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She wrinkled her nose at the memory and I stifled a laugh. It was adorable and I was glad she wasn’t holding herself back. I had a feeling that she’d be one of those people you could read like a book when you got to know her.
“I’m going upstairs,” Micah announced as if he was going to go alone, yet he grabbed his sister again and dragged her along with him. I followed behind them and had no shame in admitting to myself that I was staring at her ass. She looked amazing in those tight jeans.
When we got to the top Micah gave me a look that was less than amused. This might be even more complicated if he went into ‘protective brother’ mode. The last thing I wanted was to ruin a long-term friendship, but if she was my mate, I couldn’t ignore that forever.
The upstairs was quite a bit worse for wear than downstairs. You could tell someone had lived here. There was random furniture left behind but it was all broken or tattered. Holes adorned the walls like an alpha lost control of his rage. The whole place, including the shaggy carpet reeked of stale alcohol.
“Dear god was this a frat house?” Ellie asked as she covered her nose.
“They must have tried renting it out or something,” Micah said with a frown. “This place has been empty since I’ve lived here. Collin, what was here when you were growing up?”
“Believe it or not it was a garden store. It’s the last one on the block so they used the side of the building for extra displays and plants. It closed down when I was a teenager. The owner’s wife died and the pack didn’t want to keep it going without her.”
“That’s awful,” Micah muttered before letting the sad frown fall away as he turned to Ellie. “What do you think?”
Typical Micah, moving away from any sad conversation. I couldn’t blame him for protecting his peace and I didn’t think he wanted Ellie to be any more sad than she probably already was.
“About her dying?” she deadpanned. “That it’s sad.”
“No, the building,” he said with a huff. From her smile she definitely knew what he meant.
“I still want to see the second one and then I think if nobody’s going to jump at buying them, we should draft up a quick business plan including budgets, then decide,” she said. Ellie was all business now and damn, if I didn’t find that just as attractive.
She threw her red curls in a messy bun and glanced around one last time before heading downstairs.
I went to follow but Micah stopped me. Part of me expected him to say something like leave his sister alone, but instead, he nodded toward her.
“See, I told you she’d be a great addition. You don’t need those assholes you worked with. No more odd man out or working with people who you don’t like,” he said. “This is going to work out.”
“Which one are you leaning toward?” I asked, curious as to what my friend was planning.
“Either one. I’m just along for the ride,” he said honestly before heading down to join Ellie. He was just as happy as I was to start a new path in life. All three of us needed a change and that change was currently surrounding us.
As sassy and reserved as Ellie was, Micah was enthusiastic and outgoing. Match those with my skills and we would be a good team.
It was honestly refreshing to see family working so well together without bickering.
My brothers and I were never close growing up. When our parents’ pack divorced we were always strung around between five houses. It was impossible to not feel like a burden or that you didn’t have a real home when you spent only a day or two at each.
Then as we got older and they all started moving on, we were forgotten. That wasn’t family.
In fact, no one felt like family until I met Micah. We were assigned as roommates in college and ended up becoming best friends. He treated me like an equal and actually gave a fuck about me.
Before I could go down shitty-memory lane yet again for the second time today, I followed them out. They were both still walking around, shooting ideas back and forth. At least she didn’t see this place and shoot us down.
The second house was further out than I remembered but the seclusion was kind of nice. Sometimes, neighbors could halt work quicker than the inspectors. I’d seen more than a few sabotage the crew over the years.
“Man, the pictures didn’t do it justice. This place is huge,” Ellie said as she looked up at it, craning her neck to the side so her hair fanned out and I was smacked in the face with her intoxicating scent. Never before had a scent made me feel almost feral, the alpha inside me demanding I claim her.
That wasn’t happening so I just waited as she climbed out and took a few steadying breaths.
Micah looked concerned when I finally got out but I just waved him off and looked over at our second prospect.
From the pictures it looked like a small home, but in person, it was twice as big. The closest neighbor was far enough away noise wouldn’t be an issue and despite how unkempt the yard was, the surrounding trees and flowers made it not look quite so abandoned.
“Look, I didn’t even realize they had a detached garage. That would give us a place to work outside of the elements, it can be last on our list to fix up,” Micah pointed out.
“We’ll need to have someone take a look at the structure here,” I pointed out. “The porch looks like it’s going to give in at any moment.”
