Hold Me Forever: a feel-good romance (The Maxwell Brothers)

The next morning, I felt as if I was floating on a cloud. Sitting on Tyler’s fancy leather couch, I was drinking coffee while feeling my man up. I couldn’t help myself. He was sitting next to me wearing jeans and nothing on top, and those muscles were way too tempting.

“You’re feisty this morning.”

“You inspire me.”

He chuckled and thankfully didn’t move even an inch away.

“And so does this place,” I continued.

“I like my space. Bought it a few years ago. It’s perfect for unwinding between games.”

“What do you usually do?”

“Just hang around here, or meet up with the family. Sometimes I have them over here, but we meet at Tate’s often because he’s got a yard.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

“It is. But his house is one of those old-school mansions. You have to like it, I guess. I’m more of a modern setup guy.”

I nodded. “True. So am I. This condo is the perfect mix of modern and cozy. I like it. And I like the owner too. So sexy and talented in bed. And let’s not forget swoonworthy.”

He kissed my forehead, then got up from the couch. I pouted before realizing he was taking my empty cup, heading to his espresso machine.

“You look so hot in those jeans,” I remarked. “But just saying, you look even hotter without them.”

This didn’t feel like my life, but more like a dream. I was brought back to reality pretty quickly, though, when my phone rang. My new neighbor was calling. My stomach bottomed out. I’d given her my number for emergencies. She also had a spare set of keys.

“Morning, Diane,” I said. “Is anything wrong?”

“Unfortunately, yes, darling. It rained heavily last night. There’s water in your basement.”

“Oh no,” I gasped. “How much water is there?”

“Not too much, but all the boxes you had on the floor are half soaked. I’ll send you pictures.”

My phone chimed with several incoming messages. My insides twisted as I looked at the photos.

Shit. How much bad luck can I have? I just took the boxes there yesterday.

Why did I think that moving them to the house so early was a good idea? I didn’t plan to do any work on the basement floor, and I’d been so excited to get a start with the move. “Thanks so much. I’ll come as soon as possible and do damage control.” I was trying not to hyperventilate at the thought of what it would cost to drain the water.

Tyler turned around, watching me intently. The sound of the coffee machine drowned out most of my words, but judging by his expression, he’d heard enough to put two and two together.

As soon as I hung up, I rose from the couch, pacing the room.

‘Kendra talk to me,’ Tyler said. ‘What happened?’ He put both hands on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes.

‘There’s a lot of water in the basement of my house. I’m going to have to find a company to pump it all out.”

He ran a hand through his hair, narrowing his eyes. ‘You know what? I’ll call Luke. I bet he has some contacts to drainage companies.”

Taken aback by his offer, I felt my eyes widen. ‘You don’t have to bother him with this. I’ll just look up options online.’

‘Trust me, I wouldn’t be bothering him. And why pick some company you know nothing about when my brother can probably recommend one he’s been working with? Besides, not all companies will come in on a Saturday.’

‘Okay,” I relented. ‘Thank you.’

Tyler immediately called his brother, and I listened to his side of the conversation.

‘Okay. Thanks, man.’ He frowned. ‘I’ll ask Kendra if she had anything in there.’ After hanging up, he said, ‘Here, he just forwarded me the number. He says they’re great and reliable. And he’s going to give them a call.’

‘Okay, thanks.’

‘Do you have anything in there?’ he asked. “I heard something about boxes.”

‘Yeah. I took them there so I could get ahead with the move. I have to take the boxes out.” I turned my phone, showing him the pics. “Sorry to bail on you today, but I need to go there and sort everything out.”

He looked at me like I’d just grown a second head. ‘We’re both going there.’

‘What? Why?’

‘You’re probably going to need help carrying the boxes, and my muscles are very good for that.’

‘Wow. Really? Thanks so much.’ He chose to spend his day like this. Who was this guy? ‘But is that okay with your shoulder?’

‘Yeah, I’m supposed to use it a lot. I just need to make sure I control the movements. There are a lot of boxes there. And from the picture, it looks like a steep, curving staircase, so you can’t put them on a handcart. We have to carry them out one by one. I’ll call my brothers and see who’s got time to drop by and give us a hand.’

For the second time today, I was stunned. It took me a few seconds to shake myself out of my stupor. ‘No, wait a second, Tyler. I’ve got this. I’ll call my sister. Oh no, wait. She isn’t in town. But you don’t have to call your brothers.”

“Trust me. They won’t have anything against it.’ I seriously doubted that, but Tyler called before I could protest any further. “Luke, it’s me again. What are you doing today? There are like a million boxes in that basement.” A few seconds later, he nodded. “Thanks, man.”

“He said yes, just like that?” I asked when he lowered the phone.

“Yep, and he’s going to call the rest of the clan. Whoever’s got time will pop up at the house. The family motto is ‘Don’t outsource anything you can do well, and that can count as a family activity.’”

“I… Thanks.”

I fiddled with my thumbs, hunching my shoulders. I’d never had this kind of support before, and although I was pleased, I wondered how I’d ever repay them.

“You look nervous,” he said.

I shrugged, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. “What kind of impression will I make if the first time they meet me, it’s because I’m asking them for help?”

Tyler chuckled, kissing my forehead. “Don’t you worry about the first impression. I like you, so they’ll like you. Come on, babe, let’s go.’

He interlaced our fingers, rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand as we left the condo.

Was I dreaming? I had been in a crisis mode not five minutes ago, and now everything seemed doable.

Fifty minutes later, we arrived at the house. It was in a sleepy neighborhood on the outskirts of Chicago. The street was lined mostly with bungalow-style homes. The draining company was already there, unloading the gear from their vehicle.

I opened the basement door carefully. Oh God. I had clothes, books, and bedsheets in the boxes on the floor, and I was sure some of them would need replacing. If I didn’t have Tyler with me right now, I’d probably be a basket case, but he grounded me.

The draining company came in a few minutes later, and they immediately started to work.

“My brothers are gonna be here in about an hour, and Reese too.”

I seriously couldn’t believe this was happening. I’d prepared myself to slog through this the whole day, but now my sexy man and his family were going to help me.

‘Let’s grab something to eat while they’re draining the water,’ Tyler suggested. “No use getting in their way, okay?”

‘Sure. Why not?’

We had pancakes at a small coffee shop two blocks away. When we returned to the house forty minutes later, I was surprised by how much progress had been made. The floor was a bit soggy—the previous owners had put in carpet, which I’d have to replace—but at least we could walk on it without getting water in our shoes.

‘I’m going to start taking boxes out.’ Tyler declared, and for a few seconds, all I could do was stare at him, leaning down in all his perfection and picking up a box. His muscles flexed with each one.

Oh my, this is going to be a hugely fun day. There were perks to having this mountain of a man helping me.

“Where do you want them?”

“Huh?”

He smirked. ‘Kendra? Work first, ogling later.’

‘But why?’ I asked, quickly checking the area. The guy overseeing the pump was at the other end of the room.

Tyler winked at me, nodding at the box.

“Oh, let’s put them outside. I’ll need to check the contents and see if I can keep everything. And some stuff will need drying. I’m going to call the company where my sister stored some stuff last year. They offer a pickup service.”

I was already making a plan in my mind. I could go to a laundromat to wash and clean my clothes and bedsheets. As for the books, I didn’t have an idea yet. Maybe I could put fans in the storage room. The important part was to take them out.

I called them right away, explaining the situation. The woman who answered told me to call again once we were done taking the boxes out of the basement.

After that, Tyler and I got to work. We realized we had to tape the bottom of all the boxes; otherwise, they’d just break. That took considerably longer than we thought because they were wet, and it became a challenge for the tape to stick.

Half an hour later, Reese, Travis, and two hunks joined us.

“Hey, I’m Luke,” one of them said as they descended the steps.

Declan also introduced himself; he was nice but much more subdued than the others.

Luke didn’t look anything like Tyler, except the fact that he was also tall and muscular. Travis and Declan were tall too, though only Declan came near to the stature of Tyler. Luke and Travis were both more slender. Travis had slightly longer hair that brushed his shoulders, and Declan looked crisp and serious, like someone you wouldn’t want to cross.

“Thank you all for coming here. I seriously can’t believe you’re doing this,” I said.

Reese smiled, covering a yawn with her hand. “Hey, emergencies suck. We’re here for you.”

Luke inspected the pump before joining us. “They’re moving fast.”

‘You need to notify your insurance,’ Declan said.

“The rain last night wasn’t strong enough to warrant this. I think the pump the previous owners installed wasn’t good enough. I’m assuming the house was inspected before you bought it?” Luke asked me.

“Yes.”

“And they didn’t mention any issue with the pump?”

“No.”

“Right. The draining company will draft a report. If it turns out the pump was faulty and the previous owners didn’t disclose that, you might be able to sue them to get back the cost of the draining.”

“Thanks. Good to know.”

Declan immediately began explaining the steps of suing the previous owners. It sounded like it would take a while, and I didn’t know if I had a case anyway. But I appreciated his advice.

‘Brother, I know you’re the brains of the family, and I’m the brawn,’ Luke said, ‘but move that ass and grab a few boxes.’

‘Yeah. Don’t try to just supervise us,’ Travis said. He was currently taping a box. ‘He did that all the time as kids, pulled the older brother card and said someone had to supervise us.’

‘And I did,’ Declan said, but now he was grinning. ‘Otherwise, you would have gotten in even more trouble than you did.’

Tyler burst out laughing. ‘I seriously don’t even think that’s possible.’

Travis wiggled his eyebrows at me. ‘If there was a smart way to do things and a stupid way to do things, we always chose the stupid one.’

I smiled back while I was taping a box myself. ‘And let me guess, you were the one with the ideas, Travis?’

Travis whistled. ‘I’d like to take credit for that, but actually, Luke here was the one with the ideas. The rest of us just followed.’

Luke nodded solemnly. ‘I had to use my position as second oldest to get them all to listen to me and give this one headaches.’ He patted Declan’s shoulder.

‘Okay, so I think this is going to take us a while. We need a better system,’ Declan said, looking at the boxes. ‘Most are heavy, so I don’t think you’re going to be able to do much lifting, are you, Kendra, Reese?’

‘Between the two of us, we can do it,’ Reese said.

Declan looked around. ‘I have a better idea. Why don’t you two tape up all the bottoms so we don’t risk anything breaking, and we’re going to carry it all out.’

I perked up. ‘Okay. That’s a good idea. I think that’s going to make this go even faster.”

Reese and I turned every box that looked to have a soft bottom on the side and just put as much tape as possible on it. I debated only taping the ones with books and other solid items, since I planned to take clothes and bedsheets to the laundromat, but it was easier to carry everything out in boxes.

‘Thanks so much for coming,’ I told her. “I don’t even know what to say.’

I felt like a broken record.

Reese waved her hand. ‘Oh, come on. It would have been silly for you two to spend a whole day here, and between all of us, we’ll be done in a couple hours. And anyway, I wanted to hang out with you too.’

‘You did?’

‘Yeah. We didn’t chat much at the fair, but I already like you. You make Tyler smile. After the incident, it took the combined effort of all the Maxwells to lift his mood.’

I found it heartwarming that they took the well-being of the others so seriously.

‘Your family’s really something else. I mean, my sister and I are also super close, but I thought that was because…’

‘Because?” Reese prompted.

I cleared my throat. ‘Never mind. I mean, we had a few rough years as kids, so I thought that was why we were so close. I didn’t realize normal families could be like this too.’

She smiled warmly. ‘Well, we are. It’s something our parents and Gran instilled in us since we were kids, and honestly, I’m happy about it, because lately the only people I feel comfortable with is my family.’

‘Is this because of what happened with your ex?” I grimaced as we taped yet another box. “I’m sorry, it’s none of my business. Tyler told me that he was involved in the fight, but he didn’t give me any details as to why the two of you broke up.’

Reese jerked her head back. ‘He didn’t? Wow, so there is a Maxwell who respects privacy. He deserves a prize. The rest of us aren’t this evolved.’ She chuckled. ‘Joking aside, yeah, it is because of my asshole of an ex. We were supposed to get married, but then I found out he was sleeping with my best friend.’

‘Oh my God. That’s horrible.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ she said quietly, and I saw her wither a bit in front of me. That was the most appropriate word, wither. I searched for something to say, but I knew some wounds just needed time to heal, or at least not hurt as much, and words didn’t help.

‘Okay. I think we’re good here. Let’s move on to the next group of boxes.’

We were making real progress. It was much faster than the previous system. The guys didn’t have to waste any time taping, so they just carried out box after box, and one short hour later, everything was in front of the house.

‘I’m going to call the storage company again,’ I said and pulled out my phone.

They picked up right away. A woman greeted me.

“Hi! I’m Kendra. I spoke to one of your coworkers today. I need to book one of your storage rooms, and I also need the pickup service.”

“Sorry, our last room was booked half an hour ago.”

I clenched my jaw. “What do you mean? I spoke to your colleague a few hours ago. My name is Kendra. I’m sure she noted it somewhere.”

“We’re first come, first served.”

I pressed two fingers on the spot between my eyebrows, feeling a headache coming on. “This is no way to run a business. Why didn’t the other person tell me that?”

“I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”

I bit my lip, running a hand through my hair. ‘Okay. Thanks.’

Tyler was looking at me intently when I hung up. I felt foolish. Could one thing go right today?

Travis came up to us. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’m just going to search real quick for some storage companies. The one I called before doesn’t have space now.’

Travis nodded, but then his eyes lit up. ‘Wait a second. Don’t our parents have that huge empty shed? Mom keeps teasing Dad about it. He had it built, saying it was going to be his man cave, and it’s been empty for fifteen years. They use it for storage.’

‘I’ll call them,’ Tyler said.

‘What? No, no, no.’ I was beside myself. ‘You all did so much for me already. I’ll handle this. I’ll find a spot. It’s not that hard. Besides, I also have to take some of the things to a laundromat as well as dry out the books.’

‘Babe, my parents have a couple washing machines and dryers. And I’m sure we can come up with a way to dry your books. They won’t mind.’

‘They truly wouldn’t,’ Luke said, but there was something interesting in his eyes, like a twinkle of mischief. He had something in mind. ‘Why don’t you give them a call, Travis, and tell them Kendra”—he emphasized my name, for some reason—’needs their shed to store her boxes. And we’d all come over, of course.’

‘Got it,’ Travis said with a wink. It was like they were having a secret conversation between the lines.

Tyler pressed his lips in a thin line. Dimples appeared in his cheeks. He was holding back laughter. Wait a second. What’s going on?

I turned to Declan, who seemed thoroughly amused as well.

‘Why don’t you call Gran too while you’re at it?’ Declan said.

‘Oh, I’m sure your mom will do it,’ Reese said. She was also grinning.

Wow. Okay. They were all in on the joke, and I had no idea what it was about. I searched my brain for a way to ask Tyler without being obvious, but if I pulled him to one side, they would know something was up. I was obviously in for more surprises today. I mean, it had already been bewildering, so I decided to just go ahead with it. I wasn’t used to doing things spontaneously. I liked to plan things in detail, but where had that gotten me? I’d made contingency plans for moving and for storing, and look what happened. If it wasn’t for the group popping up here today, I would have had a lot more headaches.