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“I’d make you one anyway if you asked.”
“That’s not the point. You’d give me five bucks if I asked.” And I’d do the same for her.
Her smile was bright, confident, and just as gorgeous as flustered-Brooke. “Fair. What do I get when I’m right?”
Adam flipped his gaze between us like he was watching a tennis match. “I say if she’s right, she should get first pick of whatever we find down there.”
“She’s not right, so that’s fine with me.” This was as much a matter of pride as anything now. I hollered at Dylan to watch the shop and text me if he needed me. “Where do you think this mythical basement entrance will be?” I asked Brooke. My tone was light. We wouldn’t find anything, but the view would be good and the company would be better.
Brooke looked around us. “Probably not in the windows.”
“Probably not.” A shin-to-ceiling wall of glass faced the street.
“No space in the walls between you and the neighbors?”
“Enough for insulation and bricks,” Adam said.
Brooke nodded. “Then there’s something in the back.”
Too easy. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “You want to check, Adam?”
“Always.” He took a few steps away from the counter and focused on Brooke’s behind. “A gorgeous ass that looks even better in good jeans. You’re right, Brooke, there is something in back.”
Her perturbed look didn’t hide her blush or the threatening smile underneath. “Fine. Be boys. If that’s what it takes to get you to follow me.” She spun, her scowl vanishing into a smirk before she finished her turn, and her ass swaying as she strode away.
Adam and I fell into step beside her. We strode past knickknacks, past the bulk of the main floor where the furniture was on display, and through the door that led to the back portion of the building.
There was about half as much space back here as up front, and it was about twice as full of overflow. Furniture I’d swapped out when they hadn’t sold. Fixtures Adam swore could be fixed. Figurines I’d set aside for Brooke. And other random odds and ends I wasn’t sure what to do with, but I knew I needed to hold onto.
Despite us all having agreed there was no room in the walls for something like a door or stairs, Brooke headed to the edge of the room first. “The walls are thicker back here.” She rapped lightly on the painted brick.
“I didn’t say anything.” I stood a few feet back with Adam.
She glanced over her shoulder. “You were thinking it. Are you going to help me look?”
“Not part of the bet. But I will teach you the best way to tell a guy he kisses like a fish and show him how to do it right.”
Adam snorted. “Lot of practice with that?”
“More than I care to remember.”
Brooke rolled her eyes and moved to the next part of the wall.
Teasing her had its moments, but I wasn’t enough of an asshole to stand and watch while someone else did the work. I joined her a few feet down, and Adam fell in on her other side.
“I expect you to tell me if you hear something hollow, and not hide it so you can win,” Brooke teased.
I grinned. “I’m winning fair and square. Nothing to hide.”
Searching the walls didn’t take us long, and then she moved to the rear entrance. There was nothing outside but a blank wall.
“The brick looks different over there.” She pointed to an area about six feet wide that came up just a few feet on the building. Not nearly tall enough to be a doorway.
It was weird to sayit’s newer, given that the work was supposedly done almost a century ago, but it was definitely a different size and shape. “My grandpa told me some yahoo got pissed at his grandpa and ran a sledgehammer through it.”
“A random dude with a sledgehammer knocked out a perfect rectangle in the original brick?” Adam sounded skeptical.
I frowned. It never occurred to me how weak that sounded, until now.
