Brent had to admit it sounded…curious.
“Maybe I will.”
“Good. Now get out of my office. I have a meeting in a few minutes.” The words were bossy and there was nothing special about them. They shouldn’t have caught Brent’s attention, but they did.
“Who’s coming in?”
Bryce looked down at his desk and shuffled papers around.Interesting. “Oliver Stanton.”
“That name’s familiar but I can’t place him. Has he been insured here long?” Brent dealt with the insureds at all the offices so he couldn’t be sure, but he was pretty good with names.
“No. He and his partner are fairly new.”
The tone in Bryce’s voice said he was hiding something. “Do we know them from somewhere else? I know the name but I can’t think of a claim it’s related to.”
A barely audible sigh escaped Bryce. “They’re from the club. When they realized we handled insurance, they decided to move everything over.”
That should have made his brother happy. The insureds they’d meet through the club were some of their best customers. Open and honest about what they were looking for and they were easy to deal with because you didn’t have to worry about how something sounded. What was Bryce worried about?
“Everything okay with them?”
To Brent’s astonishment, Bryce blushed. “Yes. It should be pretty straight forward.”
Oh, there was a story. But it didn’t seem like he was ready to talk about it, so Brent stood up and ignored Bryce’s fidgeting. “All right, I’m out of here before Garrett figures out I came in today.”
Bryce looked relieved that Brent was going to let everything drop. “Yup. If he finds out, you’re toast. He said he’d call mom. And she’d love to know what was going on with you two.”
“I’m leaving.” He shook his head and frowned at Bryce, drawing out the words like he was shocked. “No need to resort to threats.”
Laughing, Bryce called out as Brent strode out of the office. “Have fun with Calen.”
He always had a good time with Calen. But this time, he wasn’t sure what kind of fun to hope for.
CHAPTER 3
Calen
The beep of Calen’s phone signaling an incoming text was the first thing he heard when he walked in through the back door. He’d definitely been doing too much drinking and not enough running lately because his usual route had been a lot more difficult than it typically was. Grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge, he walked over to the phone.
Sliding his finger across the screen, he was shocked to see Brent’s name pop up. He probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Brent was off work too this week, but he was the last person Calen expected.
There were always group texts going between Garrett and his brothers and somehow Calen always got included in them. But he couldn’t remember the last time Brent had texted only him. Refusing to be a wimp, he tapped the message.
Hey heard you were banished too. Dinner later?
It was interesting. Dinner. Not a casual invite to go hang out or do something. Not a message about barbecuing something. An invitation to dinner. Calen knew he probably shouldn’t read too much into it, but something about the message made him hesitate.
Normally, he would have made some kind of teasing response about grabbing a pizza, because Brent couldn’t cookanything. But that didn’t seem like a good idea this time. He was overthinking it, but it felt like Brent was putting himself out there to see what Calen would say.
He was second-guessing this too much. It was only a text, damn it.
Sure…Want me to bring anything…Time?
Brent’s quick response made him smile.
Food? Unless you want me to burn something.
Maybe he was pushing his luck but he couldn't help it.
