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“Matthew,” I hissed at him, giving him a warning look. And his gruff face softened.
“What?”
“Chill.”
“Fine,” he answered through gritted teeth before leaning back against the booth chair.
“So what do you want?”
“I’m sorry, Reagan.” I could tell from my brother’s face that he felt guilty and that he was tired of dealing with whatever shit my father had convinced him to do. I saw the yearning in his eyes as I stared into his eyes.
He had aged since I last saw him, and there were circles under his eyes now that weren’t there before.
“You want to see your masterpiece from last night?” I challenged, wanting him to understand the severity of his act. If he hadn’t retaliated, none of this would’ve happened.
They didn’t need to fly to Florida to talk to me or even see me. A call would have sufficed, and it would have saved them from the trouble that was Matthew. Because the former hated them, and the fact that they had stepped into his hotel after what had gone through between them, that was an act of war.
Without waiting for his answer, I removed my sunglasses to let him see the throbbing shiner circling my eye. Thankfully, it wasn’t that dark yet. But my cheek was throbbing, and the bruise stood out like a sore thumb because of how fair my skin was.
“Jesus Christ. Fuck. I’m sorry.” I almost felt bad about how uncomfortable I was making him feel, but it wasn’t enough to make up for what he did.
“Stop apologizing.”
“Okay. I’m sor—” He cleared his throat. “Look, if it makes you feel any better, you can punch me in the face right back anytime you want to.”
“I’ll take you up on that,” Matthew raised a finger beside me and I rolled my eyes, almost amused.
“Her. Not you, Matthew,” my brother snapped. “Will you shut up and stop with that alpha-asshole attitude?” There. Right there. A small bit of humor danced in her words and I couldn’t help but wonder.
“Both of you, please,” I begged, trying to stop them acting like little girls. “Get it over with,” I said to Ryan.
“Where do I even begin?” He wiped his face with his hands out of frustration.
“How about explaining why you stole that money from your business and cheated me?” Matthew said nonchalantly as he glanced at the menu.
“I didn’t steal the money, Matthew,” Ryan admitted, and he dared a glance at Matthew. The latter sat up straight and slammed a hand on the table, but not hard enough to cause a scene.
“Bullshit,” he spat. “You admitted that to my face when I confronted you.”
“Well, I’m taking it back.”
“You think changing the narrative is going to make this magically go away?”
“No. But if you could just let me talk.” Matthew shook his head, crossing his arms across his chest, giving Ryan a look that said he wasn’t going to believe the words he said. Tension danced in the air as Ryan continued.
“Parker St. James was losing a ton of money because of competition and we weren’t fast enough to think of an innovation. Consumers didn’t want our bourbon anymore. We were stagnant, and we were too cocky to see that was declining.”
“We couldn’t lose that much money in just six months, Ryan,” Matthew pointed.
“We can. And we did. I didn’t see the drop until three months after you left. Apparently, with economic factors, our prices weren’t reasonable. People weren’t buying from us anymore. And there were supply chain factors and delayed shipping internationally. It was chaotic. And the money—it disappeared fast. We weren’t earning anymore. And I didn’t know how I was going to tell you. Not when you were in Europe to explore the possibilities of expanding to wineries.”
“So you told him you stole the money instead? Like that would make any difference?” I asked, not understanding where he was going.
“I told him I stole it because I had slept with Paige.”
“The ex-girlfriend?” I asked. I hadn’t pressed Matthew to share things about Paige because she had been an old chapter in his life. But also, because Matthew had already made peace with what happened. Yet he dangled her name every chance he got to make my brother uncomfortable.
“Yeah,” Matthew answered. “Explain,” he added, turning to Ryan. Suddenly, he had my man’s attention.
