Page 65 of Set Me On Fire

“So, how’d it go today?”

The McDonald phone tree had obviously been activated, and everyone knew what was supposed to happen.

“I just want the record to show that I knew how bad men are, and I still let you date my bestie.”

I avoided his question, opening the door, because I wanted to be sitting down when I talked to Brock about it. Knox’s steady gaze, his cool words, they were like a slap to my face. He just wanted to move on from that night, and I hated that I was right.

Of course, I couldn’t just go inside and sit down with my brother and have a cup of tea. Hunt was measuring things up in my kitchen and Hayden was scribbling down notes on a pad of paper, both of them looking up guiltily as I walked inside.

“What’re you two doing here?” My exhaustion was evaporating by the second. “Are there some baby daddies in my kitchen cupboards that need chasing away?”

“We’re sorry.”

Hayden moved to the table and pulled out a chair. It took me seconds to realise who that was for. My eyes narrowed, waiting for him to yank it out from under me, but instead he pushed it in as I sat down. Hunt dove for the kettle, an array of mugs already set up on the counter.

“We are complete dickheads.” Hunter gestured to the table, and that’s when I saw it. They’d upended a brand new packet of Tim Tam biscuits on my dining table, spelling out…

“Zorry?” I asked.

“Sorry.” Hunter tweaked the S a bit.

“That looks like a five now,” I said.

“Look—”

He sucked in a breath as Hayden drifted closer, the two of them standing together, which was part of the problem. They always had someone at their back, whereas I had… Brock, it appeared, my eldest brother coming to stand at my shoulder.

“We fucked up,” Hayden said. “We were in our own heads thinking our sister, our family, our?—”

“Selves.” Hunter nodded, and with a blink, I saw something so rare I was forced to stare. His cocky facade cracked and something else replaced it. Was my brother doubting himself? “We were being really fucking selfish, and whatever you need us to do to make up for that, we’ll do it. We’re already doing an audit of the apartment, looking at ways we can baby proof the place. I dunno what the body corporate says, but I think we can clad the balcony railing temporarily so that it's safe for bubs, but you can take it down later when he or she is bigger.”

“You two are dickheads, you know that, right?” I said. Jamie appeared from the bathroom, watching what went down with a wary eye. “Like complete and utter dickheads.” The kettle whistled, but they all just stayed there, staring at me. “I don’t need you to protect me from every bloke in the entire world.” I expected them to argue, but instead, they all just nodded quietly. “I’m going to go on dates with arseholes, have my heart broken. I just don’t expect my own brothers to be the ones doing the breaking.”

“Mills…”

Hunter reached forward, but I dodged around him, turning the damn kettle off, my hands shaking. It hurt, and on top of that was a customary need to pretend it didn’t, because I’d get no sympathy from my brothers. Instead, I poured the hot water into the mugs, stirring the coffees before going to carry them over to the table.

Only to find the boys were ready to take over the job.

Jamie steered me back towards the table where I picked up a Tim Tam and shoved it in my mouth, suddenly hungry. I crunched the biscuit as my tea was set down before me.

“What we did was over the top, misogynist and came from a place where we assumed you couldn’t handle yourself,” Hayden said as he sat down.

He didn’t have my attention, but Jamie did.

“You got stuck into them, didn't you?”

“I may or may not have spent several hours lecturing each one of them.” She shot the twins a dark look, but even Brock didn’t escape her scorn. “We had a complex discussion about their knowledge of how crappy men can be versus my assertion that women are masters of their own fate, just like they are, and all this manly bullshit should come forth in response to something actually happening, not to prevent you from ever having a chance of connecting with a guy.” She shot me a sheepish smile. “Guys. So…”

Her eyes brightened as she looked me over.

“How did it go? Did you let them know? Do they want to be involved fathers?”

“They’d want to…” Hunter muttered, yelping when Jamie shoved her elbow into his ribs.

“It went as well as I expected. Knox?—”

“That’s what one of the guys’ names is?” Hunter said, then nudged Hayden. “Write that down.”

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