Page 48 of My Brother's Forbidden Friend

“Good. Let me grab my bag and we’ll leave.”

He lets Gunner out back and eyes me the entire time I’m getting everything together as though I’m going to pull out a paintball gun and shoot him in the nuts or something.

Gunner comes back in the house and we both leave, me locking the door. The entire time we walk, he’s on the side away from the road.

“I’m not going to push you in front of a car, Cam.”

“Maybe not, but I’m more comfortable on this side.”

“If you’re so worried about retaliation, why’d you do it in the first place?”

He chuckles. “Because it was payback for what you did.”

“Yeah, so maybe I’m not gonna do anything.”

“I’d feel more comfortable if you just said you weren’t.”

“But what fun would that be?” I waggle my eyebrows.

He shakes his head, and we cross the street to The Grind.

I’ve learned a lot about Cam since we’ve been living together. One is that he is a man of routine. He buys his coffee, sets it on the boat, and wipes the benches and seats free from the morning dew while his coffee cools a bit. So all I need to do is to get him on his boat and I can slip him the laxative.

We order our coffees, and he is a stickler, always wanting to pay, so I let him.

On the way to the marina, I make casual conversation. “Is your dad easing up at all? You’ve had some successful charters lately. Maybe not ones that brought in a lot of fish, but ones where people were having fun. You’re a born entertainer.”

“Are you buttering me up for something?” He narrows his eyes as though he’s trying to figure out my game.

I laugh. “No, I’m just asking.”

He shrugs. “Nothing yet. He’s still acting like I’m doing this on my own, but he sends me customers. This is just another way for him to keep me under his thumb.”

“But he wanted you out from under his thumb.”

He shakes his head. “That’s not what he really wants. He just wants to control me. Have me do this his way.”

“Then why cut you off?”

We enter the marina, and it’s quiet this morning, which is my favorite kind of morning here. When the fishermen are gone, Rowdy is gone. Usually when the tourist season winds down is when we get this peace and quiet first thing in the morning.

“He cut me off because I embarrassed him by beating up Derek,” Cam says.

“But—”

“Regardless of the reason. I didn’t act like the owner of a marina should. I should’ve kept my feelings out of it. Plus, he wanted to start this whole charter thing anyway. I told him no two months ago, so this allowed him the opportunity to force me to do it. He wanted to kick Rowdy out because he was… never mind, I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

“You can trust me.” I might put a laxative in his drink, but that’s just our competition. I’d never betray his trust on a personal level.

“Rowdy was behind on his rent, so I paid his fees on my own credit card. My dad probably figured it out somehow, and the fight was just his way of getting me in line again.”

He walks toward his boat, and I follow.

“I’m sorry, Cam.”

He shrugs. “I have my own plans. They’re in the works. Just not ready to be revealed yet.”

“What are they?” I follow.

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