Chapter 28
I expect Kai and Zane to surprise me. Not Eli.
Miles
I whistle as I stroll into Buccaneer’s Distillery. Monday mornings usually suck but any morning I wake up wrapped around Hazel is a good morning. And making out with her at her practice before I hopped in my car to come here didn’t hurt either.
“Good morning, Miles,” Dakota greets from the reception area. She’s technically Eli’s assistant, but she’s also the unofficial receptionist for the distillery.
“Good morn—”
Kai and Zane rush into the area.
“Good. You’re here.”
I frown at Zane. “Of course, I’m here. This is where I work.”
Kai snorts. “Where you work when you aren’t surfing.”
I scowl. He makes it sound as if I’m never in the office. Trust me. I’m in this office way more than I want to be. Sitting behind a desk all day is not my definition of fun.
“At least I’m not a goofball who made Jaxon do my work for me.”
“Made. Past tense. I’m not a goofball anymore.”
Zane barks out a laugh. “And you didn’t spend an hour speaking with a German accent to a newspaper reporter.”
“In my defense, he thought I was German. I just rolled with it.”
“Until the reporter asked if it would be easier to conduct the interview in German. Then, you panicked.”
Kai frowns. “I didn’t panic.”
“You ran out of the room screaming ‘I have ze diarrhea’.”
Kai shrugs. “Maybe it was true.”
“This has been fun. But I need to prepare for my meeting with Eli.” I try walking around my brothers to my office but Zane stops me.
“I need you to sign off on this marketing plan.”
“I don’t—”
He slaps a pen in my hand. “Sign it.”
I glance down at the clipboard. There’s nothing to sign. It’s a blank piece of paper. “Why are you…” I trail off when I realize my hand is now covered in blue ink.
“Exploding pen prank.” I roll my eyes. “Not very original.”
I hand him the pen and clipboard before making my way to the restrooms. I rinse my hands under the water before pumping soap onto them. I lather my hands up and scrub them but when I go to dry my hands, I notice they’re now bright red.
What the hell?
I wash my hands again but it doesn’t do much to diminish the red coloring. In fact, my hands now have a distinctive rainbow color.
I march out of the restroom intent on finding my brothers to give them a piece of my mind. I don’t have to go far. They’re waiting in the hallway for me.
“Ha!” Zane points at my hands. “It’s a rainbow of flavor.”
Kai claps. “This worked out better than I expected.”
“You’re both assholes.”
“Assholes who should be working,” Rhett hollers from his office.
“Spoil sport.” Kai sticks his tongue out at Rhett’s office.
“I saw that!”
“You didn’t see anything. Because I didn’t do anything.” Kai hurries toward the distillery area. “I need to go check on a … something. There’s something I should be checking on.”
Rhett stands in his doorway and watches Kai scurry away. “You two get back to work.”
I hold up my hands. “This isn’t my fault.”
Zane chuckles. “You shouldn’t have bragged about winning the prank war.”
“It’s not bragging if it’s true.”
And it is true. My brothers are too busy falling in love and having offspring to worry about the prank war. I can multitask. I can convince Hazel to give me a second chance while winning the prank war against my brothers.
“Whatever,” he mutters before stomping toward the nursery. “I’m going to visit Adele.”
I still can’t believe there’s an actual nursery in the distillery offices. Two years ago, I would have thought the nursery was a prank. Now all my brothers are paired off and either have children or want to.
I used to think my brothers were lame but when I found out Hazel might leave the island, I realized I was the lame one. Pushing her away because I was miserable. Because I thought I wasn’t worthy of love after I screwed up the career I’d always dreamed of.
Dakota strolls into the hallway and Rhett lights up. “Hey, Havoc.”
She settles herself against Rhett before telling me, “Eli’s ready for you.”
“But I haven’t had time to prepare.”
She shrugs. “It’s not my fault you were playing with your brothers and lost track of time.”
“I wasn’t playing.”
She nods to my hands. “Agree to disagree.”
I scowl. This isn’t a joke. I’m meeting with Eli today to discuss the approach to our meeting with Velvet Blossom. I want to prove to my big brother that I’m ready to meet with the distillery’s biggest clients.
I glance down at my rainbow hands. I’m not proving anything to him today except for my lack of seriousness.
“How do I get rid of dye on my hands?”
“In the next thirty seconds?” Dakota snorts. “You don’t.”
“When did you become cruel?”
She blinks. “I’m the cruel one? You’re the one who bought our five-year-old a drum set for Christmas.”
“Pearl loves her drum set. I think she has real talent.”
“Said by the man who doesn’t have to listen to her practice at all hours of the day and night,” Rhett grumbles.
I shrug. “Practice is important for every musician.”
“She’s five.”
“Taylor Swift was sixteen when she had her first hit.”
Dakota buries her face in Rhett’s shoulder. “And now we know why she keeps saying she’s going to be the next Taylor Swift.”
“I’m confused. You don’t want your daughter to be a talented musician?”
Rhett grunts. “She wrote a song about how worms eat poop yesterday.”
“It’s better than writing a song about getting her heart broken.”
Rhett groans. “My daughter is forbidden from dating until she’s twenty-five.”
Dakota tugs on his shirt. “I think you mean our daughter can date when she’s a teenager.”
“And in the meantime, she can practice her drums.”
Rhett lunges for me but I dodge him and dart into Eli’s office.
Eli’s brow wrinkles. “Why are you out of breath?”
“Long story.”
“Do I even want to know why your hands are rainbow-colored?”
“Because my brothers are assholes.”
He lifts a brow.
“Two of my brothers are assholes.”
He scowls. “I thought you were taking your work more seriously. It’s the reason I agreed to let you come with me to the meeting with Velvet Blossom.”
“I should be at the meeting regardless. I am the sales manager for the distillery, and the restaurant chain is one of our biggest customers.”
He grins. “Right answer.”
I scowl. “You were tricking me?”
“You can’t blame me. I started Buccaneer’s with this grand idea of all of my brothers working together on Smuggler’s Hideaway. But you, Kai, and Zane treated the distillery like a joke.”
“No, we didn’t.”
“Kai let Jaxon handle his responsibilities as operations manager. Zane jetted off to the other side of the world every chance he got. And you spent more time surfing than in the office.”
“It’s hard to give up on a dream.”
He slaps my shoulder. “I understand, which is why I never pushed any of you. You were all much younger, and this distillery wasn’t your dream.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t have my dream job.”
No matter how many years have passed since my accident in Hawaii, my stomach still sours at having to give up my dream of becoming a pro surfer. I was good. Really good.
I could have won the world championships. Gotten sponsorships from all the big brands. Traveled the world for competitions. Instead, I’m here. Stuck behind a desk selling whiskey and moonshine.
“I’m sorry, Miles. If I could change things, I would. Hell, I even asked Jeremy to design a new shoulder for you.”
“You did?”
“Damn straight. Do you think I enjoy watching my brother’s dreams get destroyed?
” He shakes his head. “When I arrived at the hospital in Hawaii… The doctors weren’t sure of the damage.
They were worried about your head injury.
About how long you’d been underwater. I was fucking terrified.
And lying to Mom that your injury wasn’t serious. ”
I remember Eli being there when I woke up in the hospital – disoriented and in pain. But he never seemed worried. He was my cool, calm, competent older brother.
“Rhett and I discussed not offering you a job at the distillery. We both wanted you to find your own path. But when you returned home, all lost, I couldn’t not offer you a job.”
“And now I’m stuck behind a desk for the rest of my life.”
He wags his finger. “Not if you impress me at the meeting with Velvet Blossom. This is your opportunity to show me you can handle the big clients and our distributors.”
I blow out a breath. He’s right. I was too busy whining and complaining about life to realize this job doesn’t have to be a desk job every day.
There are chances for me to get out and see the world.
Not on a surfboard, but a surfboard isn’t everything.
Some people are more important than chasing the waves.
“Okay. Let’s discuss strategy.”