Page 1 of His Curvy Obsession

1

Eric

Elijah rushesinto the conference room looking unusually rumpled with his tie undone and his hair still wet from his morning shower.

“Another day in paradise?” Emmett asks, looking up from his laptop at our oldest brother.

“You bet,” Elijah says, grinning broadly.

The shadows under his eyes grow darker by the day, but even so, my oldest brother never seems bothered by the fact that his infant daughter keeps him up at all hours of the night.

“Ellie woke up every two hours last night,” Elijah continues, coming to the table with his briefcase and taking out a laptop of his own. “Teething again.”

“That sucks man,” Emmett says. “For her and for you.”

“It’s fine,” Elijah shrugs. “I’ll catch a nap in my office later.”

“Don’t you have a nanny?” I ask him. “They can’t take care of the baby at night so you can get some sleep?”

“The nanny is only for the daytime,” he explains.

“You can’t hire someone for nights too?” I ask him.

He shoots me an exasperated look.

“Funnily enough, I would like to spend some time with my daughter while she’s a baby,” he says. “Not something you would understand.”

I bristle at this comment. I know my brothers consider me something of a robot. They like to joke that I have no emotions, and I understand why they’d say this.

But the truth is, Idohave emotions. I just reserve them for the things that matter most. I don’t get frustrated at the morning traffic like Elijah does. You won’t find me jumping for joy at a football game like Emmett, either.

It takes more,muchmore, for me to feel any extreme emotions on either end of the spectrum, negative or positive. But this doesn’t mean I have no feelings at all.

“The importance of fatherhood is not lost on me,” I say after a moment. “I was only suggesting solutions to your sleepless nights.”

“Sometimes the solution to a problem is to buckle down and give it time,” Elijah says. “This is only a phase. It’ll pass. There’s no solution to teething. It’s just a stage that the baby has to go through.”

“Listen to this guy,” Emmett says, shaking his head. “The man’s been a dad for less than a year and is already talking about it like he’s a professional.”

“Not a professional,” Elijah replies. “But anyone looks like an expert next to a guy like Eric.”

“True,” Emmett says, looking at me.

Another jab. It shouldn’t bother me this much. Growing up as the youngest brother of three, I learned to have thick skin. Most of the time the teasing rolls off of my back. But today, I’m having a hard time brushing it off. I don’t know why.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been working so much. I work a lot anyway, but for the last few months it’s been nonstop.

Or maybe it’s because this particular teasing is about my potential to become a father. Something I plan to do eventually, once I find the right woman.

“I’m just saying,” I reply. “It’s not as hard as you both make it out to be. Especially with our resources. Your nights don’t have to be sleepless. You choose for them to be.”

“No offense, little bro,” Elijah says. “But I’m not about to take parenting tips from the guy who has no chance in hell of ever becoming a parent.”

I’m growing more aggravated, ready to move on from this conversation…until Elijah makes this last remark.

“What makes you think I’ll never become a father?” I ask him, straightening in my chair.

Elijah glances at Emmett.

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