No way was Owen getting into a fight with him over it, though. “Start making that dressing.”
“If I cook, I stay for training.”
He was staying anyway, Owen might as well get some kitchen help out of the deal. “Listen, when Will gets here, I need to tell you guys something.”
“That’s right, Will comes to fire training night. Will’s allowed to do whatever he wants.”
Will was a grown-up, Owen wanted to snap back, but so was Adam. But the difference between Adam and their middle brother was that Will was an elementary school principal by day. Sure, he volunteered on the fire team, but the chances of him actually running into a burning building and not coming out were low.
The chances of Will having a heart attack at forty-eight and leaving his family reeling were low, too.
God damn it. Owen forced that thought out of his mind and turned on the charm. Adam liked charm. He used it, but he was susceptible to it as well. “Look,” Owen said. “I know I have different rules for Will and Seth than I do for you and Josh. And I know—Iknow—that it’s not my place to have rules for grown men, period. But I do, because I’m your big brother, so humour me, all right?”
Adam chewed on his lower lip, then nodded. But he wasn’t going to let it go that easily. “Speaking of Will…” Owen waited while his brother paused for dramatic effect. “I was thinking of getting Kerry’s number for him, since you weren’t interested?”
Inside his head, Owen rose to the bait. He rose swift and angrily, in ways he didn’t want to analyze. But on the outside, he waited it out, stone-faced. Adam was a natural flirt, always had been, and that extended to match making. He would stop if he got the idea that Owen wasn’t interested.
“She’s really nice, you know. If you give her a chance.”
“Are you hanging out with her now?” Owen’s gaze narrowed despite his best efforts to appear unaffected.
His brother didn’t back down. “She’s come into the Green Hedgehog a few times.”
“Ah.”
“You should come out, too.”
“Maybe.” But they both knew he wouldn’t. “Listen, about Kerry—”
“I know.”
“It’s not about me.”
“Yeah. Iknow. Becca told me she’s pregnant,” Adam said. “That’s a hell of a secret you’ve been keeping since Christmas.”
“Wasn’t mine to tell.”
“Kerry won’t be her midwife forever.”
“Doesn’t matter. She is right now.”
“Is that why you’re so freaking rude to her?”
Nah, that was all on Owen’s darker side, which would never see the light of day. He grunted and let his brother take the noise as acknowledgement.
Will sauntered into the kitchen. “Are we talking about Owen’s parenting choices?”
Direct hit and his middle brother didn’t even know it. “Sure are.”
“No,” Adam corrected. “Did you get a text from Becca?”
She was telling people by text? Owen scrubbed a hand over his face. There were too many moving parts to the puzzle that was his family sometimes. She’d just told him and Rachel this morning that she was ready to start sharing the news.
“That’s what—ah, shit.” Will pulled up a chair. “You’ve been dealing with this all on your own?”
“I’m her father. And I’m notalone. Rachel’s been good. Mostly. We’re trying, okay?”
“Sure.”
