Page 12 of Mine to Keep

“I have a ton of chores to do, and I have to go food shopping. I am working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with JJ now, so I’m going to enjoy that before Camie slams my schedule again.”

“Sounds good. We’re all due for a night out.”

“Next weekend—that work?”

“I’ll let Joan and Lewis know.”

I ended the call and tried to focus on unpacking, changing my sheets, showering, and yet when I finally lay in bed at the end of the day, I stared at the ceiling.

Who in the world wanted to get my attention…and was it a good thing or a bad thing?

CHAPTER SIX

Nick

JJ caughton faster than anyone else as far as learning about cyber security; therefore, that was going to be his expertise. I was hoping each person would find their strength, but my brothers were turning out to be almost unteachable.

“Why am I getting some weird code thing?” Shep pointed to his screen.

“Because I told you to stop hitting those four keysonlyeleven times, and you keep clicking them.” I gritted my teeth. “How, Shep, how is this so hard? All I’m asking you to focus on is the rotation of cameras. Rotation!”

“It’s not like there’s a joystick to do it, Nick. You have me trying to program a schedule for them to spin around.”

I gripped my forehead with my hand and squeezed. The pressure was building. “I…yeah, I don’t know.” I threw my hands up in the air and walked out of the room.

In the kitchen, Mason was pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Hey, want one?”

I shook my head. “I think I need something far stronger.”

He chuckled. “It’s not noon yet.”

Just then, a chiming sound filtered through the house, indicating someone had just turned onto our lengthy driveway. I pulled out my phone to access the wildly turning cameras.

“Fucking Shep.” I moved to the front door and peeked out the window. Matt’s car was coming our way. It was Monday, so that meant he had therapy with JJ.

I walked back to the room where JJ was happily typing away, rocking his coding, a gleeful expression on his face.

“JJ, Matt’s here.”

“Oh!” I watched as he logged off properly. He stood, a little shaky after sitting too long most likely, and walked toward me. “It’s fun.”

“You know, JJ, you might be my favorite person aside from Noel.”

Shep, Gabe, and Angel collectively expressed their upset regarding my loud declaration. I smiled, patted JJ on the shoulder, and followed behind him as he went to the living room. Mason was letting Matt in as we entered.

“Hey.” JJ beamed.

Matt looked him up and down and frowned. “Are you in pain?”

JJ shrugged. “My fault. Nick is teaching us cool computer things, and I was supposed to get up and move around a bit, but I was having too much fun and forgot.”

Matt placed a bag by the door. “I think we should start with some massage, then.”

“Nice, a massage.” Mason smirked.

Matt glanced at me but focused back on JJ. “What’s hurting most right now?”

“Hips and knees, but it’s really not that bad.” JJ tried to brush it off, but Matt wasn’t having it.

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