Page 20 of I Found You
“Just text her, tell her you had too much to drink and you’re staying the night at my place. We can walk over there as soon as I close out the tab,” I said.
“No, I can’t do that to you. I’m pretty sure Candace will be sorely disappointed if she doesn’t get to see what’s inside your… house.” He laughed at himself and almost fell off his chair.
“Okay, brother. Let’s get you out of here.” I gave the signal to Ronnie to close out the tab and told Candace that it’d been fun, but I wouldn’t be taking her up on her offer tonight. Apparently, Rachel wasn’t far from here, so she and Seb headed to her place. Candace didn’t seem too happy about how the night ended, but she gave me a hug and told me to “take care.” She didn’t ask for my number, and I didn’t ask for hers.
Back at my place, I threw a blanket at Luke so he could get settled on the couch.
“What about a pillow,” Luke asked with a huff.
“What are you talking about? The couch has pillows on it already.”
“Those are throw pillows, idiot. I need a bed pillow.”
“Oh, fuck off, Fancy,” I said. Grabbing one of the pillows off my bed, I threw it at his head as hard as I could.
I expected to hit the bed and crash. After a long, laborious day working on Maeve’s house and a fun night out with the guys, I was drunk and bone-tired, but for some reason, sleep was eluding me. I should have been disappointed that I didn’t have someone warming my bed; instead, I had my cockblocking little brother in my living room. But honestly, it didn’t bother me. It was nice to see Luke let loose a bit tonight. I think he needed it.
While I lay awake in bed, I thought about other work that I could do around Maeve’s house. Thinking of Maeve caused visions of her playing with her toy to infiltrate my mind. She must have seen the box on the counter. She knew that I knew she had it. Knowing Maeve, she was probably mortified. I could picture her face when she found it, eyes round and unblinking, pretty pink blush coating her skin, her mouth making a perfect O shape as her jaw hit the floor.
9
Maeve
Oh. My. Goodness. I could hear Wyatt’s truck as he pulled up outside my house. What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to say? Did I just blurt out, “A friend gave it to me as a joke”? Did I not say anything at all?
He saw my vibrator. I’d never even used one before. I thought I was embarrassed when I was caught ogling him yesterday; that was nothing compared to how mortified I was when I walked into my bathroom and saw that box on my counter.
Oh no!He was coming to the door. I could hear his footsteps. Maybe I would just ignore him. Hide in my house until he left.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
I froze. I didn’t know what to do. What did he think about me now? Not that I thought he was thinking about me.Okay, get it together.He probably chuckled and never thought of it again. He wasn’t looking at me, with my rolls and dimples in places other than my (face) cheeks, like that. He’d probably seen a lot crazier things than one small vibrator, in a box, noless.It’s fine. Everything is fine.I took a few calming breaths, my heart rate gradually decreasing back to its normal rhythm.
I opened the door to find Wyatt and a second, younger version of Wyatt.
“Morning,” I said cheerfully. “I didn’t realize you were coming over this morning. With company.” I smoothed my sundress. Today’s was light green with white butterflies that were so small they looked like polka dots from afar and tucked my hair behind my ears.
“Maeve, this is my youngest brother, Reid.” He made the introductions, and I got a quick “Hey” from Reid. He had an easy smile that made him look even younger than he probably was, which was already pretty young. It reminded me of Wyatt’s smile, when he chose to discard the smirks and sly grins for the real thing.
Jane started making some noises from her bouncy chair. I swore she heard Wyatt’s voice and was just looking for attention. Of course, it worked. Wyatt blew right past me into the house. Reid paused like he didn’t want to be rude and follow in his brother’s footsteps. I just shook my head and opened the door wider, gesturing for Reid to come in too.
Wyatt moved with confidence through my house to get to her. He picked her up and tickled her cheek and neck with the scruff from his beard. And there went my heart rate again. Something about him looking so comfortable in my house, playfully showering this little girl in love, was doing things to me.
“You want to meet Jane?” he asked Reid. He looked like a proud father in that moment, eyes bright, smiling down at her.
“You know she’s not yours, right?” Reid’s eyebrows quirkedup, but an amused expression flitted across his face.
Wyatt’s eyes visibly dimmed, and I found myself not liking Reid very much at all. It didn’t last long though. Wyatt recovered in the blink of an eye. “You come look at this little girl and tell me she doesn’t steal your heart, I dare you.”
Reid went to stand on the side of Wyatt, reaching over and tickling the baby in Wyatt’s arms. “Hey, baby Jane. You got this big fucker wrapped around your little pinky finger, don’t you?” he cooed. Jane cooed back, presumably in agreement. She really did have Wyatt in the palm of her hands.
“Hey, I hope you don’t mind me popping by. I noticed some of these boards needed to be replaced on your front porch, so I stole Reid for the day so we could replace them. I don’t want you tripping down the stairs holding Jane.”
The small front porch covered my entry door and spanned to the right to cover the rest of the front of the house. It wasn’t in total disrepair and already looked better after the pressure washing yesterday, but some of the boards had started splintering. And the stairs were a bit rickety.
Reid started getting set up, gathering their tools and equipment. When he went to the truck for something, I took the opportunity to talk to Wyatt alone.
“Wyatt, I can’t really afford all this. I’m on a teacher’s salary, which I think we both know is laughable. I don’t go back to work for another three weeks, and I’m not sure if I’m going to be paying for childcare for Jane or what. I don’t really have a lot of extra right now, even with the payments from DCF for Jane.”
