The Brothers Rule - Carolyn Faulkner Page 0,55

every morning before she left and often on the way home, too, on the rare occasions she drove herself.

It all came to a head when she came home after one particularly trying day—having started crying in her car on the way home—to stand alone in the middle of the kitchen, wholly unable to stop herself from sobbing as if she'd lost her best friend, her face buried in her hands, shoulders shaking.

Suddenly, Laurie felt muscular arms curl around her, and she melted into them, wrapping her own around whomever it was who was hugging her, assuming that it was Jace, Adam, or Ryan.

"What's wrong, cupcake?" asked a not quite familiar voice. But she knew who it was immediately, because only one of them called her that. She was surprised to find that she was standing in Tanner's arms and moved away—not because she felt it was weird, but because she didn't want to impose on him.

He reluctantly let her go, assuming she did think it was incorrect to accept such solace from him, but remained close, stuffing hands that still wanted to hold her into his pockets.

"What's got you down, Laurie? I'm just as good a listener as my older brothers, and I care about you, too."

She gave him a wet smile, reaching out to touch his arm. "Thank you. I care about you, too, Tanner, and I haven't had a chance to say it to you, but thank you for, well, putting up with this weird thing we have going in your house."

He shrugged. "If I was uncomfortable with it, I could move out. But I like being here. There's a lot of love among the four of you, and you all seem to like each other and get along so well. My brothers are obviously enchanted with you, and that's pretty much the end of it for me. If they're happy, I'm happy."

She almost smiled at him, and he felt as if he'd accomplished something, at least.

"Hey!" It was Jace who came into the kitchen next. "What's going on? Why is she crying?" he asked, the accusation hanging in the air between Tanner and him.

"I didn't do or say anything, Jace. I wouldn't want to upset her any more than the rest of you would—in fact, I was trying to comfort her."

That didn't make his eldest brother feel any better, and Tanner scowled back at him as good as he got.

"Get your mind out of the gutter and stop being such an asshole. Jesus." He ignored Jace entirely to bend and give Laurie a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm always here if you want to talk, okay? You won't feel any judgment from me about anything you might want to tell me."

She nodded. "Thank you, Tanner."

"You're welcome, hon."

With another scowl at Jace, he ploughed past the other two brothers who were now also into the kitchen.

"You okay?" Ryan asked, noting the wetness on her cheeks.

"Yeah, no. SSDD," she sighed, getting hugs from everyone and reassuring them that she was fine, then heading for her room to change into more comfortable clothes while six male eyes watched her, looking thoroughly unconvinced.

Then the brothers all looked at each other, and Adam finally said, "We need to do something about this. I can't stand how miserable she is."

"Yeah, she's crying all the time."

"It's a struggle for her to go to work every day."

Jace looked about as happy at this situation as he had been at his youngest brother. "Yeah, it's driving me crazy, too. She's ours, and I think we need to hash this out—see what we can do to help her, if anything, Meeting in my study in ten minutes."

When Laurie reappeared, the place was empty, except for Tanner.

"Where'd they all go?" she asked, looking around. "They can't be hiding; there aren't that many places around they'd fit!"

Tanner chuckled.

"You, either," she added. Making him laugh made her feel a bit better.

"They all disappeared into Jace's study, never to be heard from again."

She giggled at that then frowned. "What about Nick?"

Tanner frowned, too, not happy at being left out of everything lately, especially considering how he was feeling about Laurie. "Well, he wasn't there, originally, but they dragged him in not long after they convened."

Several hours later, they still hadn't surfaced, so she tapped on the door. "Not trying to interrupt, but dinner is ready."

It was Jace who opened the door, taking her hand. "You couldn't interrupt us if you tried, darlin'. In fact, we were just about to come