Summer with a Brother’s Best Friend (Love Beach Collection)

18. Reece

18

I’m practically vibrating with excitement as I park in front of Love Beach Brews and climb out. Today has been surreal, and I can’t wait to tell Isaac my news. Climbing out, I stop short when I see he’s talking to a woman just inside. Her long, black ponytail swings back and forth as she nods along to something he said.

His posture is tense, and he rubs the back of his neck with his hand before nodding a final time and watching her turn and leave. She doesn’t see me as she pushes out the door and walks straight to her car, phone in hand.

I don’t like it.

And I like it less when I burst into the bar, startling Isaac who had still been staring at the woman with the raven hair.

“Who the hell was that, Isaac?”

His gaze snaps to me and he swallows hard. “Saige.”

“Saige Reiser?”

“Yeah,” he says, somehow defeated and also resolved.

“What was she doing here?”

“She’s a real estate agent.”

“You buying something?” I ask with my hands on my hips, suddenly defensive as the adrenaline rush from earlier takes a nose dive.

“Possibly. But probably selling.”

“Selling what?” I ask, dropping my hands as I follow his gaze around the bar.

Isaac takes a breath and then reaches for me, pulling me against him. “Saige is going to look at places out by you in North Carolina and see if there’s an opportunity for me to open another location while keeping this one up and running, but I may need to sell.”

“What?” I gasp, rearing back to look him in the eyes. “But you love this place and Jimmy Buffet and Love Beach and that wine from the Book you’re fucking amazing,” he says before peppering my face with kisses and making me giggle and squirm against him.

“Oh my gosh, you’re ridiculous.” I laugh as he nuzzles against my neck, his beard tickling the sensitive skin.

“But you’re staying?”

“Yes,” I say with a confidence that radiates from every cell in my body. “I want to build a life with you here.” Huffing, I add, “If I wasn’t so stubborn, I could have saved us all a lot of time and heartache.”

Isaac brushes his thumb over my cheek, his palm cradling my face. “I think it had to be this way.” He gives me a sad smile. “You needed to grow up away from all this, and even though it fucking killed me to let you go in college, I know you would’ve resented me if you’d come back when we graduated.”

I don’t disagree with him because I can’t. I’d needed space, and I hadn’t gotten that with Maddox still involved in every waking moment of my life.

“Do you think he’ll be mad?”

Isaac shrugs, but I can see the worry marring his handsome face. “We’ll deal with it. I was willing to sell my bar and move out of Love Beach to be with you.” His lips twist up in a crooked grin. “Nothing he can do about me finally making you my wife.”

“You better not be proposing to me in your bar,” I say, half teasing but mostly serious.

Isaac’s hands slide down my body to grip my ass, picking me up and forcing me to wrap my legs around his waist as he walks us into the storage room, kicking the door closed behind us.

“Are you saying you wouldn’t marry me if I asked you right now?” The door is cold against my back as he presses me against it, his lips hovering a breath away from mine.

“You know I’d say yes, but you better not be asking me right now.”

“I’m not asking you, Reece, but I will be asking you real soon; you can count on that.”

“Better tell Saige you won’t be selling or buying anytime soon.”

“Dunno, Baby, maybe we should start looking for houses.”

I sigh as he kisses up the column of my neck, my fingers gripping and tugging at his hair as I arch into his touch.

“We need to wait until after we tell Mads.”

“Let’s go right now,” he murmurs against my skin, his tongue dipping into the valley between my breasts as he pulls the front of my dress down. Isaac sucks my nipple into his mouth, and I hold him tighter against me as a shiver races down my spine.

“We have to wait until after the party.” The last word is a moan as his hand slides up my thigh and under the hem of my dress. “We just need to get through that then?—”

I gasp as the rough pad of his finger slides between my folds and then circles my clit with the exact pressure and speed to get me off.

“Not a second longer,” he growls, my orgasm ricocheting through me as the promise of his words washes over me.