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But time was the one thing I didn’t have enough of anymore.
None of us did.
* * *
“Spit it out,” Quinn murmured as he handed me the bowl of vegetables he’d been chopping. I’d already gotten the meat on the skewers for the shish kabobs we were preparing to grill tonight for dinner. I glanced at the clock and saw that Beck would be a few more minutes in joining us since he was still feeding the horses and locking up the barn for the night with Lilah. The new barn manager, Dale, had taken off for the evening which I was glad for because I didn’t particularly like the guy. We’d invited him to join us for dinner on his first day on the job a few days ago and that had been plenty. All he’d done was talk about himself and instead of lingering after dinner to watch a movie, Beck, Quinn and I had gone to our room to watch TV, despite the flat screen in the room being considerably smaller. Lilah had excused herself early so I got the impression she didn’t much like her new boss either.
“Spit what out?” I asked.
“Whatever has you so quiet,” he responded. I felt his gaze on me, but found it hard to look at him.
“It’s not important,” I murmured even as I railed at myself for being such a coward. Tomorrow was my last full day and night at the resort before I had to report to work the morning after that and I still had no idea where I stood with the men who’d become such a part of me that I didn’t want to remember a time when we hadn’t been together.
The men I’d finally come to accept I was completely in love with.
The revelation should have been a joyous one, but it wasn’t. It broke my damn heart.
Because I’d finally found the place I was meant to be, but it wasn’t real. It had been four of the best weeks of my life, but it was something we couldn’t sustain outside the resort’s boundaries.
Not with one of us leaving and the other adamant about not wanting to be in another relationship ever again.
I’d thought maybe I could still have something with Quinn after Beck left, but I kept hearing his words to me...the ones that it felt like had been spoken a lifetime ago…
I had my shot at happiness. It’s gone and I have no interest in trying to get it back.
I knew Quinn cared about me and Beck, but there’d been no hint that he wanted us beyond these four walls.
And I couldn’t bear to hear that truth again…not with just two nights left together.
Quinn bumped my shoulder. When I forced myself to look at him he gently said, “Talk to me.”
God, I wanted him. I wanted them both so badly…
“I-”
That was as far as I got because I heard footsteps behind us. I tried to collect myself, but whatever progress I made was shot to hell when I turned around to smile at Beck and Lilah.
Only it wasn’t just Beck and Lilah.
I stared in disbelief at the man standing next to my lover. “Nathan,” I whispered.
My brother gave me the slightest of nods as he responded with a soft, “Brody.”
I barely heard Lilah give her excuses as she left the room as the air around us grew thick with tension and the silence between us grew. I noticed Quinn taking the skewer I’d been working on from my hand and replacing it with a hand towel, and I went on auto-pilot as I wiped my hands clean.
“What are you doing here?” I finally managed to ask. I should have been happy to see him, but all I felt was cold.
You’re a sick fuck, Brody! We’re no longer brothers!
Nathan’s final words were as clear to me now as they’d been the night he’d shouted them just before he’d walked out of my life forever.
“We’ll leave you two to talk,” I heard Quinn say. I snagged his arm before he could move and I shook my head.
“No, stay,” I murmured. No way in hell I was going to hide my men. I reached down to link my fingers with Quinn’s as I said, “He’s leaving.”
“Brody, I just need a few minutes of your time. It’s important,” Nathan said.
My brother looked like he’d aged a decade in the few years since I’d seen him. There were worry lines etched into his features and his eyes were devoid of the fire I’d always seen burning in them. Unlike me, Nathan had thrived on the standards my father had set and he’d had no reservations about becoming a part of our family’s legacy.
