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I was snapped out of it when Ollie said my name, but the fact that he was talking to me and not about me had me shifting. Shit. “What?”
He tilted his head, amusement all over his face. “Where’d you go there?” he asked, glancing between us. “Ah, I know that look.”
“Bullshit,” I argued. “I’m tired, it’s been a long week.”
“Long week? Or longer than a week? If I had to guess, I’d say weeks. Plural.”
I knew what he meant, the little shit, but I wasn’t in a place to deny it. It had been a few weeks, and having someone like Zeppelin living in my house was making a normal sexual dry spell a lot harder to get through. “Maybe. Irrelevant either way, especially given present company.”
I stood to get my father’s medication and slid the cup over to him, then slapped the back of Ollie’s head.
His laugh grated my nerves, but I was pleased when I looked over at Zepp and she was staring at us like we were speaking another language. Unfortunately, that only lasted a few seconds because I could see the moment those puzzle pieces clicked together and she bit back a grin.
“Ollie,” my father interrupted. “When are you going to settle down? Should I give up on you finding love too?”
“Course not. I find love almost every day, just doesn’t last much longer than that. What about you, Led? Anyone special in your life? Maybe Pops can place his bet on you?”
Zeppelin blushed faintly and shook her head. “He knows all about my nonexistent love life.”
Don’t do it, I silently begged, clenching my fist at my side as I stared at my brother with barely-concealed horror. I knew exactly what he was about to do because I’d seen it a thousand fucking times — but I didn’t do a damned thing to stop him as he donned a lazy, annoying fucking smirk and leaned in closer to Zepp.
“Let me fix that for you, Led,” he said playfully. “Make my uptight brother here give you a night off and I’ll show you the finer points of Brisley. Hell ... I’ve got a jet, you know. We could go anywhere.”
“How kind of you, Ollie.” She glanced at all of us nervously, picking her next words carefully. “If you did show me Brisley, it would have to be purely platonic and firmly on the ground. I don’t do airplanes of any kind, private jets included.”
“Back up a little bit, you said a weird word that started with a p. What was that word? I’ve never heard it before,” he joked, but Zeppelin was as quick as ever.
“I can tell,” she laughed beautifully, head shaking slightly. “Something tells me you won’t lose sleep over it. I bet you had a date before coming to dinner tonight.”
Ollie looked every bit as guilty as he did proud of himself. “Maybe.”
“Mmhm, must have been why you were so early.”
They continued their banter as I turned my back to them to clean up — but mostly to hide the inappropriate smile on my face. I couldn’t remember the last time someone denied Oliver, so hearing it in my own kitchen was a better dessert than the pie Zeppelin had made.
Especially since it was Zeppelin doing the denying.
“You were worried,” my dad accused quietly.
I looked over as he picked up a towel to dry the glasses for me and shook my head a little. “No. Why would I be worried?”
Silence answered me for longer than I expected, but he didn’t seem to be going anywhere, nor his awkward smile. “Has anything happened between you two yet?”
“It depends on your definitions of the words ‘anything,’ ‘happened,’ and ‘two,’” I mumbled. “But in a nutshell? No. Why do you ask? She’s our employee.”
“She’s so much more than that,” he replied simply. “Did you read her entire application, Sterling?”
“No, because I didn’t have any interest in hiring her, remember?” I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that Ollie and Zeppelin were occupied, then turned the sink up a little higher to drown us out. “What, is she secretly a mermaid?”
“You did have a crush on that Ariel character as a child. Anyway, you judged a book by its cover and missed the details. One of my nurses after my leg surgery told me about a love language quiz on the computer. Have you heard of it?”
I squinted at him. “No?”
“As the kids say, Google it.” He tapped my shoulder and leaned in. “Hers is touch.”
He padded back to the dinner table, leaving me to wonder what the fuck that meant and if my dad seriously just told me to touch his caretaker.
That was a possibility I wasn’t open to considering yet, and I damned sure wasn’t going to be caught dead Googling a quiz about love languages. For now, I’d just have to sleep easy knowing my brother wasn’t going to insert himself where he wasn’t welcome yet again and worry about the rest later.
I did have one little trick up my sleeve in the meantime, though... it just wasn’t quite time to play it yet.
