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Peter

“It’s about time you got here, little brother. We’re all starving.”

I glanced up from washing my hands in the sink in the mudroom to see my older brother Allen smirking at me. The bastard had lost his normally surly demeanor once he’d been reunited with his long-lost love, Clara. Unfortunately, he hadn’t lost the rest of his annoying personality quirks.

Allen was only two years older than me, and we’d been super tight growing up. Competitive, but tight. We hadn’t seen each other much during the years when he was in the Army, but since he’d retired and joined the Houston police department, he’d spent a lot more time here at the ranch. It had been good to reconnect as adults.

“Get moving, butthead. We’re all waiting.”

“Bite me,” I growled back.

Well, maybe not that adult...

When Allen got together with Clara a few months ago I’d been worried he’d start pulling away, but it turns out that his girlfriend fit right in with our family. Mama had told me that Clara didn’t really have family of her own and so we’d adopted her right into the Jeffers clan.

We were all wondering how long it would be before my brother put a ring on her finger. The two of them were so in love it was almost nauseating. I suspected that my brother was biding his time given that Clara had been a bit skittish when they first got together.

I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy now and again though. At forty-seven, I’d resigned myself to living alone. But that didn’t mean I liked it. I wanted more.

Clara came up behind my brother, wrapping her arms around his waist, and sent me a friendly smile. She was a doctor, but totally down-to-Earth.

“Hey Peter, I bet you’re hungry. Your mother has lunch on the table whenever you’re ready.”

I followed my brother and his girlfriend into the large dining room. The room had a long wooden table with seating for twelve. There’d only been the four of us growing up, but we had several cousins, and when they came with their families, we filled up the table.

“Hi sweetie.”

“Hey, Mama.”

I pressed my lips against the top of my mother’s head, noticing how her once-dark hair was completely gray now. I didn’t live here – technically I lived in a house on the other side of the ranch – but I always joined my family for Sunday dinner. Mama was adamant about that, even though I saw them every day when we were working. She was big on family time, especially since Allen moved back to Houston.

“I made you chicken fried steak,” Mama told me.

“Great, thank you!” Chicken fried steak was my favorite.

I was mostly quiet throughout the meal. When you spent most of your time alone, you learned to enjoy the quiet. Growing up, I’d been painfully shy, but as I got older, I realized that I was also an introvert. Being around a lot of people exhausted me. Even with my family I could only take socialization in small doses. I preferred to stay in rather than go out and crowds were my worst nightmare.

I also hated to be the center of attention. Like now.

“Peter, Clara was saying that there are a lot of nice single women working at the hospital that she could fix you up with.”

I suppressed a sigh. I knew my mother meant well, truly I did. I wished I was in a long-term committed relationship just as much as she did, more even. But for me, blind dates were akin to getting a root canal. My mother badgering me about it was not going to make me find a woman anytime soon.

“We could go on a double date,” Allen piped up, reading my mind. “It will be less pressure that way if you don’t mesh well.”

“Not interested,” I bit out.

I took a deep breath and sent my mother and Clara something that I hoped passed as a smile. “I appreciate you thinking of me, but blind dates really aren’t my thing.”

My mother wasn’t done though. Of course I was willing to bet that the idea of fixing me up with someone from the hospital was hers anyway. Clara didn’t strike me as a matchmaker.

“Peter, you’re never going to meet someone if you don’t leave the property,” Mama lectured me. “You know we all appreciate how hard you work, but you need to put yourself out there if you ever want to find love. It’s not like the perfect woman is going to fall out of the sky.”

“I’m perfectly happy with my life the way it is, Mama,” I lied.

I wished my family understood me better. I wasn’t a blind date with a stranger or go to the bar and troll for women kind of guy. Being in a crowd made it hard for me to breathe. I sucked at small talk to the extent that most people thought of me as surly. I was socially phobic well before I started hearing that term after the pandemic. And as much as I wanted to find love, I wasn’t willing to bring on an anxiety attack to make it happen.

Pushing my chair away from the table, I grabbed my empty plate.