Page 108 of The Broker

“They are.” Because they’d known her since we’d become friends in the third grade. I was closer with Sasha these days, but for a long time, Brianna and I had been inseparable, and she would always be a bonus daughter to my mom.

Noah put his hands on the bed on either side of my head and rose onto extended arms, so I had a clear view of his disapproving look. “You know we can’t.”

“Of course I know,” I grumbled. “I’m just whining, okay? It’d be nice if we didn’t have to sneak around.”

His expression softened. “Yeah, it would.”

But he didn’t say anything else, because we didn’t talk about the future. He’d been resistant to us becoming more than friends, and now that we were, I sensed I needed to be patient about anything else.

I knew better than to press and ask him directly when we were going to tell my parents about us. And if I asked him where he saw this thing between us going, there was a chance I wouldn’t like his answer.

I decided ignorance was bliss. We’d only been together a few weeks, and he’d probably argue that wasn’t long enough to claim things were serious.

Why did it feel so serious, then?

I pushed the thought away, hooked a hand on the back of his neck, and pulled him down to me. “Forget I said anything.”

His mouth against mine was a drug, making everything else drift away—

Until the lawnmower outside made another pass by the window and reality intruded back into my mind. There wasn’t time for this kiss to lead into round two of morning sex. Noah had said it was after nine, and I needed to be seated at my laptop in my room, with hair and makeup camera-ready by ten forty-five.

This was because he’d booked me an Instagram Live interview with another influencer, one who had a huge following, at eleven. And after lunch, I had a Zoom call with a web designer to discuss my needs so they could provide a quote.

Noah was adamant I needed a website, because my little brand was really taking off.

Last week, Hot Girl Cleanshad surpassed fifteen thousand subscribers on YouTube, and with monetization, I was earning money. Sure, sometimes it was less than ten dollars a day, but others it was more, and... everyone had to start somewhere, right?

“Okay, stop distracting me.” I pretended to be annoyed. “I have to go.”

“I’m distracting you?” He grinned and shook his head. “You’re the one who asked for attention.”

It took an enormous amount of self-control to climb out of his bed and get dressed. I had to make an even bigger effort to leave his house, because he didn’t bother getting dressed before walking me to his front door. He was wearing only a pair ofshort, red boxer briefs as he kissed me goodbye, and he looked so damn good, it should have been criminal.

I hurried down his front path toward my car, but couldn’t stop myself from glaring at the next-door neighbor and his loud lawnmower, like me being out of time was his fault and not my own. Really, the guy had done me a favor by waking me up.

With all the times I’d been over at Noah’s, I’d only seen his neighbors on that side of his house twice. The man was a few years older than Noah, and I’d been told he was a surgeon, which explained why he rarely seemed to be home. The girl who lived with him was probably my age, so I had assumed she was his daughter.

Girlfriend, Noah had told me.

I’d been so fucking curious about them, but I hadn’t seen them since. Their age gap was bigger than mine and Noah’s, and yet they made it work.

I squinted against the bright morning sunlight to make out the man riding on the lawnmower that was steadily approaching. He wore a shirt with the sleeves cut off, a ragged baseball hat, and sunglasses. It made him look young, and sort of familiar, and—

“What the fuck?” I said.

Was thatPreston?

We hadn’t seen each other since he’d abandoned me on our date, so I half expected him not to recognize me, but as he drew closer, his shoulders snapped back. He jerked the machine to a stop, and the engine had barely finished shutting down when he spoke. “Charlotte?”

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

He dismounted and strode forward, looking at me with the same disbelief I had about seeing him. His tone was unsure, like he’d thought it should be obvious. “I’m mowing the yard.”

My gaze flitted to the house beside Noah’s. “You live here?”

He nodded, and I held in the curse I wanted to make. What dumb fucking luck was this? Whatever face I was making, it must have said I wasn’t happy about it, because he seemed eager to ease my anxiety.

“Not for much longer,” he said. “I signed a lease on a new place last week.” Even with his sunglasses on, I could tell by the tilt of his head he was looking up at Noah’s house. “Are you visiting Noah for a Warbler thing?”

---