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Reed claps, wedding bells probably ringing in his ears. I look at him. “Not that kind of match. I mean, I met my match in the game.”
“Wait, you mean the player met a formidable opponent?” Levi asks, chuckling as Jodie squints at me questioningly.
“I mean,” I say, shaking my head as I think about her walking out last night, “the ultimate player may have just gotten played.”
“Wow,” Levi says. “You’re losing your touch.”
I sigh, staring out the nearby window at the boardwalk, thinking that maybe I deserve this a little bit. You can’t play forever and not get burned. Still, as I watch a couple stroll down the boardwalk, hand in hand on this cloudy Tuesday, I think about how it isn’t the whole getting played aspect that bothers me. No, if I’m being honest, the part that truly bothers me is the fact that for some reason, it seems like she’s different. I can’t get those damn eyes, that sensuous voice out of my head.
And I don’t like it one bit.
“Little brother, I think you may be in trouble in so many more ways than one,” Levi says as Lysander walks over with the newspaper.
I look at the headline in shock, staring at a dusky photograph from the Marooned Pirate. In it, Sage is grinding on me.
Players Gotta Play: Sage Everling’s Newest Score.
“Oh shit,” I say, feeling like a complete moron.
Yep, it’s true. I’ve finally met my match.
* * *
I tryto shove the Sage Everling dilemma out of my mind as Levi takes me to the apartment complex to scope out the situation. It’s been a hectic week with the absence of Grandpa really settling in. Besides the emotional grief, there’s also the practical side of things. Luckily, Levi learned the ropes about the rental business. Still, he’s so busy with Wild Hearts, and I don’t have much experience as a landlord. Running the condos plus the apartments plus dealing with the other rental properties is going to be a lot to handle.
“Dear God, is that really a pink flamingo on the front lawn?” I ask as we pull up to the apartment complex Levi and Jodie used to call home. Phoebe, Jodie’s mom, apparently lives in the double apartment downstairs although I haven’t seen much of her. Maybe it’ll be a good thing, though, having some friendly ears and eyes in the complex.
“Brings back memories just walking in this place,” Levi says, grinning as he opens the office door and leads us inside.
“Still hard to believe he’s gone,” I say, thinking about Grandpa as I see his nameplate on his simple desk in the office.
“I miss him like crazy. Life’s so short, huh?”
“Yeah. It is. But I guess that’s why you’ve got to get your kicks in now.”
Levi smiles. “Grandpa would agree with that.”
I take a seat on the wheelie desk chair, leaning back as Levi sorts through some paperwork on the desk. I stare up at the ceiling, sighing.
“What is it?” Levi asks. “Don’t tell me you’re still freaking about your ‘tarnished’ reputation in the paper. I mean, you’d have to have a reputation, a good one, to tarnish it.”
I scowl at my big brother before shaking my head. “It actually isn’t that, but thanks for reminding me that I was played and everyone knows it.”
“Kind of karma and all that, you know?” he says, flipping through some paperwork.
I stand, walking over to the window that looks out over the ocean, thinking about how nice it would be to just go fall asleep on the beach instead of dealing with all of this—Grandpa, the business, Sage. But that’s so like me, shutting down when the emotional baggage gets hard.
“I just feel bad, you know?” I say, confessing it aloud for the first time. Levi stops rustling the papers and ambles over beside me, looking out the window as well. “I wish I’d have visited him before he died. I just got so wrapped up in my life back home, I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t think about him. I mean, we were so close when we were young and then—”
“Hey, Cash, don’t beat yourself up. It’s not like he lived a block away, you know? And you might not have been here for Grandpa, but you were there for Mama and Daddy when I wasn’t. We’ve both made sacrifices, and we’ve both paid our family dues in our own way.” He pats me on the back. “Now stop stalling. You’ve got a lot to learn. If you ever want to get back to that club and have fun again, you’ve got to get all of this mastered.”
“No worries. I’m a fast learner.”
Levi walks me through some of the basic paperwork and must-knows before taking me on a tour of the apartment complex. I’m listening to advice I’m never going to remember about water heaters, electric, and all kinds of things I didn’t really think would fall under my realm of duties as he walks me out to the front of the building. Standing on the lawn, taking in the sight of the somewhat sad-looking apartment complex, I notice a door opens on the far right.
Out pops a scantily clad woman, tan and dark haired. She’s got her long, wavy locks tossed loosely in a bun, her huge aviator sunglasses shielding her eyes. Still, her body’s tight in all the right places, those shorts she’s wearing barely covering enough to be legal. Her tank top hugs her as I study her. She notices, giving me a smile and a little wave. I nod and wave back.
Levi kicks me. “You’ve got work to do. Don’t get distracted.”
