Page 21 of My XOXO Holidate

He shakes his head. “Suit yourself then. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving and I’m gonna eat those burgers before they get cold.” Steve takes the front porch steps two at a time. “Did you get extra pickles on mine?”

I roll my eyes. “Of course.”

When we hit the living room, Steve pushes into my side and tries to indulge me in a race for the kitchen. Just like when we were kids.

“Asshole,” I mutter as I block him with my shoulder, and we practically trip over each other’s big bodies in the small bungalow. I reach the kitchen countertop a millisecond before my brother and grab the fast-food sack and wave it in victory.

Steve narrows his eyes. “Fries or rings?”

“One of each.”

I open the sack and put the food on the countertop. We plop down in the lawn chairs we’ve been using in the house after we got rid of all the furniture.

“A little more than a week and the new family will take over,” Steve muses as he looks around the kitchen. “Lots of good times in here. Remember when Mom burned the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving?”

I laugh. “Geez, smelled like dead pumpkin for months.” I pop a French fry in my mouth.

We eat our food in silence until my brother interrupts my thoughts. “You know you can head back to New York any time now. I can handle the final paperwork.” He shrugs and takes adrink. “You’ve been here long enough, and I know you need to get back to work. You don’t need to be here for the closing.”

“I suppose not.”

“Unless you want a few more days with your girl.”

I growl. “She’s not my girl.”

My brother holds up his hands in surrender. “Whoa. Sorry.”

“Not my girl anymore,” I grumble.

“Are you gonna tell me what happened?”

“Not much to tell.” I take a bite of my burger. “Same old story. She found out who I was, and she was using me for my money.”

“What?” My brother furrows his eyebrows. “How do you know that?”

“She’s broke, Steve. Likereallybroke. She’s thousands of dollars in debt. Tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Not only that, but she’s filing for bankruptcy.”

“It doesn’t mean she’s afteryourmoney though, right?”

I take a drink from the straw. “She didn’t tell me about the debt and bankruptcy. I came across the paperwork on her desk while she was in the shower.” I grab an onion ring from the sack. “And before you ask, I wasn’t snooping. I was looking for my wallet and cell phone and the paperwork was right there.”

“If she were trying to keep it a secret, don’t you think she would have hidden the paperwork?”

I shrug. “Maybe…”

“Just because you’ve been screwed over once doesn’t mean every woman you meet is after your fortune, you know.”

“Maybe I jumped in too soon with Amelia.”

“It’s been a year since Ruby, man. At some point, you gotta get back on the horse.”

“You sound like Dad, asshole.”

Steve grins. “No offense. Dad was a very wise man, you know.”

I nod. “Agreed.”

“Besides that, you liked this girl since you were in school. You’ve known her since what? Elementary school?”

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