Wes took the watermelon out of her arms. “Stop staring, Sophia. It’s rude,” he chided.
She twisted her lips and shook her head. “Humph. I guess this is what you would look like if you’d take that pretentious stick out of your backside and loosen up.”
Seth chuckled. “I think I’m in love.”
Wes disregarded both of them, walked around the kitchen island, and placed the watermelon in the sink.
Sophia answered his unspoken questions. “Daddy dropped off several by the condo. I thought I would bring you one and maybe ride along with you to pick up Collin.”
Wes and Sophia had teamed up and gotten the little guy potty trained within a month’s time. This month’s challenge was to get him to stay all day at preschool. Last week was a bust, so Wes resorted to bribing him with a ride in his “race caw,” as Collin liked to call the BMW, on Wednesdays. It was the only day his schedule would allow him to pick up Collin and he was already close to messing it up due to his reckless brother.
Wes hitched a thumb at his irritating brother. “My schedule is all off due to him.” He studied his watch. “I was hoping to get in a run before I left, but that’s out of the question now, I guess.” He didn’t have to turn around and look to know Seth was grinning like a schoolgirl eavesdropping on juicy gossip.
Sophia looked between the brothers again. “I don’t want to impose on your time with your brother. I’ll pick up Collin.”
“No. I made a promise and I intend on keeping it.” He loosened his tie and untucked his dress shirt. “I’m going to go change first.” He rushed upstairs with his brother close behind him.
“Who is that and what’s really going on here?” Seth asked as soon as he shut the bedroom door.
“I already told you.” Wes stepped inside his walk-in closet and hurried out of his suit. “Plus . . .” He rolled his neck a few times before admitting, “We’re fake dating.”
“Why?” Seth shoved open the closet door and crossed his arms over his wrinkled tee.
Wes pulled on a perfectly pressed one, being mindful to pick a different color than the one his twin wore. “To help keep unwanted advances at bay. She’s just coming out of a disastrous marriage and you already know why I don’t want to date, so we’re pretending to date so everyone else will leave us alone.”
“How long have y’all been dating?” Seth leaned against the doorframe.
“Fake dating,” Wes emphasized. “A couple of months.”
“A couple months? Is that necessary?”
Wes cut him the sharpest look he could produce. “Clearly. Today is a perfect example of why I need the front of a fake girlfriend.”
Seth raised both palms and took a step back. “Man, I said I was sorry. How was I supposed to know she’d—?”
“Not another word about it.” Wes jabbed a finger into Seth’s chest before moving to the back of the closet for a pair of jeans. He pulled them on and shoved his feet into a pair of Chucks.
“Since when do you wear Converse?” Seth stared at the shoes like they were offensive, even though he was wearing a scuffed-up pair himself.
Wes studied their shoes, how much they were alike yet so very different. He really didn’t want to answer but did anyway. “I took Collin shoe shopping. He wanted us to have matching shoes.” He thought Seth would laugh and taunt him about it, but his brother did neither. Just stood there with a concerned expression on his face.
“Collin is Sophia’s kid?”
“Yes.” Wes went to move past him, but Seth latched on to his arm.
The brothers’ matching hazel eyes locked for a split second before he shifted his focus to his tidy room, with the color scheme of soft beiges and grays. Nothing like the room he’d shared with his wife back in Alabama. Claire loved any shade of blue and had decorated their entire stately colonial to suit her tastes. He didn’t mind it as long as she was happy, but here in the new house Wes simply couldn’t bear any blue resemblance of the life that was no more. When Lincoln Cole had asked for his preferences, Wes said anything but blue.
“How old is Collin?” Seth asked, still holding Wes’s arm, trying to reel him back into a conversation he wanted no part in.
Wes looked anywhere but at his brother, already knowing what he was thinking. “Three.”
“Weston,” Seth said on a long drawl that was just above a whisper. So much sorrow was peppered in his name, but Wes stiffened his backbone to it and refused to give in to the emotional war starting to rage within him.
Wes yanked free. “It’s not like that.”
“You gonna get still so we can talk about this?” Seth’s eyes filled with tears, and it was starting to unravel Wes’s carefully constructed composure. That’s how it had always been: when one hurt, the other hurt worse.
“If I stop, it’ll catch up with me. I just can’t face it right yet.” He shoved his wallet and keys into his pockets and hurried downstairs before Seth could set in on a lecture.
Sophia stood at the kitchen island with a butcher knife in her hand, slicing the watermelon. She glanced up at him. “You want me to ride with you?”
Wes contemplated whether it was safe for her to be left alone with his brother. Seth knew all of his history, while Sophia knew only the parts he’d shared. Not wanting to chance it, he nodded. “Seth, we’ll be back in soon. Don’t burn the place down while I’m gone.”
“I’ll do my best not to,” Seth replied, but his tone had no tease. He eyed Sophia too seriously and then Wes. Luckily, she was finishing up the watermelon and didn’t catch it.
Wes shook his head at his brother, warning him to let it go.
Seth shook his head back, clearly not willing to.
“Not now,” Wes said to him quietly before addressing the tiny brunette looking way too comfortable in his kitchen. “I promised Collin I would be early, so we need to go, Sophia.”
“I’m off the clock, Mr. Bossy Pants. Hold your horses,” she sassed but washed her hands and obeyed anyway. It was one of her quirks that he secretly enjoyed. Sassy yet submissive.
Wes heard Seth cough out a laugh and mutter, “You have some more explaining to do.”
Trying to shrug off his brother’s accusations, Wes stormed out the front door to hold up his end of the promise. There wasn’t much he could control at the moment, but picking up that little boy he could do. God willing.
They picked up Collin and returned to the beach house, and Collin had a similar reaction to seeing Seth as his mother had.
After staring for a while, Collin nodded his head and declared, “I like Sef. He can pay caws, too.” The little guy unearthed a bevy of toy cars from his backpack and the three guys set out driving a course around the living room.
All the while, the boy talked Seth’s ears off. Collin questioned Seth about his underwear, whether it had superheroes like his and Wes’s did. Actually, Wes’s didn’t, but for some reason Collin believed it did. He further questioned Seth about whether he liked to sit or stand when he peepeed. Seth cackled at all the little guy’s blunt inquiries, but Collin remained serious and that only added fuel to Seth’s laughing fire.