A Christmas Affair

“Tess—”

“I’ll talk to you later. ‘Bye.” Chloe was left holding the phone while the dial tone buzzed in her ear. “That went well,” she muttered.

Chapter 5

“Yo, Royce. I don’t know about this,” Lyfe said, climbing out of his F150 truck and then slamming the door behind him. “I really don’t feel like hanging out tonight.”

His oldest brother Royce waved his whining off his shoulders like a grain of sand. “Spare me. I think Mom or Dad can handle shoveling dog food into Sadie’s bowl for one night.”

Lyfe hitched up one side of his mouth.

“Seriously, bro.” Royce swung his arm around his brother’s neck as he led the way toward Henry’s Pool Hall. “You need to exchange that bitch for a real woman. I’m starting to worry about you.”

“Thanks, but that’s not necessary.” Lyfe tried to pry himself free from his brother’s tight hold, but Royce’s thick-muscled arm wasn’t having that tonight. He reached and got his older brother into a reverse head-lock and a three-minute wrestling match ensued. It was clearly a draw.

“Whatever happened to that one chick you were seeing a few months back—Kayla, wasn’t it? Hennessey said that he thought you were going to finally pop the big question.”

“Nah. It was never anything that serious.” Lyfe chuckled, stretching his neck muscles.

Royce frowned. “You two were together for like two years.”

Lyfe’s hand stilled on the front door of the pool hall and he tossed his brother an incredulous look. “Wait. You want to give me dating and engagement tips when you’ve never broken your three-month rule?”

Royce shrugged. “And? We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you. And you—” he jabbed a finger in the center of Lyfe’s chest “—aren’t like the rest of us. You, unfortunately, inherited that monogamous gene virus that is all the rage with women nowadays.”

“You can’t be a gene and a virus.”

“See.” Royce thumped his chest again. “The mere fact that you know that makes you a freak.”

Lyfe rolled his eyes again—a habit he had whenever he engaged in these kinds of heart-to-heart talks with his brothers. “Let’s just drop it.” He jerked open the pool hall’s door and was greeted with a thunderous …

“Happy birthday!” everyone in the building shouted, holding up their beer bottles the minute the brothers strolled inside.

Lyfe laughed, then gave everyone a quick two finger salute. “Thanks, everybody. I really appreciate that.” He and his brother strolled deeper into the bar toward the back where he knew his other four brothers, Dorian, Hennessey, Ace and Jacob would be teamed up for their fierce pool competitions.

It was always Dorian and Jacob versus Hennessey and Ace as far back as anyone could remember. Only Royce and Lyfe could either take the game or leave it.

They were all competitive, a trait that had helped both Dorian and Ace to become lawyers and Hennessey to become a music executive. Royce was a farmer like their father, and Jacob worked as an architect in the same firm as Lyfe.

Bragging rights fluctuated from game to game and the obscene amount of money that they would bet was never actually collected by either side. That was true whether it was a game of basketball, football or even, sadly, Monopoly. One thing all the boys had equally mastered was the art of trash talking.

“Well, well. You finally found the runt,” Dorian said, sending his custom-made pool stick slamming against the cue ball and causing a thunderous whack for the break. “Where did you find him? At home proposing to his main girl, Sadie?”

The Alton brothers laughed.

Ace cut in, “Don’t worry. You’ll make an honest woman out of that bitch yet.”

Lyfe dusted off his shoulders. “Whatever.”