“If I had a kitchen this size with this much storage, it’s possible baking might not be such a bad way to spend my time.” Carrying the dirty pans to the sink, I switch on the hot water and grab the dish soap. “The problem is once you start doing something you love for money, the love fades, and it turns into just another job.”

  Alex grabs a towel and takes the clean pan from me to dry. We’re standing side by side in front of the sink, and his warmth, his interest is all new and attractive to me. He’s so easy to talk to, and it’s cool to discover we have things in common.

  After three years of high school in which we never interacted, he went away to the naval academy, then into the military.

  He’s been back five years. What have I been doing for five years? Wasting half of them on Drake Redford, the conceited dick.

  “Except babies.” His voice is thoughtful.

  “What?”

  “Britt said working with kids is something you love.”

  “Oh…” I exhale a laugh. “It’s that little hit of dopamine. Kids are the one job that hugs you back.”

  The last bowl is washed, and I turn my back to the sink as I watch him dry it. His hands are large and strong with nice, long fingers and neat, clean nails. His sleeves are pushed up to reveal muscular forearms with a few veins, and a heavy, stainless-steel watch is on his wrist along with a dark leather bracelet. My eyes flicker to his waist, and I have to suppress the memory of what’s hiding in his pants.

  “If they like you.” He tosses the towel over his broad shoulder, smiling and looking too good.

  These feelings are all fresh and unexpected—and motivated by seeing him naked, of course. Brilliantly, unbelievably naked.

  And I’ve got work to do.

  Grabbing the large metal bowl off the standing mixer, I start on the cinnamon buttercream frosting. “That’s why I made the distinction. Little kids. Once they hit puberty, it all gets tricky.”

  Brown sugar, butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt all gradually make their way into the mixer. Alex continues hanging out at the counter beside me, being far too distracting and not leaving.

  I arch an eyebrow at him. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

  That makes him laugh. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

  “I’m worried about my frosting. You’re watching it like a hungry predator about to pounce.”

  “What makes you think I’m watching your frosting?”

  My jaw drops, and I swear, this man. “Are you sexually harassing me, Mr. Stone?”

  “I’m not your boss, and it’s Alex to you.” The tease in his tone is fucking hot, but he takes a little turn. “Actually, I was thinking about how I’ve gotten used to you being here this past month. After tomorrow, it all comes to an end.”

  It’s the same feeling I had this morning, and I’m surprised to hear him say it out loud.

  “Are you going to miss me?” Giving him a little wink, I wonder if he might ask me on a date.

  “I haven’t seen you enough to miss you.” That flat response, pops that bubble. “But I like what you’ve done with the event space. You’re really good at this job you say you don’t want. Maybe you could train someone to do what you’ve done here?”

  Placing my hand on my hip, I face him. “You are the most unpredictable man. One minute it feels like you’re encouraging me, then the next you’re not, then you spin it again.”

  “I don’t understand.” His dark brow furrows over those gorgeous hazel eyes. “Is that a yes?”

  “I’m doing all this for Britt. I’m doing my very best work because she’s my very best friend. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m almost thirty with no job, no money, and back to living with my super judgy aunt who drives me completely bat-shit crazy.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “Yes, it’s a yes. Of course I’ll train someone.”

  Alex nods. “Okay, then.”

  His jaw is set, and he seems to have made a decision. Only, I’m not sure it’s the decision I’d hoped he’d make, and I’m cringing at my oversharing gaffe. TMI, Cass, jeez.

  When he gets to the door he pauses. “I think you have to do things you’re not passionate about until you’re able to do the thing you are. It’s how we learn to appreciate our accomplishments.”

  “Is that your experience?” Frustration mingles with my embarrassment.

  I’m sure it’s easy to say when you’re Alex fucking Stone, Mr. I’m Sure All the Time. He’s never been in my shoes, and his job isn’t a chore. He seems to really like it.

  “Yeah.” He gives me one last look, up and down. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “Love can be fun!” Britt sings at the top of her lungs, dancing around the tiny living room of her old loft apartment.

  She’s belting out her favorite Shania Twain song, the song that saved her life last year, and Edward the bloodhound sits up on the couch and begins to howl at the top of his lungs.

  “Sing it, Edward!” Piper calls from the kitchen, where she’s mixing up watermelon margaritas.

  We’ve recreated our favorite girls’ night: movies, margaritas, Shania, and a box of bachelorette-party accessories I ordered online from Booty’s Bachelorette Loot. Britt’s wearing a headband with Bride in big pink letters above her head and a sash that reads Same penis forever. She’s fanning herself with a big face on a stick, featuring Aiden’s big face, of course.

  Piper and I are wearing headbands that read Let’s go girls and necklaces that say, Drunk AF. Britt’s necklace reads Engaged AF.

  “These watermelon margaritas go down too easy!” Britt shouts from where she’s standing by the Bluetooth speaker, shaking her butt as she sips.

  Nodding, I take a sip of my third, as I skip over to join her. “They’re delicious!” My voice is too loud, and I put on the Shania classic, point to my headband, and yell, “Let’s go, girls!”

  She cranks the music, and we bump hips. I’m doing my best to drown my frustrating life and turn up the party.

  “Why aren’t we using these?” Piper skips over with her drink in one hand, dropping penis straws in each of our glasses. “Suck it!”

  We all take sips, and Britt holds up her phone to take a selfie of the three of us with tiny penises clutched between our lips.

  “Aiden’s going to love this.” She cackles, hitting send before skipping to the kitchen for a refill.

  “I think we’ve made it to the bottom.” I slide my fingers around the empty cardboard box, and all that’s left is a receipt and a bumper sticker that reads I got my BBL at Booty’s.

  “What’s that?” Piper takes it from me, then snorts a laugh.

  “What’s a BBL?” Britt’s nose wrinkles.

  “Seriously?” I cry. “You didn’t know what vabbing was, and now you don’t know what a BBL is?”

  “Sorry I have a job, and I can’t hang out on social media all day!”

  “Rude!” I throw the penis-shaped stress ball at her, and she catches it. “BBL is Brazilian Butt Lift. It’s when they take the fat from your thighs or your stomach or your arms or wherever, and they inject it into your butt to make it fuller.”

  Her brow furrows, and she looks over her shoulder. “Does it work?”

  “Millions of Kardashians can’t be wrong,” Piper deadpans.

  “Why can’t we simply love the body we’re in?” Britt complains. “There’s so much pressure on women to look a certain way. It’s ridiculous in this day and age…”

  “Movie time!” I stand, cutting off her lecture and waving the remote to her flatscreen television. “What do we want? Magic Mike XXL or Steel Magnolias?”

  They both look at me like seriously?

  Once again, Piper deadpans, “Read the room, Cass.”

  “Yeah, read the room!” Britt throws the penis stress ball at me, and it bounces off my head.

  “Hey! Don’t throw penii at me!” I look all around my feet, but the little bugger seems to have disappeared. “Is it penii or penises?”

  “Penises.” Naturally, Piper as editor and publisher of the Eureka Gazette knows.

  Edward puts his head on his paws, and we climb onto the sofa to watch some hot male bods. It’s not long before we’re squealing at Joe’s naked butt tackling Channing into the pool to the tune of “Crazy Train.”

  Britt puts her head on my shoulder, and I feel her phone vibrate in her hip pocket. She fishes it out and laughs softly as she reads the screen.

  “What?” I gently give her a nudge.

  “Aiden says the guys are not having half as much fun as we are.”

  “What are they doing?”

  “Alex closed the distillery, so they’re hanging there. It’s pretty low-key.”

  “I guess we’re not really party animals.”

  “It’s kind of hard to be a party animal in Eureka, South Carolina.” Piper sighs, and a fresh wave of panic twists in my chest.

  “Am I letting you down? Should I have booked a trip to New Orleans?” My temple throbs, but Britt grabs my hand, hopping onto her knees.

  “You have done so much for me! I’m so happy to be right here in this loft for the first time in months with my best friends and my dog watching silly movies and wearing penises and drinking watermelon margaritas!” She squeezes me harder, reaching out to grab Piper’s shoulder and pull her close. “I couldn’t be happier if I lived in Las Vegas and we were all out on the strip sweating our asses off!”

  “We can sweat our asses off right here!” Piper cries, and tears heat my eyes as I start to laugh.

  “Promise?” I wipe my nose with the back of my hand.

  “We might not get to do this again for a while.” Britt hugs me one more time before flopping onto her butt and propping her feet on the narrow coffee table. “Now sit down here, and let’s watch this movie before we fall asleep all over each other in that bed.”

  “I call the couch!” Piper yells.

  I push her with my foot. “You always do.”

  “If I learned anything from my mom, it’s to be prepared.”

  That makes us all laugh, since Piper’s mom, Martha, is a doomsday prepper. I settle down between my two besties with Edward breathing his doggy breath over all of us sipping my watermelon margarita and feeling pretty content.

  I might not have a job. I might not have any money or prospects, and my aunt might drive me crazy. But these two ladies always have my back.

  CHAPTER 5

  ALEX

  “To the man who gave up on faith, love, and all the rest of it.” I hold up my tumbler of single-barrel, and our youngest brother, Adam, laughs.

  “Dude, you did not go there.”

  “It’s okay, I can take it.” Aiden clinks his tumbler against both of ours. “It’s true. I’d given up on pretty much everything after Annemarie. It’s no secret.”

  I closed the bar in Stone Cold early, quite the feat for a Friday night, not that Eureka has a burgeoning nightlife. Just the opposite, in fact. Now the three of us are here giving our big brother a low-key bachelor send-off that suits him as sheriff, oldest, and a father.

  It’s the three of us giving each other shit, occasionally sharing what’s on our minds, being together. After losing Pop then Dad a year later then five years later getting hit again, first by Adam’s best friend Rex then Aiden’s first wife Annemarie, we’ve developed the habit of coming to each other when life overwhelms us.

  Adam and Aiden possibly more than me.

  “Britt was always something special.” Adam smiles, and mischief is in his eyes. “Hell, I thought about asking her out a few times myself.”

  Our youngest brother’s announcement has the desired effect. Aiden’s nostrils flare, and his chest puffs larger.

  “Those days are over.” A little growl is in his voice.

  Adam holds up both hands, winking at me. “Pump the brakes, big guy. I’m just yanking your chain.”

  “Little shit,” I chuckle, pouring Adam a finger of bourbon. “You can’t resist.”

  “It’s too easy.” Adam lifts his tumbler. “All jokes aside, it’s been inspiring to watch Britt Bailey melt your cold, cold heart. I thought you were a lost cause.”

  “Just because I wasn’t interested in all your self-help nonsense?”

  “There’s a lot to be said for forgiveness and not holding grudges. That’s how you get cancer.”

  Aiden turned dark after his wife was hit by a car walking home one evening. Then he found out she’d been having an affair right up to her death, and he went even darker.

  For a long, long time he was so fiercely angry, even I wasn’t sure he’d ever find his way back to the light. Until Britt drove back into town in a beat-up Ford pickup with bad brakes.

  “May we all be so lucky as to be nearly run over by a truck.” I can’t resist, now that Aiden’s actually smiling at people again.

  “Don’t get too cocky.” He levels his gaze on me. “You’re up next.”

  “Not me.” I shake my head. “Love is not on my agenda.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “I’m not you.”

  “No, you’re not.” Aiden squints one eye at me. “You’ll probably pine after some girl for years instead of taking your shot.”

  “I like how you make me sound like an asshole.” My sarcasm hides my surprise. What the fuck is he, a psychic? “I prefer not to rush into things. I take my time with relationships, just like I take my time with whiskey.”

  “Women are not whiskey.”

  “You said a mouthful there, brother.” Adam shoves his light brown hair away from his blue eyes.

  Aiden holds his tumbler, pointing at both of us. “I’m picking up on a lot of unspoken shit right now. What are you two not saying?”

  Luckily his phone buzzes, and he finishes his drink before checking the message.

  “You’re off duty tonight, Sheriff.” I pour him another finger of single barrel.

  I add more to Adam’s and my glasses as well when I glance up and see a light in Aiden’s blue eyes. A smile breaks across his face, and I know it’s a text from Britt. She’s the one person besides his son who can make him smile that way.

  “What is it?” I ask, nodding at the device.

  She’s with Cass and Piper tonight, and I haven’t been able to get Cass Dixon off my mind since our encounter in Britt’s apartment. Watching her today in the kitchen swaying her cute little ass while she made the most delicious cake I’ve ever tasted didn’t help matters.

  Then she said my name that way, Alexander Thomas Stone. I’m not pining for her, and I’m not blowing my shot, despite what my oldest brother might say. Cass has been a variable I’ve never had time to solve for, and now that my life is somewhat calm, perhaps I can start.

  “Bachelorette party.” Aiden turns the phone so Adam and I can see the photo, and I almost choke on my drink.

  Britt’s in the middle with her two friends on each side of her, and they all have their full lips pursed around tiny dicks. It’s silly, but damn, the image it conjures hits me directly below the belt.

  The thought of Cass on her knees, looking up at me that way with my dick in her mouth… A sheen of sweat forms on the back of my neck, and I feel myself looking at it too long. Apparently, I’m not the only one.

  Aiden whips his phone away, and now it’s his turn to hassle us. “What the fuck were those looks about? Adam, you’d better not be thinking of Britt, or I’ll punch your microdick.”

  “Microdick, my ass.” He adjusts his crotch. “I wasn’t looking at Britt.”

  My eyes cut to our youngest brother. He’d better not be thinking of Cass the same way I was, or we’re going to have a problem.

  “You’re still hung up on that promise you made about Piper?” Aiden puts his phone face down on the bar, and my eyes linger on it.

  “That was between us.” Adam’s voice changes in a way that pulls my attention to him.

  His eyes are downcast, and he’s sliding his thumb up and down the side of his glass.

  “What’s this about a promise?” I polish off my drink and lean my forearms on the bar. “Sounds more like you two are keeping secrets from me.”

  “It’s nothing.” He pushes the glass away.

  “That look wasn’t nothing.”

  With a heavy exhale, he explains. “The night of his accident, Rex made me promise to take care of Piper if anything happened to him.”

  “The same night?” He nods, and I’m quiet a moment, wondering if he has already had the thought I’m having. “Do you think it might not have been an accident?”

  His best friend Rex died in a shocking, fiery accident after his motorcycle slammed into a light pole on the highway between Eureka and Hilton Head. State Troopers theorized he’d been clipped by a car, but it was impossible to know for sure from the wreckage.

  Aiden’s lips tighten, and he looks down.

  Adam shakes his head, studying his glass. “I don’t know.”

  “Did he know you had a thing for her?” Blue eyes cut to mine, and I hold up both hands. “Sorry, just asking. It’s clear on your face you have feelings for her.”

  My youngest brother’s jaw clenches, and guilt laces his response. “I don’t know.”

  Reaching over, Aiden clasps his shoulder. “It’s not a crime. It’s been nine years. You should test those waters.”

  “Hell, yeah. You’ve already got a head start. Ryan adores you.”

  Piper’s son is the same age as Owen, and they’ve been best friends since preschool.

  “Piper can do so much better than me.” Adam rests his elbow on the bar, pinching his lips between his fingers. “I was such a fuckup after all that happened, doing drugs, taking chances. I had to go away to try and get straight.”

  Adam did spiral after his friend died, but if you didn’t know him, you’d think he was just a free-spirited surfer dude, living life on the edge, only caring about the moment, the rush. We knew him better. We knew he was hurting.

  “Whatever happened to Rex, accident or otherwise, it’s not your fault.” Aiden’s low voice is a comfort.

  Their seven-year age difference made it easier for him to step into Dad’s role for Adam, but we were too close in age. I had always gone to Pop when I needed someone to hear me, and I’d lost them both in the space of two years. It wasn’t my style to spiral, but it’s a time I hope never to relive.