Page 69 of Crazy Little Thing Called Love

BJ sat at the bar with Penny, crouching over her shoulder to peer at her laptop on which she was furiously typing. “Can’t you just add a button where people can click and buy our stuff?”

Penny hunched in on herself at his brother’s frustrated question. “No, I can’t just add a button. You’re talking about adding an entire ordering system. There are services you can hire out for that functionality, but if you guys want to do it yourself there’s security issues to deal with, banking and tax things to consider, not to mention you sell alcohol, so you would need to check the legality of your buyers, and I’m not even sure of the laws regarding that.”

“People sell wine baskets over the internet.”

Hearing his brother argue for an addition to their business when he basically had to strong-arm the Jackass twins into giving his restaurant idea a shot, broke the last straw in the suck that was currently his life.

“Yes, but that’s different, BJ. I can’t—”

Del couldn’t hold his silence any longer. “Hey!”

All action stopped. Three pairs of eyes turned to him, two narrowed and one wide. Okay, maybe he’d spoken a bit louder than he’d intended.

“Sorry to interrupt, Penny.” He didn’t care if he’d pissed off his brothers, but Penny was so sweet and skittish, a geek to the core. No one liked upsetting the poor woman. Judging by the murderous glare the second-born twin currently sent his way, BJ was about ten seconds from kicking his ass. The guy was extremely protective of his best friend.

“I-it’s okay,” the meek woman stuttered. “I was heading out anyway.”

His brother sent him one more glare before wrapping an arm around Penny’s shoulders. “You don’t have to leave on account of this jerk.”

Shutting her laptop, she tucked it into her bag and slipped away from BJ. “It’s okay. I have an appointment with another client anyway.”

“Call me later.”

“I always do.” As she slipped by Del, she placed her hand on his arm. Gracing him with a small smile, she whispered, “Good luck. I believe in you.”

Damn. He kind of loved Penny. She was socially awkward as all get out, but there wasn’t an insincere bone in her body. Of course, she knew about the meeting because BJ told her. Those two shared everything. He’d once thought it weird, but after getting closer to Cassie, he understood. Having someone you could confide in, share your ups, downs, and everything in between with was amazing.

A lightning bolt went off in his brain as he realized Cassie was his best friend. Somehow she’d not only become the love of his life but his best friend, too. The person he wanted to spend all his time with, laugh with, cry with, share with.

And dammit, she shut him out.

No time to think on that now. He had two very pigheaded brothers to sway.

“You wanted to talk to us about the restaurant?” Ace said, getting right to the point.

“Yes.” Throwing back his shoulders, he called up all the confidence he could muster. “I have the start-up money.”

BJ and Ace shared one of those annoying twin communication looks before glancing back to him.

“Really?” BJ plopped down on the barstool Penny recently vacated. “And where did you get this money? Bank loan?”

“No.” He tilted up his chin, ashamed, but knowing his brothers could smell a lie from a mile away, went with the truth. “I couldn’t get any bank to finance a loan. Too risky.”

His brothers nodded as if they agreed. Screw them, screw everyone. His idea would work. He knew it. And if it didn’t….at least he tried to be something more than the slacker everyone thought he was.

Dammit, I want to be more.

“I sold Beatrice.”

At that, both of the twins’ jaws dropped.

BJ recovered first. “You sold Dad’s car?”

“I sold my car. Mom gave it to me. I was the one who put in hours upon hours rebuilding it with him. I found a buyer in Denver. Sold it this morning.”

“But…why?” BJ asked.

Ace still had yet to say anything. He just stared at Del with contemplative silence.

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