“Thank you. And I still think you should come home. Who’s going to take care of you?”
Nick tried not to roll his eyes. His family was extremely old fashion, his mom the worst of them all. “I’m a grown man. I can take care of myself.”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it. You work a lot. You’ll have the house to take care of. I can help out. The girls don’t need me much. I can help you decorate, too. The shape of the living room is awkward. You’ll have to put your couch there on the far wall for the layout to be smooth.” She pointed toward a wall and Nick had to bite his tongue. She meant well, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind about that, but that didn’t mean she was easy to handle.
“I’ll be fine, Mom. I can figure it all out. It’s good for me. I went straight from living at home to getting a place with Jill. It’ll be good to live by myself.”
He could tell she bit her tongue, only it didn’t work to keep her quiet. “And look what she did to you! It wasn’t as though she was very good at being a wife, anyway.”
That had been a big topic of conflict for them. She always had something to say about Jill because Jill didn’t do for Nick the things she’d done for his dad. That wasn’t what he wanted, though. He liked that Jill was strong; he just wished she hadn’t also thought it was okay to fuck other people.
“Let’s not do this, okay? Want to check out the rest of the place with me?” Nick nodded toward the hallway, slipped his arm around his mom and led her through the rest of his new home.
Things were going to be different now. His whole life had changed, but maybe this fresh start would be good for him. And this time, he vowed to have a whole hell of a lot more fun than he’d had the past few years.
***
“You share a backyard with your next-door neighbor.”
Bryce Tanner shook his head as he looked at his older brother, who stood at the sliding glass door. “Good observation.”
“But you share a fucking backyard with a neighbor you don’t know.” Jamie turned to face him, and then snapped his head back toward the yard as though it changed.
“No shit. I realize that.”
“But—”
“Would you shut the fuck up? Yes, I share a backyard. I get it. I doubt I’ll be spending much time out there anyway. The price was good, it’s a decent size, and it’s a duplex that comes with a garage. That’s all I care about. I share a wall with them, too.”
Jamie’s brow rose. “Don’t put your bed against that wall.”
Bryce chuckled. “Wrong side, asshole. You’re such a fucking knucklehead. I don’t know how your wife deals with you.”
“Cuz I know how to make her scream my name every night.” Jamie winked at him.
“I’m telling Hope you said that. She’s going to kick your ass and you won’t get laid for a month.” He nodded toward the sliding glass door. “Close that up, would ya? When is Mitch supposed to be here?”
“Right now.” Their other brother stepped through the front door. Mitch was the oldest, Jamie the middle and Bryce the youngest. Mitch was one hundred percent responsible, Jamie ninety percent, and Bryce around twenty-five, if you asked their parents. It had always been that way.
“Did you know he shares a backyard with his neighbor?” Jamie asked.
“Oh, fuck,” Bryce rolled his eyes as Mitch said, “So?”
“Exactly. I don’t know why he’s losing his shit over that. Come on, let’s go empty the truck before I kick his ass. He’s driving me bat-shit crazy.”
The three of them walked out of Bryce’s new place. His brothers were idiots, but he loved them. They’d always been close, and never let each other down even though they annoyed the hell out of each other half the time.
“Was Hope at your place when you left? She said she was picking Abbey up and they were going shopping or something,” Jamie said as they made it to the U-Haul packed with all of Bryce’s things.
“Pulled up when I left,” Mitch replied. “FYI...Mom wants all the girls to get together soon for a spa day or something like that. Including Christi.”
Bryce dropped his head back against the rental, not sure why he was surprised. Both his brothers were married, while Bryce preferred to fuck his way through life. Well, that and work on motorcycles—but the motorcycles were a new love.
He enjoyed his lifestyle too much to want to settle down. He was able to get his dick sucked when he wanted, but he also had his freedom. That wasn’t such a bad gig to him. His mom wanted nothing more than for him to tie himself down like his brothers. It had been like that even before things between Bryce and his closest friend Christi, had changed.
