Dale
Sadie left early this morning to go pick up more pregnancy tests. I tried to show her the ones I’d found outside in the bin but she just shook her head. She wants a fresh pack, unopened and brand-new, for a “clean start”, she’d said. I just shrugged and left her to it. It’s hard to tell Sadie no when it comes to this.
I’m in the kitchen, alone for once, sipping at my coffee. Since Carter arrived it’s rare to get a few minutes alone in my own house. Sadie has her studio she disappears into but I don’t really have any spaces like that unless you count the garage.
Thinking about the studio, I decide to go in and check out some of Sadie’s new work. Some artists are intensely private about their works in progress, never letting anyone see them until they’re finished but Sadie’s never been that way with me. She’s always invited me into her studio to see what she’s working on. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been in there. I finish my coffee, set my cup in the sink and head through the living room and down the short hall that leads to her studio.
The lights of are off and the blinds are drawn when I open the door. Sadie keeps it dim when she’s not working so that the UV rays coming in through the windows don’t alter the paint colors. I flick on the lights, flooding the room with warm light that mimics the morning sun. Another of Sadie’s ideas. I didn’t spare any expense in outfitting the studio for her, I wanted Sadie to have her dream workroom.
I notice a painting on the rack and angle it down so I can take a look, careful not to touch the edges or smudge the drying paint. I recognize the portrait from the picture of a prominent Dallas socialite that arrived a few weeks ago. Sadie’s done a wonderful job of capturing the woman’s red hair and haughty demeanor.
I flip through a few more sketches, some of Sadie’s landscapes, and check out a commissioned piece she’s finished for a boutique hotel lobby in Austin. Then I notice the canvas tucked into a corner with a sheet draped over it. I tug at the sheet, one end catches and I pull harder. When it slides off, I’m left staring at my brother in all his glory.
He’s sprawled lazily across the sofa, I glance back at it on the other side of the room, one arm draped across the back, his legs spread out wide, and his cock half-hard on his thigh. Sadie’s painted Carter in the nude. And not from memory either, this is a posed portrait. And judging from his half-mast dick, he was enjoying it. I study the painting from several angles, noting how carefully Sadie has delineated his muscles, how perfectly placed the lines of his chest are. Then I toss the sheet back over it, turn the lights off, and leave the studio.
I find Carter in the backyard, shirt off, with an edger whirring in his hands. He’s been trying to do more and more chores around the house and yard. I know it’s because he hasn’t found a full-time job yet and he doesn’t want to feel useless or like he’s mooching off us, so I come home often to find the lawn cut, new flowers planted, or a section of the fence freshly painted.
Grabbing a couple of bottles of water, I head across the yard and tap Carter’s shoulder. He jerks around, edger still buzzing in his hand, before realizing it’s just me. He cuts the edger off and takes the cold bottle of water I hand him, cracking the top and guzzling half the bottle.
“Thanks,” he says.
“Not a problem. Take a break, it’s getting hot out here.” I gesture toward the shaded back porch.
Carter shrugs and leans the edger on the fence before heading for the porch. I follow and drop into one of the chairs.
“How’s it been going? Any job leads?” I ask, and take a sip of my water.
“Not yet, not really. There’s a job service one town over that specializes in placements for veterans. I’m going to check with them in a couple of days.”
I nod. It’s got to be hard for him, going from having regular duties in the military to all this free time.
“Glad to see Sadie’s keeping you busy around the house.” Carter’s eyes flick to mine. He’s trying to figure out where I’m going with this conversation. I decide to put him out of his misery.
“I hope she’s being paying you the going rate for modeling?”
His face reddens.
“She show you the one she did of me?” I ask.
“She offered, I refused,” he replies.
“Well, I didn’t exactly want to see your dick either,” I smirk at him.
“Listen, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t…she’s very persuasive, Sadie. Even when she doesn’t say much. Just the look in her eyes, she’s got something about her that makes it really damned hard to say no.” That’s an understatement! Carter is staring off across the yard. I can see his jaw working. He thinks I’m really pissed at him.
“Hey,” I nudge at his foot, “it’s okay. She wouldn’t take no for an answer from me either.
“Huh.” He glugs down the remainder of his water and looks me over. “You okay? You know…after,”
“Yeah. I’m good, bro. What about you?”
“Yeah…” he plays with the bottle, spinning it in his palm. I know restless Carter. Restless Carter has something on his mind and doesn’t know how to say it. The silence is a little tense so I change the subject a little.
“Hey, you remember those twins? The ones from Austin. Dark haired gals?”
Carter looks up at me and grins. “How could I forget.”
“Twin on twin,” I laugh. “Those were some wild women. Rode motorcycles.”
“Yeah...we had some crazy times.” Carter is shaking his head.
“We did. You thinking that about last night?”
“Last night wasn’t crazy like that.”
“I know. It was different.”
“You know I’d do anything for you.”
“I know. And I love you for that. So you know what you gotta do for me now?”
My brother frowns, leaning forward in his chair. “What?”
“You gotta stop looking like you’re havin’ an affair with my wife, okay. We agreed to this. We were all okay with it, but now it seems as though you’re having regrets or feeling guilty.”
Carter shakes his head, not as though he’s disagreeing but more as though he doesn’t know what to say. This is worrying me.
“Seriously,” I tell him.
“What if it doesn’t work?” he asks.
“Then we try again,” I say.
“But it isn’t ‘we’ is it? It’s me and Sadie.”
I shift forward in my seat, really wanting to get to the crux of this. What is my brother feeling here? “I guess the mechanics of it, sure.”
Carter shakes his head. “Mechanics…”
I narrow my eyes. I think I’m getting closer to working this out. “But it doesn’t feel like mechanics to you?”
For the first time in years, I see Carter blush. “It’s been a long time,” he says, but that doesn’t make sense to me. If he was just craving sex, then surely that would make this easier. He gets served, no strings attached.
“You have feelings for Sadie…” The words are out of my mouth before I think and then I can’t take them back. Carter makes a noise which sounds like disagreement but it’s weak and I don’t know what to say. This was always going to blur the lines between us all, and Sadie is an amazing woman, but was I expecting Carter to feel that way about her? Not really. Am I affected by it? Of course. Sadie’s my girl. Maybe I’ve been foolish to think that I could share her body this way but not her heart. And if Carter is feeling like this, maybe Sadie is too. Maybe that’s why she came so hard. Maybe she likes Carter that way too.
“I understand why you would, brother,” I say. “Sadie’s gorgeous and funny and sweet and you’ve been intimate with her…it’s to be expected, I guess.”
My brother looks out over the garden. He’s holding things back and I don’t like it. We don’t have secrets between us, or at least I thought we didn’t. Does he think this is going to come between us?
“It’s not right,” he says. “We never should have done it, no matter the reason. She’s your wife, Dale. What we did in the past was one thing, but this is different.”
“Yeah, it is,” I tell him, putting my hand on his shoulder. “What we did back then didn’t mean shit, but this here and now, well, it means everything to me and Sadie.” He shakes his head. “We asked for your help and you gave it without a second question. What you did was generous and I never want you to feel remorse for it. We love you, brother, me and Sadie both.”
Carter doesn’t look at me but he nods. “I love y’all, too,” he finally says. Then he’s up and heading back to the yard.
I go into the kitchen and drop the bottles in the trash bin. When I look through the window into the backyard, I see Carter. He’s given up on the edger and is hacking at the grass viciously with a large, sharp spade.
For all my reassurance, I don’t think he heard me.