Chapter 7
I really should have read that email.
Miles
I groan as I sit in my chair in my office at the distillery. My shoulder is fucking killing me. As much as I loved feeling Hazel’s hands on me yesterday – my cock was especially appreciative – her massage didn’t relieve the pain.
I hate this. Even after surgery and extensive therapy, my shoulder remains weak.
I glance around my office. If it weren’t weak, I wouldn’t be here.
I force those depressing thoughts away and switch on my computer. I type in my password but it’s incorrect. This time, I slow down and make sure I don’t make a mistake as I type in the password. Still incorrect.
What in the name of smuggling Prohibitionists is going on?
I’ve had the same password since I was a teenager. I know I typed it correctly.
“Zane!” I shout my brother’s name.
“You rang.” He grins as he saunters into my office, confirming he’s the one who messed with my computer. He never would have rushed over here otherwise.
“What did you do?”
He bats his eyelashes. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Are we having a meeting?” Kai asks as he joins us.
I guess it’s ‘prank Miles time’ since Kai shouldn’t be anywhere near our offices. His office is on the other side of the building, where the distilling happens since he’s the operations manager for Buccaneer’s Whiskey & Distillery.
I rub a hand over my forehead where I can feel a headache forming. “No, we’re not having a meeting. What did you do to my computer?”
Kai grasps his chest. “Your computer? Why would I mess with your computer?”
“Because you think you can win the prank war despite neglecting pranks for months while you were wooing Harper.”
The Raider Brothers hold a prank war every year. Except last year, when my brothers were too busy falling in love to pull any pranks. I should have been a shoo-in to win, but Eli declared the prank war would last two years instead of one. Fine by me. I’ll win this prank war either way.
Kai gasps. “I have never neglected pranks. How dare you!”
I motion to my computer. “Can you fix it? I don’t have time for this shit today.”
“You don’t have time for this shit?” Zane asks. “What else are you going to do? It’s not as if you can surf anytime soon.”
“Thanks for the reminder, asshole,” I mutter.
“I’m not the one who decided to play hero.”
“I like Miles the hero,” Kai says. “If you can’t surf, you’ll be around more often.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m around all the time as it is. We see each other every day at work and most weekends at Mom’s house or some related Raider brothers event.”
Zane raises his eyebrow. “Every day at work?”
I glare at him. “Don’t you start with me, Mr. Marketing Manager. Until Adele came into your life, you were gone even more than me. And when you were gone, you were gone to some far-flung place where no one could reach you.”
“But now I’m a family man.”
Rub it in, why don’t you? He has the woman he’s been drooling over for years, whereas I had the woman I want and lost her.
Jaxon peeks into my office. “You ready?”
My brow wrinkles. “Ready for what?”
“Dude.” Zane shakes his head. “You really have been gone from the office too much if you don’t know what’s happening today.”
“What’s happening today?”
“I am not using a wheelchair!” Henry shouts from the reception area.
Kai chuckles. “I don’t know why Harper bothers to push her father to use a wheelchair. He hates it. I better go check on father and daughter before they kill each other.”
Jaxon glances at his watch. “We should all go. The ceremony should begin in one minute.”
“What ceremony?”
He leaves my office without answering. Kai and Zane follow him. I can’t exactly get any work done without the use of my computer and trail after them.
Instead of going in the direction of the reception area, we turn left toward the distillery. But before we enter the distillery, Jaxon stops at a door to the storage area. The door is open. Weird. The door is never open. Eli loses his mind if one of us forgets to lock up the storage.
I have no idea what he thinks is going to happen to the supplies in a locked distillery on an island where the crime rate is nearly non-existent. Assuming you don’t include streaking or accidentally causing fires as crimes.
“Uncle Kai!” Pearl – Rhett and Dakota’s oldest child – yells before barreling into my baby brother. He picks her up and whirls her around.
I peek inside the room and notice it’s now decorated as a nursery and all of my nieces – apparently the Raider brothers are incapable of creating boys – are here.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Uncle Miles said a bad word.” Pearl holds her hand out. “Dollar for the swear jar.”
I pretend to slap a dollar in her hand.
“No faking. You owe me!”
“Send me an invoice,” I say before asking Kai, “Why is the distillery suddenly full of Raider children?”
“This is the nursery.”
“The nursery? Since when do we have a nursery at the distillery?”
Rhett stands next to me with baby Mira in his arms. “You were at the meeting when we agreed to review the issue.”
I vaguely remember some talk of a nursery. “Review the issue is one thing.” I motion to the room. “This is not a review.”
“I sent a proposal to everyone. You had the chance to comment on the idea.”
I rub my forehead. I don’t remember receiving a proposal.
“This is what happens when you don’t read your emails,” Dakota sings as she steals Mira from Rhett’s arms. Dakota is Eli’s assistant and knows everything happening in the office – including my refusal to read emails.
“Hey!” Rhett chases after her. “I hardly held her for a second.”
Kai sets Pearl on the ground before coming to stand next to me. “You have to admit. It’s a good idea.”
“I do? I don’t have children. This is a huge cost with no benefit for me.”
He shrugs. “You should have complained when you had the chance.”
In other words, I should have read the email. In my defense, I do read most of my emails. The ones from the bars, restaurants, and resorts that we sell our whiskeys and moonshine to. And our distributors to coordinate shipping.
I’ve never lost a shipment or had one be delayed. And I always make sure contracts are in place before any Buccaneer’s products arrive at a sales point.
But I missed the email about the nursery. Damn it. This is yet another sign that I shouldn’t be the sales manager of the distillery. Maybe I should consider another career. I can’t be a pro surfer but there must be a job that doesn’t involve me sitting behind a desk eight hours a day.
I elbow Kai. “You’re just happy about this because you want to get Harper pregnant.”
I’m teasing, but guessing by the smile on his face, he is trying to get Harper pregnant.
“I promised to give Harper a family. And whatever my fiancée wants, she gets.”
“Smuggler’s Hideaway won’t know what hit it when the Raider brothers all have children in school.”
Eli chuckles as he joins us. “Why do you think I paid to have the jail cells refurbished?”
I point to Kai. “Because he’s a troublemaker.”
He chuckles. “Says the man who got caught crowing like a rooster naked at four in the morning outside the gates of Mermaid Mystical Gardens.”
“It was a bet,” I say as if a bet can excuse any behavior. Because it can.
“At least he was outside the gates,” Eli says. “He avoided a burglary charge.”
I was outside because I couldn’t figure out a way to sneak into the amusement park without scaling the gates, which wasn’t happening, considering I was naked.
“Come on.” Eli nudges me toward the nursery. “Go check out the room. Who knows? Maybe you’ll have need of its services soon.”
I scowl. I won’t be needing a nursery anytime soon.
I step into the room and nearly stumble at the vision before me.
There are three cribs. One each for Stephanie, Mira, and Adele.
The walls are painted an ocean blue with illustrations of mermaids, mermen, and other mythical sea creatures.
There’s a rocking chair in one corner. A bookcase filled with books in another.
And baskets of toys lined up along the wall.
“How much did this cost?” I mutter.
Eli pats my arm. “You keep selling the booze and money won’t be an issue.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.”
“I’m sorry you injured your shoulder again, but the surfing world’s loss is our gain. You’ll have more time to work at the distillery until you’re healed.”
The surfing world’s loss. The surfing world has forgotten I existed. My time on the pro tour doesn’t even qualify as a one-day wonder.
And now I’m stuck selling liquor for my family’s distillery. My dreams have all come true.