Page 6 of Until It Was Real

“None of you.” I glare at them. “Is going to seduce or date or flirt or whatever you want to call it with Eli’s new assistant.”

Zane’s nose wrinkles. “Whatever we want to call it? Are you having memory problems?”

I swear, if Mom wouldn’t haunt me, I’d strangle my brother. Having siblings is a pain in my ass.

“Mom should have stopped having children after me,” I mutter as I open the door of my SUV and start pulling boxes out.

“Don’t be jealous, Mom loves me more than you,” Kai says as he picks up a box and carries it away.

“Mom loves all of us equally,” Miles hollers after him.

“I’m the favorite,” Zane claims.

I ignore them as we carry the boxes into the office side of the distillery building.

“You’re welcome!” Kai shouts as he drops his load in the empty reception area and walks away.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

He taps his empty wrist. “Need to get to work. Don’t want to anger the boss.”

“Me too,” Miles says as he aims for the door.

“Your office is in the other direction.”

“Dude, the waves are calling my name.”

I bite my tongue before I lash out at him. Eli hired Miles knowing he didn’t want anything to do with the distillery. I can threaten to fire him all I want. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t want or need the money from this job. All he needs is a surfboard and the ocean. If he hadn’t injured his shoulder a while back, he’d be a pro surfer.

Zane sighs. “I’ll help.”

I shoo him away. “Not after the last time you ‘helped’ put a bed together and Miles ended up with a concussion when it collapsed.”

“It’s not my fault he was jumping on it.”

“Except you dared him to use the bed as a springboard to fly out of the window.”

“He didn’t have to accept the dare.”

None of my brothers can refuse a dare. It’s why I know the ER doctor by her first name and am intimately acquainted with the jail cells on Smuggler’s Hideaway.

“Go. I’ve got this.”

He ambles away and I open the first box and get to work. The way I always do. I’m always the one taking care of my brothers. And I always will be.

Eli returning home won’t change a thing.

Chapter 3

“Who pissed in your Cheerios?” ~ Dakota

Dakota

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Huh. What’s going on? Why is someone knocking on my door? I hope there’s not an emergency in the motel. It was bad enough I spent half the night listening to a drunk mermaid complain about how all the good smugglers were taken.

I probably should have researched Smuggler’s Hideaway before I decided to upend my entire life to the island. Although, my entire life went up in flames after my husband’s funeral anyway. There wasn’t much to salvage from the ashes.

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