covered the dark hardwood floors. Whoever Noah had used to renovate the home had nailed his personal style.
“Dang, man, you said this place was big. Heck, it’s like three times the size of my house in Cincinnati. What’s the square footage?”
“Daddy, where is my room?” Jason started roaming around the empty lower level while Derek and Keith remained where they were.
“Upstairs, lil’ man. It’s the second room on the left.” Jason ran up the stairs and Derek wondered if he understood which room was his. “Oh, and to answer your question,” Derek said to Keith, “we’re working with over 3,500 square feet.” He picked up the luggage he had left near the front door. “Four bedrooms are upstairs and there are two you can choose from. I’m thinking I’ll use the one down here as a guest room.”
“I assumed I’d be getting the master bedroom,” Keith said with a straight face as they clumped up the carpeted stairs. Out of Derek’s four brothers, Keith was the laid-back one that kept the rest of them laughing and on their toes.
“And why would you assume that?” When they reached the top landing, they found Jason in the master bedroom. “Guess you’re out of luck, Keith. Looks like someone beat us to it.”
“Daddy, my room is big!” Jason said, trying to climb up on the king-size bed Derek had ordered weeks earlier and had delivered. With his assistant Louise’s help, he had ordered furniture for his and Jason’s bedrooms, as well as for the family room. He had everything delivered a couple of days earlier. Now they were just waiting for the movers to bring some of his furniture from his and Keith’s old houses, as well as a ton of boxes. Normally, Derek wouldn’t be looking forward to unpacking, but the movers had not only packed up everything for him, but they would also unload everything as well.
“Wrong room, kid.” Derek set his luggage near the closet. “Come on. I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.”
“Yay! I have two beds,” Jason said as he ran into the bedroom and climbed the steps to the top bunk. Since his son was into spaceships, Derek already had some ideas on how they would transform the area. “Look at my room, Uncle Keith.”
“Yeah, man. It’s big. A lot more space for all of your junk, I mean, your toys.” Keith laughed. He left them in Jason’s room to go in search of his own bedroom.
Derek stood at the single window looking out onto the front yard and street. He was slowly starting to warm up to the new life he was getting ready to dive into.
Change often comes with gifts, Noah had once said when he first found out about Derek’s ex-wife leaving him. At the time, the only gift Derek could see in the situation was Jason. Now that his life had recently been flipped upside down, albeit in a good way, Derek wondered if Noah had started making these plans even back then.
* * *
Hours later, Derek strolled outside and sat on one of the steps to his deck. Leaning back, his elbows propped up on the step behind him, he watched his son run around the yard, trying to get his kite to fly. To be young and carefree again. The boy had an endless amount of energy.
Derek closed his eyes and let the beaming sun warm his skin. Long morning. He could honestly say he was exhausted. The past few weeks had been unbelievably busy, and sleep every night hadn’t come easy. He couldn’t get his mind to slow down. He had so much to do, including finding a preschool program for his four-year-old son in less than a month. And then there was Macy.
Macy. The beautiful, sexy goddess with the long legs and bedroom eyes was sure to be the new bane of his existence. The little sleep he had gotten over the past few weeks included erotic dreams of her either in skimpy attire or nothing at all. He groaned just thinking about her full breasts and curvaceous body. Working on the medical complex with her was sure to prove to be the greatest challenge of the move. He hadn’t even started yet and already thoughts of her made a certain part of his anatomy jump to attention. Sitting next to her at the memorial service and then across from her in Drew’s office weeks ago left his body reeling.
“Lunch is here,” Keith yelled from somewhere behind Derek. “Get it while it’s hot.”
The three of them ate while Jason kept a steady flow of conversation going, giving Derek and Keith a chance to interject periodically. When it seemed Jason was all talked out, Derek knew his son would be asleep soon.
“I really appreciate you letting me stay here a while. I have a feeling this move is going to be good for all of us.” Keith stood and tossed his paper plate in the trash before pulling a beer out of the refrigerator. “Not only do you get someone to help with Jason, but you also get to live like the rich and famous.” He emphasized by lifting his arm and waving it around at the large space and twenty-foot ceilings. “And I’ll get a fresh new start.”
What started as an amicable divorce process between Keith and his wife had turned ugly a few weeks earlier when Keith’s father-in-law laid Keith off from work, saying they were taking the company in a different direction. At first, the news couldn’t have come at a worse time, but then, with the opportunity to start over in Atlanta, Keith had figured something good could come out of a bad situation.
He had an interview with the finance department at Price Architecture in three days. Though Derek told him he’d have to get the job on his own, he had no doubt that his brother would wow them. The guy was a whiz with numbers and had played an instrumental role in taking his father-in-law’s company to the next level.
“I think the lil’ man has finally worn himself out.” Keith nodded toward Jason, who was asleep in his chair. Derek caught him just in time, before he fell out of his seat.
“I was wondering when he’d clunk out.” Derek lifted him. “He’s been going nonstop since six o’clock this morning, with only a short nap on the plane.”
Derek carried him upstairs. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he ran his hand over his son’s soft curly head and stared down at his sleeping form. Jason was the most important person in Derek’s world. Sometimes, when he thought about the responsibility of raising a child on his own, it made him nervous. Other times, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
He placed a kiss on the top of his son’s head and bounded back down the stairs.
“It looks like the movers are finally here,” Keith said from the living room window. “But they are a little distracted by the cutie-pie in the tiny shorts next door who’s cutting her grass.”
Derek stood next to his brother at the window and pulled down one of the slats of the blinds, stretching his neck to see the person. It wasn’t the short-shorts his brother alluded to that he was interested in, though. He hadn’t met any of his neighbors yet and hoped there were children nearby that were Jason’s age.
“Instead of staring out the window, maybe you can roll up your sleeves and help guide the movers.”
“I’d rather go next door and introduce myself to the cute neighbor. Apparently, she doesn’t—”
Derek released the slat and started to walk away, but quickly turned back when at the last second he caught sight of the woman behind the lawn mower.
“What the...”
Ignoring the rest of Keith’s comment, Derek bolted for the front door. He cleared his four concrete steps with no effort and stomped across his yard and the neighbor’s double-wide driveway, not
