“These friends of yours,” Zach said. “Anyone special?”
“Yeah,” I admitted, though I had no intention of telling him just how special. “A few of them even started feeling like family after a while, but I’m home now, right? Their life, as fun as it was to experience, isn’t mine.”
Nate narrowed his eyes, looking at me like he was searching for clues, but then he cleared his throat, audibly engaging business mode. “Okay, so you had your fun, but like you said, you’re home now. Does that mean you’re coming back to work?”
I hadn’t even answered yet when they started circling like sharks that’d smelled blood in the water. Zach spoke up first. “I think he should pick up where he left off in acquisitions. He was good in that role and he’s got clients who miss him.”
“This is why nobody likes acquisitions people, big brother,” I said lightly. “You come on way too strong.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “We’re literally the most profitable division and I’ve kept your office open and clean for you. Don’t I get a thanks for that?”
Jesse leaned forward, ignoring Zach to toss his own hat in the ring. “I’m going to pull rank here. As COO, I don’t agree that you need him back in acquisitions. You should come try out operations, Theo. That’s where all the cool people are.”
Nate shook his head. “Finance could always use the help from someone capable, and let’s be honest, shall we? He minored in finance. That’s my division and it’s where he should be.”
I scoffed. “You once threatened to make me cry over a spreadsheet.”
“It was a very important spreadsheet.” He shrugged. “Besides, who uses the purple highlight function? It’s ridiculous.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” I shot back. “I’m pretty sure I literally got that from yourwife. Kate told me to use the purple. Do you want to tellhershe’s ridiculous?”
“I already have.” He let out a heavy, long-suffering sigh. “She refuses to acknowledge that purple is ridiculous.”
“Regardless,” Zach interjected, pointing his tumbler at me. “Theo was in acquisitions before he left and we should give him the opportunity to get back to learning about our actual business.”
Jesse snorted. “Obviously, you’d say that, but not all of us are into acquisitions, Zachary.”
Their argument dissolved rapidly from there, everyone once again having opinions about where I belonged. It was the same conversation I’d been listening to for years, so I tuned them out while they argued about my future, turning toward the windows and my bike still sitting in the driveway.
I could leave again. Right now. Just get back on Martha and go anywhere. Anywhere except here.
“Theo?” Jesse’s voice cut through the noise in my head after I’d tuned them out.
I blinked hard, refocusing to see him frowning at me. “Yeah?”
“Are you okay?” he asked, Zach and Nate now staring at me too. “You looked a little out of it for a minute there.”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I forced a smile, a fake one I’d perfected years ago. “I’m good. Just tired, you know? It was a long ride.”
True, but not as true as the fact that I’m tired of pretending I’m not still bleeding over the giant part of my heart I left behind in Arizona.
“I think maybe I’ll just go to bed,” I said, tossing back the rest of my drink before I stood up. “You guys just decide where you need me and point me in that direction.”
I left the office knowing that my next conversation was going to have to be with Alex, and that it was going to be much harder. Sooner rather than later, I was going to have to sit down across from him and explain why I’d disappeared for months only to make a surprise return before the actual deadline he’d given me.
And then, I was going to have to get down to the sordid, unimaginable business of choosing a bride, all the while knowing that I’d never love her the way I already loved someone else. Somebody I was never going to see again.
CHAPTER 34
RAQUEL
Iwas sanding down the trim in the main bedroom when I heard a truck outside, gravel crunching under its tires and the hum of the engine just before it cut out. The heavy thump of the door closing rang out next, but my heart didn’t start racing and hope didn’t invade my chest.
Theo wasn’t the one who’d just parked outside my house. I knew that without even having to look that it was my brother. Avery had been texting for days and he’d obviously run out of patience waiting for a response.
I straightened up slowly and set the sander down, wiping my hands on my jeans and trying to rein in the flash of anger that sparked through me at the knowledge that he’d come here. Avery and I hadn’t spoken properly since Theo had left, and honestly, I wasn’t ready to do it now either, but it looked like he’d decided against giving me a choice in the matter.
The way he was approaching the situation at the shop had put a rift the size of Jupiter between us, and it wasn’t only because he’d refused to accept Theo’s help. That was part of it, sure. If he hadn’t been such a stubborn ass, we would have been out of the shit by now for longer than we’d been in it, but he’dalso been treating me like my opinions were worthless and Dad like he wasn’t even there.
