Page 15 of Next Door Midlife Alpha
Will spread his hands, palms up. “It’s hard to explain, really. All that time out at sea, there weresome days I barely made enough to feed myself. You really start thinking about things. It was hard, I’m not gonna lie. But it was also really good for me. It made me realize just how much I’d been missing out on by not being here with the rest of my clan. With my family.”
It was all very heartfelt, but Dylan couldn’t say he felt good about it. They could question Will all day and listen to his vague answers, but he wanted to get down to brass tacks. “So what do you want? Exactly?”
“Nothing much,” Will replied easily. “Like I said, I’m not the same person I used to be. I just want a chance to hang around for a bit and get to know you all again. I’ll bet none of us are really the same, right? We’re not the young hotheads we were back in the day, ready for a fight around any corner. Think of it like a family reunion.”
Every muscle in Dylan’s body tensed as he considered this idea. Will had been incredibly destructive to their family bond, not only when he’d reacted as he had that fateful night but even before. As a boy, Will had always had an underlying sense of anger and resentment. Was that the kind of thing that ever went away? Did people actually mature enough to let things go?
He had, in many ways. Dylan’s mind quickly moved to Gwen, Lila’s mother and his high school sweetheart. Their differences had driven them apart, and he’d felt pretty bitter about that for a while. Now, though? Gwen was living her own life and doing well. The two of them had both moved on. Was that the same sort of feeling he could have for his brother?
Jace let out a small grunt. Dylan glanced at him and could see the uncertainty in his features. None of his brothers trusted Will any more than he did. There was no good reason to, blood or not. Twins or not.
“How are Mom and Dad doing?” Will asked into the moment of silence. “I’m sure Mom will be plenty happy to use all her life coaching skills on me. She was always trying to give me advice, you know, in that gentle way she has. I should’ve listened!”
Damn it. Dylan knew his parents would be thrilled to see Will truly reformed and returning to the fold. They’d probably run some errands, so they weren’t there for this. What would Dylan tell them when they got back? That their prodigal son had returned, only to be summarily rejected with no more than a few minutes of discussion? That wasn’t the kind of Alpha that Paul had trained Dylan to be.His job was to look out for the well-being of everyone in the family. Barbara truly would be thrilled to see Will return, ready to finally listen to all the advice she’d gleaned from her profession. Will was their son, just as much as the rest of them were. Could Dylan turn him away that easily?
“There’s an extra room at the clanhouse.” There was always room at the clanhouse, and Will had known that. What else could he do? “You need to take the dog in through the garage. There are some old towels out there you can wipe him down with before he comes inside.”
“Sounds like a plan. The Brigham Brothers, all back together again. I love it.” Will eagerly led the way to the clanhouse.
Dylan gave his other brothers a look before falling into step beside Will. He’d spend some time with his twin and feel things out, see if anything had truly changed. In a sense, it was no different than his self-assigned mission of learning more about Stacey. Granted, he already felt he could trust the human woman more than his own brother. Time would tell.
8
With a contented sigh,Stacey sat up. Water streamed off her back and shoulders as she reached for the drain plug, letting all the scented oils and soap suds go swirling down the drain. The water had gone cold, but she still felt wistful about seeing her bath come to an end. She turned on the shower to rinse off, proud of allowing herself such a luxury in the middle of the day.
Wrapped in a soft robe and with her hair twisted up into a towel, she slowly made her way down to the kitchen. “Do I smell coffee? I know it’s well after lunch, but that sounds awesome right now.”
Carol was just stepping away from the pot. “Freshly brewed. I needed a bit of a pick-me-up. I like to think I’m still young and energetic, but thetruth comes up and smacks me in the face every now and then. How was your bath?”
Stacey poured herself a mug and added a little more creamer than usual. “Heavenly! I never would’ve done such a thing in the middle of the day before. Hell, I didn’t even do it at night. Something was always more pressing. I couldn’t do more than take a quick shower before I was right back at it again.”
“Guess that means you made the right move?” her mother asked, pulling a catalog from the pile of mail on the breakfast bar.
“I really did.” Stacey inhaled deeply as she looked out the back door, taking in the lovely backyard and beach just beyond. “I’m sure I’ll need to find another job eventually, but right now, it’s nice to enjoy the money I saved while I was too busy to spend it.”
“Speaking of getting busy, have you been neighborly with Dylan lately?” Carol asked with a raised eyebrow. “I know you said you were going over there for lunch, but did you havedessert?”
“Mom, you’re terrible.” Stacey gave her a level look. Her mother had always been one to say exactly what was on her mind, regardless of how anyone else felt about it. Unfortunately, Carol had justbrought up a subject that’d been weighing heavily on her mind. “We did have lunch with Dylan and met his daughter. The kids loved Lila. Dylan let us go up in the lighthouse, and I think I might’ve enjoyed it just as much as they did.”
Carol looked up from her catalog, ignoring the striped bikini she’d been eyeballing. “So then, what’s the matter? And don’t say nothing because I can hear it.”
Her mother might be an oddball, but Stacey did have to give her credit. She’d always paid attention to her daughter, providing something many moms didn’t. “I just don’t know if whatever this is between Dylan and me is a good idea.”
“What’s the matter? That he’s a hunk who conveniently lives right next door? Or is it that he’s nice to your children? I’d ask if it was a sexual problem, but what I witnessed the other night suggests otherwise.” Carol fanned herself with the catalog.
“No, seriously,” Stacey replied. “There are a lot of great things about him. This isn’t just about him, though, or about me. Vivian and Elijah are still so young. I moved out here to spend more time with them, but what does it say about me if I start spending that time with someone else? What’s that demonstrating to them?”
“Oh, that’s simple.” Carol leaned an elbow on her catalog and picked up her coffee mug. “You’re demonstrating that mothers need time for themselves, too. It’s true, you know, despite what society has told you.”
There was a good point in there, but Stacey couldn’t see far enough through this problem to consider it seriously. “Even so, what about Todd?”
Those active eyebrows now slammed down hard in a firm line. “What about him? I don’t think he has a damn thing to do with this.”
“Now, Mom. I know how you feel about him.” Not that Stacey could blame her. She still held plenty of her own resentful feelings toward her ex.
Carol snorted. “As anyone should! What a way to find out that he’d been running around on you! I don’t regret a single dime we spent on those genealogy tests. The only thing I’m sorry for was how stressful it was on you when that young man came forward and said he had half of Todd’s DNA. At least we have the proof. You know the asshole never would’ve admitted to it otherwise.”
Stacey glanced around but then remembered that she’d heard the kids playing in Elijah’s room before she’d come down from her bath. They only knew what they had to know about their parents’divorce, and she wouldn’t discuss the sordid details in front of them. They had no idea just how humiliated and furious Stacey had been when she’d discovered that Todd had not only cheated on her way back in the first years of their marriage but that he’d also managed to father a child out of that little affair. There hadn’t been any going back after that.
