Page 6 of Never Say Yes To Your Brother's Best Friend

She’s blunt. I do appreciate that. “I can’t. It was in the will that I can’t sell it for five years after inheriting it.” I have other money, so I could technically buy something else and rent out this one or let it stand empty. Maybe let it go to pot and show it the same amount of love my grandpa showed me for all I care.

“Hmm, that’s interesting. What other asshole clauses did he put in there?”

I sit down on the other couch. It’s equally as hard, so I perch with care. “I don’t know. Lots. He had investments, corporations, some of this, some of that…he put stipulations on all of it. It has been a lot of lawyer meetings.”

“Being rich sounds like a pain in the ass. You should just take it all and donate it.”

I’ve donated rather large chunks of whatever money I have been able to get my hands on because I feel the exact same thing. I refuse to laugh. I refuse to admit she’s right. I refuse to acknowledge just how much wealth I was left with. Honestly? It’s overwhelming. I find it a little bit obscene, and I’m half embarrassed by it. I’m not the kind of man who was ever cut out to live this way.

“Jace never was able to tell me much of anything about you.” Aspen loops a strand of hair around her finger. She plays with it for a few seconds before she lets her hand drop. She looks at me directly. “So? Who are you? I need it in the bullet form cheat study notes style.”

Maybe if I give her this, it will be good enough. She’ll decide this isn’t for her, thatI’mnot for her, and she’ll go back to wherever she can be happy. “I wasn’t much of anyone. I’m still not much of anyone. I like to be left alone, for the most part.” It’s not like I had a choice for most of my life. “You know what I did for a living. The same thing your brother did. I stopped a year and a half ago. My grandpa pulled strings and influenced some pretty high-up people to get me back here. He was sick, dying. He wanted me to be here for that last little bit.” One final punishment from a prick who never loved me, but I was his last bit of flesh and blood, and I guess that meant more to him than anything as he was getting ready to shuck off the old mortal coil. “So, I suppose I’m retired now.” Was that by choice? Fuck no. Do I miss being out there in the field every single day? Well, not every single day, and not every job. But some ofit. Just some days. I’m always going to be that way. There is about four percent of me that is never going to be used to being domesticated.

“So you’re back to living in polite society.” Her brows shoot up. “You don’t strike me as someone who would be very good at it—mixing with other people who have money. I don’t think old money likes new money, but you’re like the worst of new money. You’re awkward at it, and it looks like you’re disdainful of it, which would drive anyone crazy. Plus, your manners are atrocious. You’re no good at faking it, and being rich seems like it’s all stuffy and fake. It’s probably all face injections, BBLs, and purse doggies.”

“Gah. What’s a BBL?” I have to ask. My curiosity gets the better of me before I can stop myself.

“A Brazilian butt lift,” she answers.

“Oh!” Oh, Jesus. “I don’t think I’ll be getting one of those anytime soon.”

She bursts into the softest, sweetest laughter. It’s nothing like Jace’s loud guffaw. I swear, that laugh of his just about got us killed a few times. I also swear I’d take a bullet just about anywhere that’s not fatal right now if I could just hear his laugh again.

“Did Jace know about this?”

“The butt lifts?”

“Yeah.” Her smile is like pure sunshine. The kind you never find in the city. No, it’s better. It’s more like the first breath you take after thinking you won’t be able to take another. My heart starts pounding for no reason I can even name except that all my internal danger tripwires are being stepped on, and alarm bells are pinging through my brain.

“No, he didn’t know anything about those. Or about this. When I left…I didn’t want to leave, but he knew enough. He just didn’t realize the extent of it. Neither did I, to be honest.” I’mbeing too honest right now. That’s what I’m doing. But then, I’m not talking about my life over there. All the years I spent doing shit that I can’t ever talk about. My life now is pretty much public knowledge. It’s not one big secret, and that has taken some getting used to.

Not having to watch my back every time I step out of the house.

The easy way society just crawls all over the place, invading every single corner and crevice. The laughter, the people, the houses, the traffic, the access to everything, the stores, the crowds, theliving.

“If he had known,” Aspen says with a frown, studying me and seeing more than I’d like. “He would have been even more worried. He definitely would have had us both get our letters sooner.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Well, you’re clearly uncomfortable here. You might have all the money in the world, but it doesn’t make up for what a person needs most.”

I’m not going to fall off the couch right now. I’m fuckingnot. “And what’s that?”

“Friends. Love. Family. This house pretty much screams soulless loneliness. I’m sorry to say so because it’s super nice and everything, and I’m sure your grandpa was a good man—”

“My grandpa was the meanest son of a b you’d ever meet.”

“Oh. Um…” For a second, she doesn’t know what to do with that information, but then she nods tightly. “Yeah, well, I’m sorry for it.” She pats her purse, and then she flips open the top and takes out a piece of paper. With trembling hands, she unfolds it. “This was the last thing my brother wanted. He wanted us to get married. I don’t know why, but I don’t think it’s a joke. I have every intention of honoring his wish, even if we both think it’s the worst of terrible ideas. What’s a fewweeks? We could get legally married to say we did and then get legally annulled. We could give it a shot for a period of time, and then we could just…I don’t know. Be long-distance friends or something. No offense, but you seem about as warm and loving as a cactus, and goodness knows I adore those plants, but they’re exceptionally prickly. I know you don’t want this, and I don’t want it either, but we’re both going to have to suck it up and just do it. Otherwise, I think we’ll live our whole lives haunted by the fact that we loved Jace, and we didn’t do him the honor and respect of following through with this.”

“You can’t just…will two people to get along, let alone get married.”

“I know that,” she says exasperatedly.

Does she? Yeah, her eyes are narrowed at me now. And she’s clutching the letter like it’s a lifeline, holding onto it for dear life.

I know that feeling. I know whatshe’sfeeling. What she’s wishing.

Neither of us was with Jace when he died. We weren’t there. His body came back home, but she wouldn’t have gotten to see it. It was no doubt a closed casket, and who knows? They might have lied to his family about there even being a body. The casket could have been empty. Not saying that’s a thing, but…yeah. Either way, she didn’t get closure. I wasn’t with him. I wasn’t watching his back. I left. If I had stayed, he might still be alive. Instead, I was here, living this life I never wanted, and he was…he was there. It might have been brutal. They wouldn’t tell me.Me.Even after I gave up over a decade of my life for them. I don’t know how it happened. I just know it did.

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