We had the same brown complexion and brown eyes, but that’s where our similarities began and ended. He and my middle brother Anthony inherited their height and build from our father, so they towered over me. I was curvy and average height just like my mama. Dante was 6 '4 and he kept both his head and face bald as the day he was born because another thing he and my brother inherited from our father was premature gray hair. I thought it was cute, Anthony didn’t mind it because not only would he beat the shit out of anyone who teased him, but he wasn’t fully gray yet, but Dante’s hair was completely silver before middle school. I remember when he shaved it off in junior high because he said it helped him run faster when in actuality it was because he was getting bullied.
“Ok.” Penny’s breathless response pulled me out of my thoughts. Hearing the unrestrained lust in her voice from looking at my brother made me narrow my eyes at her. Penny noticed the look on my face and quickly picked up the phone to order our lunch. I shook my head in annoyance because my brother had that effect on women, and he knew it. That’s why he enjoyed being a bachelorverymuch. When I walked into myoffice, Dante was sitting on the couch against the wall with his large feet propped on the wood coffee table in front of him.
“Make yourself comfortable, why don’t you,” I said sarcastically, and he just smirked. When I sat next to him, he threw his arm on the back of the couch. “So, tell me about your latest adventures,” I said, laying my head against his shoulder, getting comfortable until our lunch arrived. I didn’t have the slightest idea what half the words meant that left my brother’s mouth, but I loved how animated he got when he talked about his career. So, I sat and listened to him regale me with stories about some of his most complex neurology cases.
Titan
“Bailey was fine as hell, wasn’t she? I can’t wait to start working with her to oversee our marketing campaign. Usually I don’t get involved because I’m president of marketing and we have employees for that but I’m going to make an exception for her and honor her with my presence.” I bit my lip in frustration to stop myself from cussing Trent’s ass out as we rode down in the elevator.
“And her hips were made for pencil skirts. Did you see those heels she was wearing? Damn that woman is stacked!” Hearing the lust in my baby brother’s voice was grating on my fucking nerves, and I had to ball my hands into fists and dig my nails into my palms just stop myself from punching him in the mouth. I knew Trent was eager to work with Bailey because that was all he talked about since we got on the elevator. Normally my brother being his overly flirtatious self didn’t bother me, but the way he was talking about Bailey was pissing me the fuck off. But I never wanted to hurt my brother out of anger, so I clenched my jaw and kept staring at my reflection in the stainless-steel elevator doors.
“I hope her husband isn’t the jealous type.” I heard Trent say and I felt my shoulders tense and my eyes twitch as jealously hitme hard in my stomach, damn near knocking the wind out of me. I took a deep breath and silently counted to ten as I let it out slowly.
“Who said she was married?” I finally spoke once I felt calm enough, but the sound of my voice reflected how I was feeling. Tense and possessive. According to my research on Bailey, she was unmarried and worked too much to have a steady boyfriend. So why did Trent say she was married?
“Why do you care?” My brother Torrence asked from behind me. The suspicion I heard that laced his tone let me know that he also noticed the edge in my voice. Torrence was excellent at listening and reading people, qualities that made him an excellent attorney, but right now, I wasn’t in the mood for his perceptiveness.
“I was just asking,” I mumbled, silently wishing for the elevator to hurry up and get to the ground floor.
“Yeah, sure you were,” Torrence said, chuckling, “I saw how you looked when that guy picked her up. Your jaw was clenched so tight I thought you were going to break a tooth.”
Clearly my foul mood was amusing to my brothers because they started to laugh when I sighed in relief when the elevator finally reached the ground floor and the doors opened.
“Oh, and don’t forget he moved the meeting up at the last minute.” Now it was Travis’s turn to make fun of me, and I ignored his ass too. My brothers have been making jokes at my expense since they were old enough to talk but they never teased me about a woman I was interested in; not even my ex-wife or the women I dated before her, so this was new.
“I think Titan already planted his flag on Bailey, little T. You see how he made her call him Titan? You know healwaysmakes people outside of friends and family call himMr.Browning. But with Ms. Henson? Nooooo, ‘Call me Titan’.” I heard Torrence mock my voice to Trent and he made me sound like a damncaveman. They both laughed louder when I stepped off the elevator like my ass was on fire.
“In all seriousness though, it’s about damn time he took an interest in someone again.” Titan’s brother Trent said with sympathy and the rest of his brothers nodded their heads in agreement as they watched Titan’s large retreating figure disappear through the revolving doors of the building.
Bailey
“So, who was your boyfriend?” Dante asked before taking a large bite of his burger and I damn near choked on my water at his sudden question.
“What makes you say that?” I asked in between coughs.
“So, he’s not your boyfriend, but he wants to be,” he responded thoughtfully before he put his food down and laced his hands together in front of him on my desk. I instantly became nervous from the serious look on his face, and I imagined this was how he looked before he delivered bad news to his patients. “Bailey…it’s time for me and you discuss the birds and the bees,” he said, and for a moment, my mind went blank, then it sputtered back to life before it processed what his silly ass just said.
“What?!” I burst out laughing. “The birds and the bees? What am I? Six? You late as hell for that conversation Tae-Tae.” I now had tears coming from my eyes as I laughed harder, and he joined in.
“Ugh, I don’t want to hear that. I still think you’re seven. But from the way that man was looking at me when I picked you up, I thought I was going to have to beat the hell out of his big ass before the rest of his big ass brothers jumped in. Why the hellthey so big anyway? They grow up tossing baby bulls on a farm for a living or some shit?” I shook my head and just laughed. Dante may come off as playful, but he was very overprotective, so I had no doubt he was serious about fighting Titan and his brothers if he needed to. “You know if Anthony were in town, he would’ve kicked his ass just for having his hand on you when y’all were walking toward the lobby.” He chuckled.
Our brother Anthony was a former Captain in the Marines special forces, and he had a short temper. After leaving the military, he became a trained MMA fighter and now he owned a private security business. Dante may have been overprotective, but it was nothing compared to Anthony. When our father passed away when we were younger, Anthony thought it was his responsibility to take on that role when it came to me, and it used to pissed me off. Now I was used to it. Anthony was intimidating, but he really had a heart of gold. That is if you could get past the barb wire, steel doors, rabid dogs, and electrical fence he kept around it. The only people he showed that side to was his family. Which was me, Dante, my mom, and his daughters, Hailey and Rylee, who had him wrapped around their fingers. With Anthony’s busy work schedule, the girls split their time between me and our mother’s house when he was out of town.
“Speaking of Anthony, have you gone by mom’s house to see the girls yet?” I asked before inhaling a bite of my grilled chicken salad, which was more chicken than lettuce, just the way I liked it.
“Hell no! You know I rather see my niecey poos when they’re with you, so I can avoid the ‘when you gone give me some grandbabies?’ inquisition from mom.” Dante rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I’ve only been in town for a little over three hours now. I dropped my luggage off at home, took a shower, then came straight here. But when I leave, I’ll drop by to see them becauseI got some things for them from my trip to Brazil,” he said as he finished the rest of his diet Coke and then he let out a loud burp.
“Really?! Nasty ass!” I yelled, throwing a napkin at him, which he blocked and laughed.
“I know you ain’t calling nobody nasty, with the tear gas that comes out of your ass.” Dante started laughing, “I’ll never forget on Hailey’s sixth birthday how our niece almost passed out from the toxic fumes you let out after eating ice cream.” I tried to hold back my laughter but failed. Tears were coming out of my eyes from the memory, and I could barely speak when Penny’s voice came through the intercom on my desk.
“Ms. Henson, you have a delivery at my desk. I would have signed for it, but the sender requested that only you receive it,” Penny finished.
Getting my bearings together after laughing so hard, I stood up and walked to Penny’s desk while wondering who was sending me something. When I got across the hall, there was a handsome dark skin man with an average build standing at Penny’s desk holding a gift bag in his hand, making Penny blush crimson as he smiled and flirted with her. He looked like he was around his early twenties, and he looked very dapper in his navy-blue suit. When he heard my heels clicking against the marble floor, he turned his megawatt smile in my direction.
“Ms. Henson?” He looked happy and sounded upbeat; when I nodded, he came forward. “My name is Royce, and I was asked by my boss to personally deliver this gift of congratulations to you for a job well done,” he said, holding out the bottle shaped gift bag.
“Oh, thanks, who is your boss?” I asked, taking the bag from his outstretched hand.
