Chapter 9


    Jake


    It’s barely eight o’clock when I wake up the next morning, which is fucking early for me on a Sunday. I’ve had a pretty restless night. Last night, when I got back to my cabin, I couldn’t sleep. Despite my little back alley encounter with Emory, I was still feeling kind of horny. I decided to rub one out, but every time I tried to think about Emory’s ass and pounding into her, the image of Amber’s cornflower blue eyes kept popping up in my head. Those expressive, innocent, beautiful doe-eyes.


    Fuck!


    This morning isn’t any better either. I just woke up rockhard with nothing but Amber on my mind. With a groan I roll out of bed, determined to get rid of it with a cold shower before I go home.


    About an hour later, I park in my regular spot in front of our house. I can see through the window that everyone is already up and in the kitchen, with the exception of Nate. I guess he must have had a successful date. My brothers Hugo and Cooper are leaning against the kitchen counter. They’re talking to each other while eating a bowl of cereal. My sister Lily is sitting at the kitchen island with her homework spread out in front of her.


    ‘Morning,’ I greet them, as I enter the kitchen.


    ‘Did you fall out of bed?’ Cooper asks without greeting me. He frowns when he glances at the clock. Biologically speaking, he is my only real brother, but we all consider ourselves siblings.


    ‘Early night,’ I shrug. I briefly embrace Lily with my right arm and press a kiss onto her cheek. ‘You do know we have at least ten desks scattered around the house, right?’ I tease her. ‘One of them being in your room. Why are you always doing your homework here?’


    ‘Better lighting, and proximity to coffee and food,’ Lily promptly replies, without taking her eyes off her book.


    ‘Fair enough,’ I concede with a laugh. ‘What has you so focused this morning?’


    ‘AP math,’ Lily answers. She briefly glances my way and wiggles her eyebrows at me. ‘Want to help me?’


    ‘The only equation I know by heart is that a silo of corn silage divided over a herd, equals a massive stench during the summer,’ I joke, raising my hands in mock surrender and making a face at her.


    Laughing, Lily shakes her head and turns back to her math book. She knows I’m not the go-to person for homework help—I barely did my own back in high school. Besides, she’s much smarter than all of us, so she probably won’t need anyone’s help anyway.


    ‘Breakfast?’ Hugo offers, holding out a box of cornflakes to me.


    ‘Already had some Pop-Tarts,’ I decline.


    ‘You’ve already had breakfast too?’ Cooper asks in disbelief, eyeing me suspiciously. ‘Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?’


    ‘Shut up,’ I bump my fist against his shoulder, causing him to spill the content of his spoon on his shirt.


    ‘Hey, this was clean!’ Cooper exclaims protestingly. He scowls at me indignantly.


    ‘It’s going to get dirty soon enough anyway,’ I reply with a grin. We agreed that we would work on the porch again this morning.


    ‘True,’ Cooper concedes easily. He casually wipes the saggy cornflakes off his shirt and resumes eating.


    ‘Is Alex coming today?’ I ask Hugo.


    Alexander Montgomery is an associate lawyer who works at the firm that represents Hugo’s business. Over the years, they have become good friends and he often comes over during the weekend so he and Hugo can spar together. They both enjoy boxing as a way of exercise. Occasionally, when Alex doesn’t have to work during the weekend, he stays around for a while to hang out with Hugo, or to help us with whatever DIY project we are working on.


    Hugo shakes his head. ‘He’s working all weekend.’


    ‘So, what happened?’ Cooper asks me. ‘I thought you were going out last night? Didn’t you say you were going to Pete’s?’


    ‘I did. I just left early,’ I reply vaguely, not really wanting to get into it.


    ‘No willing ladies, or a very willing lady?’ Cooper asks, suggestively wiggling his eyebrows.


    ‘You really want to talk about this here?’ I ask, while glancing at Lily.


    ‘I already know that you’re a glorified manwhore, Jakey. There’s no need to hide your dirty stories from me,’ Lily declares, without looking up from her notes.


    ‘Or maybe stick to the PG-rated stuff,’ Hugo says, giving me a warning glance.


    ‘Prude,’ Lily mumbles.


    ‘Fine. It was kind of both,’ I say with a grin, pouring myself a cup of coffee. ‘Danced with a pretty girl, had a… uh, extracurricular,’ I add, casting a quick glance at Lily, who smirks slightly but keeps her eyes on the formula she’s working on. ‘… outside of Pete’s. Then I got a ride home from another girl—my designated driver—who wanted to leave early.’


    ‘And you still had an early night? You''ve certainly become next level, Jake,’ Cooper chuckles, but I shake my head at him.


    ‘Nah, it’s not like that. Amber’s Ray’s new nanny. She lives on the ranch with them and was stuck home alone last night, so she hitched a ride to the bar with me. But she wasn’t really into it—it’s not her kind of thing. Since she was driving, we just ducked out early.’


    ‘And since you don’t like sleeping over with your hook-ups or spending the morning with them, you ducked out early too,’ Cooper adds with a knowing look, wiggling his eyebrows at me again.


    ‘Fuck off, Coop. Amber’s a nice girl. I didn’t hook up with her,’ I reply. I must not have hidden the irritation in my voice well, because suddenly I’ve got three pairs of eyes staring at me.


    ‘But you wanted to?’ Lily asks slowly, observing me attentively.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I want to utter a denial, but I can’t seem to get the words out. That would be a lie of epic proportions. I would love to hook up with Amber. I just don’t think it would be a good idea.


    ‘She’s important to Ray and Marjorie. I’m not messing with that,’ I say eventually.


    ‘You know, that’s not—’ Lily begins, but her words are cut off by a horrifying scream. We all whip our heads toward the sound, and moments later, our brother Nate storms into the kitchen wearing nothing but his underwear, holding what looks like a Dracula mask on a leaky football in front of him. Beside me, Cooper quickly tosses his bowl onto the counter and dashes to hide behind Lily.


    ‘You fucker!’ Nate yells at him. ‘I woke up with this fucking thing next to my head, staring at me! I nearly pissed myself!’


    He chases Cooper around the kitchen island as the rest of us burst into laughter. When Cooper pauses to high-five Lily, Nate finally catches up to him, launching the Dracula head at his face and punching him in the ribs.


    ‘You fucking asshole!’ Nate curses at Cooper, but he also can’t hide his laugh. This is not the first time Cooper has pranked him.


    ‘Fuck! You didn’t have to punch me so hard,’ Cooper whines.


    ‘Don’t be a fucking wuss.’


    ‘Fine, I deserved it,’ Cooper concedes easily.


    ‘Ahem!’ Lily clears her throat. ‘Weren’t you guys heading outside to build me a hot tub and a porch?’ She raises an eyebrow, letting out a dramatic sigh and rolling her eyes. Her amused smile makes it clear she’s only teasing, though.


    ‘Are you kicking us out of the house, Lily Thompson?’ I ask, arching my eyebrow.


    ‘Absolutely. I want that hot tub you guys promised me. And I would also like some peace and quiet right now, so I won’t have to spend my entire Sunday doing homework.’


    ‘You heard the boss,’ Hugo nods. He puts his bowl in the empty dishwasher. ‘Let’s get to work and leave Lily alone to study.’


    I quickly pour everyone another round of coffee, before we head out. Nate protestingly grumbles something about not even having had breakfast yet, but he makes a quick detour to his room to put on some clothes and then joins us outside. We overlook our work in progress while we calmly sip our coffee.


    On her last birthday, Hugo treated Lily and one of her friends to a spa day. Lily came back so excited about the outside hot pool, that it kind of made us all want to get a hot tub in our backyard. And we needed a new project anyway. After going back and forth a bit, we decided to make a small porch with a built-in hot tub at the back of the house, outside the double doors of our living room.


    We have already been doing most of the preparations over the summer. Excavating the ground, putting in the foundation and extending the pipelines and electrical wires from the house. It helps to have a big brother who owns his own construction company. Hugo taught us a lot about this kind of stuff. We didn’t have a lot of money the first couple of years we were all living together, so Cooper, Nate and I became pretty handy. Cooper actually went on to work with Hugo after he graduated high school. He is now a construction foreman with his own crew at Hugo’s construction company HercuStruct.


    Personally, I’ve always enjoyed working on home projects with my brothers, but the idea of spending all day at a building site never really appealed to me. A buddy from high school lived on a ranch, and I worked a summer job there before my senior year. I loved it—the hard work, the animals, the camaraderie among the ranch hands, being outside all day—it was great! Unfortunately, by the time I graduated, his father wasn’t hiring, but he put in a good word for me with Ray. I’ve been happily working at the Jenkins ranch ever since. My handyman skills have come in handy there, too.


    Like me, Nate didn’t want to be a construction worker either. He did enjoy working with his hands, though, so he became a mechanic. He keeps all of our cars in top shape, but his true passion lies in motorcycles. He drives a fully black Yamaha MT-07 that was basically ruined by its previous owner. Nate bought it for a steal and restored it himself from the ground up. He takes that bike everywhere.


    The only one in our household who I doubt has ever even held a hammer is Lily. If our baby sister wants something, we either build it for her or get it—it''s just how it’s always been since she came to live with us. After everything she’d been through, we couldn’t really deny her anything. We all realize we could’ve easily turned her into a spoiled brat, but thankfully, Lily is one of the greatest people to ever walk the earth. Though I fully admit, my opinion might be a little biased—I am her brother, after all.


    ‘Let’s get this show on the road,’ Cooper says, setting his empty cup on the floor and rubbing his hands together. He’s taken charge of this operation, so we’re all following his lead. ‘Hugo will operate the crane to lift the tub, and the three of us will guide it into place. Once it’s set, Nate and Hugo will handle the electrical wiring. Jake, you and I will crawl under the foundation to connect the pipes,’ he assigns us our tasks.


    We all nod in agreement. Hugo hops off the foundation and jogs toward the crane, while the rest of us take our positions.


    For the next three hours, we work together seamlessly to install the tub. By the time Lily comes out to announce it’s time for a lunch break, the tub is securely in place, and most of the pipes and wires are already connected. Just a few more to go.


    ‘Thanks, kiddo,’ Hugo says appreciatively, when our sister brings out a giant plate of sandwiches and a pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice.


    ‘Consider this my contribution to the porch project,’ Lily laughs.


    ‘You can help test it out when we’re done,’ Cooper promises, as he hungrily takes a bite of his ham and cheese sandwich.


    ‘It’s looking really good,’ Lily says, impressed, as she inspects what we have accomplished this morning. ‘Looks like you guys have gotten pretty far already.’


    ‘There’s still plenty to do. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a bit longer before you can soak,’ Hugo says with a smile, affectionately pinching Lily’s cheek between his thumb and index finger before grabbing a sandwich from her plate.


    ‘Yeah, and we all know that is not your strong suit,’ Nate mumbles with his mouth full of bread. Lily sticks her tongue out at him. They are biological brother and sister too, just like me and Cooper, and they pretty much bicker all the time.


    ‘What more do you guys have to do?’ Lily asks.


    ‘We still have a couple more things to connect. Then I want to fill her up and turn her on to see if everything is working properly, and to make sure there aren’t any leaks,’ Cooper explains. ‘After that, we’re still going to have to close everything up and build the rest of the deck first, before you can try it out.’


    ‘And you’re going to try to do all of that today?’ Lily asks with an incredulous look.


    ‘Hell no!’ I quickly declare, shaking my head. I’m not going to work on this porch all day and then head out on horseback tomorrow, at four in the morning. I don''t mind hard work, but I''m not a fucking masochist! I longingly look at the plate of sandwiches Lily is still holding. ‘You got some more pastrami there, Lil?’ I ask hopefully.


    ‘Do birds fly?’ Lily replies, knowing that they’re my favorite. She hands me another pastrami sandwich and I blow her a chef’s kiss in response.


    ‘You might be my favorite sister.’


    ‘And your least favorite,’ she replies, grinning.


    ‘Never!’


    ‘Anyway, which parts do you guys want to get done today?’ Lily asks.


    We all turn towards Cooper, who shrugs.


    ‘Probably just finish all the connections. The next step would be testing it out, but that’s a day worth of work in itself. It’ll take a few hours to fill her up completely, then we have to let the water sit for a while to make sure it doesn’t leak anywhere, and then we''ve got to properly drain it again before we can continue with the rest.’


    ‘Do you think it’s going to take you long to finish up today?’ Lily asks hesitantly.


    ‘Why do you ask? Are we being too loud? If we’re interfering with your homework, we can just wait until you''re done,’ Hugo offers with a concerned frown.


    ‘No, not at all. I’m done, actually,’ Lily quickly replies. She glances over at me, unsurely.


    ‘Uh-oh! What kind of trouble am I in?’ I ask suspiciously.


    ‘None whatsoever,’ Lily promises me, sending me a hopeful look. ‘I was just hoping you’d be willing to take me to the ranch this afternoon. I thought maybe we could go riding together, since the weather’s nice today?’


    ‘Do you need me for this last part, Coop?’ I ask Cooper, but before I even finish the question, my three brothers are already shaking their heads in unison.


    ‘Go ahead,’ Hugo smiles at Lily. ‘We’ll finish up here without Jake.’


    ‘Yeah?’ Lily asks excitedly. She turns to me. ‘You’ll take me?’


    ‘Sure, let’s go,’ I reply, smiling at her.


    ‘You’re still having dinner here, yeah?’ Cooper asks us to be sure. ‘I’m making enchiladas.’


    ‘As if we would ever miss those,’ I tell him, while making a face. Cooper''s enchiladas are spicy as hell, but they’re also fucking delicious.


    I scramble up and put my shirt back on. If we’re going out riding I’m going to get dirty again anyway, so there’s no point in showering first.


    ‘I’m going to change real quick,’ Lily yells while she runs inside.


    ‘See you guys at dinner,’ I say to my brothers before heading after Lily. I quickly shoot Ray a text. I know he’s fine with Lily riding his horses—we’ve done this plenty of times before—but it’s always better to ask, just in case.