There's No Going Forward SAMPLE(Book 3 of The Triad Series)

3. Family Dinner

Callie and her two husbands, Emmett and Ethan, were talking animatedly over some travel brochures when Caysen and Stefan came back from the resort later on in the week. They had just completed grumbling their way home in Caysen’s car about how their fathers were taking earlier and earlier days off. They had no idea why, but they had a feeling that the three parents were eager to see the backend of their youngest sons so they could get freaky any and all times in their own home. It had been a good 27 years since the triad had had the house to themselves, and at least Caysen was sure that his fathers were trying to get some alone time with their mother while everyone else was out, though he cringed to think about what depraved acts they were employing in their frequent ménages.

Even with their older sister, Emily, living in her own apartment downtown, Stefan and Caysen were the only ones still in the nest, and the oldest Reznicks were eager to have their house all to themselves again.

The chatter between their parents ceased as soon as Caysen and Stefan stomped through the front door, and they both looked over at their mother and fathers, who were hunched over a pamphlet with eager eyes and wide smiles. Behind them, a pot was bubbling and a gloopy sound was being made as silence ensued across the room.

“You’re gonna burn the sauce,” Caysen told them, to which Callie knifed up from her spot at the table to look into the smaller pot bubbling on the stovetop. She sighed in relief before placing it on a low simmer.

“I invited Shelly over for dinner tonight,” Callie told them when she turned her back on the stove. “I knew you guys wouldn’t mind. She’s practically a part of the family these days.”

The younger twins both grinned, though a nauseating lurch in Caysen’s stomach made him wish he could follow through and give a pained look. For his brother’s sake, though, he would grin and f*****g bear it.

“Cool,” Stefan said as he clapped his hands together. His mood always brightened when Shelly was either present talked about. Hell—or even mentioned. Caysen thought his brother was the definition of p***y-whipped, not that the bastard could blame him.

“Great…fantastic.”

Stop talking, Caysen, he thought to himself. Less was more in any situation, especially when you were in love—well, maybe love was too strong a word as of yet—with your brother’s girlfriend.

Emmett’s lip curled up, giving his son a confused stare that Caysen turned away from, and then turned his attention to his brother.

“Later,” Ethan muttered, averting his eyes from his sons.

There it was again—that creepy twin thing the two had going between them. Speaking without actually talking, like they were some damned mind readers in a house full of completely unintuitive strangers.

Got to get the f**k outta here, Caysen thought, just as his brother was thinking the same damn thing.

“Food should be ready in a minute,” Callie told them as she inspected the pot of boiling noodles. “Go get yourselves washed up for dinner.”

While Caysen and Stefan was freshening up, the doorbell rang and female voices were heard from below, high pitched and excitable. It was ridiculous. Ever since Emily left to live with her boyfriend—now ex-boyfriend—their mother had been jonesing for a new best gal pal that was literally half her age.

To be fair, Callie got along with pretty much anyone, but she gravitated toward the younger folk who didn’t seem to mind her odd family unit. A woman with two husbands was hard to wrap your mind around for some people, but many of Caysen’s and Stefan’s friends thought they were pretty f*****g cool for “old people”.

And not to mention their older brothers were married and had a kid with their wife, Piper, in Hawaii. It was a regular three-ring threesome circus in the house whenever their older brothers and wife decided to come up for the holidays or to visit. Not to mention they usually invited Piper’s grandparents as well. Thanksgiving with the Minkovs in Hawaii, Christmas in northern California. It had been a tradition for as long as Jay and Alex had gotten engaged, and neither rain not sleet nor snow could keep them from celebrating either holiday together.

As soon as Stefan’s foot hit the bottom step, his eyes were searching the room for Shelly, who was sitting in the living room and chatting with Ethan about her job at the resort. She was enthusiastic about having a full-time position, and by the way she was gushing about her employment, you would think she was vying for the position instead of waxing poetic about one she already had.

“Baby,” Stefan’s voice called out before she turned her head. Her face lit up with a brilliant smile and she stood up in place as Stefan came over to give her a soft hug and a kiss. His father looked on with a grin.

“Food’s ready,” Emmett called out from the doorway of the kitchen, his eyes flickering between his two sons.

Ethan stood up, clapped Stefan on the back, and made his way over to Caysen, who was standing mute at the bottom of the steps, watching Shelly and Stef in his peripherals.

After everyone was seated, Callie gestured for them all to dig in. Food was passed around, bowls of side dishes being shunted from person to person. Knives and forks clinked, and people murmured their enjoyment of the food as insignificant small talk was made.

As soon as most of the table was about two-thirds done, Callie cleared her throat. Eyes peered over at her and she gave them all a slow, steady grin.

“Your fathers and I are heading on a business-s***h-personal trip for a month.”

The hum of noise quieted as Case put his fork down and looked between his parents.

“What does that mean, business-s***h-personal trip?” he questioned, his tone measured and voice low.

His mother shrugged.

“Just what it sounds like, dear,” she told him. “We are going to Colorado Springs to look into a property that’s for sale.”

Emmett spoke up.

“We’ll split our time between looking into the new place and having some vacation time. Just to ourselves.”

“It’s been ages since we’ve had a trip alone and with you two manning the wheel at ESRS, we can finally go on a vacation,” Ethan spoke. “Just the three of us.”

Callie turned to Shelly who sat two feet to the right of her. “You’re always welcome to stay here, Shell. There’s plenty of room, and—”

Callie blanked, her face tinging pink in the cheeks.

Ethan’s hand cupped his wife’s as he rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

“We figure it would be stupid to offer you Emily’s old room,” he said diplomatically, hinting at what his wife meant to say.

“What these two prudes are unable to say and mean to—” Emmett started to say. “—is that you can stay here with Stefan. In his room.” He eyed Emmett and Callie warily. “You’re grown-ups, for f**k’s sake and you can act like them whether we’re here or not.”

He shrugged and went back to his pasta as if he hadn’t just given one of his youngest sons the go-ahead to shack it up with his girlfriend for thirty days.

“When are you guys leaving?” Case asked, trying to push past the fact that Shelly would be there, in the house, all the motherfucking time.

This was going to be torture.

“Next week,” Callie mumbled around a bite of her food and averting her eyes.

“Next week?” Stefan blanched. “We just started working at the resort! How the hell are we supposed to run that place without running it into the ground?”

Emmett rolled his eyes but said nothing. Ethan gave a smirk, but thankfully opened his damn mouth to reply.

“You’ll be fine,” he told Stefan, who had Shelly at his side, soothing him with a hand on his bicep and rubbing. “Your father and I will do the payroll remotely. All’s you two have to do is keep the ship afloat. It’s easy enough.”

“For Christ’s sake, you went to business school.” Emmett lifted his head, swallowing the last bite of his meal before eyeing both his children down. “Act like it.”

If there was anything that could keep Caysen from snarling and growling at his parent at that point, it was a stab to his pride. Stefan may have been great behind the scenes in the back office, but he was the one thrust into the lion’s den of customers, vendors, and employees with trifling issues that needed to be attended to posthaste.

“We’ll be fine,” Case pushed out gruffly, irritated that Stefan was taking this like he’d been offered as a sacrifice to some ancient Pagan ritual.

How hard could it be to keep moral up? To keep the influx of people attending and spending their hard-earned cash at their luxurious spa? To keep the money flowing and the customers happy and tipping their hard-working employees

It couldn’t be that difficult.

At least Caysen hoped not.

Callie was bubbly and bouncing around the house, humming and singing as she gave it a good cleaning before leaving. Often, she would warn Case and Stef to keep the house tidy while they were away. She didn’t need it looking like a “frat house” when she got back from her extended vacation-s***h-business trip.

But most of her words were heady musings about what to do while they were in Colorado, where they would go, and the occasional wondering about the place they were going to see. It was obvious she was looking at the trip as more of a personal one, and that the two men could look more into the business side of it. After all, it was Ethan’s baby, and Emmett and Callie were just along for the ride.

After settling back on the west coast, Emmett had taken up the reins with his brother, and he had always been the one closest to Caysen in demeanor. He was the welcoming, jovial, meet-the-people type guy, whereas Ethan was more stoic, better at the numbers and employee part of the business. It was why Case had spent so much of his time after graduating college with Emmett, and Ethan had steered Stefan towards the back-office portion. The two men knew their youngest sons entirely too well.

Much, much too well.

“My Spidey senses are tingling,” Emmett muttered as he pressed socks and some of his underwear into a suitcase.

“What’s up?” Though Ethan had a feeling he already knew what his brother wanted to say. Call it a sixth sense, call it a twin thing—the two men were as different as could be, but they just got each other.

“Case is…he’s acting different lately.” He gave Ethan a look that said, don’t be a fool. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

“No s**t,” Ethan groaned. “It’s like he’s us all over again.”

“Shelly.”

“Yeah.”

There was pregnant pause that clouded the clouded the room.

“Think Stefan knows?” Emmett eyeballed his brother’s frowning face.

“Nope,” he sputtered out on a short, dark bark of laughter. “He’s as clueless as a babe. All he sees is Shelly, and never how Case looks at her. He’s like one of those horses that pull the carriages in Central Park. Has blinders on so he can only see what’s ahead.”

“You think everything’ll be good while we’re gone?”

Ethan shrugged and zipped up his luggage. He had no f*****g clue what he had put in there, not that it mattered. The place that went out of business was selling the building for half of what it was worth and wouldn’t care if the Reznicks came to their business meeting in track suits and sneakers.

The joys of filing for bankruptcy.

“It’ll have to be,” Ethan stated.

“And if it’s not?”

The two older men looked at each other before nodding their heads, no words needing to be uttered.

“Then we put out the flames when we get back.”

“If there’s anything to come back to.”

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