clouds parted just enough to allow the sun to break through. I expected him to tell me Dad approved of everything we were doing.
As we secured the frames into place, I backed off, needing some time before my brothers descended on me like the wolves the bastards were. I didn’t get ten feet away before a hand clamped down on my shoulder. I turned to face Quinn.
“Well?” He arched an eyebrow, and my stomach twisted.
“Well, what?” I could play dumb, but we both knew I wasn’t fooling him for a second.
He glanced at Bayden, who strolled up to us. “How did last night’s house call go?” His calm tone had my knuckles itching to rearrange his face. Of course, he told them she called for me.
His steel-toed boot shifted the gravel as I spoke.
“I don’t know, how’s the sheriff?”
He lifted his shoulders, giving me a wicked half grin. “Don’t know; haven’t seen her, but we’re talking about you. Try to keep up.” He patted my chest as Ethan approached on my left.
“Has he explained, yet?” Ethan seemed worried he’d missed out on some news.
“What is with you guys? You’re like a bunch of high school girls gossiping in the bathroom.” Annoyed, I turned to go, but they broke and re-formed a circle around me. With my exit cut off, I hesitated.
“So, it went well, then?” Quinn’s eyes sparkled. “If nothing happened, you’d just say that.”
“Nothing happened,” I growled the lie right to my brothers’ faces, but I could see the suspicious looks in their eyes. They didn’t believe me, and rightly so.
“Oh, it was something big.” Quinn tapped Bayden’s arm while staring at me, and Bayden sidestepped his reach.
“Don’t you guys have work to do?” This familiar dance was becoming commonplace, and I didn’t like it one bit. It was none of their damn business what happened between Kandra and me. Still, thinking about it, even though I wasn’t talking about it, brought up questions. Why had she called me? Was she looking for a way to drag me back into her life? Was it all a ruse to kiss me and make me remember the past? If so, she succeeded. It couldn’t possibly be that I was the first person to come to mind in a moment of panic. Or, if I was, it was because I was likely the most polarizing person in her life at the moment.
“Probably, but you’re our brother, and we need to check in on your well-being. Especially when your ex calls looking for you in a panic. What happened, anyway?” Bayden seemed more curious than his usual disinterested self.
“Plumbing mishap.”
Quinn’s eyes widened. “What did you do about it?”
“Took care of it and went home.”
Ethan’s lips tugged into a slight grin. “Plumbing, huh? Is that what you old-timers are calling it nowadays?”
“You’re only two years younger than I am. And no, it was an actual plumbing problem, you pervert. Can I go now?” Without waiting for an answer, I walked toward my truck and grabbed my coffee thermos. After pouring a cup of the steaming black liquid, I took a sip, which scalded all sensation from my tongue as Quinn spoke again.
“Well, it’s a good sign that she calls you in case of an emergency. Maybe there’s still something there, eh?” He elbowed me in the ribs and coffee sloshed over the cup’s rim to burn my fingers.
“I will throw this at you,” I warned, and he danced a step to the side like a nervous horse.
“I hope you’re nicer to her than you are to me, or you’ll never win her back.” He turned to leave, and I yelled to his retreating back.
“I don’t want her back.” Even as I said the words, a sense of unease swept through me. Was that true?
“I don’t think you mean that.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin, and white-hot pinpricks raced up and down my body as I spun to face Ethan. More of my coffee spilled, but this time I managed to evade the volcanic liquid.
Ethan wasn’t staring at me; he had his iPad in hand and was gazing at it, likely making adjustments to some other project he had stored away.
“Mean what?” My tongue ached, and I wondered if it would blister from the coffee burn. That would be just my damn luck lately.
His hand stilled, and his eyes flicked over the top of the tablet to mine. “That you don’t want Kandra back.”
I let out a sharp chuckle. “You guys aren’t letting this