Christian narrowed his eyes at Quinn. His brother has definitely changed a lot since Margot came into his life. He still has not gotten used to Quinn cracking jokes, or actually touching him all of a sudden. Ever since he came back from that week that he left without a word, he has been a completely different person - he talked more, he laughed more, and even his face was more expressive.
Quinn was also in the process of starting his own architectural firm. Since his former friend and boss, Peter, fired him, Quinn decided that he wanted to be his own boss. Margot also quit her job at Peter’s firm and was going to be Quinn’s second in command.
They walked into the house together and were met with hugs, kisses, and punches to the gut; those were from Sebastian, of course. Christian took Adalyn from Henry’s arms since she started reaching for him and grunting as soon as she saw him. Christian smiled at her. She seemed to like him the best, and he loved to rub it in Sebastian and Quinn’s faces. Adalyn was the only girl so far, and they all wanted to be her favorite, but she always wanted Christian.
Suddenly, all of the women started screaming. Christian looked up to find them all huddled around Margot clutching her left hand. He whirled around to look at Quinn, who was beaming, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched the women fawn over his fiancé. Anne broke away from the ladies and went to Quinn. She grabbed his face and kissed him.
“Oh, honey, I’m so happy for you!” she cried.
“Thanks, mom,” Quinn murmured.
Henry was next to congratulate Quinn. “When did this happen?” he asked after giving Quinn a hug.
“I actually proposed at the reception, but we decided to let Sebastian and Raelynn have their time in the spotlight before we told everyone.” Quinn shrugged.
“Aw, Quinn, that was so sweet of you,” Raelynn said sincerely and gave him a hug.
Christian moved in to give Quinn a hug. “Congrats, man.”
“Thanks.”
Christian hoped that his smile looked genuine because the sadness that settled in his heart almost brought him to his knees. Then Sebastian made a comment that had him going into a full out panic attack mode.
“You’re next little brother!” Sebastian chuckled and grabbed Christian’s shoulders from behind, giving him a playful shake.
Christian swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat. His heart pounded wildly in his chest and his vision went a little fuzzy. He tried to pull in a deep breath but he just couldn’t. Henry, who was standing in front of him, frowned and took Adalyn out of his arms.
“Chris, you okay? You look really pale,” Henry said, concerned.
Christian jerkily shook his head and raced down the hall toward the bathroom. He heard Sebastian call, “I was only kidding!” just as he shut the door behind him. He sat down on the edge of the tub and tucked his head between his knees. He pulled in a breath through his nose and blew it out of his mouth. He repeated this until he got his anxiety under control.
Christian rested his face in his hands. What the fuck? How the hell was he supposed to ever tell his family that he would most likely never be getting “married”? Now, all of his brothers were going to be married and popping out kids while he hid his relationship with his best friend and let his family think that he just didn’t want to settle down. He was never going to fit in with his brother’s perfect lives and it killed him. He hated that he was never going to be able to give his mother the grandchildren that she expected him to have. Even Quinn, who had been super fucked up from being raped as a child was now getting married and would most likely have kids in the near future. He was next in line; his family expected him to follow in their footsteps; they expected him to get married and have kids. Little did they know that it wasn’t possible for Christian.
A light knock sounded on the door followed by Margot’s voice. “Christian? Chéri, can I come in?”
“Yeah.” Christian sighed and straightened up.
She walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. “Is everything okay?” she asked, her tone concerned.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a panic attack.”
“But why?” she asked curiously, her gaze on him was more perceptive than he would have liked.
He shrugged. “Don’t know, sometimes they just hit me out of nowhere,” he said. It was partially the truth; sometimes they did come out of nowhere, just not this time.
“Mmm hmm, but as soon as Sebastian said that you were next, you had a panic attack,” she said with a pointed look.
Dammit! “I...it...it’s just not in the cards for me, that’s all,” he muttered, averting his eyes, hoping Margot didn’t see too much.