“You looking for Ayan?”
Nausea makes my throat tighten. “No, why?” I squeak out the question.
Her brow furrows with confusion. “Oh. I thought he was looking for you.” She points to the doors and shrugs. “Well, he just left.”
twenty-three
My brothers glanceat me judgmentally.
Leo, my oldest brother, runs a hand through his hair. “You married a smart one.”
Atlas grabs my shoulders and squeezes. “Welcome to married life, little bro. Where you’ll fuck up every day of your life and pay for it, too.”
Nico snorts and grabs a crate of the stuff I threw in it. Leo pokes a finger into his chest. “Don’t think you’re still not disappointing Mom by not settling down yet, fucker.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m the disappointment. I get it.”
He shoves him aside and walks out the door.
“Why do you gotta say that shit to him?” Atlas growls, grabbing some clothes from my closet inDeltaHouse. “You know he’s doing good recently.”
Leo rolls his eyes and points at a chair in the corner, but I shake my head. He murmurs, “Recentlyis the word. I’m just waiting for him to show up with more track marks. Any day now.”
“Remind me to never make a mistake in front of you,” I tell them as I head for the door. But that’s how I’ve lived my life. There are no secrets in the Griffin family. My brothers have a way of finding out. Taunting you into submission. And the competitions arefierce.
Who can earn the most money at their franchise of Griffin Motors?
Who takes the best vacation?
Who will have the most kids?
Where Nico decided to bow out of the entire thing, I keep my mouth shut and hope to be the sneaky winner at the end of the day. Because at least I’ve got the advantage of being the youngest boy in the family.
But shit may hit the fan when I don’t go into the automotive repair trade.
So I try to make up for it now in other ways.
Vying forDeltapresident being one of them. Taking my appointed and getting married now being another. And, hopefully, I just started a family with Scout last night.
By the time we gather everything I want to bring and head over to the new place, it’s early afternoon. I get giddy hoping she’ll already be there.
A tinge of disappointment laces the excitement I feel opening the door for the first time. She’s not home.
But the place is grand.
“Wow. Better than the hole in the wall I lived in when I moved out,” Leo says, his broad shoulder bumping into mine as he enters with a few boxes.
“Okay. I’m mad. This looks new, Ape. Maybe I should have gone to university and sucked the president’s dick, too.” Atlas grabs me around the neck and rubs my head like heused to when we were kids. I shirk him off as he tumbles in toward the living area.
“Don’t fucking call me that anymore. I’m a grown man. With a wife and an apartment.”
He digs into an open box and holds up a pair of myStar Warsboxers with Chewbacca on the front. “You sure? Then can I burn these?”
I rip them from his finger and wander toward the bedroom. Shit… I thoughtDeltaHouse was nice. The walls are plain and the furniture is modern. But everything smells of freshly cut wood and paint.
Tossing my underwear into one of the dresser drawers, I leave room for Scout’s things. On the top is a white bottle and a note. In the plastic container are some pills that look like vitamins. Scout’s name is written on it and some of the instructions are for her to take two a day.
“I need to get to the store. Buy some things to make it nice,” I murmur, studying the bottle with a furrowed brow. Is this part of the fertility drugs the president mentioned?
