CHAPTER 21
I need to get out of this bed. I’m late for my appointment with the couch.
-text from Iris to Callum
SHINE
“I’m sorry, but what?”
Surely, I hadn’t heard the man at the door correctly.
“Iris is the sole beneficiary of Teller Kincaid’s estate,” the man repeated.
Apparently, he was Teller’s attorney.
Also apparently, we’d been doing a lot of ignoring phone calls lately, mainly because Iris’s parents called once every couple of hours to see if she’d heard from Abby yet.
Which, every single time, was a resounding no. First on Iris’s part, then on my part because Iris couldn’t handle talking to her parents anymore. Then, finally, on nobody’s part because we’d turned Iris’s phone off completely.
Only Anderson had my cell phone number, and he’d been nice enough not to call every two hours on the dot like their parents.
He called once a week, if that.
Anderson was good people, and I knew that we’d get along famously when we ever had the occasion to spend any time together.
Which wasn’t meant to be anytime soon.
A, because business was booming for me, and sadly, until I hired more guys—or girls if they were willing to do the damn job, and most weren’t—I was stuck working since it was the busy season.
B, because it was also the busy season for the airlines, with everyone and their brothers trying to take vacations at the same time. Which inevitably meant that Iris was forced to take extra shifts whether she wanted to or not.
C, because what time we did have off, we spent together. Which, sadly, wasn’t fucking much.
She was home for a day before she had to fly out again.
And I was set to work the majority of it.
We were stealing a few extra minutes in the kitchen, her talking about dinner and what she intended to make, when there was a knock at the door.
Leading to now, a lawyer standing in my living room, giving us information on what Teller’s last wishes were for when he died.
That included the house that he’d been living in, his pension at work, and fifteen million dollars.
“Fifteen million dollars?” Iris scrubbed at her eyes with the heels of her hands. “What the hell? How did he get fifteen million dollars?”
“Life insurance, ma’am,” he answered. “The department had a very sizable policy it offered for its senior staff. And he had a ten-million-dollar policy on himself. You were the beneficiary of both.”
Iris shook her head. “I don’t want it.”
“Well,” the lawyer looked uncomfortable. “Seeing as there is no family for Teller to have left it to, you were chosen. What you do with it after you’ve received it is your choice.”
He handed over some paperwork, and when it became apparent that Iris wasn’t going to take it, I did.
“How did you even find me?” Iris asked curiously.
“Your tenant, Ms. Lindy, gave me your address,” she answered.
“Tenant?” Iris asked cautiously.
“All rental property is yours as well.” He pointed at the paperwork. “It’s all in there. I suggest having your lawyer go through it. Once he does, y’all can schedule an appointment with me, and I’ll help you with any of it that I can.”
With that, the lawyer saw himself out, and Iris watched him go until she heard the man’s car start and drive off as if he couldn’t wait to be away.
There was an even longer silence before she said, “What the fuck?”
I snorted out a laugh.
“You didn’t think he’d leave you anything?” I guessed.
“He was sleeping with my sister, Callum. Why would he leave me anything?” She shook her head. “It’s really fucking weird.”
I agreed, but…
“If you’re serious about not keeping the money, which might I add is kind of…” I looked for a more succinct way to say ‘dumb’ but couldn’t find one in time for her to fill in a blank.
“Dumb?” she snickered.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I mean, that could enable you to work part time at the airlines, keep your foot in the door, so to speak. It could enable you to go to school and do what you want to do, if being a flight attendant isn’t it. Or, it could be just a cushion that you have to put our kids through college, because Lord knows that I won’t be making bank. I mow lawns, own my own business, but I’ll never be a millionaire. And college is fuckin’ expensive.”
Her eyes flared with heat. “You sayin’ you’re going to have babies with me, sunshine?”
I hooked my hand in her belt loop, pulling her in tight to my body and said, “That’s where this is goin’. Maybe not today, or tomorrow. Next year, though? That’s a solid maybe. Because, let’s face it, neither one of us are spring chickens anymore. Being in your thirties when you have kids is hard. We wouldn’t want to waste too much time putting off what we know we want.”
“And me is what you want?” she wondered.
I pressed my hips into her thigh, letting her feel my erection before saying, “Yep.”
There was a bang on the door, and I sighed. “That’s my ride.”
She pulled away, her eyes going to my crotch where my dick was now straining the fabric of my favorite denim jeans.
“Better put that away,” she teased. “Wouldn’t want you scaring away the little workers you have.”
After placing a solid kiss to her cheek, giving her ass one final slap, and telling her to listen for the house phone if I needed her—yes, I sadly still had a house phone. With my internet company, you had to have a phone number to use their internet—I headed out the door to mow some lawns.
• • •
IRIS
Plans changed.
They changed in the way that before Callum had left for work, I’d been planning on making him dinner and staying in.
But when I saw the layer of dust on his bike indicating that he hadn’t gone out on it in long enough for it to collect that layer of dirt, I knew that an intervention was needed.
That started with texting his brothers.
And to do that, I had to turn my phone on.
Ignoring the 99+ symbol on my voice mails, I scrolled down to his brothers’ names, started a group chat, and sent out a text.
Me: Iris here. Your brother needs a night off. Anybody want to go have dinner with us and ride for a bit? Also, add Cannel to this group chat. I don’t have her number.
The first person to respond was Price, followed shortly by Haggard.
Price: I can swing dinner, but not the ride. Got things to do tonight.
Haggard: Those things include my place, you don’t have to worry about it. We can ride tonight.
Me: Yay!
Rook: I’ll come, as long as you never say Yay! Again.
Giggling like the loser I was, I read every single text the brothers sent and was relieved to see that Bram eventually agreed to come, too.
So, hours later when Callum was finally dropped off for the night—sadly half an hour late—there was no time but to get him in the shower and out the door if we were going to meet his family on time.