Page 14 of The Grump I Loathe (The Lockhart Brothers #3)

CONNOR

“ H ow did Ali react to the suspension?” my oldest brother, Liam, asked as he ripped a piece of naan in half.

It was my turn to pick the restaurant for our weekly brother meetup, and I’d chosen Rishi’s, an Indian restaurant halfway between the office and the airport.

Liam and Finn had flown in from LA an hour ago, and we’d spent the first thirty minutes of the meal talking about Grace’s suspension.

I shrugged. “By the time she responded to my message, I’d already done the whole spiel—talked to the school, had a serious talk with Grace, and settled on her punishment.”

Liam hummed. “Figured Ali might want to weigh in on that.”

“You would think, but she basically said, ‘Sounds like you’ve got it sorted. Tell Grace she can’t be fighting.

’ As if I hadn’t already done that.” A week and a half had passed since Grace’s suspension, and I hadn’t heard anything else from Ali.

This was exactly the kind of thing we should have presented a united front on, but she hadn’t even made time to call Grace .

“Suspended,” Finn said, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe it. Our little Gracie is growing up.”

“Don’t even start with that,” I said, threatening him with my fork. “I do not want a repeat of this behavior.”

Finn smirked. “It’s not like I’m encouraging her to put toads in Ms. Marilyn’s desk.”

I sighed. “I’d rather have her do harmless pranks like that than fight with other kids.”

“I think ‘fight’ is a bit of a stretch,” Liam said. “There weren’t any actual injuries, right?”

“No, just some hair pulling,” I agreed.

“In that case, suspension feels harsh. I mean, they’re nine years old, for Christ’s sake.”

“It’s that fancy school you have her at,” Finn cut in. “They take everything so seriously. Kids need to be free to work things out on the school yard.”

“And what would you know about what kids need?” Liam teased.

“Sierra’s got me volunteering at all sorts of youth film workshops,” Finn said. “So I’d say I know way more than you.”

He snorted. “Not for long.”

I caught Liam’s eye, watching as an unusually giddy smile appeared. His entire demeanor shifted, like a light had been switched on inside him. Holy hell .

“Shut the fuck up,” Finn said, barking a laugh as he stared at Liam. “You’re having a baby?”

Liam’s smile somehow widened. “Technically, Mia’s having the baby. But, yeah, we’re pregnant. Just over eight weeks along. ”

“Shit,” Finn said, pressing his hand to his forehead. “I’m gonna be an uncle again.” He turned to me. “As the wiser and more experienced uncle, don’t be surprised when I’m the favorite.”

I grinned. It was just now dawning on me that I was going to be an uncle for the first time. “Grace is gonna be ecstatic to finally have a cousin.” I got to my feet to give Liam a hug. “You want me to tell her?”

“Nah, I’ll call her tonight. Mia wanted to be there.”

“Sounds good.”

“Well, my news really pales in comparison to that,” Finn said. “But our rom-com is officially flying through post-production. We’ve got some good early buzz from the test screeners, too.”

“That’s great,” Liam said. “What are you cooking up next?”

Finn smirked, but it couldn’t hide his genuine enthusiasm.

“Sierra had this wacky idea about a Run ’n’ Gun spinoff set in the Wild West. And you know what?

I can’t get it out of my head.” There was no denying that financially, Finn was one of the most successful producers in Hollywood, but it was only recently that he’d started working on projects he actually cared about rather than shoot-’em-up cash grabs, and his professional happiness was way up.

Of course, his personal happiness had absolutely skyrocketed to the moon since he’d worked things out with Sierra. She did costumes on his productions a lot, so work and personal life kind of blended together for the two of them.

“Oh God,” I teased. “Have we finally stumbled upon your self-insert film? Don’t even try to pretend you’re not itching to put on a cowboy hat.”

Finn laughed. “Maybe it’ll be a whole family affair. There were babies in the Wild West,” he said, nudging Liam .

“I am not putting my newborn on the big screen.”

“Speaking of family,” I said. “Have you told Mom about the baby yet?”

Liam looked sheepish. “I actually told her first. Sort of the moment we found out. We tried our best to hold off until the end of the first trimester with everyone else, just to make sure things were good, but Mia’s been feeling great, so we decided to go for it.”

“No, that’s awesome,” I said. I didn’t care that he’d told Mom first. Frankly, I was just surprised.

I was so used to having to beg him and Finn to share things with Mom—to stop treating her with kid gloves, as if she was as fragile as she’d been when we were kids.

I was her advocate, the one who was closest to her, and the one who kept telling the others how well she was doing, how much progress she had made, but they never seemed to believe me.

Not until recently, anyway. Now that they were involving her more in the ups and downs of their lives, I was at loose ends. Was I grateful they were repairing their relationships? Absolutely. But did it feel like my role as Mom’s champion had been sidelined? Maybe. A little.

I stuffed a spoonful of pilau rice into my mouth, trying to swallow down the unease. Lately, Mom needed me less in general. Her work took up a lot of her time, and when she wasn’t working, her world seemed much fuller than before.

Liam and Finn and their partners were around more than they’d ever been, and when they weren’t, X was there, taking up space, doing the things I used to do. Just this morning, I’d called to set up her weekly grocery delivery, and she’d told me she and X had already done it.

“How’s that new narrative designer working out for you? Eddie or whatever,” Finn asked, derailing my thoughts. “You said you found her at a GeekCon? ”

I put my fork down, cracking my knuckles. “She’s been…keeping me on my toes.”

“Okay,” Finn snorted, “and that’s code for what? Is she bad at her job? Good at her job?”

“No, she’s fine. She’s good. Just…frustrating as hell. Somehow, after work this week, she redecorated the office into a neon explosion of nonsense.” There were tacky posters on the walls and sparkly pillows in the lounge and silly mugs in the kitchenette.

“That doesn’t sound that horrible,” Liam said, his lips twitching.

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t even get me started on the weird lion statue that showed up in my office.”

Finn disguised a snicker as a cough. “Lions are cool.”

“She glued a crown to its head and draped a silver cape around it,” I muttered. The Lord LockMill reference had not been missed.

Liam and Finn kept laughing.

“It’s not funny. It was a massive distraction.

” The entire office was still talking about it.

Worse, everyone actually seemed to like it.

I’d been convinced it would be a distraction and efficiency would take a hit, but the opposite had happened.

The office was less quiet, with more buzz and chatter taking place even outside of teams, but productivity was up.

“Well,” Finn said. “Eddie sounds like she’s trying to get you to loosen up.”

“Which you definitely need,” Liam added. “Your life doesn’t need to be one endless work meeting now that the divorce is done. You’re allowed to have some fun.”

Fun. Fun. Fun! That’s all anyone wanted to talk about .

“And if that fun happens to be with Eddie…” Finn said, letting his words linger. It took me a second to register what he was saying.

“Absolutely not,” I said, rice flying from my mouth as I shut that down. “She’s way too young, especially for someone newly divorced, with a child and?—”

“But it’s not like you and Ali were ever really right for each other,” Finn interrupted.

His words hit hard, not because they were wrong, but because they were right.

Ali and I met in college and hit it off as friends.

Going into business together just made sense.

She had the creativity and the dream, and I had the business know-how and the money to invest, thanks to the job I had at the time with a hedge fund.

Over the course of building the company, we fell into bed together and attempted a relationship, but while we had fun, the spark was never really there.

Before long, Ali got restless and wanted to chase the next shiny thing—offers from studios in Japan.

It seemed like a good time for me to explore opportunities in other industries, too, so we agreed to sell our shares, break up, and remain friends. Then Ali found out she was pregnant.

I convinced her moving to a different country with no support was a bad idea.

She agreed, so she stayed, we got married, and we kept the company.

But that was the beginning of the end for us.

We both tried, for Grace’s sake, but we weren’t meant to be together.

Not like that. Eventually, we couldn’t ignore the problems anymore.

“And since you’re not harboring any lingering romantic feelings for Ali,” Finn continued. “What’s the harm in hanging out with someone new?”

“The harm is that I’ve just instituted an employee dating policy.

” Not that I’d consider Eddie even if I hadn’t.

“So there will be no hanging of any kind.” If anyone needed to abide by the rules, it was me.

Not to mention, I still believed the rule was necessary.

Workplace romances never ended well. I finished my lunch quickly, telling myself the only reason I was eager to get back to the office was to assess what new horrors Eddie intended to inflict upon us.

It had nothing to do with the crooked smile she flashed at me over her cubicle walls.

“I hate it here,” I said as a bouncer waved Max and me through the doors of the club.

“You say that every time I drag you out,” Max called over the din of the music as we elbowed our way through a crowded dance floor to the bar.