Vic had gotten into trouble as a teenager, and it still rubbed him wrong that Dad had left him to deal with his mess rather than bail him out even though Vic and I both knew it had been good for him.

But knowing it and liking it were two different things.

“All right, big brother, what exactly do you have to offer me?” I asked, cocking my eyebrow at him. “Dealing cards in some back alley game? Mixing drinks until two a.m.?”

He grimaced at the last one. “Well...”

“I can’t.”

I secured one braid and got to work on the other. Without saying anything else, I finished the second braid, and then dropped down onto the metal chair across from him and took his hand in both of mine. His big paw dwarfed my smaller ones. He was the tallest of all my brothers, towering over me by a foot.

“Vic, I love you, and thanks for trying, but I can’t pull those hours, finish up with school, and stay sane enough to help other people with their problems.” I knew it had only been because of Doc Schumacher's kindness that I was able to get this far this fast. If I'd needed to get a different job, it would've taken me even longer to make it to this point.

Vic looked away, his face going a dull, ruddy red. He wanted to help so bad and I knew why.

Everybody had expected me to go off to Yale on a full ride.

I had expected it.

Then Vic had gotten into trouble, right as I'd been applying for scholarships. He’d gotten in trouble in the worst kind of way – hitting national news and everything.

What he’d done shouldn’t have affected me.

I was smart. No bones about it, I was fricking brilliant. I had graduated from high school at sixteen and, thanks to advanced placement courses, already had a good portion of pre-requisites under my belt. I'd already been accepted to Stanford to pursue my BA, and then on to my Masters before pursuing my Ph.D. But then the deadline for financial aid had passed and ... nothing.

So I stayed home.

At first, I told everyone that it just made more sense for me to stay and finish up my BA rather than worrying about transferring credits. I needed to be around my family during the trial anyway. Mom had needed me too. When I'd started on my Masters, no one bothered asking why I hadn't moved away.

The sound of my phone whistling at me interrupted my heavy brood marathon. I jolted and looked down to see that yet another brother was calling to check up on me. The oldest this time.

I blew out a breath.

Six months. That’s all I had needed.

“Hey, Deacon.”

Deacon was the opposite of Vic in every way. Grounded and steady, my oldest brother was following in my dad’s footsteps and he took the job seriously. Too seriously, and I didn't just mean he was a damn good electrician. He also seemed to think he was there to watch out for me, like I was still some skinny, brainy little eleven year-old, heading into middle school without him there to look out for me.

“I think I might have a line on a job for you,” Deacon said without preamble.

Rolling my eyes, I said, “It’s sooooo wonderful to hear from you too. Yeah, I’m here with Vic, but it’s a great time to talk and tell me how to live my life.”

Across from me, Vic was laughing and I glared at him. Vic may have been the screw-up, but I was the baby...and none of my brothers ever let me forget it.

I could practically hear him smirking.

“Okay, brat. How are you?”

“Lousy,” I countered. “How's the family?”

Deacon had married the girl he’d fallen for in tenth grade. They'd gotten engaged after she graduated from high school and had gotten married six months after that. Their fifteenth anniversary loomed in front of them, as well as the first birthday of their fifth, and last, child. Beth had made it very clear that this one would be the last or she'd be giving Deacon a vasectomy herself. Without anesthetic.

“Let’s not discuss that.” Some strain came through my brother’s voice.

“What’s wrong?”

I could practically hear the mental debate and finally, he sighed. “Hell, we think Emma has chicken pox. There’s a girl at the daycare…I don’t know the whole story, but somehow she got in without getting vaccinated, and now Emma has it.”

“Oh, no.” Mentally, I was crossing my fingers and hoping, but Beth was a nurse. She knew what chicken pox looked like. I wanted to tell my brother not to worry, but I remembered what it had been like to have chicken pox as a kid and two year-old Emma was going to be climbing the walls. “Keep me updated.”

“I will. Anyway…the job.”

I couldn’t even talk my way out of whatever he had to say now. He was stubborn like that. “Okay, what is it?”

I behaved myself while he was talking and waited until he fell silent before I spoke. “This is Deacon Gallagher, right? Old man? Dark brown hair?” I glanced at Vic, who appeared to be waiting for me to share. “What the hell are you thinking?”

“Toni, be reasonable.”

At least he didn't scold me for swearing like he'd done when I was younger. Eleven years older than me, he'd taken it upon himself to be another parent pretty much since moment one.

“It’s a job and your hours are negotiable with your boss. You're matched by hours available and your personality.” He paused and then added, “Okay, keeping that in mind, you’re in trouble.”

“Very funny, asshat,” I said darkly. “You’re screwing with me. A personal assistant? I’m going to school to be a psychiatrist, not a secretary.”

Deacon’s voice hardened. “Our mom's a secretary, Toni. Remember?”

He didn’t have to point that out for me to feel bad. I wanted to kick myself the second the words left my mouth. “I know that.” Self-conscious, I glanced over at Vic. He gave me a sympathetic look, but it didn’t help.

“Look, Toni. You know what Mom and Dad always told us. There’s no shame in any kind of honest work. And it's not like it'd be forever. Just until you finish your degree. That does still matter to you, right?”

Nothing else he said could have made me go.

Absolutely nothing.

***

The gleaming of Winter Enterprises made me think of a penis. I couldn't help it. I was the youngest of four brothers and they were guys to the nth degree. Everything was a penis metaphor to them, even if it wasn't. They'd been overprotective, but that hadn't kept them from talking like typical guys around me.

I actually felt a little bad about thinking that way about Winter Enterprises. While they'd been involved in charities since they were founded by Dominic Snow a few years ago, he'd recently announced that he'd founded In From the Cold to help find people who'd been victims of, or involved with, human trafficking. The foundation had gotten a lot of extra press recently due to the scandal of some high society woman who'd gotten arrested for conspiring to blackmail Snow and his fiancé. Considering his fiancé was a small town girl who'd become his assistant and was now wearing his ring, it had been like Christmas for the media.

Shaking my head in an attempt to clear it, I moved forward. All the people milling around made my nerves jack up even more and that just irritated me even more. I didn't like being nervous. Ask me to organize and keep track of the workings of an entire doctor's office, I'm fine. Put me in the middle of my brothers and their crazy friends, no problem. Professionally and with my family, I was a rock, but this crowded job fair was turning me into a five foot, twenty-four year-old ball of nerves.

Taking a deep breath, I made my way inside and looked around, taking a minute to acclimate. Early in life, I’d learned to deal with being thrown into situations where I wasn't comfortable. One of the many joys of having always been smart.