Page 44 of Worth the Fall

GRANT

“You have a list of case files on your desk. There are a dozen highlighted and the remaining not. Do you need me to do anything with them?” Nate asks as I pull up in front of my house and sigh when I see Grayson’s car there.

I’m not in the mood to deal with my brothers. Not after my sleepless night complete with requisite cold shower after thinking about Emerson and her damn kiss.

“Earth to Grant?”

“Sorry. I just pulled up and the assholes are here.” Nate chuckles in my ear, knowing how much it annoys me when my little brothers show up unannounced and help themselves to my beer and food. “Um, the list of case files . . . do you have time to pull them up and request the rest for me? The non-highlighted ones. If not, I can do it tomorrow before shift.”

“Nah, I’m killing time. Today’s quiet as fuck. This will give me something to do. When’s the test?”

“Written is in a few weeks. The interview, I’m waiting on the chief to decide. Stetson is making noise, though, and bringing up that crap with my dad⁠—”

“Old fucking news that should have never been news.”

“I hear ya.” I roll my shoulders as I prepare myself for the onslaught of my brothers. “Thanks for your help. See you tomorrow.”

I hang up the phone and push open my front door.

“Ah, look, asshole number one is here,” Grady says as he lifts up a beer in greeting.

“And he looks grumpy,” Grayson chimes in.

“What are you two pricks doing here?”

“It was a rough little league game,” Grayson says, shaking his head.

“Seriously? That’s what you two have to stress about? Get out.” I throw my thumb over my shoulder but then realize Luke is nowhere to be found. “Should I be concerned that Luke isn’t here?”

“Nah, he’s with Mom and Dad. We were given a warning to go cool our jets because we were showing him a perfect example of what poor sports look like.” Grady grins, and I can only imagine what happened to get that rebuke from our mom.

“So you decided to come here and crash my party?” I head to the refrigerator to grab a beer and grit my teeth over the stash they’ve already depleted.

“You were having a party?” Grayson sits up like a damn meerkat.

“No. No party. Go home.” Shaking my head, I unholster my weapon and walk the few strides to place it in the gun safe before turning back to my brothers and lifting my eyebrows. “I don’t see you moving.”

“Oh, that means Grant has a lady coming over,” Grayson harasses, drawing the phrase out and earning a laugh from Grady.

“No, it does not mean I have a lady coming over.”

“Good thing,” Grady says, “because she’d be sorely disappointed in your skills.” He makes a show of trying to thrust his hips.

“Says the man who could fuck a cheerio without breaking it,” I reply, just to shut him up, but I chuckle when Grady holds a fist over his mouth, points at me, and yells, “Burn!”

He never takes anything seriously.

“You really let him around Luke when he’s like this?” I ask Grayson. “No wonder mom took him for a while.”

“It’s nothing like that,” Grayson says, always one to defend whichever one of us is being picked on. “We treated the team to pizza after they won. We had beer and mom asked Luke if he wanted to spend the night. Of course he did—it’s Mom—so we figured we’d come over here and bug the shit outta you.”

“That is, unless you have a wo-man coming over,” Grady chimes in.

“No, I don’t have a wo-man coming over,” I say and throw a pillow at Grady. “Get your feet off the table.”

Grady laughs, tucking the damn pillow behind his head. “He so has a woman coming over if he’s telling us to get our feet off the table and shit.”

“You guys are fucking idiots.” I plop down on the love seat and glare at Grady until he plants his feet back on the floor.