“Are you two okay?” Nellie looks between us with wide eyes and I can’t help but think we may have slightly overreacted to seeing someone touch her, but I’m not about to apologize.
“Why did you come with him?” Elijah was never one to be subtle and I can’t say I want him to start now.
Nellie leans back like she’s getting attacked and her eyes narrow. “How is that any of your business?”
This is not how we pictured her coming to our celebration today and I think maybe we need to dial it back. Unfortunately Elijah doesn’t have the same thought as he steps closer to Nellie.
“Are you kidding me right now, Nell?”
“Don’t you Nell me when you’re hollering at me across the yard like a dog.”
“Whoa, whoa. Let’s just calm down and take a breath.” I step in front of Elijah to block his approach to Nellie. She blinks a few times as she looks away and I can see her cheeks are red.
“Everything okay?” I hear Harlow on the porch behind us and I curse.
“I think I could use something stronger than an afternoon coffee,” Nellie says, walking past us and into the house with Harlow.
“Fuck.” Elijah runs a frustrated hand through his hair as he watches her go.
“I know,” I agree and shake my head.
“I didn’t mean to talk to her like that. I should go apologize. I just can’t focus when I’m around her, and then I saw Luke drive up with her in the truck and what else am I supposed to think?”
“Clearly that didn’t go how we planned.” I cross my arms over my chest and look back at my dad’s place.
It’s his and Harlow’s now and they’re raising their son here. It’s weird because he’s our little brother, but it’s more like he’s our kid, too.
We gave my dad so much shit when he first met Harlow. We knew exactly how they felt about each other and we said shit enough to test him and see how pissed he’d get before he made her his. We knew he needed a nudge and we made sure to send him over quickly.
Harlow is really cool and we couldn’t be happier that she’s with our dad, but she was never meant for either of us. We teased him and pushed him to the edge because we knew that he didn’t think they should be together. Age is just a number and we knew she was the one for him. Pretending we had a crush on her was only a game to get him there fast.
The first time we saw Nellie, Elijah and I knew she was ours. As weird as it might make us, growing up we figured out that we wanted to share a wife. It started out kind of a joke because we didn’t want to live in separate houses, but over time we realized that there wasn’t another option.
After our mom died and our uncle Butch took us in, he became our dad. Maybe there’s still a deep seed of abandonment somewhere inside of us, but the two of us have stuck together in every aspect of our lives, so it would make sense to have a family together.
When we met Nellie, Elijah and I shared a look and we both knew right then and there that she was the woman we would make our wife; we just needed her to get on board with it. I knew that it would be an uphill battle because what woman would want to admit to having two husbands or that her children have two fathers? We don’t know much about other people in these type of relationships, but from what we’ve found online, there are small communities of people that love the way we do.
It has nothing to do with me wanting to have sex with my brother, it’s that we share a bond because we’re twins and the connection between us is stronger than most. He’s my other half and if he loves someone, I’ll love them, too. I can’t help but share emotions with him, and the only answer to us living our lives as one is to have a woman who can understand that and handle our demands.
“Now what?” Elijah looks to me and we share a silent conversation.
We have to make this right even though we know our actions were justified. She might not know that she belongs to us, but school is finished and now it’s time to quit fucking around. We worked our asses off to graduate early and to make it so that we are able to step in and take over the business seamlessly.
Dad and Harlow are focused on our little brother and raising him, so now is the time for us to become the men of Barton Construction and claim what’s ours. Nellie.