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I looked up and met his eyes.
“No,” I told him. “This is how the rest of our lives is supposed to begin.”
Sneak Peek
The One Next Door
The Brothers Kane Book Two
Carter
I walked into Finnegan and Holmes Law Offices so happy I was practically whistling. Today was the day we signed the paperwork and Kane Construction, my late father’s business and legacy, was officially going to be mine. Well,ours. My twin brother, Elias, would co-own the business with me and would handle all of the numbers and payroll… the boring accountant shit that he loved.
Our older brother, Luke, had inherited the business from our father upon his death. Luke was around twenty at the time and ran Kane Construction pretty well for about eight years, but everyone knew that his heart wasn’t in it. I respected Luke tremendously for stepping up for the family, his then-wife, and the business, but I couldn’t help feeling slighted. I was the one who actually wanted the business. I was the one who was actually good at it and liked the work and drove to the office every day proud to see my last name on the door.
“Mr. Kane, sign here, here, and… here,” Mr. Finnegan said.
Luke nodded and quickly signed where he was supposed to. When he was through, he sighed out heavily and smiled, a rarity for Luke. He wasn’t a smiling kind of guy. Not until recently.
The lawyer slid the same piece of paper over to me.
“Mr. Kane, if you will…”
I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed that pen and signed with a big flourish. Elias did likewise. And, just like that, the business was finally mine.
Outside the office, Luke’s fiancée, Cindy, was waiting for him in his truck. She rolled down the passenger side window and kissed him before he even got in the car. I whistled at them and Luke gave me the finger, but still couldn’t tear his lips away from hers.
“Come on, let’s go celebrate,” I shouted. “Beers at Rook’s. My treat.”
I laughed. Luke hated beer.
But he finally pulled away from Cindy for long enough to finally say something to me about what had just happened between us.
“Thanks, man,” he said, offering me his hand to shake. “Dad’s legacy is in good hands.”
I smiled. That meant a lot to me. My father’s approval was hard to come by and I’d never been sure that I had it while he was alive. Luke’s was the second best thing, and I was going to do this family proud. I’d done a hell of a job proving that I wasn’t a screw up. And even though I dropped out of college, drive a motorcycle, and hated everything about the phrasesettling down, I was still a solid guy and could run a business.
“So where do we stand on celebrating?” I asked.
I tried not to sound too married to the idea as I was pretty sure that Luke and Cindy were going to pick out Tupperware or curtains or whatever engaged people do, and Elias was itching to get back to work, even though it was four thirty in the afternoon on a Friday and, as far as I was concerned, it was the weekend.
“Anybody?” I wondered. “Bueller?”
“We can’t tonight, Carter,” Cindy answered. “Luke and I are meeting with my bosses at Farrelly Grove to talk about the wedding. Sorry.”
“That’s cool. Elias?”
I looked over at my twin brother, hoping he’d finally take a page out of my book and enjoy his life a little bit for once. But he shook his head and shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat.
“I can’t. I want to get a little more done at the office before I head home to Hurricane Sarah and can’t even hear myself think,” he scoffed.
I nodded. My best friend Kieran’s younger sister Sarah was crashing in Elias’s guest room indefinitely and driving him crazy in the process.
“I get it,” I told him.
Kieran was out of town for the weekend visiting some friend of his from college, so he was out. But I was determined to find someone to party with tonight. I hopped on my bike and shot off a quick text to my friends, Steph and Maya, hoping that they’d be down for a few beers and some celebrating. I just officially became a business owner, and I wasn’t going to let this night go without a party.
Carter: You guys want to come to Rook’s and celebrate?
