Page 104 of Until It Was Real

Zane taps his chin. “Maybe we should call him grumpy pants.”

Miles smiles. “I approve.”

“Shouldn’t you be surfing?”

“He’s not merely grumpy, he’s also blind.” Miles motions to the window behind me. “Even I can’t surf in this weather.”

Zane elbows him. “Admit it. You want to try.”

“I’m not visiting you in the hospital when you wipe out,” I say.

“Asshole,” Miles mutters before fleeing.

“Dude.” Zane shakes his head. “You can be grumpy but there’s no reason to bring up Miles’s accident.”

Fuck. Miles is very sensitive about the accident that caused him to give up his dream of becoming a professional surfer. I rub a hand down my face. “I didn’t mean to bring up his accident.”

Kai peeks into my office. “Where’s the fire?”

“There’s no fire.”

“Then, why was I told to report to your office pronto?”

I blow out a breath. “Because it’s apparently torture Rhett time.”

“Nah, dude,” Zane says. “We’re trying to cheer you up.”

I don’t bother asking why they feel the need to cheer me up. It’s not exactly a secret that I dumped Dakota.

“By calling me grumpy?”

He shrugs. “I didn’t say the plan was perfect.”

“I got this.” Kai rubs his hands together. “Brother, you remind me of a country song – you just need a truck, a lost dog, and a bottle of whiskey.”

Zane snickers. “Good thing we own a distillery.”

“Do we need to call a doctor?” Kai asks. “Because this level of pathetic might be a medical condition.”

I growl at him. “I’m not pathetic.”

“But you are broken,” Zane says.

“I haven’t seen something this broken since Mom’s favorite vase ‘mysteriously’ fell off the shelf,” Kai adds.

Zane throws his hands in the air. “It wasn’t my fault.”

It was totally his fault. Baseball is not an indoor sport, no matter what my brother thinks.

“I’d say there are ‘plenty of fish in the sea,’ but let’s be real – you ain’t exactly a skilled fisherman.”

I glare at Kai. “I know how to fish.”

Zane shakes his head. “Dude.”

“What’s going on?” Eli asks as he enters my office.

Finally. A responsible brother. “These two are just leaving to get back to work.”

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