Page 98 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“And the garden bed you were going to grow vegetables in,” Connor said. “A kitchen you were going to cook soup in. You started dreaming of a future here, one with us in it. I’m not letting that go, Kendall, I’m not.”

“We can sell the place, move into a rental, save a bit of money and buy another place at some point,” I told him, all confidence when I felt none. Renting was tough right now and house prices were skyrocketing. It was how I ended up here in the first place. “We don’t have to live here.”

“In someone else’s house, paying off their mortgage?” Connor shook his head. “No, not that. I’ll talk to Dad, see if I can reason with him—”

“There’s always a business loan,” Alan continued. “It won’t be interest free like the one you got from your father.”

“And how’s that going to affect our bottom line?” Gage asked, peering at the loan calculator on Alan’s laptop.

“Or I could connect you with some of the people I know,” Alan continued. “I know some investors who might be willing to come on board at a lower interest rate.”

“We shouldn’t have had yes day.” Where the hell had that come from? My mouth opened and words just came out. “We shouldn’t have gone shopping. You bought me not one set of cookware, but two.”

“Kendall—” Gage started to say.

“No, you spent… thousands on me.” My heart started to pound. “And you—”

“Will do so again.” Gage pressed his forehead to mine. “The look on your face… I’d pay twice as much to see you looking that happy.”

“But now we’re in the shit, and you’re talking about selling the house—” I babbled.

“We’re not selling the house,” Van and Connor said at the same time, glancing at each other and then me. “This is our home.”

“Then what about selling up?” Alan asked. “You could sell the business and hope the new owners keep the staff on. You’ve built a successful company in a relatively short period of time. Seems like you’re capable of doing that again. If you get a good price for it, you could pay out both of your investors and have a chunk of money left over to reinvest in the new company. You might have to go back to the days of the three of you doing all the work, but it’s a possibility. It’d resolve your financial obligations and keep a roof over your head.”

But it would mean losing everything they’d worked so hard for.

“That’s probably our best bet right now,” Connor said, nodding slowly. “It’s definitely what the lawyers want.”

“Whaddya reckon, babe?” Van asked. “Will you think I’m sexy, coming home all hot and sweaty and covered in dirt?”

“It’d just give me an excuse to wash you off every afternoon.” I said that with a lighthearted smile, but my mind had started to race. What if there was another way?

“Are you going to be OK?” Barbie asked as we walked her and Alan to the door. Hours had gone by and we weren’t any closer to finding a solution that made all of us happy.

“We’ll be fine,” I told her. “They don’t like the idea of it, but we could do just as well in a rental out in the western suburbs for a while. We could even rent this place out and find somewhere cheaper to live in the meantime. At least if we end up living in someone’s shed, they’ve got the skills to make it habitable.”

“Kendall…”

I was trying to make light of the situation, but her blue eyes filled with concern.

“We’ll be OK. It’s just…” Connor, that was what I wanted to say. We were in problem-solving mode, but he was in… pain. A pain I knew all too well, when the people who’re supposed to love you most don’t. “We’ll find a way past this.”

“We…” Barbie nodded slowly, her smile spreading. “You’re part of a we, Kendall. They are completely gone on you, but you’re… You love them too.”

“I do.” I glanced back to where Alan was still chatting to the guys, handing out business cards. “I really do. I think I always did.”

“See, I—”

I slapped a hand over her mouth and shot her a dark look.

“There will be no ‘I told you so’ happening here.”

“I informed you as much?” She wrinkled her nose at that. “I made clear that this was the case? Nah. I communicated that this was an inevitable outcome.”

“You see, when you talk like this, people might actually mistake you for being smart,” I said. “They’d be wrong, but still.”

She just chuckled as she moved in to give me a hug.

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