Page 94 of Hometown Hottie

46

CARSON

Vance had finally closed on a house and was actively moving into it. I hadn’t been there just yet, but he’d sent me the link with the address just this morning, and now seemed like as good a time as any.

Bloodied and bruised, I showed up with a six-pack of beer, a succulent plant in a pot, and a pile of brand-new towels under my arm. He opened the front door when he heard me pull up and he grinned—until he saw my face.

His eyebrows rose as high as they could go. He sprinted over to me, took everything I’d brought along out of my hands, and gave me a serious look. “What the hell happened to you, bro?”

“Ryan,” I said as if that one word explained it all. “I cleaned up. Does it still look that bad?”

He snorted and stepped aside to let me precede him up the flagstone path that led past a little fountain toward his front door. “If that’s what you look like after you cleaned up, I’d hate to know what you looked like before. I think your nose is still bleeding.”

I twisted to motion at all the stuff he was carrying. “Mom says you can never have enough towels and that single guys never have any that are in decent shape, so they’re a housewarming gift from her. The plant is from me. Apparently, those aren’t easy to kill. The beer is from me too, but that’s just because I wanted one and I wasn’t sure you’d stocked up yet.”

Vance chuckled and showed me inside. He deposited all the gifts on the kitchen counter and spread his arms open wide. “Fine. If you don’t want to tell me why Ryan did that to you, allow me to give you the grand tour.”

“I’m good with that.” I waited for him to break open the six-pack and hand over a beer before I followed him through the spacious, open-concept design of the lower level of his new house.

Hardwood floors barely made a sound beneath my feet, the ceilings were high, and there were lots of large windows that offered spectacular views of the mountains and farmland surrounding the property. Vance grinned when he saw me looking around, pumping his eyebrows. “Yeah, I know. I did good. It’s nice, right?”

He inclined his head toward the right, where a sprawling entertainment area took up one whole side of the house. It was covered in boxes, but he’d already mounted a massive flatscreen TV on the wall and a few bottles of booze sat on the bar in the far corner.

“This is what I like to call the Fun Zone,” he said happily. “Many parties will be held here, but I’ll wait until you’re healed before I invite you. Don’t want people thinking this is some kind of fight club.”

I groaned. “It’s not that bad. Seriously. It was one punch.”

“Tell that to your nose.” He pointed to the right, where a family-style kitchen and dining area took up the other side of the house. “It’s also got a huge pantry, a wine cellar down that way, and a formal sitting area that I’m going to turn into a home cinema room.”

“A home cinema room?” My face scrunched up before I could stop it and pain trickled through me like thousands of needles being stuck into my skull. “Ouch. Don’t do that. Don’t say stupid shit. I can’t keep my face from screaming the subtitles of the stuff I’m not actually saying.”

He laughed. “A home cinema is a necessity. Come check out the outside area. I’ve even got a pool, man. It’s awesome.”

“What’s upstairs?” I asked once I’d seen the expansive backyard with the pool that definitely needed a bit of work.

He shrugged. “The bedrooms. Where the magic will happen.”

“Oh, so by magic, you mean the disappointment?” I joked.

He tutted his tongue at me but then led me to a bench that had been built into the deck outside. Giving me a long onceover, he blew out a heavy breath and cocked his head at me. “Your stay of execution is over. Out with it. What did you do to Ryan to deserve that?”

“He caught me with Nova,” I said.

Vance’s eyes flew wide open, and he doubled over laughing. “Jeez. It feels like I just went back ten years. What the hell, Carson? You couldn’t stop him from doing it again?”

“I could. I just didn’t. Felt like he deserved a free shot.”

Vance shook his head. “Another one? Methinks not, man, but okay. So what now? Are you still seeing her?”

“Yeah, for now.” The pain in my chest was a lot worse than the pain in my face when I thought about breaking it off with her. “If he’s going to keep putting himself between us, I’m not sure how long it’s going to last. I really don’t want it to end, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m crazy for even thinking it could work between us.”

“You’re not crazy.” He winked at me. “Crazy in love, maybe, but not, like, batshit crazy. If you know what I mean.”

“Whatever kind of crazy it is, I don’t know what I’m going to do. You should’ve seen how upset she was after the fight. It did something to me. I don’t want to keep doing that to her.”

“Then maybe you should keep your distance for a while,” he suggested. “That family has too much going on right now. Give ‘em some time to figure their shit out. Let Ryan cool down and then, when all that has happened, sit him down and talk to him instead of letting him walk in on you getting naked with his sister.”

“We weren’t getting naked,” I protested. “We’d actually just gotten dressed again.”