I leaned back against the head rest, closed my eyes. “What did my brother pawn today?”
I held my breath.
“A TV and a rhinestone brooch shaped like a butterfly.”
My mother’s pin.
I gripped the steering wheel with my free hand, so tight that my knuckles were white. I envisioned it being Tommy’s neck.
“While you might want a chance to get your TV back, I figured I’d give you a call about the brooch.”
We’d done this once before. Last year, Tommy had taken my mother’s silver tea set in and pawned it. I’d discovered it missing two days later when I’d been cleaning. I’d confronted Tommy about what he’d done and raced to the pawn shop in the hopes of getting it back. Fortunately, there wasn’t a big rush for tea sets and Bob had still had it in a display case. He’d been kind and sold it back to me at the amount he’d given Tommy. I had it hidden away now in the linen closet behind the sheets. It wasn’t like he ever changed his.
While my twenty-year-old brother still technically lived with me in the house we’d grown up in, I rarely saw him. He’d never had any ambition to go to college. Hell, he’d barely finished high school. He had zero work ethic and held a minimum wage job with a now-familiar irregularity. Most of his time was spent at the casino off the highway.
“Thank you,” I told the pawn broker. I was thankful.
My anger morphed into sadness. Yes, the brooch meant something to me. Besides the house and this ancient car, there wasn’t too much left that had belonged to my mother and held sentimental value. I’d had to sell quite a bit to pay for the funeral expenses and I loved that brooch.
I cleared my throat, but couldn’t say anything yet.
“I’ll sit it in the back,” he continued. “If you want to come in, you can have it for what I gave your brother. Fifty dollars.”
Fifty dollars. Tommy was giving away one of the last pieces of our mother for a measly fifty dollars. To do what? Gamble it away at the casino. The money was probably already gone.
“Yes, I’d love it if you’d hold it for me. I can come in tomorrow.” I didn’t have extra cash before payday, especially for something like this, but I could take it out of the food budget. It seemed it would be PB&J until next Friday.
I thanked him and ended the call.
Glancing out the window again, I saw Porter walking toward me down the sidewalk. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. Big, like block out the sun kind of big. Unlike his cousin who was similarly sized and went into the pro rodeo circuit, Porter had gotten a football scholarship to college. He might have left those linebacker days behind him when he graduated and went to law school, but he hadn’t lost the size.
His dark hair peeked out from beneath his cowboy hat and even from a distance, I could see his dimple. He’d seen me and was smiling. At me.
God, I really liked him. No, it was a touch more than that. I was falling for him. Hard. I had a feeling he was right there with me. In fact, he wanted more of a commitment than I’d been willing to give. Not that I was a wait-for-marriage kind of gal, because I wasn’t.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, I saw Liam O’Malley coming down the sidewalk from the other direction. God, my heart clenched at the sight of him as well. Laid back and easygoing, the blond had a quick smile and a generous nature. He also had pale eyes that looked at me with such heat that it ruined my panties.
But since I’d been dating both men, I refused to do more than kiss either of them, but when the chemistry was off the charts, it was soooo hard. It wouldn’t be fair to do more with either one and it would feel like cheating. I didn’t want to string them along, but I wanted both of them. And tonight, things had to change. No more dating. No more casual.
The men stopped in front of my car, stood shoulder to shoulder and looked at me. I gulped. This was the first time I’d seen them together. They were big, strong guys and they both wanted me. Hopefully, after our little chat, they would continue to do so.
This was it. Two men. I wanted both of them. At the same time. And it was time to tell them.
* * *