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Fuck.
The clip belongs to Tess. She was wearing her hair up when she found me at Lucky Lou’s. She was no longer wearing the clip when she stepped outside with her hair down and a beer in her hand, her petite body swimming in my sweatshirt. That was enough to send my dick spiking in one second flat.
Conner’s grin broadens. “You’ve had company.” He yanks the clip from his hair. “Who is she?”
“Never mind.” I toss the sketchbook on the table.
“Tell me. Was it a one nighter? It’s good you’re getting some real exercise. Maybe it’ll improve your personality.”
“Shut up.” I push him to the door. “Let’s go.”
Chapter4
Micah
“There it is.” Conner doesn’t need to point. I know what he’s talking about.
The building always reminds me of a middle finger made of glass. Speared into the center of Em City’s downtown district, it’s the home of Yellow Brick Properties. An immortal monument to our family’s wealth and power.
I feel like flipping it off in return. Sometimes I do that.
But there’s not much point in saying Fuck You to a building. The building won’t care.
The three of us boys were supposed to end up occupying windowed offices. That was always the plan. Gage, Conner and I are the first generation to have no role in hoovering up local territory and turning it into something outlandish like million dollar condos with rooftop wine bars.
The fact that I chose to have nothing to do with the company is still a sore point and always will be.
Matilda runs that place and everyone in it. At her side is Alta, the one sister she has left. She had Dani in her web for a while but Dani quit last year. Matilda has forgiven her for leaving the company because Matilda loves Dani.
Matilda has not forgiven me. Some conclusions might be drawn from that.
When my mother married Henley, his niece came with the package. Dani’s own mother was a loser who’d dumped her kid off at age five on her older brother’s doorstep so she could go party. She never came back.
But the day I met Dorothy Ann Gallagher we were both sixteen and I immediately understood the role she’d play. In her, my mother saw the child shereallywanted. A sweet, beautiful girl instead of a volatile, pain-in-the-ass boy.
That’s not Dani’s fault, not at all. It kind of stung in the beginning but it’s been years since I last gave a shit what my mother thinks. Now I worry that Matilda has pinned all of her hopes on Charlotte, and will mold her accordingly.
Still, I’m careful not to complain about my mother around Conner. Matilda is selfish and annoying and the sound of her phony voice causes my teeth to grind but she’s a saint next to Conner’s mother.
She’s also still alive. And Edie isn’t. So that’s why I never utter a single irritable word about mothers these days.
I shift my eyes away from what could have been my inheritance, if only I’d wanted it. “Barbecue City for lunch?”
“Now you’re talking.” Conner grins.
Conner is recognized at the casual country-themed eatery and the manager almost trips on himself running over to pay his respects and to declare that our meal is on the house. This happens a lot and it’s why Conner leaves a seven-hundred-dollar tip that he won’t allow me to contribute to.
There’s an outbreak of autograph requests when we try to leave. Conner handles them all cheerfully, even posing for dumb selfies with a quartet of giddy women who keep squeezing his muscled arms.
I just stay patiently out of the way until Conner is finished getting pawed. The guy has a heart of gold, can never say no to anyone who asks for a favor.
In that way, we are opposites.
When we were kids, Conner suffered a terrifying head injury. He fell from a tree. After the fall, he had trouble with academics and turned all of his energy to football.
It’s still a touchy subject with him, the fact that his brain isn’t what it used to be. I don’t know everything about severe concussions but I know enough to worry that getting knocked around on the field will catch up to him in a bad way sooner or later.
“And who are you?” A woman sidles up to me, catching on that I’m somehow affiliated with Conner Wiseman. She has dark hair and a tight body and if I squint she might remind me a little bit of Tess.
