It Started with a Snap by Piper James

Chapter Two

Ethan

Igrunted as I pulled at the hammer’s handle, wiggling it to free the rusty nail that was giving me trouble. It was hotter than hell out here, but I knew from the weather report that it was only going to get more unbearable next week. I needed to get the broken boards on this back deck replaced before then if I didn’t want to work in a fucking sauna.

Heat plus a hundred percent humidity made for bad conditions to work outdoors, something I was still getting used to even after being in Texas for almost a year and a half. But I’d power through it. I had to.

I bought this fixer-upper months ago after falling in love with its craftsman style and large yard shaded by tall, ancient oak trees. I’d spent the first few months renovating the inside—new flooring, walls repaired and painted, resurfaced ceilings, and a complete overhaul to update the kitchen and bathrooms.

It had taken much longer than usual, considering I was doing it all on my own between jobs with the family business—Perry Brothers Construction—and the work we did for my brother’s wife’s foundation. Belle did great work, buying and refurbishing homes for people in need. My brothers and I volunteered regularly, providing labor and hustling donations from the vendors we use. It was rewarding work, but it kept us busier than we’d ever been, even when our business was booming back in Los Angeles.

Which left little time for my home projects. But thankfully, I was almost done. The interior of the home was completed, and I just needed to finish repairing the back deck and paint it, as well as the wood siding on the house before the rainy season hit at the end of October. I had about five weeks, give or take, and I was pretty sure I could get it all done before then.

I tried not to think too much about what would happen after I was done. This place had kept me so busy, I hadn’t had time to dwell too much on my loneliness. It was stupid, really. I’d lived on my own for years in L.A., and I’d always preferred it that way. I liked the peace and quiet. And I liked having my own space.

But after moving to Texas and living with Chase and Noah for months, I’d grown accustomed to having people around all the time. Eating breakfast together before work. Gathering around the table for dinner almost every night. Watching television and fighting over the remote.

Chase’s nine-year-old son, Daniel, had been constantly underfoot, entertaining me endlessly with his antics. Hell, I even missed Noah’s teasing and constant use of ill-timed innuendoes. He definitely knew how to keep things interesting.

We were all moving on, though, creating our own homes in Red River after deciding to stay instead of heading back to Los Angeles, which had been the plan when we first came here to renovate the old ranch home we’d inherited. The place had fallen to ruin, and we took some time off from our crazy-busy lives in L.A. to come fix it up and sell it, while also decompressing and getting a much-needed break from the constant hustle and bustle of the city.

Ryder had quickly met Annabelle Parker, who hated him on sight. Then, in a shocking turn of events the second time she saw him, she proposed. She offered him a million dollars to marry her to trick her father into giving her the family company—a huge conglomerate she’d worked her ass off to earn. But her father had other ideas and refused to give it to her unless she got married. Because a singlewoman could never be taken seriously in the business world. Dickhead.

Ryder didn’t need the money—none of us did, thanks to our successful business and some profitable investments I’d made for us. We had millions of our own to fall back on and didn’t actually have to work anymore. We only kept the business going here in Texas because we loved it.

Ryder ended up taking her up on her offer, just for the fun of it. To alleviate his boredom, and maybe make her suffer a little for being such an ice queen toward him after she ran into our truck with her fancy car. One thing led to another, and the rest was history. They’d been married for almost fifteen months and had a beautiful five month old son, Ryder James Perry, Jr., whom they called James or Jamie.

My other two brothers quickly followed suit—Chase fell in love with Sage after dating her in secret because she was Daniel’s teacher, and Noah fell head over heels for Dakota after they accidentally ended up roommates at the ranch we all owned…the same one Dakota was trying to sell for us. We’d ended up signing the ranch’s ownership to Noah, exclusively, and he still lived there with Dakota—as a couple, not roommates.

Now that we were all living our own lives in separate residences, the four of us had started a tradition of meeting for Sunday breakfast at the local diner. It gave us time to relax and catch up in a setting where we weren’t busy working or distracted by the women in their lives.

I was the only one who didn’t have a woman to go home to, but I was more than okay with that. I was free to come and go as I pleased. I could watch what I wanted on television. I could read for hours, uninterrupted. And no one complained or asked incessant questions because I wasn’t paying enough attention to them.

I’d learned a long time ago that relationships weren’t for me. I was the stereotypical strong, silent type, and as much as women claimed to be attracted to that sort of thing in theory, the reality of it left them feeling ignored and underappreciated. It wasn’t intentional on my part. I just tended to get lost in my own head, running numbers for my next investment, thinking about a great book I’d just finished, or planning the next days’ workload, supply orders, and expenses.

And I honestly just wasn’t much of a talker. I didn’t exhibit Chase’s sincere and open honesty, Ryder’s smooth wit, or Noah’s flirty banter. I was quiet and sensible. Pragmatic. Logical.

In other words, to women, I was fucking boring.

And that was okay with me. Maybe someday, I’d meet someone with whom I actually had things in common. Someone who liked me for exactly who I was. Someone who wouldn’t try to change me because she actually wanted someone else.

Or maybe I’d find someone for whom I’d want to change. Someone who’d bring out the openness, the charm, and the flirtation. I was pretty sure those traits were buried somewhere deep inside me, but I hadn’t had a relationship with anyone who brought them to the surface.

My phone beeped with an incoming text, and I pulled it from my pocket to check the message.

Noah: She said yes! I’m getting married!

Me: Congrats, man. That’s wonderful. I’m so happy for you.

I smiled as I tucked my phone away. Noah had been secretly filming clips of Dakota—while holding the engagement ring he bought in the frame—without her knowledge for months. I’d spent hours helping him edit the shots and splice them together, add music, and dub his voice over the video to show her exactly how much he loved everything about her.

It showed me a whole new side of my brother, one I never knew existed. He was a sappy romantic, deep down. I nearly fucking cried watching the final project with him, and I respectfully ignored his own sniffling—even though I knew he’d be giving me shit if the tables were turned.

It was so strange, seeing his cocky, smooth demeanor soften as the months passed by. Dakota changed him without even trying. And he was a better man for it.

The thought brought me back to my own situation. I was alone by choice. No one had cared to look past the quiet, introspective exterior to appreciate the good qualities buried deep inside me.

I was smart and had a keen mind for business. I always tried to be kind and respectful. I liked animals and children. I donated to various charities every year. I even had a sense of humor, but it was so dry, most women didn’t catch it when it made an appearance.

But all they saw was my pretty face, my muscled body formed from years of hard labor, and my black credit card. All that was enough for some of them, but those relationships fizzled quickly. I wanted more than that.

Shaking my head, I forced the thoughts out of my mind and got back to work. This deck wasn’t going to fix itself.

I needed to focus on what I had, not on what I didn’t. And what I had was a home, my brothers and their families, and our business.

And that was enough.