Page 46 of Love by Design (Club Rapture: Risk Aware #1)

MARSHALL

A s usual, I got to dinner first. Finn second.

We weren’t at our normal booth on account of needing more space to accommodate Andrew, but Finn still slid into the seat opposite me, a tight smile on his face.

He’d done a stellar job of avoiding me over the past week and a half, which made it impossible to ask him about the couple I’d seen him with.

So much time had passed since my initial sighting, the urgency had become less pressing, dying down to the point where I’d decided it wasn’t my business at all if my younger brother was in the middle of tearing apart a marriage.

I didn’t want him to get hurt, but he was old enough to make his own decisions… and live with the consequences of them.

More than anything, I was hurt he hadn’t told me.

There’d been years where all three of them had treated me as a sort of confidant.

I was older and more removed from their day-to-day lives, and all of them had taken turns confessing and crying on my shoulder at some point over the years.

As the twins had gotten more settled in their own lives, that had died off, leaving me with Smith and his troubles.

Eventually, he’d also outgrow the need for me, and I’d be left with none of them at all.

Not in the way I’d grown accustomed to, at least .

“How are you?” I asked Finn, instead of anything else.

“Alive and thriving, Marsh.” He rolled his eyes, some of the fight going out of him. “How are you?”

“Lost a job to Silas today,” I answered.

Finn’s eyes sparkled, and he fought his mouth back into a pensive line. “That so?”

“Mnhm.”

“How do you feel about that?” he asked.

Smith was next to arrive, also taking his usual space to my left.

The table they’d given us for the night was round, but I appreciated the way we tried to notch ourselves into our usual seats which would either leave Andrew between me and Finn or Hunter and Smith.

I flashed a smile at my youngest brother, then turned back to answer Finn.

“Proud.”

“Of who?” Smith asked.

“Silas,” Finn answered before I could. “Taking money right out of our oldest brother’s bank account.”

“Oldest for now,” Hunter said, taking his normal spot to Finn’s right.

All three of us looked sharply at him, and he shrugged. “What? We don’t know how many more of us there are running around. Just because we’ve only found Andrew doesn’t mean there’s not more.”

The truth of that settled like a smothering weight over all of us, and it was only Andrew’s arrival that snapped us back into the present.

The implication of a new brother was a lot, the potential of more something unimaginable.

The fact that Andrew walked up to the table like he’d known us on sight, the fact he was clearly a Covington…

obvious by his build and the way his face was almost an identical match to Smith’s, made the reality of the other options even more terrifying.

“Not sure which of you is Hunter,” Andrew said, somewhat awkwardly. But I watched him hold himself like Smith, watched him try to be brave.

“Want to guess?” Finn asked.

“Not really,” Andrew answered, deadpan and dry…like Hunter.

“I’m Marshall,” I said, standing and reaching across the table to shake his hand.

Andrew squared his shoulders and returned the gesture, putting everything else aside for the sake of maturity…like me.

“Andrew.”

“This is Finn,” I said, pointing at him. “Hunter. And this is Smith.”

They all managed to get it together enough for handshakes, and then Andrew chose the seat between me and Finn, and we were all on our asses again.

“I’m glad you’re older than me,” he murmured at Finn.

“Why’s that?”

“I think if you were younger, you’d be insufferable,” he teased…just like Finn would have.

I glanced between the two of them, Finn battling his mouth into an angry line when I could tell he found the humor in the barb. Andrew’s face a mask of indifference, like he’d unintentionally mastered Finn’s humor and Hunter’s delivery without even knowing better.

“Thanks for coming up to meet us,” I said, flagging down our waiter. Andrew ordered a gin martini, and it was the first difference I’d noticed about him. “Though I’m not sure what your goal with this is.”

“Do I need one? We’re related. It makes sense to put faces to names. To shared DNA.”

Beside me, Smith sucked his teeth. Like me.

“You don’t need one,” Hunter said.

And then silence fell over the table until our drinks were served.

Smith guzzled his wine, and I kicked my foot into his.

He made an unhappy noise in the back of his throat but set his glass back down on the table.

Thankfully, he’d gotten it all into his mouth and not all over the front of his shirt.

I scratched the back of my neck, tickling my finger up into my hairline while also waiting to see if any of my three—no, four—brothers were going to pick up the conversation again.

When it became clear none of them were, I said, “So, Andrew. Hunter hasn’t told us anything about you at all besides we have the same father and that you don’t want to take his last name.

Tell us something else. What do you do for work? ”

“I also don’t want his money,” Andrew said quickly.

I glanced at his clothes, well-tailored but still off the rack. He didn’t strike me as blue collar, but there was definitely no Covington money behind him.

“Good.” I smiled. “How do you make yours, then?”

“Data entry,” he said, biting the inside of his cheek. “What about the four of you?”

“I’m an architect,” I told him. “You know Hunter is an attorney.”

Andrew nodded.

“I’m in finance,” Finn said, and I was grateful to see him engaged in the conversation, however minimally.

Everyone looked at Smith, who in turn looked like he wanted to crawl under the table and die. “I have a degree in design,” he said. “I’m working with a historic preservation and restoration firm right now.”

“Is that what you want to do?”

Smith swallowed. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Just the way you said it.” Andrew waved dismissively and reached for his martini. “Never mind. And you’re the youngest?”

“For now,” Smith muttered .

Andrew laughed awkwardly. “You’ll have to forgive my next question, but…how did the four of you find each other?”

Finn and Hunter went tense, both of them lifting their glasses in sync like they really were twins. Smith was clearly lost in his head which left the answer to me.

Again.

“To be frank, it was a series of business transactions,” I explained. “Our mothers all hit Willem up for child support of some kind and got buyouts instead. Which they all took. Yours clearly did not.”

“Buyouts?”

“Cash for parental rights,” I said, chasing the answer with some wine to erase how bitter it tasted on my tongue.

“That’s horrible.”

“It’s just a thing that happened. It happened a long time ago, and now I have three brothers out of the deal,” I said.

“Four,” Hunter corrected.

“For now,” Finn added on.

Andrew’s brows stretched toward his hairline. “For now?”

“We thought it was just the four of us,” Finn said. “But now here you are. There’s no saying there’s no other Covingtons running around.”

“I’m not a Covington.”

“No,” Finn said warily. “You’re not.”

“Alright.” I lifted my hand between the two of them, and Finn obediently stopped talking in favor of finishing his Manhattan. “And Andrew, Hunter says you’re twenty-eight?”

“Yes.” He licked his lips and looked around the table, curiosity finally getting the better of him. “What about all of you?”

“I’m twenty-five,” Smith said. “They’re thirty-five, and Marshall is almost forty.”

“I’m thirty-nine,” I grumbled .

“Almost forty,” Finn insisted. On either side of him, both of my other brothers smirked at him, and I found myself even more outnumbered than before.

“Are any of you married?” Andrew asked next.

“No,” Finn answered. “And we’re all single, except for Marshall.”

My mind wandered to Silas, and I smiled into my wine.

I hoped he was having a good time with Lincoln, and I hoped he’d stopped beating himself up about winning the job.

I was looking forward to celebrating with him at Rapture after dinner and celebrating properly with him in private after that.

I’d have to come up with something good to get him out of his head long enough to appreciate how monumental his win truly was.

“What a smile,” Andrew teased, and he looked so much like Finn, my breath caught. I managed to return the expression, grateful when our waiter returned with a second round of drinks and a welcome distraction.

The rest of the night passed well enough with only the occasional lapse into uncomfortable silence.

It was clear by the end of the night that no matter how much Andrew had wanted to come into this meeting with nothing more than morbid curiosity, he was leaving with four brothers he’d not planned to keep.

The same could be said for all of us, even if I could still feel the resistance pulsing out with Smith’s too-tight smiles and sometimes too-loud laughs.

We parted with hugs instead of handshakes and the promise that we’d make a best effort shot at getting together the following month.

I stood in the parking lot with Finn, Smith, and Hunter, and the three of us watched Andrew climb into his car and drive away with one last wave in his rearview mirror.

As soon as the car turned the corner, Hunter slapped Finn hard on the back once, ruffled Smith’s hair, and headed for his own car.

Finn and Smith and I repeated the routine, watching Hunter until he was out of sight, at which point I glanced at Smith.

“How was that for you?” I asked.

“He’s a lot like Finn.”

Finn snorted. “He’s more like you and Hunter than me.”

“A bit like Marshall,” Smith suggested, which earned him an eye roll from me.

“Stoic in the face of emotion,” I said, which wasn’t even true for me anymore. Silas could take me to my knees with a single look; he just didn’t know it.

“What’s the rest of your night look like?” Finn asked.

“Celebrating with Silas,” I said, “as long as the two of you don’t need me.”

“I don’t need you,” Finn said, stepping behind me to slide his arm around Smith’s shoulder. “Do you, Smith?”

He looked like he wanted to, but he was more like me than he’d ever admit.

“I’m good,” Smith said.

“We can go get a nightcap since we’re not invited to Silas’s celebration.” Finn pretended to pout, pulling Smith toward their cars on the far edge of the parking lot.

“You don’t even know him, and Smith has only met him once.”

“I went to school with him.”

“That was a lifetime ago,” I said.

“For you maybe,” Finn taunted.

“He’s coming with me next Friday, so any celebration that happens after that, I’ll make sure you get an invitation.”

Finn linked his arm through Smith’s and turned them both backward, throwing me a wink and saying, “Love is cute on you.”

“Good night, boys.” I waved them off, reaching for my keys. “Be safe.”

“Yes, Dad!” Finn called .

Smith shook his head, and then I watched the two of them get into Finn’s car and disappear in the same direction Hunter and Andrew had gone.

Letting out a long breath that threatened to deflate me like a balloon, I gave myself a good five minutes of peace and quiet in the parking lot before pulling my phone out of my pocket.

It was later than dinner usually ran, quite close to ten, and I had one missed text message from Silas. It was a picture of him sprawled out on his couch, head resting on Lincoln’s shoulder, both of them grinning at the camera.

Silas

Ready when you are.

It appeared, at least on the surface, he’d recovered from the misery of his earlier success.

I texted him back.

Do you want a ride?

I’ll get one with Lincoln so he can fuck off at the end of the night, but you’ll have to bring me back on Sunday to get my car.

What I’m hearing is it's a good opportunity to talk about your living situation.

Maybe.

That feels fast.

But not.

Stop thinking so hard.

I’m leaving dinner. Going to run home and change. It’s late but I should be there a little before 11:30.

Can’t wait. We’re going to leave now. Is that okay?

You don’t have to ask me that.

I want to.

More than okay, sweetheart

Find me when you get there?

Always.