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I argued that I needed to be there but my sister stepped in to supervise for me if I agreed to let her live in my brownstone until she figured out a place of her own. She and Alex both still lived at our family home. Now that our father was gone, she had thecourage to move out and start figuring out what her life looked like without his constant pressure to be a business bargaining tool. I also considered the fact that I’d left her and Alex and living at my place allowed her to be closer to me in a small way.

"You can take those boxes upstairs to the bedroom." I motioned to Miles who was carrying a stack of my shoe boxes through the front door.

"All of them?" Miles grunted, shifting them in his arms and working on what was easily his tenth trip from the truck to the bedroom.

"Yep, all of them."

He shot me an annoyed look but I grinned and shrugged. After all of the times he refused to give me any information about Christian, claiming he was just the driver, this was a payback.

"You better watch your back. You've been bossing that man around for the past hour." My sister sounded amused and I rolled my eyes.

"He deserves it."

"What does he look like? I can fly out to make him feel better."

"No the hell you can't."

I saw Miles out the corner of my eye and did a head to toe analysis. Val would love him—tall, bulky, chocolate skin and a beard—but yeah no. Not making that love connection.

"Why not?"

"Because he works for Christian, and if that were to happen and things went south, I'm stuck playing peacekeeper when you come visit."

"Fair enough… You want me to come visit?"

I leaned against the wall. "Oh course. Don't ask stupid questions. I want you to come see the project andme. I'm going to miss you. You'll like it here."

"I might like it even more if that man is sexy."

"Val…" I groaned and she laughed.

"I'm joking, but I can't believe you really moved there."

"Don't make me sad." I pouted.

"I'm not but you really are gone. This feels weird."

"I know. I'll have to get used to this."

"Yeah, me too."

I heard the shift in her voice and knew she was processing what this really meant.

"But being here feels right, so I hope you don't hate me."

"Girl…" she sang, and I pictured her rolling her eyes. It made me smile. "I can hear it in your voice. You're in a good space and I love that for you, Scot. I really do. I'm going to miss you like crazy but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate that you really are in a good place."

I grinned and dropped my eyes, walking to the door just in time to dodge Miles with another armful of boxes.

"I really am."

Miles paused at the steps and glared at me. "How many damn shoes do you have? There are at least twenty more boxes out there of just shoes."

"A lot." I shrugged and he grunted something before climbing the stairs.

"I can help if you want."

He gave me a death glare over his shoulder. "Are you trying to get me fired? The fuck? I knew you didn't like me but I didn't think it ran that deep."