I watched as he rolled his chair out from behind his desk and turned to head down the hall toward Aaron’s office. I silently followed behind Mark’s wheelchair, pausing for him to knock on Aaron’s door.
“Mrs. Townsend is in with him, but he wanted me to let him know as soon as you arrived.”
I nodded, and then looked up from Mark to Aaron who’d opened the door.
“Thanks, Mark.” I moved into my brother’s office, a smile touching my lips when I saw my sister-in-law. She was sitting at the conference table at the far side of the room, her feet propped up in a second chair. Her right hand, lovingly caressed her swollen belly.
“Patience,” I greeted. “No, don’t get up,” I insisted, but she waved me off.
“No, I need to stand anyway to stretch out my back and legs. How’re you, Josh?” she asked as I bent down, giving a kiss to her cheek.
I grinned and gave her a wink when I heard Aaron grunt his disapproval behind me. Patience smirked as well, peering over my shoulder at her husband.
“Calm down. He’s not the brother you need to worry about anyway.”
“I’ll kick Ty’s ass if he touches you again.”
She giggled. “He just does it to get a rise out of you.”
“True. Ty likes pressing all of our buttons,” I added.
“He’s a jackass,” Aaron retorted. Despite his harsh words, the softening of Aaron’s face revealed the affection he held for our kid brother.
“I know you two have a meeting. I was supposed to head out fifteen minutes ago,” Patience commented, eyeing Aaron. “Somebodywouldn’t let me leave.”
“Heading out?” I questioned.
“Lunch with Michelle. She’s going a little stir crazy waiting on the baby to arrive, so we’re going to eat to get her out of the house while Carter’s on shift.”
I nodded. Both of my sisters-in-law were pregnant. Michelle, Carter’s wife, was two days past her due date while Patience was about four and a half months along with her second set of twins.
“I should go—”
“No,” Patience stated sternly, cutting Aaron off. “You arenotcoming with us. This is a girl’s lunch. You obviously have business to tend to with Joshua. I will befine,” she emphasized. “Besides, I still think you intimidate the hell out of Michelle.”
I snorted at that. Aaron intimidated the hell out of a lot of people.
I glanced at Aaron and saw his eyes lower to her belly and then back up to her face. He was blatantly warring with the idea of Patience venturing out without him by her side. He’d been like that for the last few months ever since she was attacked. She still hadn’t returned to her job as a librarian, instead spending many days at Townsend Industries. I would say that Aaron was overreacting, but hell, I’d be just as protective if it were my wife that had been kidnapped and almost taken away from me by a deranged madman. I couldn’t blame my brother.
“Fine, but—”
“I am going with mytwosecurity guards. One of which will remain in the car and the other will be discreetly located in the restaurant while we eat. After finishing I will be driven by my security slash driver to Excelor to pick up the children, and we will stop by Townsend to pick you up on our way home.”
Aaron’s chest deflated as he pushed out a breath. He stared for a while longer, eventually nodding.
“How’s she doing?” I asked once Patience left.
He gazed at the door longingly. “Better than me some days,” he admitted.
“Love,” I grunted out, shaking my head. It made even the strongest men I knew weak. Both of my older brothers and father were the most capable men in the world, to me, and even they could be brought to their knees faced with the idea of losing the women they loved.
Been there, done that. No thanks,I thought as I patted Aaron on the back before moving to take a seat at the conference table.
A flashback of the night just about six months prior came back to mind. He and I were in this very office. It was dark and Aaron had been drinking, which he rarely does. As soon as I saw the bottle of aged scotch and the look in his eyes, I knew it had to do with his wife. That was the type of behavior love could drive someone as strong as Aaron to. I didn’t need it.
“Something on your mind?”
I wrinkled my brows and glanced up to see Aaron glaring at me.
