Page 7 of Play For Me
“Let me show you more of the place.” I walk them around, telling them our ideas before heading to the back office. With a fresh coat of paint on the walls and a new desk, it’s finally starting to come together. The leather couch will arrive next week. I figure I’ll be working long hours in the beginning, and it will be nice to have a place to crash if I need to.
“Already ordering the good stuff?” Jake walks over and picks up the high-end bottle of bourbon on my desk next to the four glasses I set out.
“No, I got that for today. There’s another reason I asked you all to come today besides checking out the progress.” I point to the oversized item leaning against the wall, covered by the white sheet. “I got the sign in today and wanted to show you.”
“We finally get to know the name of this place?” Ryder grins and walks over to the desk. “This does call for a celebration. You’ve been so secretive about it, I’m almost scared to look,” he laughs and pours us each a glass.
“You know Hooters is taken, right?” Jake asks, his lips twitching to hold back a smile.
“Yes, asshole. I’m fully aware,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“And anything with tits and ass in the name is not going to be a hit with the ladies,” Travis adds, laughing.
“Jesus, guys. I’m not running a fucking strip club here. Give me some credit.”
“We’re just messing with ya,” Ryder chuckles. “Whatever it is, we know it’ll be good.” He nods at the sheet. “Show us what you got.”
I slowly pull back the sheet before turning and looking at their surprised faces.
“You didn’t really think I was going to buy a bar and not have my brothers with me, did you?” I smile and stare back at the metal sign. It’s big enough that when it’s lit on the front of the building, boats below on the water will be able to see it.
Montgomery’sis written in large, cursive letters. I glance back at my brothers and see their pride and love staring back at me.
“When I tried to come up with a name that would embody everything I wanted to create in a place—community, laughter, memories, family…love. Only one word came to mind.” I shrug my shoulders and fight off the emotions swarming inside me. “I want something our family can all be a part of—something that generations to come will be part of. Noah and I went over the agreement more in-depth and agreed to a ten-year partnership. He will earn back what he’s invested, plus a shit ton more,” I laugh. “It’s a good investment on his part and mine with all the upgrades we are doing right from the start. After that, though,” I smile at my brothers, “it will be strictly a Montgomery-owned business.”
“Do Mom and Dad know?” Travis raises his eyebrows at me.
“No. I thought I would surprise them on opening night.”
“They are going to cry on this one,” Jake laughs softly. “Hell, it’s got me choked up.”
“It’s perfect, Miles. I couldn’t be anymore prouder to be a Montgomery than I am right now,” Ryder says as Travis and Jake nod their agreement.
“Time to christen this bar with its first drink.” I pass out the bourbon that Ryder prepared.
My brothers gather around me with our glasses raised. From a distance, you couldn’t tell us apart. All of us are over six feet with dark hair and the same grey eyes our mom blessed us with. With two tattoo artists in the family, dark ink swirls down all our arms and chests. No matter what we’ve gone through in life, we’ve always made sure to keep our bond strong. We would do anything for one another and our family.
“To Montgomery’s,” I grin.
“To Montgomery’s,” they say together before we tilt our glasses back and welcome the burn of a good bourbon.
A couple of hours later,I pull up to our blue beach house that I share with my sister, Savi. Technically, it’s our family beach house. Our parents gifted it to their children when they started their Airbnb business.
When a few of my dad’s investments hit big, they sold ourchildhood home and bought several properties, this being one of them. They bounce around, traveling now, but this has always been a home base for everyone and a place where we all spend the holidays together. All four of us brothers were living here at one point, but as they married over the years, they slowly moved out one by one. Now it’s just me and Savi living here full time.
I park my bike in the garage and walk into the main house. The smell of tacos hits me, and I moan as my mouth starts to water. I put in a full day's work at the bar with Noah’s crew, and lunch was hours ago.
Savi’s at the stove with a margarita in one hand and a spatula in the other as she stirs the taco meat. Her long, dark hair is pulled up into a high ponytail, and she’s still wearing her pink scrubs from work.
She’s our only sister and the baby of the family. To say we are protective of her is an understatement. Once she graduated from high school, she decided on a college up in Georgia. None of us wanted her up there alone, but she fought us tooth and nail on it, and we eventually had to come to terms with it.
I know she got her heart broken in high school by some asshole who didn’t know her worth, so I get why she wanted a change after graduation. It didn’t make it any easier, though, worrying about her with all the fuckboy college guys because, let’s face it, Savi is gorgeous, and guys automatically gravitate toward her like a moth to a flame.
A movement catches my eye, and what appears to be a dog comes barrelling around the corner. He’s black with a squished-up face and the worst overbite I’ve seen. One ear stands up while the other flops over, almost touching his eye. I peer closer at him and realize his ear is just touching fur—he doesn’t even have an eye on that side of his face.
“What the hell is that?” I laugh, bending down to pet the wild hair sticking up on his head. He looks like a cross betweena bulldog and a pug, but with long hair. His mom must have been into some crazy shit for her puppies to come out looking like that mix.
Savi turns around at my voice and grins when she sees me scratching the dog’s ear.
