Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“Sounds fun. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Asshole.”
I can hear his smile on the other end of the line.
“Anyway,” I say. “I’m getting ready to fire my assistant, so I don’t have anyone to call. Can you please arrange for the jet to pick me up tomorrow night and have the Nashville house ready to roll?”
“I suppose.”
“Don’t trip over yourself to help me out,” I say, laughing.
“I’m scrambling. You just can’t see me.”
“Maybe if I peer through the trees, I can spot you.”
“Are we done here?” he asks. “I have calls to make.”
I sigh heavily. “Fine. After I get my life sorted, we’re sorting yours, Mr. Castelli.”
“What makes you think mine’s not already sorted?”
“A hunch.”
“I’ll call you with travel arrangements,” he says.
“Or just come on up to the house since you’re already here.”
“Goodbye, Ms. Kelley.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Castelli.”
I grin as I hang up.
My phone slides across the table, coming to rest next to the bundle of rope that Luke used on me a few nights ago. My body clenches at the memory.
“We’re going to be fine, Luke,” I say to the empty room. “I need to make sure you know you belong in my world, and I need to make sure you understand how badly I want to be a part of yours.”
I run upstairs. I do my best thinking in the shower.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Luke
“Hey, Megs,” I say, walking into Chase’s kitchen. “Smells good in here. What’s for breakfast?”
“You just missed Chase and Kennedy’s bacon and waffles. It was … a mess, if I’m honest.” She laughs. “But Kennedy saw it on Social and wanted to try it. They stuffed the waffles with bacon somehow. I don’t know. It was good, just super messy.”
“Where is Chase? I need to talk to him.”
“Is everything okay?”
My chest tightens. “It will be.”
“Okay. Well, he went outside a little while ago. I think he was trying to get out of doing the dishes.”
I laugh. “If you see him before I do, tell him I’m outside yelling for him.”
“Have a good day, Luke.”
“You, too, Megan.”
I step outside and look around for my brother. The bastard probably saw me coming and hid from me.
I walk to the back of the house and notice the open shed door. Chase comes out of it as I get close.
“Oh, hell,” he says, trying not to smile. “You meant it when you said you’d be here this morning. I was hoping you were drinking or something.”
“What are you working on?” I ask, nodding to a piece of wood in his hand.
“I’m trying to level a table Megan bought at a flea market last weekend. What about you? What are you working on?”
We walk side by side to a picnic table with a deep, almost purple table on top.
“Looks old,” I say.
“Megan says it’s an antique, but she thinks everything before the eighties is an antique. I told her the shops slap the word antique on shit so people buy it for high prices and feel good about it.”
“And this is why I’m here.”
Chase gives me a look like our dad does when he doesn’t follow along.
I sigh. “I’m here for your asshole logic.”
“What?”
“This might sound bad,” I say, wincing. “But just hear me out and take the point of what I’m saying and not necessarily the words.”
“Spit it out, Luke.”
“Okay. I need relationship advice, and somehow, you’re the resident expert.”
He snorts. “How do you figure?”
“You have a wife. You haven’t been divorced. And you have a kid. I don’t know how that plays into things—in my case, it doesn’t—but I feel like that gives you a little extra boost, you know?”
“And I’m smarter than the rest of you,” he says.
“And you’re an asshole.”
He looks up with lifted brows.
“I need an asshole,” I say, holding a finger up in the air. “Someone who doesn’t get all flowery with their words, overthink it, or care about feelings much. You’re perfect.”
He rolls his eyes.
“I’ve been seeing an old girlfriend for a couple of weeks,” I say, keeping things as vague as possible. “And I don’t know how to make her understand that, unlike her dad and ex, I’m not here to hurt her. I don’t get off on putting her in her place or hurting her feelings.”
“They did that?”
“Yes, they did.”
“Beat the fuck out of them.”
I laugh, nodding appreciatively. “Okay. Not the question I needed answered, but I like your moxie today.”
“You should’ve seen these damn waffles Kennedy wanted this morning. We had batter and bacon grease everywhere.” He mocks the wood up to the chair. “I came out here because I didn’t want to clean it up.”
“Dick move.”
He stares at me for a moment before going back to his project. “My wife will be properly repaid for her assistance. I promise you that.”
“This isn’t about you. This is about me. Can we focus here? I’m on a deadline.”