Page 10 of Seven Year Itch
Flying Solo
Calder
“God, I love having a rich big brother,” I state grandly as I stretch my long legs out on the luxury leather seat of the private plane Max upgraded the whole family to for this destination-wedding trip to Mexico.
“This is all free too?” Trista asks the flight attendant around a mouthful of cheese. She stands in the aisle by the table where a charcuterie board and various fancy prepackaged snacks are laid out all neat and tidy. The flight attendant tells her yes for the third time while refilling her champagne flute. She smiles over at me and Wyatt. “Holy shit, this is awesome!”
Trista stuffs some snacks in her purse, and Wyatt laughs and shakes his head from his window seat facing directly across from me. He’s holding a sleeping Stevie in his arms, but that doesn’t stop Trista from shooting him a dirty look when she sits down beside him. “They’re for after we land. Max said it’s a long drive to the villa.”
I glance back at Max in the window seat behind me, with his wife Cozy tucked comfortably beside him. Those two look much more natural in this posh setting. Max in the business suit that he apparently wears even on vacation, and Cozy in some loungewear set that probably cost more than all the clothes in my closet.
Max is a big-shot businessman in Boulder. He took a very different path in life from us younger three Fletcher brothers. Wyatt, Luke, and I all chose to work for my dad’s construction company pretty much straight out of high school and never wanted much else. It wasn’t until Dad passed away that we had to get our shittogether and start managing more than just punching the clock and taking orders from him. Now we all have our own niches.
Wyatt is the second oldest of us and is crazy passionate about renewable resources. He has us building new smart homes all over Boulder instead of the typical house-flipping we used to do. He’s already bitched about the excess carbon emissions from this jet five times since we boarded. He’s real fun at parties.
Luke is the youngest of our family and always took a shine to the business side of construction. He’s our estimator and works with the vendors we buy our materials from. He manages our payroll too, or I wouldn’t have a clue how much we profit on the projects we complete.
Me? I like to fuck off. Still.
In my younger years, my big, delusional dream was to go pro in hockey, but I blew out my knee sophomore year and never got back full function. Now I hobble around with Luke in an over-forty league that drinks more than it skates. I stay in the league to keep active, though. I’m not a big gym rat, and after our reasonably fit father died of a heart attack out of nowhere, we all worry about our health more than ever.
And sex just so happens to be a great workout, which is why I stay active on the apps. Or did... before someone fucked with my shit.
Mostly, I’m the muscle of our business and do all the heavy lifting. However, I have a small passion in outdoor furniture design. I make the odd chair or bench or end table when the mood strikes. Even did my first custom crib for little Stevie that didn’t turn out half-bad.
But the most grown-up thing I ever did was build my own cabin on Wyatt’s property. Luke and I worked our asses off helping Wyatt develop the land and make it as self-sustainable as his little eco-heart desired. Once all that work was done, Wyatt ended up offering up small plots for us to live up there too.
Fletcher Mountain is a fucking dream. We could survive an apocalypse on that peak, and to know we built it all with our bare fucking hands like pioneers feels meaningful. It was an incredible gift for Wyatt to let us build up there. And he only throws it in our faces once or twice a year.
Holidays are stressful.
Aside from a few brotherly brawls, the three of us are living the family-compound dream. We carpool into Boulder for all our construction projects, our mom brings lunch to the job sites regularly, and Max joins us for our monthly poker nights. Everly and Ethan visit often, or we come to town to spend time with them. We see Ethan more than Everly these days for obvious reasons. But overall, there’s not much more a man could want in life.
Except maybe a private plane.
And a helicopter. A helicopter would make the times we get snowed in a hell of a lot easier.
I turn around and reach back for a fist bump with Ethan. He’s seated behind Max and Cozy with my mother, Johanna. I can’t help but notice how much he looks like his mother Cozy with her dark hair and eyes. Everly got her lighter features from her biological mom, Max’s first wife, Jess. But Ethan’s going to be a heartbreaker with those dark lashes. And his wild side will be attention-grabbing, for sure. I like to think the little shit takes after me, which drives my uptight brother crazy.
Across the aisle from them in the way back is Luke, who’s looking real comfy with Addison. I’m a little worried about shit being awkward between these two after this trip... but as long as he doesn’t fall in love with her, we’ll be just fine. I can’t lose another brother to a woman.
Everly is currently on her own first-class flight from Dublin to meet us. She’s on Easter break from university, and I’m excited to see my little shithead niece, even if she did singlehandedly sabotage my chances of finding my own plus-one. I’ve been texting her forthe past week asking why she’s fucking up all my dating apps, and she acts like she has no idea what I’m talking about. I’m still not completely certain it wasn’t one of my brothers who fucked with my shit. But I even feel like my sister-in-law Cozy has been acting weird around me. I don’t know who’s to blame, but someone is going to pay when I find out.
Because now I’m going on a sexy, tropical vacation... with my hand. Apparently, this villa Max bid on at some charity auction last year is in a remote location, so I won’t even have fellow resort guests as potential for random hookups.
Fucking kill me.
If Dakota hadn’t got me kicked out of Lexon, then maybe I would have a nice little submissive plus-one in the open seat next to me. Someone who could call meMasterwhen we get back to our room at night. Someone who’s a lady in the streets and a freak in the sheets. I would have loved to play that game all week.
Trista leans into Wyatt to check on Stevie in his arms, dropping a soft kiss to her chestnut hair. “Baby’s first plane ride at only three months old, and it’s private. This little girl is going to grow up to be such a brat.”
“Speaking of brats,” I murmur as I spot a burst of blond hair climbing up the jet steps.
“Who is it?” Wyatt asks, looking over his shoulder.
“Calder.” Cozy reaches around from behind me and pinches my arm. “Dakota is my best friend, and she’s been through a lot lately, so you will be nice to her this week? Plus, this is Wyatt and Trista’s big trip, and none of us want to hear you two bickering all the damn time.”
“They’re like an old married couple,” Max adds with an amused harrumph.
