Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Preston
“He’s getting so big!” Delaney ignored me completely, crouching down to greet the puppy who ran ahead of me into Brody’s house and family dinner.
“Is that dog in the house?” my big brother yelled from somewhere inside.
“He can’t stay outside, Uncle Brody.” Quinn jumped to the puppy’s defense. “He’s way too cute. Besides, he’s part of the family.”
“Yeah,” I called out. “What she said.”
I winked at my niece and offered her my first real smile all day.
Since before the meeting.
I was still fuming from the outcome of the vote. I’d almost canceled on family dinner altogether because I wasn’t in the mood to be around anyone, and given my instant annoyance upon walking into my brother’s house, that might have been the better choice.
“Hey, brother.” Ethan slapped me on the shoulder as he walked into the living room and handed me a beer. “How did it go today?”
“What happened today?” Reid asked as he walked in the door.
“It was the committee vote,” Ethan answered for me. “How did it go?”
I shook my head and hoped it was enough to keep him from pushing the issue.
“That good, huh?” Ethan laughed, but I didn’t think there was anything funny about the way Jess had looked me in the eye and voted against me.
“So it’s a go?” Grayson joined us. “Honestly, I think it’s a good idea.”
“You what?” I could feel my blood pressure rising.
“Why not?” Grayson shrugged. “This town needs some more affordable housing. I know you’re not happy with the location, but to be fair, there aren’t a lot of—”
“Of course I’m not happy with the location.” I jumped to my feet. “Do you have any idea how much it’s going to impact the trail systems? Never mind the wildlife corridor that runs through there.”
“Where else would you have it go?” he asked.
“Nowhere,” Reid answered for me. “We don’t need more out-of-towners moving in.”
I knew I could count on Reid to take my side. He probably hated the changes that were taking place in our town more than I did. Although his wife was one of those out-of-towners he railed against, and his stance had softened somewhat since she’d come into his life.
“Exactly,” I agreed with him. “We don’t need any more—”
“What about all of the locals who need a place to live that isn’t over a million dollars?
” Ethan argued. “You know that’s exactly how this town is going to go.
The tourism has been amazing for Trickle Creek, obviously.
But with it comes a whole host of other issues.
One of them is affordable housing. Especially for people who are working service jobs.
I’ve seen this with my employees at the brewery already.
It’s hard to find something reasonable.”
“He has a point,” Brody agreed from across the room. “It’s kind of—”
“He does not have a point.” I’d hit my limit. “You guys don’t understand. This isn’t right. The whole thing, it shouldn’t be happening. It’s…”
“What’s going on, Pres?” My brothers all shared a look, but it was Delaney who asked. “You seem a little…”
“A little what?”
“Hey!” Ethan stepped in front of me. “Don’t raise your voice at her. She’s just asking what all of us want to know.”
“Sorry, Delaney,” I mumbled. “I didn’t mean to snap.”
“It’s okay.” She gave me a knowing smile, and no doubt she did know. The women in this town all knew one another, and I had no idea what Jess had told the ladies. Had she mentioned that we’d been together the night she ran away from her wedding?
Had she given them details about the way I’d taken her mind off things? How I’d pulled so many orgasms out of her that she couldn’t even remember the name of the asshole who’d tried to marry her only to close a deal?
An asshole she’d gone right back to the moment she left the cabin. Maybe not back to him, but the thing he cared about most. And she’d chosen it over me.
“So?” Ethan pressed. “Are you going to tell us what’s really going on with you? Because you’re not yourself, brother. What’s on your mind?”
“I think the better question is, who is on your mind?”
I spun around to glare at Brody. He wiggled his eyebrows as if he knew what the hell he was talking about. He didn’t.
“Well?” he pushed.
I took two strides toward him until I was directly in front of him. I might be the youngest brother, but I was not the smallest. And I’d learned how to fight early. It came with being the youngest of five. My jaw twitched. My fists clenched at my sides, ready for a fight.
“I’m not going to fight you, brother.” Brody laughed. “But if it will make you feel better about Jess, take your best shot.”
“Jess?”
“What about Jess?”
The others mumbled questions, but I wasn’t listening, as I stepped forward, cocked my fist, and swung.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Reid caught my arm seconds before it made contact with Brody’s jaw. He wrenched my arms behind my back, holding me in place. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Reid tugged me back from Brody, who didn’t move, except for the cocky grin that slid over his face.
“Let him hit me,” Brody said. “If that’s what it takes for him to feel better about his childhood nemesis—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I spat at him. He was provoking me on purpose. If Reid didn’t have a hold on me, I would kill him.
“What is going on?” Grayson, ever the peacemaker in the family, tried to step between us. “What does this have to do with Jess?” He looked between us.
“Nothing,” I growled.
“Bullshit.”
“I’m going to—”
“Enough,” Reid interrupted. “You’re not going to do anything.” He pulled me away from Brody, right before I could wrench myself free. “You need to cool down. I think it’s best if you skip family dinner this week.”
He wrestled me to the front door, and together, we all but fell outside. Summit bounded after us with a bark of excitement, no doubt thinking we were playing some sort of game.
Finally, I yanked away from Reid and half-jogged down the steps to the path before turning around. “He was out of line.”
“You both were.” Reid crossed his arms over his chest. “But you can’t fight at family dinner. Especially not in front of Quinn.”
Fuck. Quinn.
I shook my head, dropping it to my chest.
“Go cool off, Pres,” Reid said, softer now.
“And whatever it is, figure it out. I might not agree with the way he tried to say it, but I think Brody has a point. You’ve spent most of your life twisted up by Jess Anderson.
Whatever happened recently just lit the fuse.
” He held up his hands to ward off my totally bullshit protest that nothing was going on.
“You need to sort it. Because this isn’t you. ”
I opened my mouth to say more but closed it again, because there was nothing more to say. He was right.
Instead, I nodded, whistled to the dog, and walked away.
Jess
The Timberstone office was the last place I wanted to be. Especially on the heels of the vote and the look on Preston’s face that I still couldn’t get out of my head.
But whether I liked it or not, I had a job to do. And if the council accepted the committee’s recommendation, that job was only going to become more important in the coming weeks.
Still, I’d sat at my desk for hours without actually getting any real work done. I’d managed to email Trevor to let him know the committee’s decision and give him the heads-up that we’d be recommending revisions to the original proposal, so he could get to work implementing those changes.
I was confident that if we all worked together, the revised plan would be something everyone was happy with.
Well, almost everyone.
I no longer thought that there was anything that would make Preston happy. And I couldn’t help but wonder how much of it had to do with the development anymore.
It was my fault. I never should have gone to him.
It hadn’t been fair.
Not to either of us.
And deep down, I’d known that the moment I’d stayed.
But at the time, I hadn’t been thinking clearly, and he’d been a friend. Someone to…no.
Preston was more than a friend. He always had been.
Even when we were kids, and I’d rejected him because I was too scared to know what it meant when he’d given me the flowers.
And then, over time, he’d become an enemy.
Because maybe on some level, it had been easier to put him in that box than to allow myself to think of him honestly.
And now…I dropped my head to my hands…I’d made such a mess of things.
I’d let myself believe that our rekindled friendship was just that—a friendship.
When it could never be that simple between us.
Especially now.
I shut my laptop and pushed up from my desk. There was no point staying there if I couldn’t focus on anything anyway. I needed to clear my head.
I locked the door behind me and tucked the key into my purse when I heard his voice.
“Couldn’t wait to start making those sales, huh?”
“Pardon?” I turned, frowning at the sharp tone of his voice. “It’s my job, Preston. I was just—”
“Doing your job.” He cut me off. His features were twisted in anger as he stood in front of me, his arms crossed like an impenetrable wall. “Right. That’s what this has always been about, hasn’t it? Money.” He scoffed, and something inside me snapped.
“You really think that?” I reached for him as he tried to turn his back on me.
He froze under my touch, so I yanked him backward until he faced me again, before releasing him.
“You really think that’s all this has been about?
” Before he could answer, I kept talking.
“If you truly believe that I could have gone through all of this…the meetings, the hikes, the… us without it meaning anything, then you don’t know me at all, Preston Lyons. ”
“Obviously, I don’t, Jess,” he said. “Because the woman I thought I knew wouldn’t have sold out to an asshole who—”
“This isn’t about him!” I yelled, fed up.
“How can it not be, Jess? You were about to marry him. Even when you knew that he didn’t love you and you didn’t love him.” Preston’s voice had increased an octave, too.