Secrets of the Past

“Yo bro, get up!” I yelled at my brother. He was sleeping on the spare couch in the office. He just stirred a bit and pulled the blanket over his head. “C’mon Wyatt get the fuck up! We have a business to run and I ain’t doing this without you.”

“Go away Cole,” my brother groaned. “It’s not even time to open shop anyway.”

“News flash bro, its eight,” I said as I yanked the blanket off of him. “Why are you here anyway?”

“I fucking hate you, you know that?” Wyatt yelled bitterly. He looked rough. “And I’m only here because Melissa and I got in this fight. She fucking pisses me off.”

I just laughed at him. “Bro, that’s your own fault for putting a ring on it. Why’s she pissed now?”

Wyatt sighed dramatically as he got up off the couch and trudged over to the coffee machine. “She’s pissed she has to wait for the meeting with the Queen of Hearts and she’s pissed that I’ve been working so much. I just can’t win with her!”

“What’s going on with the wedding place?” I asked, as I grabbed my pack from my back worn out pocket. “I thought that old bitch was taking care of it?”

“What you mean old bitch? Rose Gallagher?”

“Yeah that old bitch, ain’t she dead or some shit?”

“Nah Cole, you fucking stupid I swear. Nah she gave her business up and to some granddaughter in New Jersey. Melissa’s been a pain in the ass because she couldn’t plan right away. Which than falls on me because even though its ‘our’ wedding, its everything she wants,” Wyatt ranted. My soon to be sister-in-law was sweet as grandmas homemade apple pie, but when she’s pissed well-let’s just say you should keep sharp objects away from her.

“What she doesn’t trust this new wedding coordinator?”

“I don’t even know man. It’s always something new with her,” he said as he lit a cigarette and bounced his leg with frustration. “Man, I don’t want to fucking be here. Can’t you just cover for me?”

“Dude I wish I could, but I’ve got a lot of shit to work on today and paper work. Just get Randy to do it all,” I said as I looked at the time on my phone. It was eight thirty.

“Nah Randy is off today. Something about his offspring’s birthday,” my brother said, shrugging his shoulders. His phone buzzed and he groaned loudly. “Fucking Melissa man!”

“Don’t fucking answer it bro,” I told him but he did anyway. I listened as he cursed at her on the phone. They weren’t right for each other but then again they were perfect for each other.

I looked over at my desk, which was covered in paperwork. I saw the photo of my brothers and I at the beach. My brothers and I are very close even though we don’t have the same dads. I was half black and half white, whereas my brothers were just all white. My mama growing up tried to tell us that we all had the same daddy, but we weren’t stupid. She still insisted that on her deathbed that my daddy was Kevin Reihl, my brothers Wyatt and Jeremy’s father.

“Fucking bullshit!” Wyatt screamed as he threw his phone across the room.

“What happened now bro?” I asked, disinterested.

“Melissa just said this fucking wedding shit is going to cost me another two thousand dollars,” he said as he kicked the desk. “I feel like if I knew that it would be like this, I would have gotten married at city hall. But I know Joe would have flipped on me.”

Joe Dosey is the mayor of this town, who also over sees like everything here as well. If he would have found out Melissa and Wyatt just got hitched at the City Hall over in the town over, well he would have raised hell for two weeks.

“Fuck them bro, lets go get something to eat at Jeremy’s,” I said trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he said as he grabbed his thrown phone.

We walked over to our brother’s diner, which was also called Reihls. It’s okay, because mostly everyone knows that one serves food and the other is towing and repair. The walk was maybe a few minute walk to the diner. Which was good for us because I know my guys get hungry and we never feel like having to go far for our meals.

We walked in the diner and the morning breakfast crowd was popping like ever. All the fucking scumbags that we can barely stand were here. We couldn’t stand them because they were scumbags because that gossiped like fucking old ladies at church. The one thing they loved to talk about was me. Not because of who my daddy may be or may not be, but because of the breakup that went around the whole fucking town for a good six months.

It’s still the center of all the gossip because the whore of an ex girlfriend just moved back to Bridge Water after a year of being away. Which didn’t make sense. She left me for another man and than comes back to rub it in my face.

“Hey bro,” Jeremy said, giving me a hug. “What do y’all want?”

“Two six stacks of pancakes, two things of bacon and two things of eggs,” I said, even though Jeremy already knew our order.

“Got it,” he said quickly, knowing that he wouldn’t charge us at all. It was good having a brother in the food business. We sat down at the bar stools by the counter. “Yo guess who came in today?”

“Ed McMahon offering me a million dollar check for my wedding,” Wyatt asked.

“No, because I would have kept it,” Jeremy joked back. “Nah Kelsey came in with a new dude.”

“Really?” I asked, I tried to calm down but I couldn’t help to still sound pissed.

“Yeah she said she was looking for you,” my older brother said as he walked away to grab someone’s meal from Caesar, his cook.

“Why the fuck would she be looking for me?” I asked loudly. “She knows where I live and knows where I work. So it won’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.”

“She’s just trying to make you jealous. She wants you to know she can move on quickly from you,” Wyatt said as he sipped his coffee.

“I get that but we were fucking engaged. Why the fuck would she think I would get over her quickly?” I asked loudly. I know the whole diner could hear me but I didn’t care. “She cheated on me after mama passed away. Than she had the nerve to tell me that I was the one that wasn’t in love with her no more. That I made her do this…fucking bull shit man!”

“Yo bro calm down,” Jeremy said, coming back over to me. “We all know. Trust me, we know it ain’t fair to you. But think of it this way, she’s gotten bigger and uglier.”

“Jeremy, you know that doesn’t help. That only works on chicks,” I grumbled softly as I sipped my coffee. “But thank you.”

Jeremy gave me a curt nod and continued taking orders from the usual crowd. He turned towards us as he was pouring coffee. “Y’all want to come over tonight for dinner here after you close up shop?”

“Yeah I will,” I told him as I stared at Caesar as he brought us our food. “Thanks man.” He just
smiled and walked away. Caesar didn’t speak very good English.

“What about you Wy?” Jeremy asked, as he brought us over the ketchup.

“Nah can’t bro, I’ve gotta go home to Melissa tonight,” Wyatt said, slightly dramatic.

Jeremy looked like he was about to ask, when I interrupted that train of thought. “Bro you don’t want to know.”

“Noted,” he said as he walked away.

We finished our breakfast quickly than headed back to work. It was slow day today. I was able to get a lot of paperwork done today, which was overdue by two months. I closed up the mechanic part of the shop. The towing side was open until ten, but tonight Wyatt would probably close at nine or so.

“See ya tomorrow dude,” I said as I was walking out. My brother just flipped me off, pissed off because he had to be here for another two hours and go home to his bitch fiancé.

I walked down over to Jeremy’s diner, finishing my cigarette. I wondered why Jeremy wanted to have dinner tonight, but it was probably just to make sure I was okay after the whole Kelsey thing. I threw my cigarette to the side and walked in. I saw Joe standing there saying some bullshit about the flower show tomorrow to what it looked like two new people.

“And another thing Rose Gallagher’s granddaughter-“

“It’s Austen,” the mysterious red head said as he corrected him.

“Well Austen,” Joe said back rudely. “I need to see how you plan on redoing the shop, I mean as I think should. You know that store has been there for over thirty-five years.”

The girl I’m guessing named Austen, just nodded at appropriate time. “Well when we go in the shop on Monday, I’m going to see what we really need to fix. I know my grandmother said she’ll pay for the renovations.”

“Well young lady, don’t you think ya should be paying for it yourself? You just got a business for free, so you should already have money saved up for this,” he said back rudely to her. I saw her face twitch with anger just a tad but a smile replaced it.

“Well I do Mr. Dosey but I don’t think you know that I worked at the same diner since I was fifteen. Worked with my grandmother since I was fourteen with my best friend at the same wedding business we now own. Had a scholarship for college, just so I could save money for the day that I could own my own. So yes I do have the money but my grandmother wanted me to have a fresh start and she wanted to give it to us.”

I think everyone in the diner just stared at her. Nobody really stood up to Joe like that. The only people that really stood up to him were Rose Gallagher, and my brothers and I. She had no clue who he was but she wouldn’t let that stop her.

“Now if it’s okay can we go back to eating our dinner?” Her companion asked.

Joe huffed and said his goodbyes and walked away pissed. He hated being embarrassed by anyone in town. Especially new people, who he thinks he can control.

“That was awesome,” I said to them. They both looked at me. “My names Cole.”

“Yup, that’s my younger brother,” Jeremy said as he filled up some salt and peppershakers.

“Nice to meet you,” the dark haired girl said. “My names Brie Dawson. And this is Austen Gallagher.”

“Nice to meet you guys,” the red headed girl named Austen said as she gave me a small smile. I couldn’t help but smile bigger, she was just too cute.

“So uh welcome Bridge Water,” I said sarcastically. “I’ll be glad to show you around if y’all want?”

Austen gave me small smile and nodded. “We would like that.”

One thing I knew is that I was way to eager to show them around, especially Austen.