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Patton and Archer wait for me in the drawing room like they always do—because of course this househasa drawing room.
Like always, Archer stands by the fireplace with a glass of whiskey in his hand like he’s just stepped out of some fucking Victorian drama. Patton slumps on the sofa, playing with the tassels on one of the ancient cushions.
Mom herself is MIA.
“Where’s Mom?” I ask, joining Patton on the sofa.
“You’re late,” Archer growls.
“Very observant.” I roll my eyes. “Too bad that doesn’t answer my question.”
Archer shrugs a shoulder. “Don’t know. She’s probably in the kitchen making sure the cook doesn’t mess up dinner.”
“You know Mom,” Patton huffs. “If she ever learns to sit down, we should worry.”
She’s not the only one in this family, but I’m not here to pick a fight, so I just listen to them talk about Colt’s latest woodwork creations.
If the dinner with Jo Winkley was a hurdle, then this would be a damn mountain to climb.
But I’m not bringing Junie here to fake out my family.
I also need to stop thinking about that kiss.
“How’d the meeting go?” Archer asks, turning his attention back to me.
“Jesus, dude. You ever heard of leaving work at the office?”
Patton leans forward, elbows on his knees. “Wait, you met with Haute? Did he finally hand over the paperwork?”
“Not yet. We just walked around the property and he promised we’d see it soon.” He also pinned me down for the dinner date from hell, but I leave that part out.
Archer frowns, tapping his finger against the mantel next to him. “I’m starting to doubt this whole thing…”
“Yeah! Because you hate taking risks,” Patton says, rolling his eyes. “This is our masterkey.A chance to make a real breakthrough.”
“Imagine what we’re risking if it goes bad,” Archer snarls. “The fact that he’s dragging his feet tells me there’s something we should wonder about.”
“While you’re busy wondering, Arch, I’ve been working on the hard details, lining up designers.” Patton stiffens, sliding to the edge of his seat. “The mock-ups are coming in next week and you guys will eat your fucking words.”
There they go again.
The same personality clash that’s soured half our meetings ever since we started dreaming of this place.
Archer’s too cautious.
Patton’s too impulsive.
Their approaches are night and day, and we can never agree on how to move forward—or even how to keep fucking moving when it’s a done deal in all but name only.
Though they’re both right about this one.
Forrest Haute is an oddball and there’s a decent chance there’s something else going on under the surface.
But Patton’s also right—if we pull this off, it’ll be our biggest deal to date. Hands down, the best damn thing that’s ever happened to this company.
Ifwe pull this off.
“If we did everything the way you wanted, we’d still be struggling to get a single property under our belt,” Patton says, folding his arms. My younger brother might be impulsive as all hell, and he might have gotten the charm gene, but he’s got a temper to match. “You’re holding us back, Arch. Weneedto take risks to grow.”
