My brothers laugh, and I shoot glares at them. Talk about beating a dead horse. “Fine. Get your wallets ready.”
Easiest four hundred bucks I’ll ever make.
Chapter 3
Grant
Why am I as stubborn as Lennox’s brothers? I don’t want her to bring a date to the holiday party. I don’t want her to ever date anyone unless it’s me.
But she doesn’t know this. Which is why I’m still making stupid wagers with her brothers about her love life.
No wonder she doesn’t see me as anything more than a brother. I’m stuck and I don’t know how to get rid of the facade I've been hiding behind for the last ten years.
I can’t just tell my three best friends that I’m in love with their little sister and have been since we were in high school, threatening all the boys who even looked in her direction. They are the closest thing I have to a family, and if they reject me like they rejected every boy Lennox ever dated, I’d no longer have a place to call home, or a job.
My mom left when I was a baby, and my dad was an alcoholic who chose liquor over me. The only person I had was my grandfather until he passed away ten years ago. I can't survive a rejection from the Bentleys. They are all I have.
It’s pathetic, I know. I’ve just been waiting, hoping some perfect opportunity will present itself and somehow Lennox will know my feelings for her.
I thought it almost happened a few months ago. We were the only two left in the shop when the alarm wigged out. We ended up locked together in the office for almost an hour.
At one point, right before the doors opened, she looked at me with her big doe eyes, and I swear she knew I’d been in love with her since high school.
I tried to tell her everything with my eyes. My feelings, my fears, my dreams. I almost leaned in to kiss her.
Then she asked me if I was constipated.
She may not reciprocate my feelings, but it doesn’t stop me from visiting her whenever I can. If the alarm wigs out again, I want to be stuck with her.
If my grandpa was still here, he’d tell me I was a coward. That being in love is the bravest thing a man can be. I want to be brave.
I rub at my chest and the new tattoo above my heart that reminds me of him. I miss him so much.
“Dude, did you hear me?”
I pull out an earbud and turn to Micheal. “Sorry, what?”
“I asked if you were good to go on the Whitney job?”
I shake my head free of my favorite obsession and run through my mental list again. “Still waiting on a corner piece from Sean.”
“It’s always Sean.” Michael shakes his head and jots something down on his notepad. “How’s Rick doing on the install team?”
“He only FaceTimes his girlfriend on his smoke break now.” I say. Nevermind that he takes a smoke break every forty-five minutes. “He gets his job done.” He at least does that. Most of the time.
“I guess that’s progress. Keep him in line and you’ll be the top installer by next year, I’m sure.” Michael says, still writing on some plans.
That sentence fills me with a sense of pride.
I started working with Mark Bentley the day I turned sixteen, and I’ve loved every second. After my grandpa passed when I was fourteen, I jumped at every chance to avoid going home. Sports, work, the Bentley’s home. Anything was better than what I had, which was a violent father. My grandfather shielded me from most of it when he could, and my aunt Megan tried to help as well, but there was only so much they could do.
Even after I graduated, I continued working at the shop. I couldn’t afford university but I managed to pay my way through trade school, just like my grandpa had. He’d been a woodworker as well so the shop has always felt like home to me, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“You coming to Trevor’s tomorrow?” Michael asks, reminding me he’s still there.
I shake my head. “Nah. I’ve got stuff to do at home.” The word home almost makes me laugh, because it’s barely four walls and a roof. I’ve saved every spare penny, and living in a tiny apartment in town helped with that, but I’m not ready to buy a new house yet. When I buy a house, I want to pay for it outright. Which is why I am willing to sacrifice for a little longer to achieve my dreams. It would help if I stopped making stupid bets with the Bentley brothers.
“You work too hard, man. Come have fun for once. Juliet is bringing a friend. She could be your date for the holiday party.”
