Besotted by Rebecca Sharp

Miles

“What the hell took you so long?” I grumbled as the door to Roasters dinged and my brother shifted his massive frame inside.

His steps faltered as he gave me a ‘what the hell’ look. “You wanted to meet at eight a.m. on a sunny Saturday mornin’ when literally every tourist within a fifty-mile radius is on their way here. You’re lucky I’m only five minutes late, dick.”

I grunted, and quickly spoke when I saw him begin to make his way to Laurel behind the counter. “I already got you your usual. Just sit down.”

I pointed to one of the cups at the table. I knew I was being short, but I had hardly slept or focused on work for the past two days because I couldn’t stop thinking.

“Who’s that for?” The chair groaned in protest as Mick sank his gigantic weight onto it and nodded to the third cup at our table.

“Eli.” I looked over my shoulder and spoke to Laurel. “Can you let your man know we’re ready?”

He’d had to finish up some ordering in the back while we waited for Mick.

“What’s goin’ on? Christ. You made it sound like Noah got in touch with us to build his damn arc on the phone earlier.”

My laughter broke the edge of anticipation that ran through my body. It wasn’t Noah who needed something, but another Biblical character.

“Alright, what’s going on?” Eli asked, wiping his hands on a napkin as he sat down with us. “Who’s the big client?”

I laughed again because I really hadn’t said anything of the fuckin’ sort. Then again, I must have a tone that suggested when it was a bigger project coming down the pipe.

My quirked smile grew. “Eve.”

The looks on their faces were comical—wide eyes, sky-high eyebrows, and dropped mouths, and their expressions wiped blank with shock and intrigue.

Eli was the first to respond. “Eve? For what?” He shook his head. “I mean, of course. You know we’d do anything for Eve. After what she did for Roasters after Larry passed. I mean. Anything.”

My brother, ever the silent type, waited for my response.

I pulled out my work binder and flipped it open to the stack of papers I’d printed over at Covington yesterday morning and turned it toward them.

“She wants to turn this house into a yoga studio on the bottom floor and living space on the second.”

They pulled the printed images of the Victorian on Sunflower Lane toward them, browsing through the interior shots I’d grabbed from the internet along with some of the ones I took with my phone.

“Holy shit,” Eli muttered, looking between me and the photos. “I forgot about this place…”

It seemed like everyone in this town had forgotten about that old house except Eve. Of course, except Eve. She was the only one who saw her future in the things that appeared not worth saving.

“She bought it?”

“Not yet.” I cleared my throat. “I’m goin’ to buy it and pay you—us—to do what needs to be done,” I said casually, like it was the most natural thing to do to fund someone else’s dream. “From what I’ve seen, it’s mostly structurally sound, but we will need to gut a bunch of it to make sure all the piping and electrical and everything is still in good working order. I don’t want to take any chances, puttin’ it all together only to have somethin’ burst or catch on fire.”

I knew I was rambling but I didn’t care.

“I think the hardest thing we’ll have to find is someone to create and match the stained glass for some of the broken panels as well as for some ideas I have for the interior. I have those jotted down here somewhere…” I flipped through some of the papers looking for my quick sketches and only after a second or two realized that my friends and business partners were sitting in complete silence.

Glancing up, I was pinned by both their stares, and it wasn’t until that moment when I realized maybe it wasn’t the most natural thing to buy a house for someone and renovate it.

“Woah, let’s back up there a second, Miles.” Mick’s giant mitt came gently to rest over my stack of information, pushing it flat. “You’re goin’ to buy this? And fix it up?” He paused. “For Eve?”

My mouth thinned.

He knew I had the money. He knew because he did, too. We were small-town boys from Texas who were makin’ far more money up here than I’d ever thought or knew what to do with—until Eve and her fucking forever invaded my life.

“She almost has the money saved. She can pay me back, you know, as soon as she has it; I’m not worried. It’s just been on the market forever and with everything goin’ on up at Rock Beach and the new crowd that’s movin’ in, I don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.” I shrugged.

So what if Ace told me earlier that it was unlikely the Crown Cartel would pick up an abandoned house like that for their purposes? These two didn’t need to know that; it was still a possibility.

“It’s a shit-ton of work,” I continued blindly. “And it’s going to take some time, so I don’t want you to think I expect you to do this for free.”

“You know damn well that’s not even a concern at all,” my brother growled, his gaze softening as he looked at me. “I just want you to tell me the truth right now, why you are doing this?”

I wondered if they could see my body shake with the heavy thump of my pulse. I knew what Miles was asking me to admit to. It was the same damn thing I’d buried under my excitement because I was so damn afraid of it.

“You’re in love with her,” Eli chuckled, breaking the stare-down between the two of us.

Fuck.

Fucking fuck.

I shook my head like it would make any difference in how I felt. “I’m just doing what I can. Using what I have and doing what I can…” I tipped my head to where the carved wooden plaque Mick had made hung high on the back wall of Roasters above the espresso machine.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

One of Larry’s most famous sayings around these parts.

“And if Larry were here to hear you say that, brother, he’d call you a liar. And then he’d probably take down that damn plaque and hit you over your stubborn thick skull with it,” Mick responded like he was tempted to do the same. And then a slow smile spread over his face as he looked to our other friend. “Eli’s right. And I know because I’ve seen the change in you. I’ve seen the brother I thought I lost when we moved here back again.”

My mouth opened to argue that I hadn’t changed, but that was horseshit, too.

I’d always been the one who was fighting for love—whether it was with romantic gestures or with fists so no one would mistake my feelings. When we moved here, I gave up that fight. I drifted between one-night stands, not caring if I got rid of everything that belonged to me.

And then Eve trespassed into my life and suddenly I was fighting for my cove, wondering why she was working in my bar. Suddenly, it was my dog’s fault that I’d given in to the temptation of tasting her. In one night, she’d become my woman, and then, my roommate. And even though this was her dream, I wanted it to be mine, too.

With a growl, I buried my head in my hands for a second before I met his eyes again.

“You’re right. I am a liar,” I confessed. “Fuck. I didn’t want—I didn’t plan—” I screwed my fingers into the bridge of my nose and I slumped against the back of the chair.

This wasn’t what I came here for. I came to tell them the plans. I came to ask for their help. I didn’t come to realize that I’d gone and fucking fallen.

“Miles,” he cut off my thoughts. “I’m happy for you.” He chuckled softly like I didn’t understand that part. “I’m so goddamn happy for you.” His body shook the whole table as his smile grew, and he laughed.

“Don’t fuckin’ laugh at me, dick,” I growled. Because, as brothers, I knew it was within his right to remind me later just how right he’d been.

I looked to Eli but didn’t find a different expression there either. A knowing and pleased smirk graced his sharp features and coffee-ground eyes. “You, too?”

“Happens to the best of us.” He clapped me on the shoulder even as his eyes flicked to his wife behind the counter. “I’m happy for you. And for Eve. The girl has got a heart of gold.” To be able to put up with me… didn’t I fuckin’ know it… “Whatever you want. Whatever you need,” he continued, looking back down to the papers. “Just say the word, and we’ll make it happen.”

I grinned. “Well, about that… I was wonderin’ if you to get me mockups done from your friend—nothing crazy, just some 3D renders of what this place will look like when it’s done,” I said, thumbing through to pull out a sheet of numbers and hand to him. “I have all the specs here for the first floor with what I want and colors he can use.”

Of course, it could all be changed to whatever Eve wanted, but I wanted to give this to her so she could see it—really see it—right in front of her when I told her I wanted to front the money for the house and repairs. And when I told her I didn’t want her to move out.

Eli scanned everything and nodded. “When do you need it by?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

Normally, things like this took time—took planning. But there was nothing I could’ve done to plan for Eve or for the way I’d fallen so hard for her. And so, I wanted to give her this tomorrow after I pulled two more bullshit reasons out of my ass why these last two apartments weren’t good enough.

He gaped. “You’re kidding, right?”

I tried to stay calm. I knew it was a fucking big favor to ask for something in such a rush. “I’m not, and I’ll owe you one, but I need it for tomorrow.”

“Grand gesture?” Mick asked with a knowing smile.

I gave him the finger as he laughed and drank his coffee.

Eli shook his head with a long sigh, folding the paper and sticking it in his back pocket.

“You’re going to owe me ten, not one, for this,” he groused, and my smile split open my face because I knew that meant he’d make it happen. “Guess I have a phone call to make and some begging to do.”

“I’ll owe you anything for this,” I called out as he walked toward the back, leaving Miles and me alone at the table.

My laughter dwindled as I met my brother’s gaze, and for the first time since I could remember, even since I’d sworn I was in love with Amanda, he didn’t look worried about me.

Propping my chin on my clasped hands, I murmured, “What if I’m not enough? What if she finally sees whatever Amanda—”

“Don’t.” He pointed a finger at me and stared for a long second, like the surge of anger made it difficult for him to speak. “I think you’ve known from the second she took you home that night—and didn’t leave—that she didn’t just have a crush on you. I think you’ve known from the second she put aside what she wanted because she needed you more, that this has always been serious for her. And as far as Amanda goes?” He wiped a hand over his mouth as though even her name left something more toxic than rat poison on his lips.

“The only person Amanda ever saw was herself and the image being with you gave her. It made her forbidden fruit, and she loved being chased around for it. She put you aside—sacrificed you for the future she wanted. I think Eve has more sense and more heart in her pinky than Amanda had in her entire body.”

Funny how in one night, we’d both risked our ideas of forever, ideas that were complete opposites, for each other.

“You think?” I rasped.

“I know we’ve always agreed that I was the smarter twin, but I didn’t think you were that dumb, big brother,” he teased with a chuckle, and I flipped him off.

“I don’t know where this is goin’ to go, but I just know that as long as she’s there, I want to be along for the ride.”