Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
He glanced at Ava. “I’m not single-minded.”
“No, thank God you have a woman you love to keep your priorities straight, but Dad did too, until he didn’t.” I glanced at Reed’s fiancée. “No offense, Ava. I’m glad you make him happy.”
“Are you really?” Reed challenged. “Because it feels like you want everyone to be just as miserable as you are. You’ve had a stick up your ass since you landed here. I’m not going to apologize for being happy, not after the hell we’ve been—”
“The hell we’ve been through?” I backed up, scared that if I got any closer, I might actually put my fist through his face.
“My mother died too!”
“And you weren’t here!” I jabbed my finger in his direction. “Oh sure, you may have shown up for the holidays, been here when she finally found peace over Christmas, but you weren’t here when she got bad, and you sure as hell weren’t here when it got worse. You visited hell on vacation, but you sure didn’t live here.”
“What do you want me to do, Weston? Go back in time and make different decisions?”
“I want you to stop pretending that you actually would.” I threw up my hands, lacing them behind my neck as I pulled air in through my nose and shoved it out of my mouth, trying like hell to keep calm, and failing. “I want you to acknowledge that while you remember it as being the same, you and I had very different teenaged years.”
“I did everything I could,” he argued. “I sent money. I bought groceries when I was home—”
“You didn’t do the one thing that would have made a difference, and stuck around to actually do the whole big brother role you’re so proud of,” I seethed.
“Stop acting like an asshole. It’s impossible to talk to you when you’re like this.” Reed folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“I want you to stop needing things from me.” My hands fell to my sides. “I need you to acknowledge that while you got off the Titanic, some of us went down with the ship.”
“And I’m here now!” He gestured to the house around us. “Righting the damned ship!”
“And you forced me back here to right it with you!”
Reed took a step back. “I never forced you.”
“You’re right. You just said that you needed me.” I glanced up at the ceiling, recalling the conversation. “What was it you said? You needed a way to bring in high-end clientele. You needed a new income stream because you were spending some major money. What the hell was I supposed to do? Let you fail and then blame it on me?”
“We were far from failing. I offered you a business opportunity and you took it, with some pretty hefty financial gains if I read that profit sharing plan correctly. Sue me if I wanted to save this place from the god-awful deal Dad had structured.” He shook his head. “Hell, sue me if I just wanted to spend some time with my brothers, to try and make this place the home it used to be before Mom died. I want my family back, Weston.”
“Did you think we’d be right where you left us?” I lifted my hand toward the front door. “Standing on that porch?”
His lips flattened.
“You don’t get it because you’ve never had to give anything up. You’ve always done exactly what you wanted exactly when you wanted to. But I gave up my future so everyone else could have theirs, and that apparently wasn’t enough for you—for this place. You called me up and told me you needed me to give up the career I love, the promotion I’d worked my ass off for, the career I’ve thrown my entire life into, and I did it. Hell, you know I can’t stand the thought of stepping foot inside this house, and yet, here I am, just like you asked.” I threw out my arms. “What else do you want from me, Reed? Do you want me to call up Crew and tell him he has to come back and use his fame to make the expansion successful too?”
Reed paled.
“You’re kidding me, right?” My eyes flared.
“He hasn’t answered, but that’s not why I want to talk to him!” Reed blustered.
I shook my head and laughed. “Holy shit. You actually want me to call up Crew. What’s wrong, big brother? Little bro not taking your calls?”
“Like he answers you either,” Reed snapped.
“He answers whenever I call.” I didn’t give a shit that he looked like a wounded puppy. “I just know better than to call him unless it’s life or death.”
Silence stretched between us, so thick it strangled any positive feelings and so fragile I knew the next words could break us past any chance of repair.