Page 20

Needing to focus on something other than the warm feelings bum rushing me, I tried to change the subject. “I think I’m gonna go to the library or something tomorrow. I don’t have a desk and it’s starting to catch up with me.”

I rubbed my hand over one of the knots in my neck and picked up the wine with the other.

Noah hummed lowly, “The library is cool but there’s a new bookstore on Main Street. There’s a loft area above the store with couches and tables set up. You could write there. It’s down the street from my sister’s job.”

He talked about his sister a lot and part of me loved it while another part felt physical pain every time he mentioned her. It wasn’t his fault I would have to spend the rest of my life grieving my sibling. I was just happy he seemed to love her as deep as I loved mine.

I guess I could break my promise to Camryn in the name of productivity. “I remember my grandma mentioning it. What’s the name again?”

“Read the Room,” Greyson volunteered on my right.

Noah added more potatoes to my plate and offered, “I can drop you off before I go to work. Or if you sleep late, I can pickyou up around lunch time and come get you when I leave the resort tomorrow.”

“That sounds like a lot of back and forth, you don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.” He shrugged. “Just send me a message in the group chat when you wake up.”

After dinner, I walked around their large living room after getting kicked out of the kitchen for trying to help with the dishes.

Noah had gently shoved me out of the space. “Whether you eat with us or not, we still gotta do them. Go pick a movie for us to watch when we finish.”

I hadn’t picked a movie, but I had obsessed over the fact that Greyson had changed into a pair of grey sweats and a black T-shirt that outlined too much of his broad chest and exposed too much of his thick biceps. He’d walked out of his side of the house, cleaning his glasses on the hem of his shirt so the peek of his hard abs was branded in my mind.

I think I did a good job of distracting myself by taking inventory of everything around their living room. The couch that looked more like a cloud and felt like a hug when I sat down. The basket of blankets by the end table. The unopened puzzle box under the coffee table. The framed shots of Bliss Peak on their gallery wall adjacent to the mounted TV.

Now I was staring at pictures on their mantle when my attention snagged on a face that looked a lot like Greyson’s, minus the glasses.

The black and white picture was of a man smiling with a surfboard tucked under his arm.

“His name is Ocean,” a voice said beside me.

I coached myself not to jump at his sudden presence and turned to find Greyson standing there, looking at the photo.

“Who is he to you?”

“My younger brother.”

“Oh…” I didn’t know much about Greyson aside from the fact that he was fucking rich. He owned a resort even though we were the same age and I knew for a fact it wasn’t new money funding it.

“He runs Ocean Pointe on Emerald Isle. Well, he’s supposed to. He does more surfing than anything else.”

There was a fondness in his voice that made me smile.

“A beach resort? How did you get stuck in the cold mountains?”

“I wouldn’t call it stuck. I like the mountains and it was easier to move here from Charlotte than the other side of the state. But this is what my family does. If the first five years at Wolfe Summit go as planned, I’ll move on and leave it to the staff to run while I start another one from the ground up.”

I turned so my body was fully facing him instead of the mantle. “So you’re only here for three more years?”

Greyson raised a brow and licked his lips. “Don’t sound so devastated. Three years is a long time, Red. Besides I’m sure you’ll be gone long before then.”

Right.

That was the plan.

Bliss Peak wasn’t my forever home and I didn’t care if Greyson came or went.

Right?