Free Patrick's Destiny by Sherryl Woods Page B

and you guys are the only family I need to have there.”
    Ryan nodded. “Then we’ll drop it for now,” he told Patrick.
    Patrick couldn’t help the sigh of relief that shuddered through him.
    “Since we’ve put the topic of the folks on the back burner for now,” Sean said, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes again, “then I suggest we talk some more about Alice and Patrick. We owe it to our baby brother to see that he’s on the path toward marital bliss like the rest of us. We can’t have him up here living like a hermit, the way Molly says he is.”
    “Molly has a big mouth,” Patrick complained, just as she arrived with the food.
    “Watch it, buster,” she said, “or you could wind up wearing these eggs.”
    “Just speaking the truth,” he said unrepentantly.
    “It’s never wise to accuse your friendly neighborhood bartender of having a big mouth,” Molly warned. “She might be tempted to spill all your secrets to certain interested parties.”
    “I don’t have any secrets,” Patrick retorted.
    “I don’t know. I think your brothers might be interested in knowing how lonely you’ve been since you left home. And while I never could figure out how you wound up with a brother as uptight and impossible as Daniel, I know you miss having him around.”
    He noticed his brothers watching him with a speculative look in their eyes and mentally cursed Molly for opening up that particular can of worms.
    Patrick scowled at her. “There went your tip,” he said, trying to inject a light note into his voice.
    She shrugged. “Something tells me the rest of this crew will make up for it.”
    With that she strolled off to wait on other customers, who, Patrick surmised, probably managed to have their breakfasts served without the added ingredient of Molly’s sass.
    “Want to talk about it?” Ryan asked. “Is Molly right?”
    “If you’re asking if I miss Daniel, he’s my twin—what the hell do you think?” he said heatedly. “Of course I miss him! But I’m not interested in mending that particular fence. He chose to stick by our parents.” He looked his brothers in the eyes. “So you see, I know a little something about being shut out of the Devaney clan, too. And just because I was eighteen when I walked away doesn’t mean it was a helluva lot easier on me than it was on you. I’d planned on college, but leaving home shot the hell out of that. I had to work. Fortunately, I love what I do. Being out on the water can be a hard life, but it’s a good one.”
    Michael gave him a knowing look. “Amen to that. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss being a SEAL. I almost took up a career as captain of a charter fishing boat, but the Navy convinced me that had a better use for my talents, even if it did stick me behind a desk. Still, I never miss a chance to get out on the water.”
    “You’ll have to come up here sometime and go out with me,” Patrick said, enjoying the sense of camaraderie he felt with his brother. Daniel had never loved the sea as much as Patrick did, and he certainly didn’t understand Patrick’s decision to become a fishermanrather than taking one dime of his college money from their parents.
    Michael grinned at the invitation. “I’d like that. As for family, you have us now,” he said. “We aren’t your twin, but we are your brothers and we stick together.”
    Ryan nodded. “I went looking for these guys because I wanted to put the past to rest once and for all. I never expected to find men I felt connected to from the instant I laid eyes on them.”
    “Same with me,” Sean said.
    Michael nodded. “And me.”
    “And I feel the same about you,” Ryan said to Patrick. “We’ve always been your brothers by blood, but from this moment on we’ll be your family in every sense of the word, if you’ll let us.”
    Patrick thought he’d long since passed the stage of being sentimental about family, but he found himself fighting against the unexpected sting of tears.