Page 9 of I Found You (Wilder #1)

Wyatt

“I just need you to replace the fucking starter. That’s it,” I said on a deep sigh, eyes closed as I gripped the frame of the car I was working on.

I could hear the edge to my voice as I tried to stay calm.

I was up to my arms in grease, still working through the tranny rebuild that had taken me days, and my damn brother was talking my ear off about who the fuck knew what.

“Someone’s cat pissed in their cereal this morning.

I’m here helping you out, remember?” Reid responded, trying to stare me down.

He was the youngest of us four siblings and didn’t know shit about cars.

But he was at my garage today to help me get back on track, taking on some of the small, easy jobs so that I could focus on the more difficult repairs.

“Yeah. And what would really help me out is getting this fucking job done instead of fucking yapping.” I didn’t have the patience to deal with people today.

To be honest, I hadn’t had the patience to deal with people all week.

I was a pretty easygoing guy most of the time.

Reid and I were probably the most similar in personalities.

We didn’t keep our emotions locked down like Luke.

We could keep our attitude in check, most of the time, unlike our sister, Lydia.

I didn’t know what had gotten into me lately.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Sleeping had been a joke. It’d been five days since I’d gone to Maeve’s and seen Baby Girl. Jane. I still hated that name for her. I had nothing against the name itself. It just wasn’t her name.

I’d thrown myself into my work, but no matter how hard I was working, I wasn’t getting enough accomplished. It was like I was walking knee-deep in sand, always struggling to move ahead an inch at a time.

“Well, I was going to talk to you about proposing to Kayleigh. But I guess we’ll just work in silence for the day instead.” Reid always did know how to make me feel guilty. It was a trick he’d picked up when he was a kid, feeling left out when Luke and I would do something without him.

Reid and Kayleigh had been together for years, high school sweethearts even, but that news still surprised me. Cleaning my hands off on the rag I kept with me at all times, I turned to face Reid to give him my full attention. “No shit. You think you’re ready for that kind of commitment?”

This was a big deal, and I needed to make sure he understood what it meant.

Our parents’ marriage was pretty damn near perfect.

At least from a child’s perspective. Our mom got sick my senior year of high school, and she died a year later.

Reid was just a kid when we lost Mom, being almost ten years younger than me.

He was old enough to remember her, but he was too young to appreciate what we had as a family.

But I was old enough to see what a real marriage looked like.

What it should be when two people were it for each other.

That was why I’d never married. There was never anyone in my life that I felt the kind of love that I knew my father felt for my mother.

“You two are still young. You have time, you know. There’s no need to rush it.”

“Jesus. You sound like Luke. I thought you would be happy for me. We’ve been together for seven years, for Christ’s sake. It isn’t like we’d be rushing into things.”

I made my way over to where he was leaning against the car he was supposed to be working on and grabbed him on the shoulder.

“No, you’re right. If you think that it’s time to take the next step, then I’m happy for you, brother.

You’re going to do it right? With a ring, down on one knee, the whole fairy-tale thing? ”

He scratched his chin where he was starting to grow out a beard. “Yeah. I’ve got the ring picked out, but I haven’t bought it yet.”

I didn’t like this plan, but it wasn’t my place to tell him.

He was young and in love. Maybe they really were in it for the long haul.

Maybe I was just being a grouch because I had never had that for myself.

I saw the strain on Luke’s face every time we were together.

His marriage was on the rocks, and it was making him miserable.

I didn’t want the same outcome for Reid too.

He wasn’t coming to me for advice though.

He was sharing something that, in his mind, was all positive. I could be a champion in his corner.

“Congrats, man. Let’s head to Millie’s Pizza after work today. We can celebrate.”

“Well, we can’t celebrate yet. I haven’t asked her yet,” Reid chuckled. Any defensiveness from my earlier comments was gone.

Me: Millie’s tonight. 6:30 p.m .

I sent the text to our group chat. Reid read the message and typed out his response, standing three feet away from me.

Reid: Sorry, can’t. I have plans.

“What the fuck, man?” I threw my rag at him. He just laughed and typed out another response.

Reid: JK I’ll be there.

Wes: 10-4

Luke: Working, can’t make it tonight.

Seb: You know I’m in

* * *

The rest of the day went by quickly once we finally got back to work.

I managed to keep my focus on the tasks at hand for the most part.

My thoughts strayed to Reid on occasion, wondering how it was that my twenty-four-year-old brother thought he was ready for a lifetime commitment.

At least, it seemed to be the distraction I needed to keep thoughts of Maeve and Jane at bay.

As soon as I walked into Millie’s, I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the scent of burning wood and dough that permeated the air.

My stomach rumbled at the thought of food.

Reid and I found Seb already here, taking a table in the front corner.

I took the seat next to him, back facing the windows so I could look out into the restaurant.

Reid sat across from Seb. It was busy in here, but it was a Thursday night at the place that sold the best pizza in town and had a liquor license, so that was to be expected.

I nodded a hello to a few folks. My business was run by word of mouth.

It was important to always make sure I acknowledged people and made small talk on occasion.

Today, I wasn’t really feeling it though, feeling somehow wired and like I could crawl under a rock and sleep for a fucking week.

A few minutes later, Wes walked through the door.

He did the same appreciative deep breath that I did.

It was nice to have Reid’s news and some friends around as a distraction, but my mind kept wandering back to the beautiful, stormy, anxious woman and the cutest little baby with round eyes and chubby arms.

“Wy, man. How’s things going?” Wes asked with a clap to my shoulder before taking his seat. “Reid, Seb.” That was Wes’s way of greeting. No flourishes. No pleasantries. Just an acknowledgment of your presence.

Reid told everyone about his plan to propose to Kayleigh.

“We’ll take the kayaks out to Easton’s Cove. Watch the sunset. I’ll have a picnic all set up. And once the sun starts to go down, I’ll pop the question. What do you think?”

It was a good plan, I had to give him that. Romantic, quiet, intimate.

“Not bad, but hear me out… fireworks,” Seb said.

“I don’t think I can afford a full fireworks display.” Reid’s face sank.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll get some, and we can light them off at the Cove.”

Reid looked like he was seriously contemplating it.

“Yeah, get the kid arrested during his proposal. That will go over well,” I laughed. Fireworks were illegal in Massachusetts, and cops had been really cracking down on them over the past few years.

“Alright, fair enough. What about… you get ‘Will you marry me ?’ tattooed on your chest, and you rip your shirt off when you drop to one knee? Good, right?” Seb joked.

He owned his own tattoo parlor. He probably had that request more times than he could count.

The things people wanted to ink onto their skin were wild sometimes.

I was laughing at one of Seb’s stories about some guy who refused to believe him when he told him that his design was misspelled when I felt a prickle sensation at my back.

I could feel the moment she walked through the door.

It was like she was a homing device. Maeve stood at the counter, baby Jane in the carrier I had left at her house.

The pride I felt at that made no sense. She wasn’t standing at the ordering section of the counter, so she must have called ahead.

Wes must have noticed that my attention had shifted and followed it. He didn’t miss much. I couldn’t take my eyes off her—them—but I heard Wes’s low warning, and my instincts told me to keep my attention on them.

“Incoming.” Wes must have spotted the three women now making a beeline for Maeve, all talking with their heads low and laughing at something that felt malicious. I could tell something was about to go down.

“Maeve. Hey!” Andrea said with false cheeriness. “That’s so cute. I forgot you were babysitting. I wouldn’t even have known that she isn’t yours. You look like someone who just had a baby.”

One of the other girls’ eyes must have tripled in size, the look on her face a combination of embarrassment and amusement. She turned away from Maeve, pointing herself in my general direction, and was clearly trying to hold back more laughter. “Oh my God, Andrea. You didn’t just say that.”

I could feel my blood start to boil in irritation. Maeve wasn’t skinny; she had curves and meat and substance. I thought that women-bashing-women shit was behind us. Girl Power and all that.

“You alright, Wy? Your face just turned to stone, and you’re about to drill a hole in those girls’ heads if you keep staring lasers at them,” Wes said.

“Didn’t you take one of those girls to Luke’s wedding?” Reid asked, craning his neck so he could see around Wes.