Noaz (Van Doren #2)

7. Briar

7

brIAR

There’s a chance I should slow down. I’ve taken Noaz out every night for the past week. But I can’t get enough of them. When I’m not with them, I think about them. Work has become impossible. I’ve literally been stuck on the last paragraph for three days.

There’s a chance the manuscript is just far too dull to keep my attention, but it’s a damn thriller. It was pitched as borderline horror. I should not be bored.

I look at the time. Okay. One more hour. I can put in one more hour. Then I will reward myself with going to see Noaz. I didn’t ask them out again last night after our date. But I texted them when I got back to wish them a goodnight and tell them I couldn’t wait to see them tomorrow.

Which is today. And it’s entirely true; seeing them is all I think about.

I manage to focus for all of three minutes before Brek drops onto the couch perpendicular to the one I’m sitting on. He’s lost some of his exuberance over the last few months. I don’t know exactly what happened between him and Oakley except that Brek confessed to being in love with him and tried to kiss him one night.

The night Loren just happened to come home from one of his contract jobs and walked in on them. I have no doubt Oakley would have handled it, but seeing the murder in Loren’s eyes was enough to set us all on edge.

Brek’s behavior had been becoming more and more erratic over the months leading up to that moment. Not dangerous erratic. He was just all over the place as soon as Oakley started dating Loren.

His erratic behavior stopped when Loren and Oakley got married last month and he plunged into something that felt a lot like depression. He’s just… sad.

“Hey.”

He gives me a tired smile. “Hey.”

“You good?”

He lets out a heavy sigh. “Real estate can be exhausting. I thought it was going to be easy.”

“You mean trying to find a house your customer dragged out from his imagination already built somewhere for a fraction of what it’s worth is exhausting?”

Brek snorts. “Seriously. There are far more Karens and Chads in the world than I ever imagined.”

The front door flies open, and Honey Bee practically falls through it. She tosses her purse on the bench as she scrambles out of her shoes. She freezes, her head snapping up when she realizes she’s not alone.

“Oh,” Honey Bee says .

“You look surprised to see us,” Brek teases, amused. “We. Live. Here.”

Honey Bee rolls her eyes. “I know that. I just didn’t expect you home right now.”

“I work from home,” I remind her and point to my laptop. “In fact, I always work right here.”

She stares for another second before she takes off her shoes more calmly. “Right. Sorry.”

We watch as she shuts the door. “What’re you in such a hurry for?” Brek asks.

“I’m running late for a date. That’s all.”

“Ah. And us being home throws off that plan, huh?”

Honey Bee rolls her eyes. “No. I was thinking about something and I guess I just… I don’t know.” She throws her hands up and heads for the stairs. “Never mind. I’m going to change.”

Once more, we watch her go. When she’s out of sight, Brek and I exchange amused looks. There’s a knock at the door and I’m half wondering if this date she is rushing to get ready for involves Myro sneaking in. Knocking on the front door wasn’t something that we’d miss, though.

Brek gets up to answer it. It’s not Myro, but it is a Van Doren. Voss grins. “Hey, Brekky,” he greets as he walks inside with a box in his hands.

“Come in, won’t you?” Brek asks dryly after him. He shuts the door as he frowns after Voss.

“Thanks,” Voss says as he sits on the floor in front of the coffee table. “I need someone to play a game with.”

“You have a house full of brothers,” I point out .

“The triplets cheat. Loren doesn’t like board games; he says they’re too boring for him. I don’t know where Myro is right now, but I couldn’t find him, either.”

I glance at the stairs. I don’t know where he is, but I know who he’s going to be meeting. Soon, apparently.

“What game?” I ask.

“Monopoly.”

“That game takes hours,” Brek says as he falls back into the seat he’d been in.

“So? Do you have any other plans tonight?”

“I’m still working,” I say and take a pointed look at my screen. That’s gone to sleep. Great. Very convincing.

“Come on,” Voss almost whines. “Play for a while.”

I look at Brek and he’s trying not to scowl. Sighing, I close my laptop and set it aside. “Give me the hat. I’m only playing for an hour.”

“That’s fine. We’ll divvy up your loot,” Voss says as he begins setting up the board. Brek hasn’t agreed to play, but Voss doesn’t take his silence as a no.

Of all the Van Doren brothers, we see Voss the most. Loren isn’t all that social, and though we see him frequently with Oakley, I don’t know if we can really count that as hanging out, since he’s not exactly social. He’ll sit on his phone or watch television, but the only one he really engages with is Oakley.

He’ll talk to us if we speak to him, but he rarely engages in conversation otherwise. Unless we’re with his family, then he talks a little more.

“Don’t you work?” Brek asks .

Voss shrugs. “I work for Daddy. I can take all the time off I want.”

Brek rolls his eyes.

“I could ask you the same thing. Why aren’t you at work? It’s two o’clock on a Tuesday,” Voss challenges.

“I’ve been showing houses all day. I’m tired.”

“And cranky,” Voss adds.

We’ve each taken a few turns when Honey Bee returns downstairs and flashes Voss a smile.

“Where’re you headed, dressed like that?” Voss asks. He fans himself, though I’m not sure he truly finds her attractive. Then again, what do I know?

“Date,” Honey Bee says. “See you boys later. Don’t wait up.”

Brek and I wave. I wonder if she sneaks him in. Levis would know. His room is on the first floor by the front door.

“How long do you think it’ll be before she confesses that she’s seeing Myro?” Voss asks as he turns around to roll the dice.

“I think we should just call them out on it,” Brek says.

“I want to see how long until she says something,” I counter. “It’s kind of funny at this point.”

“I guess.”

More than anything, Brek hates change. We’ve come to the point in our lives where everything is in flux. Now that we’ve all graduated and are getting jobs, relationships, and growing up.

Haze gets home half an hour later. He sits in the chair to watch us play as he texts on his phone .

“When are you going to tell us about your secret lover?” Voss asks.

Haze looks at him over his phone with a raised brow.

“Honey Bee was leaving for a date, acting all shocked when Brek and I were home as if we don’t live here,” I supply.

“I see. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t have a secret lover. Just talking to someone,” Haze says.

“Who?” Voss asks. “Do they have a name?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure how that’s your business, nosy.”

Voss sighs with exaggeration and meets my eyes. “You’re the only one in this house who isn’t hiding their relationship.”

“I’m not hiding a relationship either,” Brek states.

“I meant people who have a relationship.”

Brek scowls at him.

“With that, I’m going to see Noaz now. Haze can take my place.” I get to my feet. Haze changes where he’s sitting, taking my seat as I grab my laptop. He drops his phone on the couch beside him and I catch a glimpse of the open text thread. He’s texting with someone named Em.

Emmett? Emery? Emerson? Em… ma?

No, not that last one.

Setting my laptop on the table, I head for the door.

“It’s a little early for a date,” Voss says. “Don’t you think?”

I slip into my sneakers and answer as I crouch to tie them. “There are no rules dictating the hours in which you can take someone out. ”

Voss gives me a sly look. Haze is also smirking, but Brek is mostly scowling. I think it’s become a permanent look. Maybe we ought to set him up on a date.

With a wave, I head out the door and across the street. The door opens just as I’m stepping onto the porch. Jalon smiles when he sees me.

He’s a very well-kempt man. Always looking his best in an effortless kind of way. Wears slacks instead of jeans or sweats or gym pants. Almost always in a button-down shirt with his sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms, shirt tucked in with a belt. Very… posh. Is that the right word?

“Hi,” I greet. “Taking a porch break?”

Jalon chuckles. “Yes. I’m used to more windows in my office.”

“Oh, yeah?”

He nods. “Yep. I have a whole wall of windows in my home office overlooking the lake.”

“You must live in a castle or something.”

“Or something,” he agrees. “Noaz is in the living room.” He leaves the door open as he heads for the seating area in the far corner.

I step inside and turn to the left, where the hall leads into the living room. It’s not the largest family room in the house, but it’s the one they all tend to use the most.

Noaz is right where Jalon said they’d be. They look up when I stand at the door and give me a smile.

“Hey, beautiful.”

Their head bows slightly. “Hi.”

“Are you busy? ”

Noaz shakes their head. “No. Just vegging.”

“Want to join me for a walk?”

“Yeah. I’ll meet you outside. Just have to get some shoes on,” Noaz says as they get to their feet. I stop them on the way by, guiding their face in my direction so I can kiss their lips. Noaz sighs, leaning into me.

“Can’t wait,” I murmur.

I love the soft pink tinge on their cheeks. They bow their head a little further as they pass me. I follow, but head back outside and join Jalon for a minute.

He’s easy to talk to. Sometimes, I forget he’s the patriarch of the household. Aside from him being definitely more well-dressed, he’s just as comfortable to spend time with as his sons.

Noaz isn’t long. When they step outside, I get up and say goodbye to Jalon. With my hand on Noaz’s back, we head off the porch and to the sidewalk. There’s a running path that travels behind the houses, so I lead us there, keeping my hand on Noaz’s back as we walk. It branches off periodically, winding its way through other neighborhoods and parks.

There’s a cool breeze today. The weatherman promised a night when it dropped down to sixty. Maybe that’s the reason for the breeze

Conversation between us has always been comfortable. It always feels like we pick up a conversation that we’d been having ten minutes ago instead of an entire day. Not that we don’t often text in between.

“I have a short trip back to New York next week,” Noaz says. “A few days.”

“Everything okay? ”

They nod. “Yep. Just need to check in on my team.”

“Oakley said something about you doing clean-up?”

“Yes. I run an organization that’s working on cleaning up the city. Making it safer. Working parallel to the police force in some cases.”

“That sounds like a very fulfilling job.”

Noaz chuckles. “It can be.”

“You’ve been managing it from here?”

“I have a very self-reliant team. Honestly, I’ve made it so efficient I’m not even needed. I’m just holding the title of boss, but in reality, they’re doing perfectly fine on their own. Sometimes, I think they do their best work without me.”

“I suppose that’s not a bad thing.”

Noaz hums. “What about you? It’s kind of funny that we start most things off with ‘ Oakley says ’ but here we are again—Oakley says you do editing?”

I laugh. “Yes. It’s a job I fell into. Honestly, I just don’t know what I want to do with my life. In our household, I think Levis is the only one actually on the path he studied for. The rest of us are kind of treading water, knowing we have bills to pay but not having found jobs that are fulfilling or complement our degrees.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I have no idea,” I admit, laughing. “I pretend I know what I want to do, but the more I think about it, the less convinced I am. My degree is in English with the plan to research old languages, manuscripts, and cultures via text. Last year, I realized that maybe I need an archaeology degree for that, too. But then I think… is that really what I want to do with my life? ”

The path forks, and I lead us to the left. It doesn’t ever become overly foresty in Southern Arizona, but there’s a park this way with lots of palm trees and foliage. If I’m not mistaken, there’s even a small pond. Assuming there’s water in it, or else it’ll just be a dry hole in the ground.

“We were homeschooled,” Noaz says. “I think that gave us more freedom to explore different subjects not normally taught in school and follow the things that interested us the most. It made deciding on a career easier.”

“Don’t get me started on the education system,” I say, shaking my head. “There’s more than just the subject matters that need an overhaul.”

Noaz hums in agreement.

Just ahead, I see the pond. It’s bigger than I thought. Leading Noaz off the path, we cross what constitutes grass in the desert and head for the water. There are several clusters of trees offering shade, some of which have benches under them.

“I’ve never been here,” Noaz says, smiling. “It’s beautiful.”

“I won’t pretend I found it. Levis runs early in the morning, so he found it. We’ve had a household picnic here. You know, family date and all that.”

Noaz grins. “It’s really cool that you have such close friends.”

We stop at the edge under the cool shade of the trees, cool being relative. It’s still damn hot out. “We think so. It’s always been a cause for a lot of jealousy in our other relationships, though.”

“Really?” they ask, surprised.

“I can count on one hand how many relationships between the six of us have ended because of something other than jealousy over how close we are. ”

“Ah. I see. People are so much more insecure these days than they used to be.”

I sigh. “Yep. They get even more offended when you tell them you’re not ending or modifying a decades-old friendship for them.”

“I’ve always thought it would be really great to have friends like that. I grew up with my nephews, so in some way, they’re my closest friends.”

“Not your brothers?”

“Mmm,” they hum. “Have you met any of my brothers other than Jalon?”

“No. The times they’ve been here, I’ve been away on vacation with my family.”

“I’m going to reserve my opinion until you meet them,” Noaz says, grinning.

I drop my hand from Noaz’s back until I can wrap it around them, pulling them close to me. The most beautiful dark eyes stare back at me. They’re almost exactly my height when not in heels. The perfect height for me to kiss.

“I think I have the most perfect Van Doren right here,” I say.

“You always take my breath away,” Noaz whispers.

I brush away the hair that the breeze has blown into their face, cupping the back of their head, and kiss them. It’s not the first time I’ve kissed them. Keeping them flush against me while the gentle breeze ruffles our hair and tugs softly at our clothes, I kiss Noaz for a very long time.

My absolute favorite pastime.