Real Men Knit(47)

“Do we?” Lucas said.

“Well, aren’t you?” Jesse added.

“Fuck you both,” Damian growled.

“Now boys,” Noah chimed in, and they all stilled. The eeriness of it felt like a voice from the past. Noah just shook his head and laughed. “Not one of you shitheads say it. Stay on topic and tell me what happened here last night. I just came to get a few things, then I have to leave for more rehearsals, and now we have another person living here. A female person? Looks like I picked the wrong time to sublet.”

Jesse shook his head. “It’s not like that. And don’t go getting any ideas. It’s Kerry. She’s temporarily displaced and the fancy prince here is acting like giving up his room, the one he doesn’t use, is a hardship.”

Damian shook his head. “See, the bad guy.”

“No, the selfish one. Your room is nothing but a closet. I don’t know why we’re still having this conversation. All it shows is how petty you are. This is Kerry—the least we can do is extend her help for all she’s doing for us.”

“I saw how you were helping her this morning. Looking at her like she was fresh crab legs brought out at the buffet. She had you up cooking and washing dishes this morning.”

“She didn’t!” Noah exclaimed. “Damn. Kerry Girl! Got that good-good!”

Jesse leveled him with a hard look, and he covered his mouth before he turned back to Damian. “I was just being nice. Something you wouldn’t know the meaning of.”

“Screw you, little freeloader.”

“Get in line,” Jesse said.

“Just be sure Kerry isn’t in that line and stays in the right bed while she’s in this house. Because if you screw this up and treat her like you have every other woman you’ve encountered, you could end up damaging a lot more than just her heart. You could essentially be sinking this business before it gets off the ground.”

Jesse shook his head. He was stunned for a moment, but dammit, he couldn’t let it show. Not now. Not ever. “Like I said, this argument is stupid and a waste of time. Not that it’s any of your business, but I’ll say it again: I was just being nice to Kerry. Like Mama Joy would have wanted, mind you. Now how about you go and clear out some space in that oversized closet of yours, maybe a drawer or two, and make her feel welcome.”

Damian let out a long breath, and Jesse thought he’d finally gotten through to him when he looked like he was going to turn and head upstairs, but he paused. “Just remember what I said, Jes. Make sure she’s not in that line.”

Jesse couldn’t pause the rage that popped to the surface of his being. “And what if she is?”

Lucas’s head snapped around his way. “Wait, she isn’t, is she? Don’t fuck this up, Jesse. This is Kerry. She’s not one of the usual women you run in and out of.”

Jesse let out a long sigh, then looked from Lucas to Damian. His eyes went to Noah for a bit of help but couldn’t even find any encouragement there. “You know, you all can really be big-league assholes at times without even trying. Like, top scoring. So, you insult me and every woman I’ve ever been with all in one fell swoop while thinking you’re complimenting Kerry. Good job, dicks.”

He expected some words from them—if not an apology to him, then at least an admission of poor word choice. But they just stared and left him to think over Kerry, Erika, the girl from the bar who . . . fuck all, once again her name was escaping him. Blue. Dammit, he really needed to stop labeling women by location and get his act together. He really was a fuckup.

But still, it wasn’t like he was talking about defiling Kerry. Not that he’d ever defiled a woman in his life. And the way his brothers were looking at him, you’d think that was the case. And you’d think any of them were better than him. What, just because Damian had a steady corporate job, and Lucas was a respected civil servant with hella benefits and shit, and Noah—he looked at Noah . . . Well, at least Noah’s star was somewhat on the rise. He was about to go on tour and hadn’t been in and out of Mama Joy’s for handouts in the past year.

Still, they acted like if, and this was a huge if, he was to get with Kerry it would be a hookup. A one-and-done situation. As if there would be any sort of such thing with the likes of Kerry. They also acted like they had some sort of personal skin in the game when it came to her. The thought of the way Lucas had rushed to her side came to his mind and gave him an uncomfortable tightening in his neck. This was Kerry. Sure, he’d had his thoughts over the years, but they were his. He didn’t want to even come close to thinking of any of his brothers thinking of her that way.

“You know what? Let’s stop talking about this. It doesn’t feel right. This is Kerry, and we’re just temporarily helping her out, like she’s helping us out. It’s no big deal, and we need to stop making it one.” He stared at Damian. “You were going to get the room ready. I think you should before she gets back. You don’t want her going in there and moving your suits herself.”

Damian’s brown face lost a hint of its color. Finally, something to get his ass moving. His lips tightened and he nodded. “Fine. I’ll move some things,” he said, then got even more sober than usual, which for Damian was a feat. “But before I do it’s time to get real.” He looked to each of his brothers, then focused on Jesse after pulling an envelope out of his back pocket.