Page 83 of Love By Design

Cory was, as I expected, more than agreeable about meeting with Silas. He’d also read the article so Silas’s creativity was clearly only lost on his father. I texted Silas to let him know how to get in touch, then tried to focus on work. I went ahead and submitted the final draft of the bid on the Cahuenga Pass project because, with Silas out at Ayres, I had far less to worry about. It was a shame—from a business perspective—that Silas didn’t want to come work for me, but I also appreciated how that was one too many relationship lines between us.

Knowing the bid was done and Silas was safe with Lincoln on my couch, my mind reluctantly traveled to other obligations that I’d been shirking since taking on both. The biggest of which being Hunter’s revelation about a new brother. I’d looked him up a couple of times and didn’t find much of him on social media.

Andrew Calavert.

There’d been a long-abandoned Facebook profile and a LinkedIn page that hadn’t been updated since he’d graduated—from USC—with his J.D. a couple years after. If he had a job, I didn’t know where it was. It wouldn’t have taken morethan a couple phone calls to find out, but I didn’t want to make any assumptions. He was willing to meet with us at some point, and I could ask him then.

I glanced at my watch, knowing the end of the day was approaching faster than I would have liked. For the first time in my life, I was torn between two things that both deserved priority—Silas and my brothers. So I called Hunter, since he was the only one who knew about our unspoken agenda for the night.

“Hey,” he said, already sounding weary. “Are you ready for tonight?”

“Not entirely.” I paused. “Do you think we can table it?”

“The conversation?”

“Dinner,” I said.

The quiet between us was thick. “Does this have anything to do with that boyfriend of yours?”

I’d never lie to any of my brothers, especially about something like this. And I’d already told Silas I’d be home after dinner, but if there was any way I could adjust that schedule to get back to him sooner, I wanted to try it. The revelation about our fifth brother was groundbreaking, but Andrew wasn’t going anywhere. From what Hunter had said, although he’d agreed to meet us, he wasn’t chomping at the bit to do so. We could put the reveal off another week…

“Yes,” I told him, “But not in the way you’re thinking.”

“How am I thinking?” he asked.

“That I want to ditch out on you to get laid.”

Hunter chuckled. “Don’t you?”

I let my mouth tug into a smile, since my brother couldn’t see it. “Of course, but he’s going through something right now.”

“Smith is about to be going through something too,” Hunter interjected, “when he finds out there’s another one of us.”

Scrubbing a hand down my face, I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling like I could find the answer there. “You’re right,” I agreed. “Do you have any other information about him?”

“I have his phone number.”

“Have you talked to him?”

“Just the first time. He knows about you and Smith and Finn. He knows we’re telling them tonight, but nothing else.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see you at six then.”

“Marshall, I know you like this kid, but being there for your family is the right choice.”

“I can do both,” I told him, hanging up the call and frowning down at my cell phone.

The rest of the day passed with the frown in place. So downturned, my jaw ached from it. The only reprieve from my day were the intermittent text messages from Silas about what he and Lincoln were doing and how they were feeling. He sent me a picture of the sandwiches the two of them had made for lunch, and he let me know he’d made plans to meet with Cory on Monday about a job. He assured me he felt a thousand times better than he had the night before, but I still didn’t feel right about abandoning him to deal with the fact my father couldn’t keep his cock in his pants.

This was fine.

It was as expected because I’d already told Silas I was going to be late, and Lincoln had already committed to staying there until I got home. The only thing that powered me through the rest of my day was knowing Silas had his best friend with him, otherwise the nagging nerves over Andrew would have eaten me alive.

By the time dinner rolled around, I was beyond ready to get out of the office and into our usual corner booth. My normal wine tasted like it had gone a bit sour, but I imagined that was more on account of my nerves than it was any faultwith the restaurant itself. Hunter showed up next, which was out of character for him, and we exchanged a nervous glance.

“I’ll tell them,” he said, glancing past me, jaw tight.

Finn and Smith arrived within seconds of each other, taking their usual seats and getting their usual drinks. By all accounts, this should have been a standard Friday night dinner between brothers. I hated that I knew otherwise.