The Brothers Rule - Carolyn Faulkner Page 0,1

and came home before seven at night, not covered in mud and muck? What woman's gonna wanna run into your arms when you smell like a herd of cattle?"

Jace actually blushed at that, because they were annoyingly right. "Well, adjustments can and will be made, and I might add that showers will be taken, for the right woman. A woman who would appreciate all of that hard work, and that woman is Laurie Taggart."

That prompted a very uncomfortable flashback situation—reminding them all about what it had been like when he'd said her full name for the first time around the two of them just days before.

They were at the house, having spent the day together helping Jace with some of the chores around the place that required another pair of hands or two and then spending the evening grilling and talking and drinking. They were all seated around one of the tables on the big deck, the remnants of an excellent meal being picked at as they spoke.

And then Jace had said her name. They'd quickly forgotten the context around it and all either of them heard was her name.

Laurie Taggart.

For some reason, he watched his brothers sit back in their chairs at that, both of them white as sheets and looking shocked to their cores.

"What? What'd I say?" He wasn't as much of a jokester as his brothers were, and he wondered if he'd said something that had been inadvertently offensive.

Adam spoke first, in a rare tense tone. "S-say the name again."

"What name?"

"Her name," Ryan supplied, his tone stunned.

"You mean Laurie Taggart?" Jace asked, confused.

"Yes. That's the name of the woman you're dating?"

Both Adam and Ryan seemed to be hanging on his answer for some reason.

"Yes. Laurie Taggart. She works in finance—"

"For a bank," Adam interrupted accurately.

Ryan swallowed hard, saying, before he could get anything else out, "In Cash Management."

Jace followed his brothers, leaning back—practically with a thud—against his chair. He sounded disbelieving as he said anyway, "She hates her job."

"Because she got passed over for a big promotion," Adam contributed softly, almost against his will.

And Ryan chimed in reluctantly, "It went to someone she'd trained, even though she'd done all the work."

"Fuck me," Jace growled under his breath, and his brothers looked at him askance because he almost never swore.

"Same here."

"Triple that."

Now, a couple of days later—after they'd all had some time to come to grips with what they'd discovered—they were talking about it again, but this time in a public place.

Despite what he'd just said to them, Jace looked quietly amazed. "How the hell did we end up dating the same damned woman?"

"Well, I don't know about how you are when you're with a woman," Adam began, while motioning the waitress over to them, "but I don't spend all of my time talking about my idiot brothers, especially since we're not all living together anymore."

"Yeah," Ryan added, "and how many Lauries are there in the city—quite a few, I would imagine. I know I hadn't heard either of you mention her before then," he grimaced, "and I don't much like hearing it from you now, either."

When the pretty girl appeared at his elbow, Adam asked, "Can we have a round of whiskey shots, please?" He looked to his brothers for their approval, and even Jace curtly nodded his agreement.

Since the little restaurant they were in wasn't all that busy, the liquor appeared moments later. They all thanked the waitress, then each of them held up a shot.

"May the best brother win?" Adam suggested then scooted in under his breath, "Which is, of course, me. Cheers!"

But his brothers knew him too well, and neither of them drank to that.

Instead, Jace intoned seriously, "May the real best brother win." They clinked the small glasses then downed the shots.

Everyone was quiet for a moment—which was unusual for them—then Ryan came up with, "Do you think… do you think she knows that she's dating three brothers?"

"Good question."

Jace didn't give many compliments, so Ryan was pleased when he said that.

Adam shrugged. "Do you think that it would matter to her?"

"Why would it?"

The younger men both looked at Jace, surprised.

"Well? Why would it?" he argued. "There's nothing kinky in the least about dating brothers."

Ryan snorted at that.

"What?" Jace gave him an accusing look from under a furrowed brow.

"I just never in my life thought I'd hear you say the word 'kinky'. It's just weird. And uncomfortable."

"As is this entire conversation."

They both nodded at Adam.

It was Ryan again, who cleared his throat and hemmed