Seamus wanted to hug his brother for taking the worry out of Jake’s eyes. Worry he’d put there. “I’m ready, but I’m not sure Penny is. I’ll go get her.”
When he left the room, Solomon sat down on the couch and wrinkled his nose. “I love you like a cousin, Seamus, but you really need a shower.” He glanced at the baby. “Either that or baby Zachary is trying to tell me he doesn’t like his first trip out.”
Seamus stared down at Noah’s new baby and shook his head. “Look at him. Barely a week old and he already has some red hair coming in. Jen should be happy about that.”
“She is,” Stephen said, kneeling to check on his boys. Seamus smiled at their tight curls and matching outfits. “She says it makes up for the fact that there’s yet another boy in the family.” He glanced over his shoulder at Seamus. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.” My heart is broken and it’s my own damn fault. “I’ll be fine.”
“Good,” Solomon replied with an easy smile that transformed his face. “Because on our way over here we got a call from Thoreau. Young Mr. Wayne needs you to come in, ASAP. Some kind of brewer emergency, don’t ask me what.”
“Shit. What happened?”
Stephen smirked. “He told you not to ask him what.”
“I’ll call him. See if it’s something I can fix over the phone.”
“Now that I’m on leave, can I hit him?” Solomon asked Stephen as they both got to their feet. “Maybe a good pop in the head would snap him out of it.”
“I’m thinking about it.” Stephen stood, slipped his hands in his pockets and gave Seamus a look he was all too familiar with.
“Stephen I—”
“All I want you to do now is shut up, shower and shave. After that, you are going to go to the bar you haven’t set foot in for a week to solve a problem only you can solve.” He moved closer, compassion clear in his gaze. “I know you let me get away with weeks of this, and I know you’re hurting, but you have four young children who rely on you and a bar with employees who need you. Fair or not, you aren’t the guy that gets to wallow. You’re the guy who fixes things. So go fix something.”
It stung, but he was right. His mother had said something similar four days ago when she’d come to tell him that Father Drew and some women from her church were drawing up a visiting schedule for Parkridge. She’d agreed that she shouldn’t be the one to visit Presley because it might agitate her, but that hadn’t stopped her from finding another solution. “She carried my grandchildren, so I don’t want to hear any arguments,” she’d said. “You’ve done this alone for too long. You’re not Atlas, honey. Share the load.”
They’d discussed the children, and she said she understood why he was waiting to tell the twins about their mother. They were too young to understand, but when it was time, Camille had offered to come over to help him explain. Jake, however, was old enough to hear it from him. “Tell him, Seamus. He already knows something’s wrong. Tell him about Presley…and your Bellamy.”
So he had. Just the highlights about the latter. That he loved him, but it hadn’t worked out. And that the reason it ended had nothing to do with the kids, and everything to do with Seamus being afraid to risk his heart.
Jake asked a few questions, but he didn’t seem to have a problem with his father being gay as much as he did with learning about Presley. Seamus wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Jake upset before. He tried to explain that Presley was sick, but Jake was too protective of Penny and Wes to be sympathetic. The next day Tanaka and Brady had come over and installed a security system, sheepishly informing them that Jake had given them a call. Now he was hovering around Penny, Wes and Seamus like a protective mother hen. It needed to stop, he knew, but the only way it would was if Seamus got his fucking act together and handled things so his son didn’t feel the need to.
Yeah. It was time to let this go. “Tell Thor I’ll be there in two hours.”
“Exactly two,” Solomon ordered as he stood and lightly bounced, smiling when the baby laughed. “Or we’ll call the cops to drag your ass out of the house and make a scene. It’s only been a week since I left so I still have some pull over there. Don’t I, Zach?”
Seamus ran his hands through his ratty hair and shook his head at Solomon’s transformation. The man actually looked relaxed. “What the hell have you done with my cousin?”