for the anger and hurt to surface. It had been ten years since he had found Courtney in bed with another man. Patrick had come down with a severe case of the flu and he’d had to be relieved from his shift at the fire station. He had come home expecting his stay-at-home wife to pamper him and make him feel better.
Instead, flu or no flu, he had ended up opening up a can of whup-ass on the no good lawyer and church deacon he had found in bed with his wife. She begged forgiveness and wanted them to try counseling, but there was just no coming back from that as far as he was concerned. They had only been married for four years. He had hung up his player status at twenty-six to marry a woman he thought was true. And for many years he wondered if she had been cheating the entire time.
When the bad feelings didn’t surface, he shrugged. “I hadn’t heard she was moving back permanently and it really doesn’t matter. It is ironic that she would pick now to move back, though.”
“It wasn’t like she had moved far away anyway. The chick was only in Trenton and she was in town often hanging out with her sorority sisters and having her monthly lunch with Aunt Sophie. She should have moved a whole lot farther away and she should have had the good taste to stay gone,” Joel said.
Patrick sighed. He had figured out intricate ways to avoid running into his ex-wife through the years, stealth-spy ways. And he needed them because from the time the ink dried on the divorce papers, his Aunt Sophie had been trying to get him to take Courtney back.
He hadn’t seen Courtney in at least six months, and that had only been in passing. Even his best avoidance skills were no match for two schemers on a mission. So he figured out a way to deal with seeing her and as the years went by, it bothered him less and less.
“Anyway, none of that is important. And it has nothing to do with why I asked to see you three knuckleheads. I need to pick your brains about the moment you knew that your wives were the one.”
Jason tilted his head and put on his police detective inquisitive stare.
Joel’s mouth dropped open and his eyes widened. He started laughing almost immediately.
Lawrence rubbed his chin and his signature know-it-all smirk graced his face.
Too late to turn back now…
“I mean, I know that Jason was pretty much a goner for Penny from the time he was a kid. Poor sap didn’t stand a chance. And Joel, you walked around with that silly grin on your face all the time. We didn’t think we would ever see you smile again after your accident and then one meeting with your physical therapist, Samantha, and you were sprung. And Lawrence, you took one look at Minerva and you turned into a stalker—”
“I wasn’t a stalker!” Lawrence interrupted in a huff.
“Dude, you were damn close to it. I was worried I would have to arrest my own brother.” Jason chuckled and Lawrence glared at him.
“Anyway, I wanted to find out from you guys—how did it feel? I realized that none of you had a clue you had just met the love of your life. You were too slow to see what the rest of us could tell just from looking at you. But—”
“Wait a damn minute! For somebody who obviously wants our help, you are being a little too free with the put-downs. I know that’s how you are all the time. But if you want my help, you’re going to have to be nicer.” Joel folded his arms across his chest. “And for the record, I did not walk around with a silly grin on my face. And I realized that Samantha was the love of my life fairly quickly and put her on notice, as well. I was much quicker than the stalker cop over there.”
“I was not stalking her! I was doing my job,” Lawrence snapped.
“Anyway.” Jason shook his head at Lawrence. “I’m with Joel. Big bro needs to be a little nicer if he wants our help. And he’s going to have to come clean about why he wants our help. I don’t know about y’all, but I need some more details.”
“I need some more details, too,” Joel said.
“Oh, I definitely need some more details,” Lawrence offered gruffly.
Patrick eyed each of his brothers cautiously. He should have known these three jokers wouldn’t have made this easy. He probably should have toned down his comments, since they had apparently gotten them all riled up.
He leaned forward. “I met a woman—”
“Oh, snap!” Joel stared at him with glee and mirth as he interrupted. “Samantha said that when the love bug bit your surly, grumpy behind it was going to take you down hard and fast. But this is ridiculous. You met her today and she’s already got you calling for council from your younger, smarter, better-looking—”
“All right, can I finish? And tell my sister-in-law to stop talking about me. Anyway, I met a woman today, a kindergarten teacher who brought her class to visit the firehouse—”
“I used to love giving tours to the little kiddies. That was a fun part of the job. The kids really looked up to—” Joel cut him off again.
“Anyway…can I finish?” He glared at his brother.
“Oops. My bad. Go ahead, man.” A sheepish expression crossed Joel’s face.
“So, from the moment I set eyes on her when I welcomed the class to the firehouse, I felt weird. I wanted to keep looking at her. So I hung around for a little while as the rookie gave the tour and I even went out afterward and asked her on a date.”
“Playa, playa…” Jason offered with a smirk. “So when are you taking her out? Is that what you need advice on, where to take her and how to impress her? It’s been a minute since I’ve been in the game, but in my day, you know—”
“I’m not taking her out. Yet. She said she doesn’t date.”
“She doesn’t date? What?” Perplexed, Lawrence frowned. “Wait…Was this a Catholic school? Did you hit on a nun? You know they don’t always wear those habits and stuff anymore—” Lawrence started.
“It was a public school, and she wasn’t a nun! And I’m not asking for advice on how to woo her once I get her to agree to a date.” Disgusted at the thought that his younger brothers would even deign to think that they had more skills that he, Patrick grimaced. “I’m the reason you scrubs had any game to start with, and the last thing I need is advice about that from y’all. Advice? Please! When I taught y’all everything you know?”
“So what do you want?” Jason asked.
“I want to know if this urge to break out into a smile every time I picture her face, if the serious and steady thump in my chest every time I think about her, and this urge I have to find a way, any way, to see her short of stalking…” He shot Lawrence a glance. “I need to know if that’s what it feels like when you meet her…when you’ve met the one. I think that’s why I’m feeling this way and I don’t want to be slow on the uptake like you three clow—I mean, you guys. So—”
“Yes. He’s got it bad,” Jason said with a chuckle.
“And it appears the last Hightower brother has been bitten by the love bug.” Lawrence grinned.
“I don’t know if she’s the one. But it seems like you are recognizing her as the one. That’s for sure. That’s
