Page 72 of When I Fall In Love

“Thinking,” I call back and his eyes widen as I pop open the door.

“Thinking?” Raiden repeats. “Never a good thing.”

“Is that so?”

“No,” he says on a laugh. “Sometimes it’s the best thing.”

“Luckily I’m done with all my thinking.” I close the door. “What’re you doing here?”

“Talk to you, I must.”

How ominous. Especially since Raiden is showing his nerves by swapping words around like he used to when his stutter was at its worst. Why is it that everybody needs a heart-to-heart with me lately? And never mind that, this is Raiden’s second one in two weeks. This is without a doubt about Bill’s barn and his growing business again.

“Let’s go to my office.”

We make our way through the glass doors into the foyer and take the stairs to the admin floor.

“Ethan is staying longer,” Raiden says as we scale the stairs. “He says he was with you when he got the news?”

“Yes. Good thing too.” I open the door to the reception area and Britt’s head pops out from behind her computer screen.

“Boss!”

“Britt!” I smile. She’s the first person I always see when I get to the office and I kind of missed her.

I nod towards my office for Raiden to follow me and he smiles in greeting at Britt. As soon as we are out of view, he roughhouses me all the way to my office.

We both laugh as we still try to best each other until he has me hooked behind the knee and makes me fall to the ground. My brother is built from all the years of working in construction, but I’m not one to give up so easily and eventually I manage to flip him over and pin him down.

“Hell, Ray, now I’ve built up a sweat,” I huff on a smirk as I stand and neaten my shirt back into my pants.

Raiden gets up and drags his hands through his hair and grips his head tight. “God, I needed that,” he says on a laugh.

So did I. This type of behavior for me is unheard of and I laugh too. With my decision already made, I feel light for the first time in years. The tension around Bill’s situation still weighs on me, but now it seems it loosened and eased off a bit. I grab two bottles of water from my fridge and toss one to him. He catches it in one smooth move and settles into the seat across my desk, right there where he was earlier this year, in May. With a smile I recall that moment that changed his life.

As I sit down, I unscrew the cap. “How did you pick your assistant from those three résumés we looked at that day in May for your internship?” I ask. I know he sure as shit didn’t read any of them.

Raiden laughs into his water and takes one more sip as I drink deeply from my own.

“I tossed the résumés in the air and, well, Georgiana landed on the desk, the rest on the floor and that’s how I chose her. Easy as pie. Best thing that ever happened to me. A swoop of paper. Just like that. As if it was meant to be.”

I almost choke. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope. You should try it some time.”

Everything happens for a reason. Even a cascade of paper. “I’ll bear that in mind. Well, with that type of luck, what can I help with?”

“Nothing. I’m here to apologize.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “What for?” Raiden has been nothing but a solid rock that we’ve all leaned on this past week. Ever since he came back over the summer to build his tiny house and things then developed with Georgiana, it’s been like having my old brother back.

“For fucking up your life when I ran away at fifteen. I-I know you gave up on S-Stanford because of me. If I hadn’t run away, you would have been more open to going… and Ethan and Liam would have been fine. You and Beth would have been together like you’ve always been meant to be together. I fucked with that, and I’m really, really sorry.”

Everything is quiet over the hum that comes from the factory next door. I’m speechless. Completely caught off guard. “Ray—”

“Eaten at me, for years, this has, Hunter, and now is the time. I want—I need to apologize to you—and make you understand that I’m back. I’m here to stay. I can deal with everything that’s coming our way. I can be there for Uncle Bill and Aunt May.” He swallows audibly and leans over my desk to reach for my hand where I’m clenching both together on the desktop. “You’ve been so many things for all of us, Hunter, things you never thought you’d be, or ought to have been. It’s time for you to be your own person now. Do your own thing. We’ll all be here, holding down the fort.”

“I-I—” For the first time in my life, I stammer. This is so out of left field that I don’t know what to say.

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