Eight Brothers Fiancee (Love by Numbers 7)

I pulled out some drink glasses and a couple bottles of scotch. Selling my brothers on a $400K salary for a starting anchor was going to be difficult; they were definitely going to need to be drunk.

Rogan showed up first, which was to be expected. He was the only one who had a key to my place and we were the closest to one another out of my siblings. We weren’t blood brothers, but no one felt more like a brother to me than Rogan. He always looked out for me at the orphanage even though he was younger than me. We were both seen as ‘nerds’ in the orphanage, but Rogan was good at outsmarting those who would try and mess with us. He skipped several grades and became known as a bit of a wizard for talking people into corners. It was cool to witness growing up. After graduating, Mr. Foxx allowed Rogan and I to extend his business into the realm of modeling. We use the agency to make money and for marketing purposes, it was a win-win.

Rogan tapped me on my back. “Hey. How did things go with Sadie today?”

“Well, she’s amazing,” I said, pouring Rogan some of the scotch and handing it over, “but she also fucked us.”

Rogan took the glass and then sat down. He pulled a hair tie off of his wrist and pulled his long, wavy blond hair up into a messy, man bun. His blue eyes, which had always calmed me, looked back at me with concern.

“What happened?”

I shook my head. “I’ll explain when everyone gets here.”

We caught up over business matters while we waited for the rest of my brothers to arrive. Quentin arrived next, followed by both Harley and Huxley, and then Delvin and Maverick almost back to back. My brothers and I got together often. We were very close. Even though Rogan, Quentin, Keaton, Delvin, Maverick, and I grew up outside of the Foxx family, it didn’t take long for us to bond with the twins. They were happy to have more siblings and were more than willing to take us under their wings.

“Where the fuck is Keaton?” Harley growled.

I rolled my eyes. “Are you really surprised he’s late?”

“Just move on without him,” Rogan said. “He can catch up when he gets here.”

Maverick shifted angrily in the arm chair he was in. “He was supposed to bring the food.”

“Relax Tiny,” Quentin hissed, and one of my throw pillows was sailing across the room at his face a second later. Quentin batted it away with a laugh.

“Okay, look,” I started, pulling everyone’s attention to me. “I met Alexa today.”

Huxley chuckled. “So she did stick around. I knew she was considering it.”

“What’d she say?” Harley asked.

Maverick leaned forward. “Is she as hot in real life as she is in pictures?”

Rogan scoffed. “Will you focus?” Then he looked over at me. “Is she?”

“Yes, she’s a stone-cold stunner,” I responded, “but that’s not the problem right now. The problem is that the salary we agreed upon isn’t going to work. She crossed paths with the new model, Sadie, who went all ‘women’s empowerment’ on us and told her that she shouldn’t accept the $175, and that she could help her get a job for $350,000 a year.”

“Fuck that, man!” Delvin hissed. “What’s so good about this chick anyway? Anyone would be glad to take $175,000. Less even.”

“No,” Harley and Huxley said in unison.

“Trust me,” Huxley continued. “You want this girl.”

Jett shook his head. “I gotta agree with the twins on this one, Del.” I looked at him. “We want this one.”

Delvin sat back on the couch where he was sitting next to Quentin and Maverick. “Okay.”

Maverick held out his arms. “I don’t get it. We literally shit money. Let’s just offer her $400K.”

“We will,” Harley said, “but we’re not going to give it to her straight.” His gears were turning, like he was formulating a plan as we spoke.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Huxley started to nod. “Harley, you’re a fucking genius.”

Quentin rolled his eyes. “I hate when they do this shit.”

Harley and Huxley had a weird, twin telepathy. Whenever one of them thought of something, the other one caught it before even saying it out loud. It was weird.

“This whole marriage and Malia issue. It didn’t even occur to me at first, but Alexa’s the solution.” Harley looked around the room at all of us. “We’ll offer her $250K and then inroads with all of our businesses. She won’t just be our head anchor, she’ll be the official spokesperson for our brand.”

Huxley took over. “She’ll work with all of us and then eventually…”

Harley smiled. “I’ll propose.”

The room went totally silent. Everyone was trying to process this plan that the twins had just cracked up out of nowhere, when the door opened and closed. The sound of muffled music filled the room as Keaton came wandering into the living room. He had no t-shirt on, a pair of still dripping wet, tye-dye board shorts, and his blond hair was still soaked and hanging around his head. He had a grease-stained bag in his hand, and he dropped it onto the table and then plopped down on the marble outcropping in front of my fireplace.