The Brothers Rule - Carolyn Faulkner

The Brothers Rule

Chapter 1

"She's mine."

The two men who sat with him recognized their eldest brother's excruciatingly familiar 'that's my final word on the subject' tone.

But they had their own versions of the same things. And none of them were likely to back down.

"I started dating her first," Adam, the next in line, put forth, as if that ended the argument.

"Yes, but I've been on more dates with her."

Adam glared at his next youngest brother. "Yeah, but all that means is that you need to get a real job," he needled.

Ryan grinned unrepentantly. "Can I help it iffirefighting is scheduled in twenty-four hour shifts, which gives me lots of lovely free time to devote to her? And speaking of that, when does your reserve unit rotate back to Afghanistan again? Can't be soon enough for me. Then I'll only have Jace for competition, and he's so stodgy, I won't have any problem convincing Laurie to choose me."

That earned him a punch on the shoulder from Adam as he still managed to take a couple of gulps of beer without spilling a drop. The skills one learns while living in a house full of men could sometimes be helpful when they ventured out, too.

But Jace wasn't having any of what his brothers were saying. "Have the decency to not wish your brother into a war zone, please, doofus. Even if he does end up back there, you're certainly not going to win Laurie away from me under any circumstances. I'm older, I'm better set up than either of you are, not to mention much more handsome. I own my own house—"

"We own your own house," his brothers corrected him in unison, then they automatically claimed to each other, "You owe me a beer."

"Fine. I own the land on which our house and the ranch I run sit."

Everyone agreed on that.

Thanks to their parents' will, all five brothers owned the house collectively. Originally, they had all owned the ranch, too, but Jace had wasted no time after he graduated college in taking it over—which they all knew he was going to do—then buying them all out of it.

But the house—in which he and the younger brothers still lived and which remained the center of their family life—was still co-owned among them. Adam and Ryan had moved out and had their own apartments, but they still spent a significant amount of time there, because their brothers were their best friends.

"Still," Jace added with another glare at his brothers, "I'm older, I'm more settled—"

"Right. You're so old that you're already repeating yourself, Grandpa. The truth is that it just means you're boring," Adam supplied.

"Stodgy," Ryan added.

"Stuffy," Adam offered helpfully.

"Vanilla."

His two older brothers cocked their heads at that. "How would you know whether or not I'm vanilla, Bing?" Jace asked, eyes narrowed in a warning that his brother blithely ignored.

As he glared, himself, Ryan answered, "Stop calling me that! I'm not a virgin anymore—haven't been for a while!"

His brothers just grinned at being able to get under his skin. "Congratulations, man."

"'Bout time, I'd say."

"Shut up, the two of youse. And I don't know that you're vanilla, in the sexual sense."

Ryan could feel his uptight oldest brother tensing already at that.

"I was just extrapolating—"

"Wow—that's a ten-dollar word!" Adam teased.

"Yeah, well, if you'd read a book every once in a while, you might learn a few, yourself."

His shoulder was beginning to hurt from being hit so many times—not that he would ever admit it—but Ryan soldiered on. "I said that because you're always such an uptight friggin' stick in the mud. 'Stay in school', 'don't smoke', 'don't do drugs'. You're the poster child for boring. If you look up boring in a dictionary, there's a little picture of you there, frowning out at the world, telling them to 'save your money'. 'Buy, don't rent'. 'Work hard'. What woman is going to want that? Where's the fun? Where's the spontaneity?"

"I can be both of those—but that's because I've put my time in, done the work, and I have the money in the bank to do things like that—go on a weekend vacation or take her out to a nice dinner and a show or get her a piece of real jewelry. All without going into debt, I might add."

His brothers snorted outright at that then laughed for much longer than his comments warranted. "Please. When was the last time you took a day off?" Adam asked.

"Hell, when was the last time you left the house after six in the morning