Page 53 of A Little Tempting

“See? And you get tonight off,” Reeves adds as he follows me. “Sounds like a win to me.”

I roll my eyes. “Not sure it’s an even trade-off.”

“Maybe not, but you gotta look at the bright side, Dylan.”

“Not sure there’s a bright side in this,” I argue.

“There’s always a bright side.”

I stop walking and face him fully. “How do you do it? How do you always…turn shit around? You did it at the funeral. You’re doing it now. I don’t get it. My whole life might be up in flames, and…”

“And here you are.Okay,” he emphasizes. “Pretty sure you guys being okay is all that matters.”

“Yeah, but my things?—”

“Can all be replaced. There’s only one you.” He boops my nose then turns on his heel. “I’ll talk to my client. Why don’t you grab your things, make sure you’re good to go with your boss, and I’ll meet you outside in five.”

“Reeves, you don’t have to?—”

“Too late.” He walks backward toward table four while holding my stare. “Tell Fin I’ll give her a ride, too. We need to check out the damage.”

He’s right. We do. And if I have to wait for Griffin, Jaxon, or Everett to give me a ride, it might be a while.

Forcing my legs to move, I murmur, “Thanks,” while untying my apron.

12

DYLAN

There’s a lot of it. Damage. But it’s not as bad as I expected after my phone call with my dad. Half of the kitchen is burned to a crisp, and most of our bedding and clothes will have to be replaced thanks to the smoke damage, but otherwise? The firefighters said we were pretty lucky. I was even able to save the froggy shower curtain in the bathroom, which is pretty much the bane of Finley’s existence. When I found out, I even managed to laugh.

My parents are here to assess the loss as well, but there isn’t anything they can do. Their hands are as tied as ours.

We walk along the charred flooring, inspecting the damage while Griffin, Everett, and Reeves hang out at the entrance. When Everett saw Finley and me climb out of Reeves’ car, he didn’t look too happy about it, but I didn’t care. I was too busy freaking out over the fire truck parked in front of our house. Now, here we are, our minds reeling as we inspect our torched kitchen.

“What are we going to do?” Finley asks.

“Henry already has enough on his plate,” my dad mutters, mentioning Maverick’s dad, “so I called the insurance company for him. They’ll send someone out tomorrow to get the ball rolling with everything. We need to find you girls a place to stay.”

“Why don’t they stay with us?” Griffin offers. “Everett and I can share his room, and the girls can share mine on the second floor.”

“You don’t mind?” my mom asks. “We could always look into a short-term lease or?—”

“As long as the guys don’t mind, I’m fine sharing with Finley,” I interrupt. “You already have enough on your plate, too, trying to figure out this mess. I don’t want to make your lives any harder.”

“Yeah, and I definitely don’t want to stay in a hotel long-term,” Finley adds. “Besides, I bet my left boob all of the available housing near campus is already booked solid for the school year. At least if we stay with the guys, we’ll have a kitchen.”

“And we’ll have another badass cook under our roof,” Griffin chimes in. He’s talking about Finley and Everett. Their dad’s an amazing cook and passed on his skills to both his kids. Seriously. Finley’s Belgian waffles are legendary, and Everett’s soups, pasta, and, well, basically everything the guy cooks are pretty freaking incredible, too.

With a sigh, my mom pulls me into another hug and sags into me. “Are you sure you guys don’t mind?”

I hug her back. Griffin takes my place when I let her go. “Sure thing, Mom,” he tells her. “Not a big deal.”

“And you?” My mom gives Everett a pointed look.

“Happy to help, Aunt Ash.”

“What about you?” She turns to Reeves.

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