PROLOGUE
“Thanks for meeting me on short notice,” Dean Easton said as he stepped into the realtor’s office.
“No problem. That’s my job. I’m Ruby Turner. Nice to meet you.” He shook her hand. Firm. Professional. “I’ve actually been to your bar a few times.”
“Oh, yeah?” His brow lifted. “What’d you think?”
“It’s interesting. Took me a minute to connect the name. My husband figured it out first. Pulse. All the heart paraphernalia on the walls.”
He laughed. A short, sharp sound. His private joke. Or maybe a middle finger aimed squarely at his grandfather.
The renowned cardiac surgeon.
The man who still dangled a trust fund like a leash.
Was Dean smart enough to follow in his footsteps?
Fuck yes.
Driven enough?
With the last name Easton, drive was practically genetic.
But he’d carved his own path. Bled for it. Built something that was his with no scalpel and no legacy strings attached.
“It works,” he said with a shrug and a smile.
His laid back personality was just another thing that set his grandfather off.
Too damn bad. He wasn’t changing who he was just because of his last name.
And even if his bar didn’t succeed, it wouldn’t matter. He’d chosen it.
He’d made it his.
“Seems to be working well for you,” Ruby said, turning to her computer. “So, you’re looking to buy a house?”
Not something he’d planned. Not something he’d wanted.
Not another responsibility to carry, but that was nothing to what was coming around the corner at breakneck speed.
But the life he’d been living? That clock was done running.
Bachelorhood was going to be a thing of the past.
“Yeah. A residential area. Something quiet. Ideally with an in-law suite.”
Her fingers paused, then resumed typing. “Anything specific? Like size, upper, lower floors. I’m not sure if you have limitations.”
“Preferably not in a basement. Maybe behind a garage. Or a separate structure. Their own entrance. I guess privacy from their life and mine.”
She winced. “That’ll be tough. Would you consider building? Or adding on?”
He thought of the money sitting in accounts he pretended didn’t exist.
The inheritance waiting in the wings.
And the woman who’d just detonated everything he’d built.
