by Cara Dee
If you only knew.
"How's your writing going?" I asked. "For a moment, I thought I'd never write again, but I think my inspiration is coming back."
"I'm glad to hear that, pumpkin." There was a smile in his voice. "All's well here, thanks. The house is empty without you, though."
Ow. The guilt stabbed at me.
"I can come home…" I didn't want to, but I hated leaving my dad. He was truly awful at taking care of himself.
He was, however, good at shutting people out, and it wasn’t only because he preferred to work. He avoided dating like the plague, and I didn’t understand it. It'd been almost ten years since Mom passed.
"Don't be ridiculous, Isla," he replied. "You've spoiled me, that’s all."
I quirked a brow and stuck my feet into a pair of black flats. "It's been a while since I reminded you there are tons of women out there who would love to make you dinner."
He grunted. "Don't start. You're exaggerating."
"I'm so not!" I argued. "You've been on, what, two dates in the last decade?"
"Both disasters," he grumbled.
I rolled my eyes. "Because you got wasted and didn’t wait long enough. You were still grieving then. Isn't it time to stop wearing black?"
"I don't wear much black."
"It was a metaphor, Dad!"
He took a moment before he responded. "Isla, please take this the right way: I'm not in mourning. I enjoy my life. I loved the years I had with your mother, but I know she's gone. She's one of my fondest memories."
My shoulders sagged. "Then what's the problem? I don't understand."
"I'm not a saint. I've, you know, uh…been with… Oh, for heaven's sake, let's change the topic."
I gigglesnorted. "You're so funny when you fumble. Look, you're a good man, one who many seem to find attractive—"
"Thank you, baby," he said dryly.
"I'm serious," I chuckled through a groan. "Of course you haven't been a monk, but I'm talking about love. You're the type of man who thrives in a relationship—"
He cut me off again. "I'm not going to discuss my love life with my daughter."
"What love life?" I retorted. "Fine, be alone, be stubborn, be—argh." He frustrated me. "Don't live with regrets, Dad. That’s all."
"Uh-huh, so I hear your book wasn’t good. How's that going?"
Oh my God, that bastard. I was torn between laughing and ending the call. I did something in between.
"Love you too, Daddy," I sang. "Hanging up."
*
"So where is this place that has the best burgers in the world?" I asked.
Jack pointed down the street. "Just around that corner."
He'd told me he could drive us there, but that was silly. The restaurant he had in mind was only some seven blocks away, and they weren't New York blocks. Besides, if we'd driven, maybe I wouldn’t have learned that Jack liked holding my hand. A girl with a budding crush wanted to know that sort of thing.
"You seem pretty confident about them being the absolute best," I noted.
"Very confident," he corrected. "The guy who owns the place is a dick. Although, I suppose I can forgive him since he's so handsome and makes burgers that can turn an atheist religious."
What a strange comment. I glanced up at him and arched a brow, but he was already moving on.
"I'm not sure what to go with today," he mused. "The salmon burger is just… But then there's the Angus burger, and…"
"You poor, conflicted soul." I patted his arm and stifled a laugh. "How about we order one of each and split?"
"You're a perfect date already." He grinned down at me and draped an arm around my shoulders. "Have I told you how gorgeous you are tonight?"
"Only twice."
He made me blush.
He was gorgeous as well, and he made it look effortless. Whether he was in a suit or slacks and a pullover that fit his sculpted torso so perfectly—like now—he was smoking hot. He hadn't shaved today either, so I was enjoying some scruffy kisses that left tingles in all the right places.
He pressed his lips to my temple. "Don't think I didn’t notice you're not wearing a bra, my little temptress."
I couldn’t reply. He had a way of sucking the air out of my lungs with his low, fuck-me voice. Thankfully, it didn’t matter. We'd arrived at Coho Bar & Grill.
"Here we are." Jack slipped his hand around mine again and opened the door. It was a one-story building, and the skylight was the first thing I saw inside. Pots of herbs and spices hung among string lights in the otherwise low ceiling. Rustic, beautiful. The atmosphere was cozy yet energetic, romantic yet casual, and some eight or nine tables filled the place.
"Oh, this is lovely." I smiled at the large bar, which was bigger than usual for such a small place. Then I noticed the back of the bar was part of the kitchen. Two women were serving drinks, and the two men standing with their backs to the establishment were clearly in charge of the burgers Jack loved.
The place was alive. Classic rock flowed out as background music to the steady hum of conversations. One guest's laughter rang above the din, and the guys working the impressive grill bobbed their heads to the beat of the song and seemed to be joking around with each other.
"There are two seats available at the bar. Or do you want a table?" Jack gestured at the only empty one.
"The bar works." I smiled in thanks as he took my jacket from me.
We walked over to the bar, and he held out a stool for me as one of the bartenders greeted him by name. She was an Italian beauty, short and curvy, with a gorgeous, dimpled smile and coffee-colored eyes. I would've felt a stab of jealousy if their connection didn’t seem…almost brother-sister like.
"Alessia, I want you to meet Isla, my date." Jack introduced us as he sat down next to me. "Isla, this Alessia. She runs Coho with an idiot I won't bother with."
Alessia laughed and extended her hand to me over the bar. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Isla. You must be special if Jack's bringing you here." She winked.
I blushed but beamed back and shook her hand. "Very nice to meet you, too."
Jack whispered, "Extremely special," in my ear as shock hit me right in the face. Because one of the men manning the grill turned, and he was a carbon copy of Jack.
So that was the "handsome dick." Jack's twin brother.
I wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart if it weren't for the way they dressed. Where Jack was a bit more suit-y, Adam Grady was casual. A black Coho Bar & Grill T-shirt stretched across his chest, which he wore with jeans, leather cuffs, and messy hair.
"Well, hey, if it ain't my evil twin." He waltzed over and threw a hand towel over his shoulder. "Who has…a lovely lady with him." He seemed surprised now. "Did hell freeze over?"
"Either way, I see you managed to escape the pit," Jack deadpanned. "Adam, Isla Roe—Isla, Adam."
"Aiden Roe's daughter, huh?" Adam smirked lazily and shook my hand. "Well, well, well."
Alessia took the rag from him and slapped it to his stomach. "Don’t be a jerk." She turned to me. "I absolutely love your dad's books."
"How am I a jerk?" Adam asked, his forehead creasing.
I smiled politely.
Jack rested his arm along the back of my stool. "How about we get some service?"
"Of course, of course." Alessia took our drink orders while Adam reached under the bar and grabbed a tablet. Huh. A digital menu. He slid it our way and exchanged another brotherly insult with Jack before returning to the grill.
As overwhelming as the past five minutes had been, it meant a great deal to me. Jack could've taken me anywhere, and he'd picked the place where his brother was.
"What sides do you want?" Jack shifted the tablet closer and rested his chin on my shoulder. The little screen showed everything from baked potatoes and steakhouse fries to corn on the cob and all things fried. "I recommend the mozzarella sticks."
"You pick for me." I kissed the side of his head, and I couldn’t stop smiling. I loved
this. "Let's see what you've got."
He smirked and eyed the menu, up for the challenge. "Fair enough. Mozzarella sticks and…" He clicked on a serving of homemade chips and salsa. "I know you like that, and it goes well with the spicy Angus. Your turn."
I grinned and bit my lip. Choosing for him was easy. He wanted food either disgustingly greasy or as healthy as possible, so I went with a side salad and onion rings.
"Perfect." He stole a chaste kiss.
"You can have a mozzarella stick from me, too," I added.
"Your drinks, lovelies." Alessia came over with a glass of red for me and a tall glass of beer for Jack. "Anything else I can do for ya?"
"Yes…" Jack clicked away on the tablet until he was done. He pressed send, and a second later, a new order popped up on the screen next to the grill. That was cool. "You can take this. Thank you, honey."
"Anytime." She smiled at us before moving on to the next customers who wanted their drinks refilled.
"Oh! Crank this shit up, love." Adam bumped his hip to Alessia's side as he cut thin slices of a huge chunk of meat on the grill. "It's our song."
Alessia both scowled and flushed, then complied and turned up the volume a bit. They were sweet, working around each other like a well-oiled machine. Adam couldn’t keep his eyes off of her for long, and Alessia seemed very aware of his presence when he was near.
"How long have they been together?" I asked curiously.
"Who?" Jack took a sip of his beer.
"Alessia and Adam, of course."
He frowned. "They're not a couple. They're best friends and roommates."
Plus, they own a restaurant together?
I snorted and studied them over the rim of my wineglass. "Right, and my debut novel is a masterpiece."
Was I really the only one who saw it? Was I imagining the looks they sent each other when they thought no one was watching?
Ugh, I hoped amazing sex with Jack wasn’t clouding my judgment—and causing me to see love everywhere. Maybe a yearning was waking up inside me, so I had to be careful and use my head around him.
There was no way I'd walk away without seeing if there was more between us, but…slow and steady wins the race.
Glancing over at Jack as he was—perhaps—seeing Adam and Alessia in a new light, I nodded to myself, determined. I'd go into this with an open mind and heart. I wouldn’t rule anything out, but I would be careful.
"Really?" Jack cocked his head. "They're very close, sure…"
"Maybe it's one of those things women notice," I joked. "How long have they known each other?"
"Oh…" He blew out a breath and thought back. "Fifteen years or so? I think. Yes, that has to be it. They met when she was fifteen, and she recently turned thirty."
My eyebrows rose at that. "Um, so he was like twenty-seven when he befriended a fifteen-year-old?"
"Ha! The look on your face, beautiful." He shook his head in amusement, and I tried to school my features. "No, it wasn’t quite like that. Adam used to work at a summer camp for kids out on the Chinook Islands, and she attended one year. It wasn’t until later they became friends."
"That’s so romantic." At least, I thought so. "Someone should tell them they're in love with each other."
Okay, maybe there was something wrong with me. I blamed Jack for how sappy I was becoming.
"Don't mind me," I mumbled, growing self-conscious. "I just need more wine."
12.
Jack Grady
I added "romantic" to the list of things that applied to Isla. She was fucking adorable, too. And I was royally screwed. In the past, that trait in a woman would've irritated me. I was a realist and didn't believe in soul mates or fairy tales. But perhaps a weekend with Isla was thawing me out.
"I will always mind you," I murmured in her ear. "But if it's more wine the lady wants, more wine the lady will receive."
Isla let out a soft laugh and stroked my thigh. "That was cheesy enough to give me hope I'm in the right company."
I winked at her and then turned to order another glass from Alessia. Hmm. My brother was glaring at her. Actually, he was glaring at the man farther down the bar who was flirting with Alessia.
Interesting.
I wasn’t here to figure out whether or not my twin brother was carrying a torch for a woman I considered practically a sister, though. After taking a swig of my beer, I refocused on Isla and asked if she'd checked her email today.
"No?" She tilted her head, curious.
"While you were getting ready earlier, I forwarded some prompts to you," I replied. "I figured you needed a few more reasons to call me Professor again."
She grinned, and a faint blush spread down to her chest. "If I fail, will I get sent to your office?"
Cute.
"No." I reached out and played with a strand of her silky hair. "If you fail, I'll deny you orgasms."
She gasped under her breath and smashed her lips together. "That would be cruel. I suppose I better succeed, then."
I had no doubts she would.
*
There was a brief lull in conversation when Adam brought over our food. Isla moaned and oohed her way through a taste testing of everything. In the meantime, I tried not to get hard when she was licking her fingers and wrapping her luscious lips around a mozzarella stick.
My brother took a break to ask how the food was.
"I don't know what to say, Adam. A man who cooks this well…?" Isla shivered, a wicked glint in her eye. "Alessia's a lucky woman."
I huffed a laugh and bit into my burger.
"What, uh, what do you mean by that?" Adam suddenly looked like a skittish animal. He was rubbing his neck, something we both did when we were uncomfortable, and his gaze flicked between Isla and Alessia, who was out of earshot.
"It means the food was amazing." Isla grinned slyly and shrugged. "That’s all."
Adam narrowed his eyes, first at her then at me.
"Don't look at me," I chuckled.
He cursed and returned to the grill.
"Yeah, they're just friends," Isla commented wryly. "Anyhoo…" She dragged a chip through the salsa between us. "I was going to ask earlier. You have mostly memoirs on your shelves. Is that a preference or what you've ended up working on?"
"Both." I cut a piece of my salmon burger for her to try. "I do a lot of fiction as well, but a well-written memoir is a delight to work on." Holding up my fork, I watched as she closed her mouth around it.
"Mmm… God." She wiped a drop of sauce from the corner of her mouth and chewed slowly. "We have to come here often. So good."
I smiled. It was frightening, in a good way, how easy it was to picture us coming here together in the future.
"What's on your bookshelves?" I asked.
"Everything but memoirs," she laughed. "Dad was my introduction to suspense and adventure. There's nothing more thrilling than disappearing into a whole new world."
Then why didn't she write suspense and adventure? She had big shoes to fill if she wanted to follow in Aiden's footsteps, but she'd get absolutely nowhere—and fast—if she forced herself to write in a genre for which she had no passion.
"You haven't read the right memoirs, then," I insisted. "I'm not talking about politicians or movie stars. I mean the average person and their perspective through historical events."
"What's so great about average?" she wondered.
"Well—" I chewed and swallowed what was in my mouth, chasing it down with some beer. "Don't confuse average for mediocre. Average doesn't have to be boring. If anything, I find it real and inspiring. In the grand scheme of things, we're all average, and we don't need Hollywood or scandals to make life exciting."
Isla smiled and extended a mozzarella stick to me. "You need a well-written Average Joe."
"Exactly." I bit into the snack with a wolfish smirk.
She giggled. "I like your perspective. It's almost…romantic."
"Oh, here we go." I laughed and rolled my eyes.
&n
bsp; *
We ended up staying for a dessert that we didn’t have room for in our stomachs and enough drinks to make us a bit too handsy for public consumption. It was a great evening, though. The best date I could remember. Isla was easy to talk to, and more than that, the silences between us while we ate and drank were comfortable.
The establishment was clearing out for the evening, so Adam had time to talk while I settled the bill. Meanwhile, Isla was chatting with Alessia farther down the bar.
"Don't say I told you so," I told Adam. I'd kind of been waiting for it, since he was the one who'd said I should make a move on Isla.
"I wasn’t gonna," Adam laughed. "I was going to say it's nice to see a grin on your ugly mug."
I furrowed my brow. "You do know that every time you call me ugly, you're saying it to yourself, too?"
"Whatever." He shrugged and rested his forearms on the bartop. "So is it serious?"
"Too soon to tell. It's only been a couple days." I looked over to Isla, where she was nodding and laughing at something Alessia was saying. "I have a feeling I know where I'm headed, though." I turned back to my brother. "What about you, ladies’ man? Have you been full of it lately?"
In his twenties, he got around more than Alex, Jameson, and I did combined. Then he slowed down, though his tales—few and far between—were still outlandish and detailed. But at some point, he'd become vaguer. I just hadn't paid attention to it. Now I had to wonder if that had something to do with Alessia.
"What do you mean?" Adam frowned at me.
"Well, you kindly pointed out to me it'd been ages since I'd gotten laid—"
He nodded. "Because I'm a nice brother."
I sighed. "Then let me be the kind one this time and say it's goddamn ridiculous if you have feelings for Alessia but won't tell her."
He straightened and ran a hand through his hair. "What the fuck're you talking about?"
Lord, he was an awful liar.
"Absolutely nothing, you pussy." I smirked wryly and stood up. "Nice seeing you tonight—"
"I can't lose her," he spat out quietly. "We share too much. If she ain't interested, I'll lose everything we've built together."
I was at a loss for words at first, but then I looked at Alessia, and it was pretty simple. She'd been part of our family for a long time. In most memories, she and Adam stood close. They arrived together, left together, and gravitated toward each other. In hindsight, it was obvious.
