Piece by Piece (Riggins Brothers 2)

“Royce?”

“Like pulling rabbits out of a hat.” Royce grins. “The old man knows what he’s talking about.”

“Owen?” Marshall asks me. “Come on. You’ve always been the sensible one.”

“Abracadabra, little brother.”

The room erupts in laughter.

“All right, it’s time to eat.” Mom expertly herds us into the large dining room.

Layla takes her seat next to me as we all fill our plates. Conversation flows easily, as it always does. I take a minute to look around the table. Royce will be married in a few months, and hopefully, Layla and I will be not far behind him and Sawyer.

My three younger brothers claim they want nothing to do with commitment, but I can see the envy in their eyes when they watch Royce or me with our ladies. When Royce fell for Sawyer, it was different. He was coming off a bad divorce, and his heart was shattered from deceit. When he met Sawyer, it had nothing to do with him not wanting to settle down, but his fear of trusting. She smashed those fears and brought my brother back to life.

The younger three, I can’t wait to watch them fall.

The magic, whether it’s a Riggins thing, or a love thing, is fierce when you find the right woman to share your life with. Mine is sitting next to me, and her ring, the one I picked up from the jeweler yesterday while she was shopping with Sawyer, is hidden in my safe in my home office. Now I just need to find the right time to ask her for her forever.* * *“Have a good day, Lay.” I kiss her quickly before making my way down the hall to my office. I never thought I would enjoy working with my significant other. To me, it always seemed like it was too suffocating, but now Layla is in my life, I know I was wrong. Again, it all goes back to finding the right woman to change your view on life and relationships.

Firing up my laptop, I get lost in spreadsheets and numbers. My job has always come easy to me, and I’m proud to know my role here at Riggins is important. It’s pretty cool to think about how all five of us found our niche within the business. It was all our doing. Mom and Dad never pressured us to work for the company. They gave us the freedom to follow our own path; it just so happens all five of our paths lead back to family, and Riggins Enterprises.

My eyes are blurry from staring at the screen all morning. Glancing at the clock, I see it’s lunchtime just as my stomach growls.

“Knock, knock,” Layla says, stepping into my office.

“How did you know my tired eyes needed to see you?” I ask her.

“I didn’t, but I did know that you were lost in your work and would be getting hungry.” She holds up a bag from the deli across the street. “Wanna have lunch with me?”

“I heard wanna have me for lunch,” I say, sliding my chair back from my desk and patting my lap.

“You’re incorrigible, Owen Riggins.” She laughs, taking the seat across from my desk. I watch as she unpacks two club wraps, two bags of chips, and two bottles of water. “How’s your day going?” she asks, passing me my food.

“Good. Just working on the budget. We’re still deciding on whether adding that new location in Wisconsin is a good idea, so I’m crunching numbers and listing the pros and cons from the finance side. How about yours?”

“Good. I got a text from Linda today. It was a picture of her and Ronnie on the beach. They actually both took time off from the restaurant together.”

“Good for them. Did you invite them up?”

“No. I know you had said that I could. I wanted to check with you again before I extended the invitation.”’

“Layla, it’s our—” I start, but she cuts me off.

“Our home. I know. It’s just… still hard for me to grasp the idea at times. I’m glad you don’t know where I came from. I mean, you know, but you didn’t see it. Saying that times were rough… that’s an understatement. Any money we did manage to get, paid the rent and went to drugs. There was hardly ever food in the house, and more times than not, I was locked away hiding in my room.”

We’ve talked about her life before Florida, but it still gets my blood boiling anytime I think about her having to suffer through that. Being scared to fall asleep in her own home, going to bed hungry. If I ever have the chance to meet her dead-beat mother, I’m not going to be able to control my anger or my hatred toward her.

“I can see you stewing, Owen. Trust me when I tell you she’s not worth it. I got out, and it could have been much worse than it was. There are many who were in my exact same situation and had to deal with sexual and physical assault. For all of her wrongs, my mother never hit me. She just didn’t care.”