AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Iglanceddownthehallway for the hundredth time, wondering how Mark could be right about giving Aggie her space when it felt so wrong to just leave her. I’d heard the whimpers coming from the bathroom and it took every ounce of control I had to walk away.
I rubbed my jaw, feeling the stubble that was quickly becoming a beard. “Are you—”
Mark put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “I’m sure. Now, I can keep telling you that I’m sure and we can stand here, staring off into space, or you can trust me and we can start doing something that will help.”
I blew out a deep sigh and shook my head. I was no one’s hero. It wasn’t like I’d even know what to do if I got into that bathroom. I didn’t do the whole comfort thing. Even growing up with Zella, I’d been shit at it. She’d sworn that I had the emotional depth of a puddle.
“Son, I’m telling you that if you knock on that bathroom door, my daughter will chew her way out the opposite wall if it means not showing you that she’s crying. She’s scrappy by nature, but then she grew up with so many boy cousins that she taught herself not to cry. She used to hobble into the house with cuts and bruises, gritting her teeth and swearing like a sailor when she thought I couldn’t hear her. She took tough to a new level.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and grunted. Staring at the man who’d helped create the woman who was slowly driving me mad, I couldn’t tell if I wanted to hug him or thump him for letting his daughter be so infuriating. “Should’ve sent her ass to a compliance camp.”
He let out a deep belly laugh and shook his head. “That stubborn streak is all her mother. That woman used to worry me to death. She’d go against everything I said, just to fight, I swear. It was like being married to an evil tyrant some days. You know the thing about women like them, though?”
I scoffed. “They leave you with migraines, stacks of leftover paperwork you haven’t done in days, and the sudden desire to have your head checked?”
“All that, sure. The thing, though, son, is that when a woman like my daughter softens to you…it’s special. Her mother was a cactus until she wasn’t and then I would’ve murdered entire villages to get one more second with her. There’s nothing to make you feel like a bigger man than when a strong woman leans into you. So let her have her time to cry. She’ll come out soon and pretend like nothing happened. If you’re smart, you will too.”
Kyrin stopped next to us, a deep frown darkening his face as he stared down the hallway towards Aggie’s off-limits area. “Anything?”
Shaking my head, I cracked my knuckles. “Since we can’t do shit right now, what do we do in the meantime to make things better later?”
“I found the tents and a bunch of other camping stuff. We really camping out?” Kyrin looked at Mark. “There’s a lot of daylight left before camping time.”
“I have an idea, but I’m not sure how a couple of rich boys like yourselves are going to take to it.” Mark grinned. “I’m pretty sure it’s not your normal Friday.”
“We weren’t always rich boys, sir. Try us.” Kyrin nodded down the hall and worked his cowboy hat between his hands. “Honestly, if you told me that letting Gracie and Aggie run me over with a truck would make them feel better, I’d probably go for it.”
“My idea won’t be nearly as painful.” Leading both of us away from his daughter, Mark told us his plan and then started making calls to make it happen. He’d made us promise to leave Aggie alone before he’d go outside to work.
I busied myself finishing as much work as I could from the kitchen island. Jamie, black eyes and all, worked silently as I tapped away at my computer. Knight and Kyrin were taking turns keeping Gracie busy, but when Mary showed up, she offered to take Gracie upstairs to get dressed for the day we were planning.
Knight sat beside me, working with a scowl on his face. I could tell by the tension radiating off him that he was working on creating a new test. Kyrin went outside and started setting up the tents, always more comfortable with manual labor.
As the older brother, I felt a sense of responsibility over my brothers. Losing Zella had woken every protective instinct I’d never known I had. I worried about them and I wanted them to be happy. It was why I’d taken on more work in the company so Kyrin could stay away more. It was why I fought so hard against men like Monroe Blake, and why I’d been so hard on Aggie.
We’d all lost so much. I didn’t think we could go through more loss. Knowing that Aggie had her own story of loss and pain made my decisions regarding her work going forward that much harder. I didn’t want to be responsible for her losing more. After seeing the way Knight had reacted to having Aggie best his work the night before, though, I worried that adding Aggie to the team would end up doing more damage than good.
Since becoming CEO of TGC, nothing had been easy. I’d taken our dad’s company and created a powerhouse. We were a Fortune 500 company, all three of us recognized as some of the youngest billionaires in the world, and considered the top of the top in our field. That all came at a cost. We’d missed so much of Zella’s life in the end. We’d missed Gracie’s life. We’d skipped so much of our own life.
My life had been one giant cluster of regret and grief since Zella’s death. There were so many things I wanted to do differently, things I imagined doing with Zella and Gracie together. Zella was gone, though, and all I’d managed to do since she’d died was work longer hours and lose more of myself to the job. Watching Gracie with Mark that morning made it beyond clear to me that my own connection to my niece was pathetic.
Things had to change. For Gracie. For my brothers. For me. We deserved something other than the same old pattern of work and sleep. Gracie deserved the life that Mark had given Aggie after her mom died. She deserved men who were willing to be uncomfortable for her, who were willing to make sacrifices. We all deserved a chance to be happy, some of us for the first time.
I looked over at Knight as I shut my computer. “You know that the only reason we are where we are right now is because of you, right?”
His face turned red as he cleared his throat. “What are you talking about?”
“The company. Your brain and the things it can do are the only reason we were able to grow Dad’s company into what it is now. You’re fucking brilliant, Knight. Have I ever told you how impressed I am by you? If I could half the shit you do with a computer, I’d have taken over the world or some other evil shit by now.” I smiled and shrugged like I wasn’t stretching outside of our comfort zone by a mile. “I know that you could’ve done bigger things. I know that you had job offers better than the one I gave you in the beginning. You stayed with us and I appreciate you, Knight. God knows I wasn’t always easy to work with.”
He swallowed audibly and sat back. “Are you sick?”
I laughed and punched him in the arm, needing the roughness to balance the soft. “No, asshole. I’m not sick. No one’s dying. I just wanted you to know.”
He nodded slowly, obviously confused. “Well, thanks…”
“I think it’s time for things to change around here. Don’t you?”
30
