Why Not Tonight (Happily Inc. #3)(38)

Ronan and Mathias had agreed with the “coming and going” theme for the bridge and Mathias had already been in touch with the city’s engineer to work out ways to secure the car and keep the bridge safe. Ronan had done some preliminary sketches and knew that he would have to reduce the length of the hood by at least two-thirds. Nick was along because it was cutting a car in half with a blowtorch.

Nick, who had won their round-robin rock-paper-scissors, got to go first. They’d marked where the major cuts would go—parts of the car would have to be separated with a saw and tin snips, but there were still large sections that could literally be blown apart.

“Everybody protected?” Nick asked, checking his own face mask. “I’m going in.”

The sound of the blowtorch was very satisfying, Ronan thought as he watched the process of separating metal. The roof was thin enough that it cut quickly. As his brother worked, Ronan flashed to Natalie’s mixed-media pieces and he briefly wondered if he could do something like that with metal and glass. He knew people did all-metal sculptures—some of them were huge and very detailed. But what about combining the two? He would have to play with some sketches and probably take a welding class. Last year Mathias and Nick had played around with welding and they’d nearly set themselves on fire.

Once the car was in two pieces, Mathias went to work on removing the back third, including a bit of the rear door and the trunk, while Nick and Ronan discussed the best place to cut the hood section.

“What’s your outer limit?” Nick asked. “Don’t forget you’re going to have to put something over the headlights. You can’t leave glass that thin out there. Maybe a mesh of some kind. Or replace them with a thicker glass that’s safe.”

“Good point.” The last thing they wanted was glass that would splinter if broken.

He and Nick figured out the measurements, then had Mathias check their work. The three brothers worked together for most of the afternoon. They were hot, sweaty and tired when they were done, but everyone had a good time.

Ronan remembered when it had always been like this. The three of them in the studio, creating, experimenting, wanting desperately to be the best to show their father.

At first Mathias had been the most gifted. Nick had great talent, but he liked to try different things. Greatness meant perfection and perfection required discipline. Nick would rather experiment with a hundred different techniques than master five.

Mathias had been more than willing and the one Ceallach had watched the closest. Ronan had tried to outdo his brother. His work was consistent and always improving, but Mathias had a flare, a vision Ronan couldn’t duplicate.

Ronan remembered their intense conversations about art and how great they were going to be. They were the twins—they’d always had each other. Everyone had known they were a team.

Maybe that was why Nick went his own way. Del and Aidan didn’t have the gift—they were normal, so naturally hung out together. Ronan and Mathias were each other’s best friend, leaving Nick odd man out. Whatever the reason, Ronan had known he could count on Mathias and his brother could do the same.

When Ceallach had destroyed an exceptional piece Mathias had created—no doubt because it challenged his own mastery—Mathias had switched to creating everyday objects. Ronan remembered their fights as he’d struggled to convince his brother not to let their father win. But Mathias had been adamant. He was what he was and he wasn’t changing. A stubbornness Ronan happened to share.

Now he looked at his two brothers and wondered how things could have been different. If he’d found out the truth in some other way...or not at all. A part of him wanted to still be Mathias’s twin—at least then he would know his place in the world. Now he was nothing but Ceallach’s bastard and that was not a happy fate. Without a mother, there was no one to counteract the darkness that threatened.

Natalie would tell him he had his biological mother, but he wasn’t sure she would be much help. The woman had slept with a married man, had his baby, then walked away from her kid. She wasn’t a shining example of social correctness. For all he knew, she was as selfish and amoral as his father. Which left Ronan fighting demons with no chance of winning. Part of the reason he’d found it easy to stay away from his brothers.

Only now he was reconnected, and even though he knew he should go back to his solitary life, he couldn’t seem to do it. He was drawn to town, drawn to their company and drawn to the safety and light of circling in Natalie’s orbit. She had worked her magic and he was no match for her emotional power.

“Ready?” Nick asked, turning off the blowtorch before passing it over.

Ronan grinned, his introspective thoughts pushed away by the reality of tools that cut through metal. “Always.”

*

BY THREE THE inventory was finished, Atsuko was no longer chuckling and Natalie had pretty much recovered from her unexpected encounter. On Monday she would be hosting lunch with her friends and she planned to get to the bottom of who might have mentioned her incredibly tentative thoughts on the baby front to total strangers. She was sure Edgar was a nice guy but jeez.

She supposed a case could be made that if she wasn’t comfortable talking to Edgar about being a sperm donor, then she really wasn’t ready or maybe even interested in the entire process. Not that her reluctance was exactly news. She was starting to suspect her thoughts about having a kid on her own were symptoms of a bigger problem. She wanted more in her life. She wanted a sense of belonging. She wanted to fall in love and get married and have a family.