He was too lightheaded to take orders or make change. Small talk was impossible when his thoughts were filled with how close he’d come to losing his mind. He’d bent her over his desk. The threads of control that had once been so tightly wound were frayed to the breaking point.
“So. You and Remi, huh?”
At the mention of her name from his brother’s mouth, Brick flinched. “What?”
“You two just about committed arson with that little bonfire on her way out,” Spencer said, toying with the coaster.
“Fuck,” Brick muttered. The last thing he needed was word to get back to the chief that one of her sergeants practically dry-humped her daughter in public then yelled at her when she tried to leave. And then almost climbed over a dozen bodies to get to her when she flipped him off and stormed right on out the front door.
Remi Ford was bad for a man’s sanity.
“There are rules,” he pointed out to his brother.
Spencer smirked. “What good is having your own rules if they just keep you from doing what you want?”
“That’s exactly what rules are for,” Brick said dryly. The pulsing in his blood was still there. Adrenaline making him sweat. He was like a junkie who needed a hit.
“What rules specifically apply to this situation?” Spencer asked. “You’re both single adults living on an island within feet of each other. What’s the problem?”
“For one, she’s your ex-girlfriend,” Brick reminded him.
“That was a million years ago. That’s not a rule. That’s a fucking excuse, man.”
“It was not a million years ago. It was barely ten years ago. You don’t date your brother’s exes,” Brick insisted.
“Really? Would you care if I dated Audrey?”
“Audrey?”
“Your ex-wife,” Spencer said. “Would you have a problem with me dating her?”
Brick frowned, recalling a seventeen-year-old Remi predicting exactly that. “Do you want to date her?”
Spencer rolled his eyes. “Come on, man. We’re focusing on that rule-abiding stick you’ve got shoved up your ass.”
But it was there. That glimmer of interest in his little brother’s eyes.
How had he missed it? And had it been there for long? Had Spencer had feelings for Audrey when he’d… Fuck.
Brick turned his back on his brother, pretending to rearrange the bottles on the shelf behind him while trying to decide if he’d already committed the crime he’d been trying to avoid by marrying Audrey.
“You can’t avoid the question,” Spencer said behind him. “I’m coming home with you tonight, so you might as well just get it off your chest now.”
Brick turned back to him, a bottle of his favorite bourbon in hand. He poured them each two fingers. “No. I wouldn’t mind if you asked Audrey out.”
“Then I have no problem with you having sex or whatever you’d like to do with Remi,” Spencer said, as if it were the easiest decision in the world. “What’s the next rule?”
“I married her best friend. I can’t date my ex-wife’s best friend.” He’d stick with “date.” It was a tame word for all of the many, many things he longed to do to Remington Ford.
“From what I hear, they haven’t talked in years. Maybe since you married Audrey,” Spencer mused.
Brick wasn’t mentally ready to try to draw any parallels to that observation.
He’d fucked up marrying Audrey. He’d known that, but he was only now becoming aware of just how big of a fuck-up it had been.
“Still. It should be a conversation I have with Audrey first.”
These were his rules. The things he clung to when his sanity was threatened.
“Uh-huh. So does Audrey run her dates past you?” Spencer asked.
Brick shrugged and stared at the amber liquid in his glass. “I don’t know. But she’s not seeing anyone from here. And that’s the point.”
“What about two summers ago? She and Billy Pellingham had that hot and heavy fling for a week or two over the summer.” Spencer raised his glass to his smirking lips.
“She did?” Brick frowned, trying to remember. The summer two years ago, Remi had been in town for three long-ass weeks. He’d actually made up a fake fishing trip to get out of town for a weekend just to put some distance between them.
“Did she ask your permission?” Spencer pressed.
“No.”
“So why do you have to get a permission slip from her if you want to strip Remi naked and—”
“Shut. Up. Spence,” Brick growled.
His brother held up his hands. “I’m just pointing out the obvious here. You’re holding yourself to some impossible standard that no one else would.”
“You don’t know that. Besides, I saved the best for last. She’s my boss’s daughter.” Go ahead and tear that one apart, Brick thought smugly.
“You think Chief Ford is going to fire your ass for banging her consenting, adult daughter?”
“Spence, I swear to God, if you keep talking like that, I’m throwing your ass out of here.”
Spencer grinned. “You’re into her,” he said.
“No. I’m not.” Brick helped himself to a surly sip then fought the urge to knock back the rest of the contents.
“Holy shit. You don’t want to just have some naked fun with her. You want more, don’t you?” Spencer said, slapping the bar.
Heads turned in their direction.
“Keep your voice down,” Brick warned.
“Are you in love with her?”
He winced and didn’t cover quickly enough. Because his brother’s eyes widened. All joking disappeared. “Holy shit, man. Why didn’t you say something? Hell, why didn’t you do something? How long has this been going on?”
Brick shot back the contents of his glass in one gulp that burned all the way down his throat to his stomach. He reached for the bottle again, poured. “Shut up, Spencer. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His brother leaned back on his stool. “I thought you two could barely stand each other. I mean, you got along great when we were kids…”
Brick’s stupid face must have betrayed him again because Spencer leaned over the bar. “Even back then?”
“She was underage,” Brick warned.
“Please. She was sixteen and a half when we moved here.”
“Which makes it wrong and illegal.”
“But not that wrong or that illegal. Dad met Mom when she was sixteen. They got married when she was seventeen.”
“Yeah. And look how that turned out,” Brick pointed out.
Spencer eyed him but said nothing for once. Brick closed out a few checks and went out on the floor to clean up a table.
When he returned, Spencer was sitting there looking morose. “You let me date her when you had feelings for her.”
“You were an age-appropriate option,” Brick said. Plus, it had kept her close.
“So when you punched me over the prom truck thing—”
Brick hung his head. “Spence. Please. Can we not talk about this?”
“I think it’s about damn time that we started talking about it, don’t you?” his brother countered. “I put her in danger. You knocked me on my ass and told me to find my own way home and you took Remi back to the ferry.”
“Spence.” The memory of it still made his throat burn. Watching his brother walk away with the girl he wanted. Watching Spencer be careless with her.
“You must have been so pissed. Not only did your favorite little brother fuck up like that, I got your girl hurt, too. I can’t believe I never saw it.”
Brick’s chest hurt. “We’re done talking about this.”
“Yeah, we are,” Spencer said, getting off his stool and ducking under the service bar. “Go get your girl. I’ll keep your tips.”
