Blindsided by Brooke

by Theresa Paolo

  “I’d like to buy your tiny home,” Tyler said, and Brooke’s head snapped in his direction. Was he out of his damn mind?

  Cooper had built a tiny home on his parents’ property when he moved home after years of travelling the world. Bex had moved in for what was supposed to be a temporary situation while she was hiding from the paparazzi after a scandal. The tiny home had become her residence every time she came to visit Chase.

  The place was tiny, but that didn’t mean Cooper would sell it for a small price tag. If Cooper would even sell it. Oh God, she hoped Cooper wouldn’t sell it.

  Did Tyler forget he told his dad he didn’t want his trust fund? Did he realize money didn’t grow on trees? Oh God, she was starting to sound like Layla. But money didn’t grow on trees. It had to be earned.

  Tyler was overextending himself, and she needed to stop it before he walked right into a hole of failure that he wouldn’t be able to claw himself out of.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, coming to a stop at the table.

  Tyler looked at her with annoyed shocked. “Not that it’s any of your business,” Tyler said, and he might as well have thrown a glass of water in her face. “I’m trying to buy Cooper’s tiny house.”

  “Why in the hell would you want to do that for?” She turned to Cooper. “No offense. It’s a cute place.”

  “Thanks…” Cooper said.

  She looked at Tyler who stared at her like she’d lost her mind, and maybe she had, but she couldn’t allow this. Not when he was about to make a massive mistake. She glared at him until he felt compelled to explain.

  “It’ll be a gold mine. Bex Shepard stayed there, and that is a massive selling point,” he explained, and she had to physically hold her hands at her side so she didn’t smack the stupid out of him.

  “Number one, I will not let you exploit my brother’s girlfriend for your own personal gain.” Bex might have brought the tabloids into Brooke’s life, opening the door for the asshole that was her dad to step through, but Brooke genuinely liked Bex, and she would never allow anyone to use her, not even Tyler. “Number two, you can’t afford to buy Cooper’s house.”

  Tyler jumped up from his seat and turned his back to Cooper, eyes narrowing in on her. “You know nothing about my financial situation. Do you honestly think I would buy it if I didn’t think I could afford it? What kind of moron do you think I am?” Fire burned in the deep blue depths of his eyes, but she refused to back down. “Give me some damn credit, Brooke.”

  She ignored the look of death. “It’s the truth,” she snapped. “If you buy this house, then you might as well sign over the deed to both properties to someone else, because you’ll lose them.”

  “If I want to make money and be successful, I’m going to have to take risks. The tiny home is the best possible risk I can take. It’s small which means the upkeep will be minimal and if anything breaks, it’s a cheap fix compared to a full-size house. I’ve thought this through. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He turned to Cooper, but Brooke grabbed his arm and spun him to her. She held her finger up to Cooper and poked her head around Tyler.

  “One minute,” she said to Cooper then returned her gaze to Tyler and his death stare. “Are you out of your mind?” she asked.

  “No, are you?”

  She lowered her voice so the entire bar didn’t hear, but kept the edge it needed to make what she was about to say to Tyler very clear. “If you have forgotten, your father has cut you off from your trust indefinitely. That means it may not be there for you in three years or five years or even ten years. Whatever money you have in the bank needs to stay in the bank. You can’t go buying up homes like Oprah. You need to focus on the current home you have right now before you spread your wings.”

  “You’re the one who told me I have to spend money in order to make money.”

  She threw her arms up in the air in frustration. “Yes! But on some paint and new curtains. Not a whole damn house.”

  “It’s a tiny home and, like I said, it doesn’t come with the upkeep of a full-size house.”

  “Here you go, justifying crap again.”

  “Look Brooke, I won’t be able to spread my wings unless I expand, not that it’s any of your business anyway. This is my company, not yours, and I’m not going to stand here and let you act like you have any say in how I spend my money.”

  She suppressed the scream brewing on the inside and took a deep breath. She looked at Tyler, trying to level with him. “I know you want to prove your dad wrong, but if you buy this house, I can guarantee you won’t. You will fail, and I am not going to sit back and let that happen.” She sidestepped him to stand in front of Cooper. “Cooper, I’m sorry but Tyler isn’t going to be able to buy the tiny house.”

  “What the hell, Brooke?” Tyler said from behind her. He stepped in front of her. “I’m sorry about this, Cooper. This isn’t her business. She has no idea about the financial standings of the company, which is why she has no idea what she’s talking about.”

  Brooke ignored Tyler. She needed to make a point and if he wasn’t going to listen to reasoning, then she needed to find a different way to get through to him. “Cooper you’re a smart man, right?” Brooke asked.

  “I like to think so.”

  “You have life experience?”

  “I’d say so.” The man had left home at eighteen and traveled all over the world, creating a living out of blogging about it. No one would argue he didn’t have experience; he was full of it, which is what Brooke needed right now.

  “Brooke, what the hell are you doing?” Tyler growled.

  Ignoring him, she continued to speak to Cooper. “If you were tight on funds, she said, “and had the choice to focus on one venture and make it the best possible thing imaginable or expand to two separate ventures, limiting your funds and making it impossible to give both ventures the time, money, and attention they need, what would you choose?”

  “That’s a no brainer.”

  Brooke braced herself since Cooper was the epitome of a risk taker. If he wasn’t following her train of thought, this whole plan would blow up in her face.

  “The first option,” he said, and she sighed in relief. “Quality over quantity always. If you’re building a brand you want people to be able to rely on you. Like with my blog. I might not post nearly as often as I used to, but when I do post, my readers know I’ll provide quality material for them.”

  She turned her attention to Tyler. “Hear that, Ty? Quality over quantity. It’s not always about having more but making what you have desirable.”

  Tyler’s scowl was deadly, but Brooke hoped he would eventually see through the anger and realize she was only trying to help him. “Why don’t you take a day or two to think about it?” Cooper said to Tyler. “The house isn’t going anywhere and right now, Bex is still staying in it when she’s in town until her house is finished. I wasn’t planning on selling it, but I like what you’re doing, and I think it’ll be especially good for my parents’ farm, bringing in new people to experience everything they have to offer and hopefully spread the word to their friends. This town survives on tourist season, and since half my family’s businesses are amongst them, if I can contribute to that by giving tourists more options for places to stay, I’d be honored, but nothing needs to be decided today.”

  Tyler’s jaw clenched, but he nodded, and Brooke wanted to throw her fist in the air and dance around the bar. Tyler was more thickheaded than her—which was quite a feat to accomplish—but keeping him from making a huge mistake was better than any trivia night win.

  ***

  Anger raced through Tyler, and he wanted to storm out of the bar, but he had invited Cooper here and he couldn’t leave the guy high and dry because he was pissed off. And he was pissed off. Who the hell did Brooke think she was, sticking her nose where it didn’t belong? If he wanted her opinion, he would have asked for it. Now he was a property short and no closer to making his business successful.

  He bit
back his anger and forced a happy face while Cooper told him about his book tour. He shoved Brooke out of his head and ignored making eye contact with her. He’d deal with her later when he didn’t feel like screaming.

  The conversation shifted to Cooper’s recent trip to the Philippines to visit his better half’s family, and Tyler talked about the time he spent in Indonesia after he graduated high school. Time flew by and when Cooper glanced at his phone, he cursed under his breath.

  “Time got away from me. I have to go pick up my son and surprise him. He doesn’t know I’m home.”

  “Don’t let me hold you another second then.” Tyler picked up the bill; it was the least he could do after he dragged him away from his house to not even make a deal with him.

  “I’ll be in touch.” Cooper shook his hand, gave a wave to Declan behind the bar, and headed out. Tyler took a minute to gather his composure, but when his eyes met Brooke’s across the bar, the anger that had simmered boiled right back to the surface.

  She started toward him, and he swallowed down the urge to turn his back to her. She came to a stop at the table, looking at him with those gray eyes. “You’re welcome,” she said with a smile like she deserved a damn cookie.

  “For what?” he asked.

  “Preventing you from making a huge mistake.”

  Anger engulfed him, his jaw tightened and muscles tensed. “You had no right to stick your nose into my business.” He knew she’d be against the tiny house which was why he purposely kept her out of the loop. He never expected her to ruthlessly butt into his affairs and make him look bad.

  “Are you kidding? Tyler, you were making—”

  “Save it,” he said.

  “But—”

  “I told you I don’t want to hear it. I don’t need you to protect me from making mistakes. You embarrassed me in front of Cooper and made me look like an idiot.”

  Her eyebrows pinched together, those stupidly adorable wrinkles appearing on the bridge of her nose. He diverted his attention away from them, refusing to succumb to her because he couldn’t control his dick.

  “Somebody has to save you from yourself,” she snapped.

  “I don’t need saving.”

  “Really? You don’t? Because if you ask me, I just saved your ass. You thought that was embarrassing? That was nothing compared to the embarrassment you would have brought onto yourself by taking on more than you can chew. You were setting yourself up for failure. You would have fallen into debt, and you would have had to go to your dad with your tail in between your legs. Excuse me if you think I put my nose where it didn’t belong, but you better believe you’re damn lucky I did.”

  “You told me you believed in me, but today you acted just like my father.”

  Her eyes widened before she spun on her foot and stormed away. Good. He had nothing left to say to her.

  He left Calhoun’s in a huff. Frustrated rage flowed through him as he hopped in his truck and got the hell out of there. Brooke had no idea what the hell she was talking about. Yes, buying the tiny home would be a massive risk, both business-wise and financially, but when it came to business, taking risks was what paid off in the end.

  If Dad didn’t take a risk, he never would have expanded his company and grown it as much as he had. He’d still be a small operation instead of the multi-million-dollar empire he had built over the years. The only way Tyler was going to prove he was capable of success was to grow his business and increase his return on investment. With only one property that was nearly impossible.

  Figures flowed in and out of his head and he tried to rationally determine how buying the tiny home would affect his bottom line. He could pay for the tiny home in full with what he had left of his trust, but then he’d be left with little to nothing. Was that a risk or a rookie mistake?

  Dad’s words echoed in his mind. Don’t be foolish.

  He refused to do anything that would give Dad the ammo to take a shot at him. Tyler wasn’t a fool; he just had a habit of being impulsive, and maybe buying the tiny home was a little impulsive even if it was a great investment. Still, he needed solid figures to go on now before moving forward.

  It took him ten minutes to get home, and once he did, he parked his truck and quickly headed inside, anxious to crunch the numbers. He tossed his keys on the counter and grabbed a pen and a pad of paper. He sat at the table and began jotting down the projected costs as well as the rate he would rent the home for. In order to determine the return on investment, he needed to figure out what he could rent the location for as well as maximum occupancy. He also needed to project cash flow and capital expenditures to establish when the business would break even. Without that information, he couldn’t make a rational decision about the tiny house.

  He probably should have sat down and did this before meeting with Cooper, but at the time it seemed like the best path for him to follow. Now as he worked the numbers, he wasn’t so sure.

  After an hour, he concluded that the only way he wouldn’t dig himself into a financial hole was if he could guarantee a seventy-nine percent booking, and since he was having issues getting one percent, as much as he hated to admit it, Brooke was right. Investing in the tiny home would have sunk him.

  If he could manage a fifty percent booking for the upcoming year, then he’d be able to take on the home when Cooper was ready to sell. He flipped to a clean page and wrote at the top: Goals.

  He made a list of all the goals he wanted to accomplish within the next year, five years and ten, then beneath each timeframe wrote exactly what he would need to do in order to reach those goals.

  Now he was a man with a detailed plan, and though expansion wasn’t in the immediate future, it wasn’t out of the picture. He reminded himself that Rome wasn’t built in a day then got back to work. It was time to put his plan in action and the first thing he needed to do was stop relying on host websites to drive his business and to take matters into his own hands.

  It was time he put to use those web design classes he took and build a website. He flipped to another clean sheet of paper and listed all the things he would need to include on the website, including a beautiful shot of Main Street followed by a list of all the amenities the house had to offer. Another tab would list ‘Things to do in Red Maple Falls’ as well as highlight many of the local businesses, and at the bottom, he would list the discounts offered by those businesses.

  After all, he wasn’t simply selling a vacation; he was selling a vacation to America’s favorite small town.

  Chapter 16

  Brooke hadn’t heard from Tyler since their argument at Calhoun’s. She’d thought about calling him, but she did nothing wrong, and there was no way in hell she was going to apologize for something that didn’t deserve an apology. He should be thanking her for saving him from making a massive mistake. He was too damn blinded by visions of grandeur that he couldn’t see the immediate issues that would have risen from such a poor decision.

  Thank God Cooper was a smart man, and thank God Bex’s house still hadn’t been completed, or Brooke had no idea what would have happened that day. Not that she should care anymore. The asshole had taken her virginity, started a fight with her, and she hadn’t heard from him since.

  The kicker was he had the nerve to tell her she acted like his father. All because he was too proud to admit she was right and he was wrong. It was a low blow, comparing her to the man that Tyler constantly felt like he had to prove something to.

  It was enough to make her not want to go to trivia night, but she’d be damned if he was going to take that away from her, too.

  She slipped into a cute figure-hugging summer dress and made sure her hair and makeup looked amazing before heading out. Layla had to work tonight, and Brooke’s friend Ivy, was filling in for her. Without having to wait for anyone, Brooke got in her car, fingers crossed that it would start, and went straight to the brewery.

  She pulled into an open spot and shut the car off. Normally, she’d jump out and head right in
, but fear of the unknown held her back. Brooke didn’t do fear especially not when it came in a package of khakis and a button down. It was ridiculous to let Tyler have any control over what she wanted to do, but he did. After they left things off at Calhoun’s she had no idea how to move forward.

  She’d thought he would have called her by now to smooth things over, but as time ticked by, she realized that might never happen. What was she to do? Go into the brewery and act as if that night together never happened? She couldn’t have a passing thought about that night without her body trembling at the memories.

  “This is ridiculous,” she said and opened the car door. There was no way she was going to sit in the parking lot and act like some timid girl. She was a strong woman, damn it, and there was no way in hell she was going to let some guy take that away from her.

  She marched toward the front doors of the brewery, and as she reached for the handle so did somebody else. “Sorry,” she said, offering a smile, but when her eyes met Tyler’s she involuntarily curled her lip at him.

  His blue eyes stared at her, his mouth parted, and she hated herself for thinking how cute he looked.

  She straightened her shoulders. “Never mind. I take that back,” she said, letting the anger that had been sitting dormant inside her out.

  She didn’t wait for him to reply; she pushed through the door and pretended like he was nothing more than a speck in her rearview mirror.

  Ivy, Louise, and Daisy were already at the table, and Brooke gave them a smile as she approached. “Hey ladies,” she said. “Ready to kick some butt?”

  “Definitely,” Ivy said. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun, showcasing her light brown eyes. “I’ve been preparing by watching Jeopardy with my Aunt Sally.”

  “Perfect,” Brooke said. “We can use all the knowledge we can get. We’ve lost the last two weeks in a row.”