Love Required (6 page)

“Dylan? Did you hear what I said?” he asked with a little more sternness to get Dylan’s attention.

It worked. “Huh, what Uncle Jason?” Dylan stammered as he looked up at him.

He couldn’t help but smirk at him. “I said, do you have any idea how lucky you are that someone turned that in? That usually isn’t the case at all.” He momentarily thought about reinforcing his words with an experience of his own then thought better. It wasn’t his job to do that; he’d leave that kind of crap to their parents. All of them, step-parents included. He smiled at the thought that Gillian was now his sister, officially. Not that they weren’t already family in his mind, but he was happy Jake finally got his girl. His brother deserved his happy ever after, and marrying Gillian was just another layer that linked them all together.

Dylan let out a big sigh next to him as they walked toward the car. “I know, Uncle Jason. Do you have to tell my parents? I learned my lesson, I did, and it was my money that was used to buy it. If we didn’t find it, then it was only my money wasted. Please?”

Reaching into his pocket for his keys, he looked to his nephew. Shaking his head once again, he said, “I’m not telling your parents anything, buddy, that’s not my job. But if I’m asked, I will not lie for you. Understood?”

He watched Dylan’s face light up at his words. “Thanks Uncle Jason. You’re the best!”

Jason snorted. “Of course I am.” Unlocking the car so the boys could climb in, he said, “Make sure there’s nothing on your feet before you rub them all over my upholstery. I just had the car detailed.”

There was some noise of agreement from both of them before they loaded themselves into the back seat. Jason had just opened his door when he heard someone heave an aggravated sound, followed by a few colorful words. He smiled as he moved away from his car to investigate. Following the noise two cars down from his, he couldn’t help but smile bigger when he caught sight of the source. There was Tori from last night, hunched over a tire iron, attempting to remove a flat tire and grumbling obscenities. It was adorable.

He stood for a second, waiting for her to notice him, not wanting to startle her. But he wasn’t able to maintain his silence when he heard her say, “I can do this, really I can. I do
not
need a
stupid
man to do this.”

Huffing a laugh, he said, “Of course you don’t need a stupid man, but we can be fun to have around sometimes.”

She let out a startled squeak at the sound of his words and lost her grip on the tire iron. It fell to the ground in front of her, as she landed with a thud on the asphalt behind her.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry,” he said as he moved to help her up. Not bothering to put his hand out to offer assistance, he moved behind her, slipped his hands under her arms, and lifted her to her feet. Her hands immediately went to her backside as she moaned her discomfort. His mind was instantly filled with thoughts of doing that for her.
Mind, meet your old friend, gutter,
he thought as he quickly let go of her.

Moving around to face her, he said, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Her sunglasses had slid down her nose from the not so subtle collision with the asphalt, and she had yet to correct them. She was still rubbing her rear, with eyes closed and a look of discomfort on her face. Reaching up, he removed her awkwardly angled shades. “Are you okay?”

She opened her eyes, showing him that vibrant green that reminded him of the night before and her sexy wink. Giving him a crooked smile that conveyed her slight embarrassment, she said, “Nothing like a small dose of humiliation in the morning to add to the events of my day.” She shook her head as she accepted her sunglasses from him. “I’m fine, thank you.”

Jason gave her a nod. “Can I help you with the tire? It’s the least this stupid man could do after essentially knocking you on your ass.”

She gave him a hesitant smile. “Great. Of course you had to hear the
stupid
part of my pity-party.”

He shrugged and smiled big. “It sounded more like a pep-talk than a pity-party.”

She put her hands on her hips and tossed another sigh in his direction. “Good, we’ll call it that then.” She stared down at the flat tire, then the tire iron on the ground before looking back to him. “Sure, I’d appreciate the help. It
is
the least you could do, after all. I’m pretty sure I’ll be sporting a bruised ego to match my butt for a few days so I think I want to avoid trying that again.”

Jason winced at the thought of her skin being marked, which was quickly followed by a tightening of his body as the visual of her bare skin came to mind. Needing to hide the red-blooded-male reaction he was beginning to have, he bent down to retrieve the tire iron. Getting into position, he moved to the small jack propping the car up, and released it, bringing the car back down to the ground with a gentle thud.

Tori was standing to his left, but moved to the other side of the car with urgency and another muttered curse when he did this. Standing up, he glanced in her direction as she stood, having retrieved something—no someone—from the backseat. It wasn’t until he saw that head full of brownish-red curls that he realized why she moved so quickly.

He watched as she soothed the baby girl, who had that bottom lip extended as if she was still deciding whether or not she wanted to cry. It was a face he had seen on his nieces plenty of times, and it always filled him with the need to give them whatever would make them happy. Toys, money, food, a pony. He was a big sucker for babies, and he knew it. Allie never hesitated to give him shit over it, but he didn’t care.

Tori bounced the little one as she nestled into the crook of her neck, snuggling in to go back to sleep. Jason watched, waiting to make sure she was okay. Not that she could’ve been hurt or anything, but she was obviously startled by the car’s movements. When Tori looked up at him, he said, “Sorry again. I didn’t know you had a baby in the car. Is she okay?”

She gave him a small smile as she continued her movements, soothing the baby. “Yeah, she’s fine. I think she’s teething, and she didn’t sleep well, so she seems oversensitive today.” Leaning down, she pressed her lips to the now calm and possibly sleeping child.

Jason got a little irritated at the fact that this woman, and her child, were out there trying to change a flat tire—alone. He didn’t care if she didn’t
need
a man, there had to be one somewhere considering she had a child. Not wanting to pry, or come across as a total asshole, he reined in his irritation and asked, “Why isn’t your husband here changing the tire for you?”

She stilled her rocking and gave him an odd look, one he couldn’t figure out before she covered it up and began her gentle swaying again. “My husband is no longer around, that’s why. If it’s a problem, I’m sure I can do it myself.”

Realizing that even though he didn’t want to sound like an asshole, he did. Giving his head a shake, he found himself once again apologizing to this redheaded beauty. I guess third times the charm, or would it be three strikes and you’re out?

“No, of course it’s not a problem. I just figured if there’s a child, there should be a man nearby. And call me old-fashioned, but there are just some things a man should make sure are done for his woman.” He finished the statement with a shrug before squatting back down to complete the job at hand, all the while crossing his fingers he could get it done without shoving his giant shoe in his mouth. Again.

TORI watched as the man who had a starring role in last night’s dreams disappeared from her view. She could hear the noise of metal on metal as he got to work on changing her tire. Her defensive tone when he asked about her husband was uncalled for—she knew this—but for some reason he had her on edge. Maybe it was the combination of Lexi being up multiple times last night, or the fact she couldn’t get back to sleep because when she closed her eyes, her dreams repeated getting her worked up in ways she hadn’t been in a while. Regardless of why, she knew it was her turn to apologize.

Making her way back to the other side of the car, she struggled to maintain a groan as she caught sight of Jason’s broad shoulders flexing beneath the tightly pulled fabric of his shirt. He certainly was a sight to behold, and a little distracting, too. Deciding to move over by the driver’s door so she could avoid the distraction of his strong back and shoulder muscles hard at work, she said, “I’m sorry for sounding so snappy. It’s not like you’re the first person to assume there was a father or husband around. You’re doing me a favor, and I was rude, so I apologize.”

She watched as his corded arms deftly loosened the lug nuts that she was unable to budge. When he looked up and smirked at her, her pulse sped up. He was so damn masculine and sexy it brought out the lonely female who had been hiding inside for almost two years. She could only hope her reaction to his presence wasn’t written all over her face.

“There’s nothing for you to apologize about. I asked a question that was none of my business, and you responded appropriately,” he said as his smirk turned into a smile, and he returned his attention to the tire. She was about to say something when she heard a little boy’s voice call out.

“Uncle Jason?”

Jason responded, “Over here, guys, I’m two cars down.” But he never stopped doing what he was doing. When two of the little boys she remembered from last night appeared at the back of her car with questioning looks on their faces, it made her wonder why he was there to rescue her from her flat tire that morning.

“Boys, I know you have manners, so introduce yourself to the ladies,” Jason instructed them. They both smiled up at her before moving in her direction.

The first one held his hand out. “Hi, I’m Dylan.”

Then the second one followed suit. “Hi, I’m Ryan.” She shook both of their hands before responding, “Nice to meet you. My name’s Tori.”

“Your baby’s cute. What’s her name? She looks like she’s the same age as our sister,” Dylan said before Ryan confirmed his statement with a smile. “That’s what I was going to say. She’s the same size as Ladybug.”

Ladybug? What a strange name
, she thought. They were cute boys, and since they had a baby sister, she assumed they were brothers. Since they looked to be the same age, she had to wonder if they were fraternal twins.

“Thanks, her name is Alexis, but I call her Lexi. And she’s ten months old. How old is your sister?” Tori asked, wanting to keep up the conversation with these boys instead of ogling their Uncle Jason.

“Oh, she’s older. Ella is only nine months old, right Uncle Jason?” Dylan answered. And he called his sister Ella, which meant that Ladybug was a nickname. Thank God. She would never understand why people sometimes named their kids such weird names.

Jason responded, “That’s right, she’s nine months old.”

The quieter of the two boys, Ryan, reached up and rubbed Lexi’s back in a soothing fashion. Clearly, he was a good big brother. Smiling down at him she said, “You must be a great big brother, you know just how to do that.”

He smiled proudly and said, “Mom says that I have the magic touch with Ella.”

How sweet
, she thought a second before she was saddened that Lexi didn’t have a big brother like him to look after her. Shaking that thought off, she asked, “So, why are you guys here today? You don’t look like you partied here all night?”

Ryan giggled and Dylan sported an embarrassed look. Jason was the one to answer. “Nope, we didn’t party all night. But one of the knucklehead twins over there,” he started as he gestured to Dylan while making his way to her trunk to pull out the spare tire. When he brought it back to the area he was working in, he continued, “He was careless and forgot his iPod last night. So we came back looking for it today.”

She remembered one of her crew finding it, and she told them to turn it in to the office, so she was glad that they did. She was about to say so when Ryan spoke up, “Hey, I thought we were the goofball twins?”

Jason chuckled. “You were both demoted when knucklehead number one there forgot his iPod. You’ll have to work to gain the goofball title back.”

They both groaned at their new title, while Tori just laughed. “So, you
are
twins. I was wondering about that.”

When they both looked at her and shook their heads, Dylan spoke up and said, “No, we’re cousins.”

And then Ryan said, “But we’re brothers now, too.”

Confused, Tori looked to Jason who had just stood up from his task. He was dusting his hands off when he laughed and looked lovingly at his nephews. “I’m confused,” she said.

Jason leaned against her car and explained. “Ryan is my brother’s boy, and Dylan is Logan and Gillian’s son. The two of them grew up together and have been practically inseparable. In fact, we are pretty sure they share the same brain.” He laughed before continuing, “They have always called each other cousins, but yesterday, they became brothers by marriage when my brother, Jake, married Gillian.”

“Okay, I think I get it, and Ella is whose sister?” she asked.

“She’s both of ours,” they said together. Jason chuckled again and clarified. “Ella is Jake and Gillian’s daughter. So she is half-sister to both boys.”

Dylan added, “Yeah, and I have a whole sister and brother, too.”

Ryan defended, “They said they’re my brother and sister, too, Dylan.”

Jason moved away from the car and put his hand on Ryan’s back. “Of course they are, big guy. Dylan didn’t mean they weren’t. He was only adding them to the equation to confuse Tori a little more.”

Tori responded, “Well, he did. But I think I got it figured out. It’s like a modern-day Brady Bunch.”

Jason smiled big. “That about sums it up. But we don’t have an Alice.”

Ryan said proudly, “We have an Allie, though.”

Jason said, “Yeah, we do, but let’s not overwhelm Tori here.”

“Oh, Allie. I remember her from last night. She’s the pretty one with the purple streak who had a thing for my hair.”

Jason nodded. “That’s her.”

“Okay, I think I got it figured out. Sort of,” she said with amusement.