Will swore under his breath.
Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “This thing is a piece of junk.”
Will frowned. “It’s a piece of history.”
“It’s history, that’s for sure. At least until we talk to Josh.” His second youngest brother was a mechanic who worked on the racing circuit in the States. Josh could fix anything, but they had reached their limit. Owen straightened up and flexed his freezing fingers. “Time to call for a tow.”
They didn’t bother to wait for the truck from the garage to show up. It would be a few hours, because it was low priority. So his brothers piled into his truck and they went back to his place, where they had been working on Will’s car when he’d gotten ambitious and decided to take it “around the block”. Owen had the bigger garage, so the piece of junk—or piece of history, depending on how you looked at it—lived at his place.
He didn’t know what had gotten into Will today, but he’d taken it further afield than just around the block, and as he’d gone down the hill toward the harbour, the shit-box had died on him. He’d coasted into the empty lot and called for help.
Back at Owen’s place, his brothers followed him into the house. Becca’s door was shut, so he told his brothers she was napping and led them into the kitchen, the furthest point away from her space.
“Is everything okay?” Of course Will picked up on the fact that Becca napping wasn’t normal. Owen shouldn’t have said anything.
“Yeah. She had a late night last night. She’s pulling more hours at the country club, that’s all.”
“You gotta be careful she’s not burning herself out with work.” That was the school principal speaking. The professional who had a different perspective on kids than Owen did as a dad. “Is she stressing about next year? She hasn’t picked a college yet, has she?”
Owen wasn’t getting into that. He pulled open the fridge. “Beer? Coffee?”
Adam went for the former. Will asked for the latter.
Owen had both—but not at the same time. He downed his beer quickly. It didn’t do much for his cold hands, but it felt good going down, and distracted him from the slight tremor deep inside. Big feelings, he’d have called them when Becca was little and still learning to control her emotions.It’s okay to have big feelings. It’s not okay to hit when we’re mad.
He didn’t want to hit anything.
He didn’t know what he wanted.Lies.He wanted a white parka wrapped around a dark-haired beauty. He wanted freedom. He was trying so damn hard not to give in to the resentment of having to put off the next stage of his life, again.
Over the years, all of his brothers had been good confidants. When he broke up with Rachel, Seth—now a float plane pilot up north—and Will had listened to his shit with maturity way beyond their teen years, and promised him he would still be a good dad if he needed to leave.
He’d tried to live up to that belief, and turned back to them over and over again. As he re-negotiated custody when he came back, as Becca slid into her teen years like she was being chased by wild dogs.
But he couldn’t talk to them about the pregnancy. Not yet. So he downed a beer, then he poured himself a cup of coffee. Mr. Responsibility.
His brothers had gone back to arguing about the car.
“Speaking of old and wonderful things—”
“That’s a perversion of what I just said and you know it,” Adam said blandly.
Will kept going anyway. “I’m starting something really cool at the school.”
“You just said cool at the school. Ergo, it won’t be, because it has a Dad Joke-level of rhyming built right into the premise. Can’t support.”
Will rolled his eyes at their youngest brother. “Fine, I won’t tell you about it, but you’ll be sad you couldn’t get in on the ground floor and be a founding member of the Vintage Media Lab.”
Owen had been watching their conversation silently, but now he leaned in. “The what now?”
Adam was hooked, too. “Excuse me, I always want to be the founding member of everything.”
Will grinned broadly. “Then it’s time to dig out any old electronic equipment you have, because I want it all. I’ll make a ‘Donated by Principal Kincaid’s Whiny Little Brother’ plaque and everything.”
Adam ignored that. “Do you want VHS tapes?”
That made Will pause, suspiciously. “Depends what’s on them.”
“Fuck off. PG shit only. I know this is for kids.”
