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Noah and Caleb looked thoughtful but Corey was smiling.
“I’d love to have the kid around,” said Corey. “It’s been so long since I got to chill so hard. Who knew baking feels better than smoking weed?”
“What are you talking about?” Noah muttered. “Those pastries tasted horrible. I think I got fucking diabetes from just tasting one.”
“Say that again,” Caleb growled, glowering at his brother.
Internally, I agreed with Noah. The pastries were sweet enough to give me an instant toothache.
“You liked them, right?” Corey demanded, staring right at me.
“Uhhh...it was fine for first timers,” I said, hoping my voice sounded sincere enough. “There’s always room for improvement, you know?”
Corey shrugged. “Irene liked it fine.”
“Civella won’t be happy if we rot his niece’s teeth,” Noah muttered, his expression reverting back to the cool, stone-like façade I was so familiar with.
Caleb was about to retort back but something made him stop. His emerald eyes met mine. “Are you sure you understand what it means to adopt Irene?” he asked. “I mean, I love the kid but don’t forget who she’s related to. Anything goes wrong, Civella will blame you.”
“He almost killed her,” I said in a grim tone. “He doesn’t have the moral high ground to preach to me when it comes to taking care of Irene.” A heavy breath escaped me. “But I know what you mean. There’s always the risk of making him an enemy if something bad happened to Irene under our watch.”
“Are you willing to take that risk?” Noah asked.
I gave a nod. “I want to protect her. Maybe I’m finally in a place where I can take care of another human being, but the moment I made the decision to look after her, I felt something wonderful. I’ve never felt this good about anything in my life.”
Noah glanced at his brothers before gazing back at me. “Looking after Irene comes with the benefit of having the Civella family’s support, so it’s worth the risk I guess.”
“Yeah.” Leaning in, I lowered my voice to a whisper. “He’s already helped us in more ways than we could imagine.”
“He’s giving us more than the properties we needed to continue construction work?” asked Caleb.
I nodded. “He’s got evidence proving Mayor Tyrell took hefty cash from the Becketts to use in his election campaign three years ago. You know what that means, right?”
“The Becketts can’t use the mayor against us again,” said Noah.
“Fuck, yeah!” Corey cheered, punching the armchair of the couch. “That’s what we’ve needed to win this fucking war with the bastards.”
I grinned, finally feeling the delicious rush of victory.
“They’d made such elaborate plans to eradicate Amhurst Co. from the roots,” said Corey, his eyes glowing with a dark gleam. “They’d already trapped us in a contract that’d ruin us financially. Their next step was to snatch Milla away from us.”
Corey stared into my eyes, making my heart pound harder. “Beckett Senior’s never been humiliated so badly in his life. I didn’t think I could love you more than I already do, but that moment you rejected him, I fucking fell in love with you all over again, Milla.”
“I never fell out,” said Caleb.
“Same here,” said Noah.
I looked from Caleb to Noah. “You’re in love with me?”
“He’s been in love with you since the day he saw you,” said Corey with a chuckle. “He’s kind of the reason we started obsessing over you.”
He’s been in love with you since the day he saw you, Corey’s voice rang in my mind.
“How long ago was this?” I asked, feeling dazed by the idea that someone as popular as Noah would’ve even looked at me if I didn’t end up saving his brother’s life.
“It was the first day of college,” said Noah with a warm look in his eyes. “The teacher picked you as a target to establish himself as the bully but you answered each and every one of his questions. You fazed the motherfucker with the most chill look on your face.”
A smile spread on his beautiful face. “That was the day. I fell for you hard, Milla. You never knew but I always stared at you from the back row.”
