After His Peonies: A Romantic Comedy Read online

  "I don't need your help," I insisted.

  "Shhh," Hunter said, holding a finger to my mouth. "Hold these?" He handed me the large bouquet. Then he pressed a button on his phone and held it up to his ear.

  I couldn't help but press my face into the flowers. They smelled amazing. I looked up, embarrassed. Hunter was gazing at me softly, a smile playing around his mouth.

  "I just sent you a Google Maps pin," he said into the phone. "I need you to come to my location." He scowled. "I'm sorry, why am I investing all this money into Jack's and your company if you can't even do one simple thing?"

  His grey eyes flicked up to the sky then back to me. I ignored the way my insides felt like jelly when he looked at me.

  "Bring Archer too…Yes, I know he's useless, but at the very least he can be a lookout." Hunter hung up then smiled brilliantly at me. "See? I have everything under control."

  I couldn't get enough of looking at him. His face was perfect. His eyes weren’t too close together, I could smash rocks on his jaw, and his mouth looked like it would be nice to kiss. I beat that thought down and looked at the flowers still in my hand. Hunter obviously had a girlfriend. No one just randomly bought flowers like these otherwise. I gently set the bouquet on my car next to where Hunter was leaning.

  "Those look like they need a good washing," Hunter said, gesturing to my ample chest area. I felt slightly hot and wet between the legs as I thought about him sucking on my breasts.

  "I just meant your suit," he said, his deep voice almost a purr. "Do you need a dry cleaners? For the seaweed smoothie you poured all over yourself?"

  "I didn't pour it."

  "Did someone dump it over you?"

  "No, I—"

  "So you did pour it all over yourself." He gave me a toothy smile. "Kinky. But then, you were half naked in a storage closet."

  I glared at him. "Does your girlfriend know you're acting like this?" I demanded. Part of me wanted to hear him say he didn't have one.

  Hunter let his eyes drift down to my toes and back up. Then he smirked at me.

  "I think we'll have to continue this delightful conversation later. The cavalry has finally arrived. It took you all long enough!" he said, raising his voice. I looked over and was shocked to see a pack of tall, broad-shouldered domesticated Vikings loping toward us.

  "Wait," I said, confused. They all stared at me, smiling. "These aren't the ones from the meeting today, are they?" The men looked very similar; they had the same grey eyes, blond hair, and strong jaws.

  "No, Josh and Eric are off pretending to do work. This is Liam and his business partner Jack, who is not related to me," Hunter said.

  "Where is your coat?" I asked him. "It's freezing out here!"

  "What? This is warm!" the young, man with platinum-white hair exclaimed.

  "I found him in a snowbank and brought him in from the cold, and he stayed like a feral cat," Liam remarked. They were each carrying one handle of a large black canvas tool bag.

  "That one there is Greg." He nodded to me. His suit was neat, and his blond hair looked like it had been parted with a ruler.

  "And that is Archer, the most useless person you will ever meet," Greg said, gesturing.

  Archer was in an olive peacoat worn over a shirt that was unbuttoned almost down to his navel. I could see the tattoos on his skin. His hair was artfully messy and looked like it had been carefully sculpted to fly away in all directions. Greg, an annoyed expression on his face, reached out to try and smooth it down. Archer yawned then looked at me with sleepy eyes.

  "He just woke up," Greg said in annoyance.

  "Where did we go wrong with him?" Hunter opined with a dramatic sigh.

  Liam and Jack set town the tool bag and set to work. Archer slumped down on a curb. I wondered if, in addition to being sleepy, he was also hungover.

  "Do you need help?" I asked uncertainly as I watched the brothers jack the car up then slip little skateboard things under each wheel.

  Hunter handed me the flowers. "Take these."

  "Are those going to hold it up?" I asked as they slowly lowered the car back down.

  "These are vehicle positioning jacks," Liam explained. Jack opened up my car door and sat down in the driver's seat, pushing the seat back to accommodate his height as the Svensson brothers all started pushing and maneuvering the car out of the parking space.

  I looked around wildly. "Someone could see you! What if the Hurbo Wheeelies people come back? Where are you taking my car? I live too far from here to wheel it home."

  "Calm down," Hunter said.

  "Maybe I should just pay the fine," I fretted. "I broke the rules. I wasn't supposed to park there. There was a sign."

  "Once you start breaking rules, you have to commit," Hunter said from his position behind the car.

  I silenced my anxiety long enough to gaze appreciatively at the firm backside and strong thighs that flexed as he pushed my car.

  "You're a bad influence on me," I told him. "What's the number on that yellow paper? I'm calling Hurbo Wheeelies."

  "You will do no such thing!" Hunter ordered as the car, gaining momentum, started rolling easily down the street. I jogged after it, trying not to jostle the flowers.

  The brothers wheeled the car into a low-ceilinged garage. I blinked in the darkness.

  "Won't someone call the cops on us?" I asked nervously. "This is private property." I pointed to the sign.

  The Svenssons laughed, and Hunter grinned at me. "We own this building," he said.

  "You do?" I was very impressed. It was a historic brick building that I bet was nicely renovated inside.

  "It's not that great," Greg countered. "We're going to get a new tower someday soon hopefully."

  "You and your tower, Greg," Hunter said.

  Greg glared at his brother. "It would have been sooner if it wasn't for the Holbrooks."

  "Shhh," Hunter said. "It's all under control."

  Taking more tools out of the bag, which they had stored in the back seat of the car for easier transport, Jack and Liam quickly took the boots off of the wheels.

  "Won't they be able to…I don't know…track them?" I asked, still anxious about the whole thing.

  Liam put on a welding helmet, and we all turned away while the sound of a blowtorch echoed in the garage.

  "Not anymore," Liam said cheerfully.

  "Do you want these?" Jack asked me, gesturing to the boots.

  "No!" I said. "I can't have criminal evidence in my home!"

  "Give it to one of the homeless guys to sell for scrap metal," Archer said. "It’s the circle of life, bro."

  "She's not your bro," Greg snapped at Archer. He shrugged.

  "Do you have siblings?" Greg asked me.

  "Just sisters."

  "Too bad," Archer said. "You need brothers. Who else would steal your car back?"

  Greg scowled at Archer.

  "A childhood friend of mine was a mechanic in the Marines, so I think she could have handled herself," I said with a laugh. "But she's a cop now, so I don't think she would condone this."

  "Shall I put them back on?" Liam asked.

  "Oh no, thank you for your help!" I assured him.

  "I'm always game to screw those scammers out of time and money," Liam said as he and Jack removed the little skateboards and lowered the car back onto the cement.

  "Are you sure I won't get in trouble?" I asked them, still concerned, though my gratitude that I wouldn't have to pay a fine I couldn't afford was outweighing my worry.

  "Trust me," Hunter said and winked.

  Normally I hated it when people winked. But on Hunter, it was almost dashing. I smiled shyly and handed him back his flowers.

  "I hope your girlfriend likes them."

  "I don't have a girlfriend," he said, gazing at me. "These are just for business."

  "Oh."

  "You want to grab a drink after the afternoon you just had?" he said, one hand lightly brushing the hair out of my face.

  Ar
cher and Liam wolf-whistled.

  "No, thank you," I said politely.

  "You're turning down a drink with me?" Hunter said, slapping a hand to his chest and pretending to be offended.

  "Say yes! Say yes!" Liam and Archer chanted. Greg turned and yelled at them to be quiet.

  "I have business to attend to tonight. Maybe…maybe another time?" I said cautiously.

  "I’m counting on it." Hunter pulled a flower out of the bouquet and handed it to me. "One for the road."

  6

  Hunter

  "Hunter's got a girlfriend!" Archer said in a singsong voice and slung his arm around my shoulder. "That was smooth, bro."

  "Don't ‘bro’ me."

  "I hope she's not going to be a distraction," Greg said sourly.

  "Dude, you are so uptight," Archer said. "You need to chill."

  Greg ignored our brother and turned to me. "Hunter, you already have enough going on without trying to court someone."

  "Court someone," Liam snorted as he and Jack packed up their tools.

  "I feel like that's appropriate considering he constantly has flowers," Greg said to Liam.

  "He is right here in the same garage as you, thank you very much. Also, women love flowers. The trick is to not buy the cheap gas-station bouquets but spring for the really nice ones. Girls go gaga for a nice bouquet. And that's how we're going to convince Maria to stay on as the nanny."

  Maria did not seem as impressed by the flowers as I had hoped she would be. She pursed her lips and raised a dark eyebrow.

  "They're lovely," she said. She wasn't as excited to see the bouquet as Meg had been. I felt a smile creep over my mouth as I thought about her.

  "You think this is funny, Mr. Svensson?" Maria snapped at me, dark eyes narrowing. "Your little brothers painted all over the walls, and then they painted my cat."

  "I am so sorry about your cat. Please send me the vet bill."

  "He wasn't hurt," she said. "But he is chartreuse now."

  "What if we have your own suite built out in the mansion?" Greg offered.

  "I already quit," Maria said. "And I can't believe you're trying to bribe me with flowers and a dinner."

  "And dessert!" I offered.

  Maria sniffed.

  "Also, we are prepared to offer you a very generous bonus to stay on," Greg added.

  "You already paid me a lot, and now I have enough to go to culinary school. After dealing with your family, I deserve the break."

  "They weren’t that bad, were they?" I asked, though I knew the answer.

  "The children are dirty. They don't listen. They put things in their ears and noses."

  "What things?" Greg said, looking horrified. I was a little miffed myself.

  "Legos, coins, erasers, crayons," Maria listed. "We had a group outing to the emergency room at least twice a week."

  "You could have had Mace or Remington do it."

  Maria glared at me.

  "Mace is overwhelmed. He keeps switching their food to cope. One day, all the kids ate were beans and seaweed because Mace thought that was going to help their brain functions."

  She wagged a finger at me. "You need to help your brother and stop trying to pay your way out of being a family. There's no substitute for having involved parents."

  "We aren't their parents," I shot back.

  "But you are their brothers. If you don't want to do the work to take care of your younger half brothers, then maybe you need to find families for them," she said, leveling her gaze at me. "Your father didn't want to handle them. It seems like you don’t want to either."

  "I'm not giving away my brothers," I growled, standing up to loom over the table.

  Maria smiled up at me and nodded approvingly. "Good. Now take that attitude and be there for them."

  I sat back down. I could feel Greg seething beside me.

  "When they aren't screaming or trying to act out dangerous stunts and get themselves killed, they talk about you guys and how they can't wait to go to New York City to see you. You need to spend more time with them. They're little boys, but one day, they are going to be men. They can emulate either you or whatever they find on the TV or the internet."

  "Look here," Greg said. I knew he was going to try a bad-cop tactic. Bad move. Maria did not look one bit intimidated. "You signed a contract."

  She raised an eyebrow. "And I gave my notice."

  I kicked Greg under the table. "You seem to care about them as well," I said to Maria, trying to turn on the charm. I hated to admit it, but Archer, when he was sober and awake, was probably the most charming one of us Svensson brothers. Unfortunately, he was off who knew where.

  "I know it's been hard, but Greg and I are committed to spending more time with the kids. We love our brothers. It's been so difficult. We had a terrible childhood. We were raised in a doomsday cult, did you know that? Our father had multiple wives. There was hardly any food…"

  I heard Greg snort next to me. I was really milking our tragic backstory here.

  Maria seemed to be relenting.

  I tried to summon up a small tear. Widening my eyes, I looked at her as sorrowfully as I could. "You're our only hope, Maria. Please stay. I know it's difficult, but even if it was for a little bit."

  I almost had her. She was softening up. Then her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared.

  "I’m sorry I’m late!" I heard someone say too loudly for the fancy restaurant we were in. The chair next to me scraped back. "You would not believe—"

  "Archer, what are you doing here?" Greg demanded. His voice had taken on the tone of I-am-about-to-fuck-your-shit-up.

  "Bro!" Archer said and reached for the breadbasket. I turned to glare at him for ruining our ploy.

  "Hunter?" a small voice said.

  "Billy." Joy. One of my younger half brothers was there.

  "I'm hungry!" Billy whined, flopping down on the floor.

  "Have some bread," Archer said around the roll in his mouth and shook the bread basket at Billy.

  "I want McDonald's!" Billy screeched at the top of his lungs. Other diners were staring at us in horror.

  "What is he doing here?" Greg hissed at Archer.

  He shrugged and scooped up some butter. "He showed up in an Uber. Mace had no idea he was even missing."

  "You see!" Maria said, her voice raised over the sound of Billy yelling for fast food on the floor. "This is why I quit. You think one is bad? Try twenty-three of them running around breaking things and yelling like they're possessed."

  "They just need a firmer hand," Greg said.

  "And you can provide it. There's no amount of money to make me play nanny to your brothers."

  The waiter came by with our entrees.

  "Could I please have my food to go?" Maria asked him. "And my dessert."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "You can't just take our food and leave," Greg protested. "We aren't done with this discussion."

  "We are absolutely done," Maria said, standing up as the host brought over her coat. "I'm sick of Svenssons."

  The waiter handed her a paper sack, and she grabbed the flowers and stalked out of the restaurant.

  Billy had stopped wailing and was making starfish motions on the floor. Greg grabbed him up by the arm and set him on Maria's now-empty chair.

  Archer stood up and hopped up on his chair. Greg massaged his temples.

  "People of the restaurant," Archer announced. "We apologize for any disturbance. Please, maître d', a bottle of wine for every table."

  There was a smattering of applause.

  "You are paying for that," Greg said under his breath. Archer flashed a thumbs-up as he sat down, took Greg's dinner, and started eating it.

  I looked out over the tables. Because of Archer's announcement, the noise levels had immediately dropped. Just as they rose back up to an unintelligible burble, I heard a familiar voice float through the room.

  7

  Meghan

  "You have something green in your teeth,
" my roommate, Kate, said to me as soon as I walked into our apartment.

  "No!" Horrified, I ran to the mirror that hung on the wall next to the bunk beds in our tiny, shared studio apartment. I had hung it up to make the space feel bigger. It hadn't worked.

  "I can't believe I had this in my teeth all day!" I groaned, picking the little fleck of pesto from my tooth with a tissue. "I had an important meeting, and Hunter..." Feeling as if I were going to puke, I sank down to the floor. "Hunter saw it, and so did all his brothers."

  Kate came over and sat down on the floor next to me. "I'm sure it wasn't that noticeable," she said.

  "You saw it from across the room!"

  "Yeah, but I'm always looking out for you. Relax! I’m sure Hunter was too busy staring at these," she motioned to my boobs, "to notice your teeth."

  "I'll never smile again," I said sadly.

  Kate snorted. "Are these the flowers he gave you?" she said, picking up the three champagne and blush flowers from the floor. "These should go in water."

  "It's not a whole bouquet, but it's better than nothing," I said, letting Kate haul me to my feet.

  "And he asked you out. I can't believe you said no."

  "I didn't say no. But I have that dinner tonight with Karen and your father to discuss my future at Harrington-Thurlow."

  "Honestly, you need to quit," Kate said as she walked to our tiny kitchen sink. "My father is an awful person to work for."

  "I can't believe he just cut you off," I said sympathetically.

  "Believe it. Find another job. There's better firms to work for."

  "I don't have the experience."

  "Fake it 'til you make it," she said as she pulled out a pair of scissors. "There are other law firms."

  "Not really. Law is saturated, and I need to make associate so I can use the experience to score a job as an in-house lawyer or a job in the government. We can't all be assistants to Walter Holbrook," I teased.