“Lad.” Gavin grinned as he rolled his head from side to side. “That’s pure class. The pain I had is gone.”
Harley looked at JJ and wiggled his fingers. “Want me magic touch as well?”
“Save it for the redhead,” he said teasingly. “C’mon. Let’s pull the shutters down on the bays. The aul lad is closin’ up later, so he’ll take care of settin’ the alarm and lockin’ the main entrance. We’re free to leg it home.”
After the bay shutters were down and locked, I headed into the reception with my brothers and hung the shutters lock keys in the key box on the wall behind the reception. “Is Da okay? Why is he stayin’ late?”
“He’s goin’ through applications for the receptionist he’s been interviewin’ for.” JJ shrugged. “Only women applied, which he isn’t happy about. He wanted a man so none of us would be tempted.”
“What does he think we’re gonna do?” Gavin blinked. “Fuck the woman and make her quit?”
We all stared at him, and he cringed.
“That happened one time,” my baby brother scowled. “Celine was gorgeous.”
I shoved him. “She was a year older than Da.”
My da was fifty-three.
“Exactly.” Gavin grinned as we left the building. “She had experience, trust me. That woman taught me so many things.”
“You’re so nasty I can’t even wrap me head around it, lad.”
“Bein’ a little nasty is needed sometimes.”
Harley shoved our baby brother, laughing. He left with a smile since he was the only one of us who had a date to look forward to. Gavin went to collect some takeaway so he could have a quiet night in with his soon-to-be baby’s mother. Since I came to work with JJ, he dropped me off at the gym before he went home. After my session ended and I got home at seven, I rang my sister and told her to bring my nephews down to my apartment for our sleepover. I could go to the pub any time I wanted.
A night in with my nephews was going to be fun.
CHAPTER THREE
Date
* * *
I was nine hours into babysitting, and I could have sworn I felt my hair turn grey strand by fucking strand. Locke was the easiest baby ever. He was so chill it was honestly ridiculous. The child hardly cried, he made sounds of annoyance when his nappy was full, and he whined a little when he had wind or was hungry, but other than that, he was silent. Jax was the complete opposite of his baby brother. My head was killing me, thanks to him.
“Is that nice, little man?” I cooed to Jax, who was polishing off his second yogurt. “Once your tummy is full, we’ll go back to sleep, okay?”
Jax shook his head, and for a moment, I thought I was going to break down and cry. It was five to four in the morning. Aideen dropped the kids down to me after I got home from the gym at seven, then she came back down to check on us at ten, and she couldn’t believe that I had both boys in bed and sound asleep. She lived on the top floor of my apartment building … well, almost. The top floor was currently made up of six apartments that Kane was renovating into one massive penthouse apartment for his family. They were staying a couple of floors below it for the time being.
It helped my sister relax, knowing she could come by my place and check on the boys whenever she liked.
A part of me wished she would randomly show up at my door right now and take Jax off my hands. I frowned at my thoughts, leaned over, and kissed him on the head. He wasn’t a bother, it also wasn’t his fault that he was awake. My neighbour across the hall woke us up. I had been spoiled since I’d moved into my apartment. I was the only tenant on the whole fifth floor until yesterday when Aideen informed me that a new person was moving into the apartment across from mine.
I hadn’t had a chance to pop over and introduce myself. I had been busy with my nephews once I got home from work, so it slipped my mind. However, at that very moment, my foot tapped against the floor, itching for the chance to walk across the hallway and say hello by shoving my foot up the bloke’s arse. I had no idea what he was doing, but so much noise was coming from the place that it woke Jax, which then woke me. The apartments in the building were made with thick concrete walls that were heavily insulated, so sound didn’t travel easily, if at all. Whatever the guy was doing, he was doing it loud.
The one night when I didn’t need loud, I got it.
“Unc!”
“Jax, be quiet.”
“Locke!”
I shushed him. “Locke is sleepin’, so don’t wake him up.”
“My baby!”
I smiled. “Yeah, your baby is sleepin’, so shut it.”
Jax bobbed his head as though he understood me, but he didn’t because he was still being loud.
“Jax,” I hissed. “Shush.”
“No,” he replied and started to sing — well, he tried to sing the Barney theme song but failed miserably.
“You’re such a little shite.”
“Shite!”
I widened my eyes. “Don’t say that!”
“Shite!”
“Jax. No.”
“Shite.”
I facepalmed myself. “For fuck’s sake.”
“Fuck’s sake.”
I sucked in a terrifying breath and dropped my arm to my side.
“No,” I almost cried. “No. Bad Jax. Don’t say that. Your ma will skin me alive!”
“Shite!” Jax shouted merrily. “Fuck’s sake.”
“Ah, bollocks.”
“Bollocks!”
I was going to cry.
“No,” I pleaded, my voice cracking like a kid whose balls had just dropped. “They’re very bad words.”
“Bollocks. Shite. Fuck’s sake.”
I was going to be dead by morning.
“Jax,” I whispered. “No.”
He grinned at me, and it was a silent ‘fuck you’ if I’d ever seen one.
“Just … Just say Uncle Harley taught ye those words. Okay? Uncle. Harley.”
“Harley.” Jax nodded. “Unc.”
“Sure.” I rolled my eyes. “Ye say his name correctly.”
He smiled a big toothy smile.
“You’re not playin’ me, kid.” I glared at him. “It won’t work. Cute smiles don’t get ye out of trouble with me, sunshine.”
Jax lost his smile and narrowed his grey eyes, and it caused a grin to spread across my face. “I’ve got your number, buddy.”
He huffed.
“Ye babble your words and blow spit bubbles any other day of the week, but when it comes to sayin’ curses, you’re suddenly a linguistic genius at the age of eighteen months. Is that it?”
He yawned in response, and fireworks went off in my mind at the prospect of getting him back to sleep. I was just about to pick him up and give him some ‘big boy cuddles’ when the racket that woke us started up again. Jax looked at the door of my sitting room and whimpered.
“Fuck this,” I grumbled to myself. “Fuck fuckin’ this.”
I was going to confront whoever was making that noise, then put my foot up the son of bitch’s arse.