Page 86 of For the Promise

And I’m not asking Rhett or Eli for advice. Eli stumbled and blushed through giving me the birds and bees talk. I waited until he was finished to let him know I’d already decided to wait until college for sex. I didn’t wait, but since he believed I did, he left me alone.

“Chivalry isn’t dead,” Miles reads from my computer. “There’s a list of examples of how to be chivalrous.”

“Why do you need examples?” Kai asks.

“Yeah.” Zane nods. “Aren’t you married already?”

Miles elbows him. “It’s fake, remember?” He whisper-shouts.

“Fake, right?” Kai winks. “The same way those scratches on his back on Saturday were fake.”

I ignore how my back tingles and my balls tighten with memories of how I got those scratches. I can’t get hard in front of my brothers. I’ll never hear the end of it.

“Do none of you have work to do?” I ask.

Zane shrugs. “I can’t do anything on the marketing campaign for the new flavor of whiskey until you figure out what it’s going to be.”

I find it difficult to believe the marketing manager of the distillery has nothing to do but as I have no clue what his actual duties are – marketing doesn’t interest me in the least – I keep quiet.

“I did a couple of sales calls today. Sold a ton of whiskey. I deserve a break,” Miles declares.

Whether he did sales calls or not is immaterial. Miles always thinks he deserves a break. Especially when the waves are ‘off the hook’ – whatever that means.

I cross my arms over my chest and address Kai. “I know you have work to do.”

As the operations manager, Kai needs to be in the distillery the most often of my three younger brothers. Which is a problem since he’s never on time and believes time is a construct to put the man down. I have no clue what that means either.

Kai’s nose wrinkles. “The work never ends. If I stayed here until I was finished, I’d live here.”

This is the reason I begged Eli to find an experienced operations manager for the distillery. Kai isn’t mature enough for the position. I end up handling the majority of his tasks. I don’tcomplain, though. It’s easier to do the work than ask Kai to do it. He’s an expert in making up excuses.

Rhett peers into my office. “I didn’t know we were having a Raider brother meeting.”

“We’re not.”

He motions to Miles, Zane, and Kai. “Four out of six brothers is a majority.”

“They were just leaving.”

Zane laughs. “He’s trying to get rid of us because he doesn’t want us to tell you what he’s reading.”

“Which is silly,” Miles adds.

“Because, of course, we’re telling you,” Kai says.

Rhett crosses his arms over his chest and stares at our brothers. “Tell me what?”

“Nothing!” I shout as I snatch the keyboard from Kai and finally manage to shut the book I was reading.

“He’s reading a book about how to woo a woman,” Zane says.

I try to stop them but my cheeks warm with a blush.

“How to woo a woman?” Rhett asks and Zane nods. “This is great news.”

Miles smirks. “Great fun, you mean.”

Rhett waves a hand in dismissal at him. “Are you serious about Blossom?”

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