He heard his brother approaching before he saw him. This wasn’t unusual. He’d always been close to his siblings. There was no need for knocking on the door when it was always open to those he loved and trusted.
With four siblings, sometimes that door never had a chance to fully shut. He wasn’t complaining. He couldn’t imagine what a quiet life would be like. Probably pretty dang boring. Brandon didn’t allow himself to get bored.
“What are you sitting here smiling all goofily about?” Noah asked as he took a seat next to Brandon.
“I’m just feeling good today,” Brandon told him. Noah popped the cap off the soda he’d grabbed. “You must be working.” Otherwise, he’d most likely have grabbed a beer.
“Yeah. We’ve had delays and any number of other things going wrong, and I’ve been back to the drawing board over and over again. I have to keep my mind sharp, or Sarah takes too much pleasure in showing me up,” he said with a laugh.
Noah and Sarah were the head architects for the veterans center, and it was their only project together. They loved each other immensely and said they didn’t want to risk fighting over work. They’d done enough of that while designing the facility. “One and done together” was their motto for a happy marriage. Brandon thought that might be a smart rule to follow.
That was if he could even get Chloe to work on this one project with him. He sure hoped so, because right now he wasn’t feeling too optimistic about that. He’d been confident, but she was great at avoiding both him and Joseph, which wasn’t easy in a town the size of Cranston.
“I hate all the delays,” Brandon said. “It’s taking too long to get this up and running for all of those who really can use it right now.”
“I agree. But that’s why I love doing it with Joseph, too. At the end of this, it’s going to be the gold standard of facilities others will need to follow. So the first one has to be just right. The rest will go more smoothly,” Noah said. “But enough talk about work and delays. How are things going with Chloe?”
Brandon sighed. He almost lost his smile, but he kept it in place. There was no way he was giving any of his siblings room to mock him.
“She’s being difficult—won’t talk to me.”
“Is that why you’re slacking on the kitchen?” Noah asked.
“There’s no kitchen yet, so it’s not up to me. But I don’t want anyone else to do it. I want her, and so does Joseph, so we’re being patient.”
“She’s worth waiting on. I had a nice chat with her the other day,” Noah said.
That wiped the smile off Brandon’s face.
“What do you mean you talked to her?” It seemed she was talking to everyone but him. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He didn’t get it.
“I’m easy to talk to. Lots of people like to do it,” Noah said with a chuckle. “But since I am married to one of Chloe’s two best friends, I see her often. She’s a pleasure to have over.”
“Ugh. She isn’t as much of a pleasure around me. I somehow got on her bad side, and I haven’t figured out how to change her image of me.”
“What did you do?” Noah asked. It was a perfectly reasonable question, but Brandon wasn’t sure how to answer it. He didn’t want to kiss and tell when it came to Chloe, but he also needed some help, and that meant he’d have to give something.
“We had some time the night of your wedding,” he said. He figured that wasn’t telling too much.
“What kind of time did you have?” Noah pushed.
“I don’t want to get into details. But I just know I want more time with her.” It wasn’t often that Brandon was serious. But the rare times he was, his siblings usually listened. That was the nice thing. They could joke around a hell of a lot, but when it came down to it, they were there for each other when it counted most.
“If this is more than lust, then you need to show her.”
“How will I know it’s more than that if I don’t get the chance to find out?” Brandon honestly asked.
Noah was quiet for several moments as he thought about the question.
“I’m not an expert in the area of dating. You know that Sarah and I went through our own personal hell, but in the end it all worked out. I just know that when I stopped playing games and let her know how I truly felt, she responded to it.”
“I don’t know exactly how I feel. I haven’t been playing with her, but I have been cautious. You can’t blame me for that when she keeps me at a nice distance.”
“Is she worth pursuing?” Noah asked.
“Yeah, she’s totally worth it,” Brandon said without hesitation.
“I’d think so from what I know about her. But at the end of the day, it would be you and her and your own compatibility. She might be perfect, and you might be close to perfect, but maybe you aren’t a perfect couple,” Noah pointed out.
“I haven’t even thought about that. I can’t imagine we could be anything less than spectacular if our one night together is any indication.”
“I thought you weren’t going to kiss and tell,” Noah pointed out.
“I didn’t,” Brandon said with a grin. “But what’s the point in trying to hide the amazing chemistry between the two of us?”
“We all know she’s beautiful, smart, and talented. But is she the one?”
“I’d like to find out,” Brandon told him.
“You’ve tended to lean toward the Barbie-type girls for a long time. I believe this might be the one, ’cause she has you tied up in knots, and she’s nothing like the typical girls you’ve had on your arm before.”
“Hey! I’m not a playboy. I don’t treat women with disrespect,” Brandon said, somewhat offended.
“I didn’t say you do. But you haven’t exactly brought a woman home for Christmas,” Noah pointed out again.
“Maybe this is the year I do just that,” Brandon said.
“I hope so,” Noah said, shocking him.
“Why is it so damn hard to admit I might want more?” Brandon finally said. He was frustrated and maybe speaking out more than he normally would’ve done before. He almost expected his brother to laugh. But Noah shocked him.
“Because I think this one matters. It’s up to you to figure out what you want to do about it and what that means. I do know that it’s useless to fight it, though.”
“What’s useless to fight?”
Brandon and Noah turned to see Crew approaching. He stopped at the cooler and grabbed a beer before joining them.
“No way am I telling you anything,” Brandon said.
Crew was a psychologist, and unless Brandon wanted to pretend he was in a stuffy office and have his brother pick apart everything he was saying, he was keeping his mouth shut. They’d always teased Crew, saying he needed to loosen up. But it was somehow different now. His brother had loosened up. They just couldn’t figure out why or what was happening. Crew had even bought an old ranch and was fixing it up. He was the last person on earth any of them would’ve thought would do that.
“Come on—you both know I’m the smartest one out of all of us. Maybe I can help,” Crew said. He took a long slug of his beer, and Brandon was again surprised. It wasn’t that Crew didn’t drink; it was just that he didn’t often do it during the day.