn’t blame them for still worrying about me. I’d fallen apart spectacularly back then, but I had a feeling the pregnancy hormones had a lot to do with the intensity of my grief.

“He, uh…” I paced the porch floor. “He served me with papers last week, wanting custody.”

“He WHAT?” Anton exploded, breathing hard.

I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “Calm down, please. I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”

“Why didn’t you tell me right away?”

I threw out my hand, though I knew he couldn’t see me. “Because I knew you’d act like this! Listen, I have it under control. I’ve called a lawyer and Cayden won’t get his hands on Georgia. He abandoned us for five years. I trust a judge won’t forget that.”

“I’m going to have words with that fucker,” Anton muttered, his tone quieter, but deadlier in its calmness.

“Don’t. Anton, promise me. Last time you ‘had words’ with him, you all ended up in jail overnight.”

There was silence for so long, I pulled the phone away from my ear again to see if he’d hung up on me.

“Anton?”

“I’m here,” he growled, the happy brother I’d known my whole life nowhere to be found. “You go ahead with that lawyer, but if things start looking like they’re going south, you tell me. Swear to me you’ll tell me, Emmy.”

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but they won’t. And if you find out anything further about him and this woman he’s dating, let me know. If I can figure out why he’s so interested in Georgia all of a sudden, I can come up with a better defense.”

“Oh, you bet your ass I’ll find out.”

“Anton,” I sighed.

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