Page 108 of Blue Jeans in Low Beams

“Yeah.” I crash back down to the ground, my adrenaline pumping, wanting to let my best friend in on the secret. I know I can’t tell him everything, but I can clue him in a bit. “If she’s serious about it, which I think she might be, then she’s gonna need some help from us and Hayes’s lawyers, but this could truly be big for her. And the town. You should be proud.”

“Damn, I missed a lot this summer,” he says.

“Maybe you should leave more often,” I retort, slapping his shoulder. “Stuff only seems to go down when you’re gone.”

He flips me the bird, which I probably deserve. No, not probably. Definitely deserve.

“Brenna’s pretty pissed at me.”

“Your entrance earlier did leave a lot to be desired,” I comment. “What are you doing back early? We weren’t expecting you for a few more days. And how’d you get here?”

“Program was done, and I didn’t feel the need to hang around. So I found an earlier flight and rented a car,” he answers, as if that’s all the explanation that should be needed. “Plus, I felt guilty. I left you here all summer to do everything by yourself, and that clearly took a toll on your creative side, since it took you ’til the eleventh hour to come up with a name for the new brew. Although maybe that was because you were too distracted with my sister.”

I roll my eyes at the accusatory look he gives me. “Hardly. She’s the reason it has a name at all. The muse.”

“TMI.”

“You went there.”

He huffs out a long breath, shaking his head, letting it hang between his knees for a second before looking up at me.

“So it’s real. This thing between you two. What I unfortunately witnessed wasn’t just some fucking around?”

I laugh. “I mean, we were fucking around, but yeah. It’s real. Very, very real. At least for me. And I hope for her too.”

He nods. “Then I guess I owe you both an apology.”

I smile, my whole body easing. A lightness settles around me, letting me know that all is right with the world again.

“You certainly owe her one,” I say, pushing to my feet. Holding out my hand, I help him up, but don’t immediately let go once he’s upright. “But we’re even.”

“Yeah?”

“I fucked your sister and didn’t tell you.”

Giving me a shove, Brandt rolls his eyes. I laugh, holding my arms out wide, taking a slight bow. Now everything really is right with the world.

“I gotta find Brenna, make this right,” Brandt says as we walk into Pour Decisions. He looks between me and my brothers, one eyebrow quirked up. “What’s the going rate on a ‘your older brother was a major jackass’ apology?”

“About that,” Willa answers.

We both whip around, surprise hitting me hard as I register my own little sister perched on a barstool, legs crossed, leaning against the bar with a drink in her hand like she owns the place. It’s a move only Willa could pull off.

“That expensive?” Brandt blanches.

“That depends.”

Now it’s my turn to raise a brow. It’s been a minute since I had to subject myself to such a grovel, and I usually could get away with simply supplying alcohol when Willa needed as my peace offering, but I can’t imagine it’s as expensive as the look on her—or either of my brothers’—face is suggesting. Right about now Gus is looking like he’d rather cut off his right arm than make a suggestion.

Hux looks even worse.

“When did you get here?” I ask.

“Somewhere around ‘you fucked my sister,’” she replies, lowering her voice to try and impersonate Brandt. I have to admit, she’s not half bad.

“There were a couple of those,” I return.

“Oh, well, pick one.” Willa takes a long sip of her beer. “More importantly, while you two idiots were out there rolling in the dirt, Brenna stormed back in here and slammed this on the bar.”