Page 88 of My Ex's Brothers

21

RICHARD

After the soapopera I came home to, I needed to keep my hands busy more than ever.

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been in some interesting situations over the course of my life, with and without my ex-wife, but I never thought in a million years I’d find myself part of some fucking polycule harem shit.

Let alone one with my fucking brother and stepbrother.

On paper everything looks like a badly written romance novel. It’s insane.

Amelia is the mother of my niece. My asshole, idiot brother fucked up the best thing he’s ever had, and in turn my brothers and I stepped up to help her and take care of her, and now we’re all like her live-in fucktoys.

It’s weird. But it’s also…not weird.

I meant what I said. About rebuilding. After my divorce with Ellyn, I wasn’t ready to startdating.But I was horny as fuck, and I needed the distraction from my failure of a marriage, so I did what any self-respecting athlete in his prime would do—I spent a whole year on Tinder fucking anyone who would make me forget about my disaster of a love life.

So I get that Amelia isn’t looking for anything serious. She’s a mother, not Mother Theresa, and she’s been going like the damn Energizer Bunny ever since Dex dropped the fucking ball.

I’m not trying to replace Dex. I just want to give Amelia an outlet to blow off some fucking steam, because I know what it’s like to need the relief. I want to take the reins from her and give her a fucking break.

She deserves that, and all the orgasms I can wring out of her.

I know it should be simple. I’m not offering a lifelong commitment here. I know enough to know that she’ll rest her head here until she gets on her feet, and then whatever has happened between us will disappear. I’m not part of Amelia’s happy ever after. I’m not the guy that does happy ever after, that’s more than clear. Dane’s Prince Charming.

I’m just the guy you fuck to forget about your problems for a minute. The guy who comes in and scrambles your brain like eggs in the skillet and gives you the chance to work things out on your own.

And Tripp…

God knows what that kid’s MO is. I don’t know what the fuck a woman like Amelia sees in a kid like Tripp.

Iknowhe’s not a kid. He’s a fucking adult, and he reminds us of that constantly. But he’ll always be the scrawny thirteen-year-old boy with braces to me.

I’m not that close with Tripp. I never was. Dane has a better relationship with him than I do, and their relationship is mostly based on hockey and Dane letting Tripp do whatever he wants within reason. I don’t know the first thing about connecting with him. Aside from hockey, I don’t think we have much in common. Except, now I guess we have Amelia in common.

I still don’t know how to feel about the whole situation, so instead of thinking, I focus my attention somewhere it will actually help. On Amelia’s Jeep. I know she’s anxious to get her car back, and I get that. It’s a pain in the ass to rely on other people when you’re a fiercely independent person. I have a feeling Amelia’s been on her own longer than when Dex was in the picture. Long before he was even a blip on her radar.

Although, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to drag the process out, purely for the fact that I know it means our time spent together will be limited.

I like spending time with Amelia. It’s nice to be around someone who’s not a part of my boring-ass life. Who isn’t some puck chaser or a pain in the ass lawyer or someone who shares my DNA.

While I wait for the converter to come in, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to do some more work on other parts of the car that could use attention. New rotors, brakes. Maintenance shit.

Shit that Dex should have done for his girlfriend, but obviously didn’t care to do.

It pisses me off sometimes, how much of an asshole he is, considering we grew up with the same parents, in the same house.

Dane’s a good guy, I can admit that. He has his faults, sure. We all do, no one’s perfect, but he’s loyal, respectful, and he would do anything for the woman he loves, as it should be. Though I can count on one hand the number of girlfriends he had, I know his issue isn’t that he’s a bad boyfriend in any sense of the word.

It’s that everyone compares him to Dex. They always have. Kind of hard not to, when Dex is Captain Charisma and throws the man under the bus all the fucking time. But all that changed when Dex and Amelia left for Florida, and now…

Now Dex has gone radio silent, and I for one am glad.

Because if I see that motherfucker I’m going to punch him square in his fucking jaw.

And me…well, I guess I used to be all the good things too, but now I’m not entirely sure who I am. I don’t know who I want to be anymore, other than just not fucking stressed.

And it seems like no matter how hard I try to avoid it, stress and trouble find me.

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