AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Calder playfully hits me on the arm, snapping my attention back to him. “You know, I might have some babies toddling around the foothills and not even know it. You’re welcome to one of those if you can find one.”
My jaw clenches, and I can’t tell if this comment is better or worse than the other things he’s said. A few months ago, Calder suggested I use Tinder and just go out and randomly knock someone up. And I admit that in a drunken stupor, I began to consider that idea but then remembered nobody goes to Calder for advice. Unless you want the name of a good sex club, maybe.
I open my mouth to argue with him for the hundredth time, but an approaching car forces all our heads to turn. I own the entire mountain, so all visitors are here for one of the three of us. When our eldest brother Max’s SUV appears on the horizon, we all murmur, “Fuck.”
Max isn’t a total asshole. He’s just a different breed than us. And God love him, he can be a controlling, condescending fucker sometimes. He got even worse after Dad passed.
Back in the day, he worked construction for Dad’s renovation business just like the rest of us, but Max always had different life goals. He broke off early, went to business school, and climbed the corporate ladder to eventually break out on his own. He owns his franchise development company and is likely the wealthiest man in Boulder, but I’m not doing too bad myself. I just choose to hide in the hills of Jamestown, the tiny community at the base of this mountain, rather than flaunt my money with a fancy house. I’m not Max rich by anymeans, but my land is worth a pretty penny, and the green cabins we’ve built up here make our lives very affordable.
Plus, flipping houses has been good to all of us. Our father taught us well, and we’ve managed to continue growing his business in his absence. Honestly, we’re harder workers now than we ever were when he was here. His passing was a bit of a wake-up call. I only wish he was here to see it.
But the cash rolls the housing market has gifted to us for investments have been well taken care of the past decade, which is why I’m not concerned about how much it will cost for me to become a…
Dad.
Regardless of who has more money, Max likes to throw around that CEO boss energy everywhere he goes. And, well, we play by different rules on the mountain.
Like being able to cover up murder and arson relatively easily.
Max stands in front of the three of us and pulls his expensive sunglasses off his face to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Can someone please inform me why I just caught my teenage daughter making an Excel spreadsheet of viable candidates to be the baby momma for her uncle?” Max looks as confused as I feel.
“Oh yeah.” Calder grips the back of his neck and looks uneasy for the first time all morning. He clears his throat and stares down at his boots. “I posted that bar ad on Craigslist a few days ago and directed all calls to Everly.”
“You what?” Max roars, and I lunge for Calder, only to be grabbed around the shoulders by Luke, who I struggle to shake off. He’s not the biggest of the four of us, but he’s a wiry little shit.
Max blows past us, and just before his fist connects with our annoying brother’s face, Calder bellows, “This was Everly’s idea!”
“Dick.” Luke scoffs, looking disappointed. “Way to throw your niece under the bus. Super brave of you.”
“One of them is going to kill me if I don’t tell the truth,” Calder snaps back defensively and turns back to me and Max. “She was determined to do this and asked for my help. And you know I can’t sayno to Evie girl. I honestly didn’t even know Craigslist was still a thing. Everly figured that out in all her research.”
Max’s stunned reaction causes him to pull back from Calder, his face cast in confusion. “Everly figured all this out?”
Calder straightens and tries to gain back an ounce of his manhood. “Yes.”
Max, Luke, and I all gape at him, dumbfounded by this onslaught of new information. I had a long conversation with Everly several months ago about my plans to find a surrogate to carry my baby, but I had no idea she was this invested in the whole thing.
Max’s voice is scathing as he turns accusing eyes at me. “You never should have told her, Wyatt. She’s just a child. She doesn’t even understand all this.”
“She was relentless with her questions, Max,” I argue, anxiety prickling the back of my neck at the possibility I did something that could have hurt her. “And she’s eighteen—it’s not like she doesn’t know how babies are made. And hell, she’s graduating from high school in a few months and moving overseas. If she’s old enough to move away to a foreign country, she’s old enough to understand all this.” My tone is bitter.
“She’s not moving away forever.” Max’s voice catches in his throat, revealing what we’re all feeling as I look around to see the same sad, desperate look on our faces. The look we’ve all had since Everly told us she was going to Ireland for college several months ago.
Evie girl is leaving us.
Another set of approaching tires breaks through our shared moment of depression, and when I see the familiar white Jeep truck pull up the lane, my heart aches all over again.
Everly Fletcher…my eldest brother’s first kid, the sweet little girl Max had with his college girlfriend before they even graduated, gets out of her truck and walks toward us all with a look of determination.
I was only twenty when she was born, still just a kid myself. Hell, Luke was barely a teenager. But the moment they placed that tiny pink bundle in my arms with a spray of fuzzy white hair and long,slender little fingers that wrapped around my calloused thumb…I became a man.
And when Max and his wife split up when Everly was just two, she became all our responsibility. This little girl would want for nothing in life, and it was Calder’s, Luke’s, and my job to make sure she felt no pain from that break. My brothers and I have doted on her for the past eighteen years. We still take turns taking her out on weekly uncle dates when her busy teen schedule allows it. She and my brother’s other kid, Ethan, who’s seven now, get plenty of quality time with us. They love it.
We love them.
Flashbacks of Everly as a little tyke with blond braids bouncing around this mountaintop, begging to bottle-feed my goat, Millie, flash through my mind’s eye. She would sleep over at one of our cabins every chance she got, which wasn’t as often as we liked after my brother got divorced. Shared custody was a bitch for all of us.
This is why I want to do this fatherhood thing with a professional. With a contract. With no strings attached at the end. I don’t want to share my time with my kid. Ever.
