Page 21 of The Proximity Effect

“And mine.” Evan shifted his weight forward, looking ready to punch me in the face, which, given our history, wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility.

“See?” Liam threw his hands up. “We’re already doing it. Fighting over her like we’re twenty-two again.”

“We’re not fighting over anyone. This was a moment of weakness.” Despite my words, there was a possessive surge in my chest at the mention of either of them with Tessa.

“Right.” Evan’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Tessa isn’t Evelyn, but we are still the same idiots who let a woman come between us and business once before. And now we’re stuck here, trying to run this resort together becauseGavin...” Liam’s voice cracked slightly on the name. “Because Gavin thought we needed to fix what broke.”

The truth of his words hung heavy in the air. We’d never really dealt with what happened in college or with Gavin’s death; we had buried it. But now, with Tessa stirring up old feelings we’d been ignoring, the fault lines were starting to show.

“So, what do we do?” The anger that had been in Evan’s voice gave way to something more vulnerable.

I wished I had an answer because we would probably simply ignore everything and each other like we had been. We might have been men almost in our mid-thirties, but we acted like we were petulant children fighting over a toy.

At one point, I’d considered Evan, Liam, and Gavin the brothers I never had. We’d met our freshman year in a business class and been thick as thieves. Back then, I’d been wound up tight, but they’d brought me out of my rigid shell, where my sole focus had been academics and being the best of the best.

Gavin never backed down when he set his mind to something, Liam was always infusing his need for adrenaline into most situations, and Evan brought levity to situations whether they called for it or not.

I’d found a balance between academics and having a life, and for almost four years, things were perfect. We all started trusting a woman we shouldn’t have, and our carefully constructed plans of buying our first hotel went up in flames, right along with our friendships.

Now, here I was, working sixteen-hour days to run a resort that was no longer the dream I once had and maintaining a small list of clientele at the law firm that bore my name. I didn’t work my ass off for years to become a partner to let it slip away.

I cleared my throat and straightened. “Maybe we shouldn’t hire her. That will solve our problem, and then she’ll be gone in ten days.”

Liam rolled his eyes, but Evan suddenly grinned. Evan grinning was never a good sign, especially when the situation was so far from a grin-worthy one.

“She seems to like all of our company, so why not let her?” Evan grabbed a spoon and headed for my ice cream. “She just got out of a serious relationship, so I’m sure she’ll want to keep it casual.”

“You mean… share her? I don’t know about that…” Liam grabbed a spoon and joined the ice cream party. “Where did this come from?”

I grabbed it from Evan’s grubby hands before he could dig in. “It’s mine.”

“You always were greedy with your ice cream.” Evan gave me a dejected puppy look. It had been a long time since I’d seen it, and something about it cracked the concrete I’d poured around my heart.

I put the container down on the counter. “Don’t eat it all.”

“Wow. I can’t believe you fell for that.” Evan grabbed the container and made a beeline to the other side of the kitchen with it. “Like taking candy from a baby.”

“I have work to do.” I walked to the exit, not even acknowledging that Evan had suggested wealllet things unfold with Tessa.

It was a ludicrous idea, especially considering we’d just met her.

I stared at the ceiling, watching the shadows from the pre-dawn light dance across the wood surface. Sleep had been elusive, my mind replaying what had happened in the kitchen with Tessaon an endless loop, interspersed with memories of Evelyn and everything that followed.

By six, I gave up the pretense of rest. Even though it was technically my day off, the stack of legal briefs waiting for my attention wouldn’t review themselves. And “day off” was a relative term when you were trying to run both a resort and maintain a law practice.

I needed to get out of here and away from the constant reminder of everything that was falling apart. The walls of the cabin felt like they were closing in. Every day was a mocking reminder of another problem I couldn’t control.

God, I hated the word couldn’t. It wasn’t in my vocabulary until this place dropped into my lap, bringing with it a minefield of complications I hadn’t anticipated. Between having to run the place when I’d rather be anywhere else and Tessa’s arrival stirring up things I’d rather forget, it felt like things were unraveling one thread at a time. One good yank, and everything would completely fall apart.

Trading my usual suit for dark jeans and a gray hoodie, I grabbed my laptop bag and baseball hat. The familiar weight of it settled something in my chest that had been unsettled since last night.

I completely bypassed the hotel and headed to The Perky Squirrel in town. It had become the one place where I could pretend I was just another guy working on his laptop instead of one of the three idiots running Sterling Pines into the ground.

“Good morning, Mr. Blackwell, your usual?” The barista reached for a medium cup.

“Good morning, Deb. I’ll have a large today. And can you add a sprinkle of cinnamon?” So what if my coffee order was complicated and didn’t exactly match my personality? At least I knew what I wanted, unlike everything else in my life lately.

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