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My pseudo-big brother has enough money to set me up comfortably for life, and he’d do it in a heartbeat if I just asked. Thing is, I never have, and I never will. In fact, I’ve actively refused his charity since the first offer, even before he had his fortune.
While I love Warren like he’s family, and he is probably one of the only people who knows how horrible a relationship with a parent can be, I can’t take from him. That would make me no better than my mother, and the one thing I never want to be is anything like her.
“Usually, I’d roll my eyes and let you hold on to that spitfire energy, but it’s different this time, August.” His eyebrows knit together like he’s trying to find the right words to make me accept help.
“I’ll figure it out.” I cross my arms in defiance.
“You need help, and I have the means to do that. She left you in a hell of a position, and after all this time, you’ve never once let me do something about her and her horrible mistreatment of you. You’re supposed to have a fresh start. You’re supposed to be able to go live your life, and you shouldn’t be strapped with this. Let me handle it.”
His words slice deep because, of course, I’ve already thought about all of that.
“Just stop, Warren! You can’t solve all my problems. You can’t make life fair when it’s never been that way for me!” I’m getting pissed off at the wrong person, but the one I really want to scream at is no longer alive.
“Auggy, stop being stupid. I have all the money in the world, more than I could ever personally use, and you’re my family! I want to make my family okay. I want to make sure they’re taken care of. Let me do this for you.”
Rage bubbles up inside me, irrational and jealous. I can’t quite lash out at him, but I can think the words; he has a family now, one he went and got and left me out of. He’s an Ashton by marriage; he has people on his side now like I never have.
“No. Stop asking.”
In a split second, I’m storming out of the foyer of the inn, my boots clomping over loose floorboards on the porch. It’s immature and dumb to run away like this, but it’s all I have right now. My pride is quickly falling away, leaving me completely vulnerable, and I need to be alone.
Warren calls my name, but I’m already at my car, taking the coward’s way out while I convince myself I’m being smart. It’s always been me, myself, and I. If I let others take care of my problems, I’ll lose focus. I’ll drop the ball.
In my life, I’ve always known how to do it all on my own. If I try to offload some of that burden and ask for help, bad things are bound to happen. Look at this situation, for instance.
I thought I was about to get my happily ever after with my mom finally out of the picture, but it turns out my nightmare has just begun.
11
EVAN
“Do you ever leave this kitchen?”
The voice interrupts my thoughts about how to slice the sushi grade tuna I’m currently working with, and I set my knife down.
August walks in wearing a pair of jeans that are molded to every petite curve, all those blond waves piled high and tied up on top of her head, with a tight red T-shirt that I’d like to peel off of her. I haven’t seen the woman in close to a week, even with us living in the same house, and my sexual interest has only heightened when it comes to her.
“Not if I can help it.” I shrug, trying to hide my lust.
She peers around me at my station, and I know she’s trying to discern what I’m cooking. There is a smattering of freckles on her face, and suddenly, I’m curious to know if they grow darker when she’s out in the sun all summer. Does she like to lie on the shores of the river? Did she do that as a teenager? There is so much I don’t know about this woman.
“That’s what I thought. I get it, it’s where you feel at home. Makes sense why you’d always be here.”
A lot of people don’t understand that about me, so it’s nice to hear that she doesn’t find my obsessive nature when it comes to the culinary world off-putting.
“You hungry? Coming to grab some lunch? I’ll make you whatever you want.”
Even though I’ve barely unthawed the meats for tonight’s service or begun on chopping duty, I’ll drop it all just to make her moan when she puts one of my meals in her mouth.
“No, um, I actually came here to talk to you.”
My heart seizes for a moment because the inflection in her tone doesn’t sound good.
“I’m going to be staying in town for a little while longer. I know originally, when we made our little house rules thing, we both thought it would be temporary, and then I’d be gone, but things have become a bit more complicated and I need more time. I hope it’s okay that we are going to be roommates for the foreseeable future, but if not, I can try to find somewhere?—”
Cutting her right off with that bullshit, I put a hand up. “Don’t even finish that thought. You’re not moving out or finding somewhere else. You were there first, and if anyone should go, it’s me. Now, I have no problem remaining roommates—I mean, with how much we’re like ships passing in the night, we can barely call ourselves that—but if you want the place to yourself, you just say the word.”
A slight blush colors her cheeks, and damn, do I want to make her turn even redder—alone in a dark place.
