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I can’t help laughing, a tear escaping my eye. “You’re crazy, Eli.”

He shrugs. “Nothing new there.”

I shake my head, pocketing the key. He’s right, I don’t have to use it. I can just hold on to it, knowing it’s there.

“Thank you,” I say, meaning it. “You one thousand percent didn’t need to do that but…thank you.”

“Come on,” he says, shoving his hands in the pockets of his coat. “I’ll take you back to work.”

CHAPTER14

Eli

TRACK: Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal, “The Killing Fields”

Imake myself stay away from Reese for a whole week. I know she needs space.

So do I. The shit going on inside of me—I can’t even name it. So of course, like the fully evolved modern man I am, I bury myself in work to avoid thinking of it.

There are meetings with staff and my sister and Blake. Guest stays are up—way up. After the trailer for the new season ofChef’s Apprenticeaired last week, we got a huge spike in reservations, the biggest we’d seen since Cassandra took over as CEO. People are tagging our hotel alongside photos of billboards of the show in LA, and Augusta Lopez, the show’s favorite for winning, even did a video tour of her room for her vlog that went viral on socials.

I give a presentation to our directors about how this is playing out financially, and Cass talks about how projections are looking good for the renovation of the east wing to wrap up on time thanks to Reilly Contracting’s keen oversight. She gushes about how their project manager Sarah is a dynamo. “It looks like she’s actually going to pull this project in close to budget,” I say, impressed as hell.

Our brother Griff is there, unexpectedly. Though he’s part owner of the hotel, he’s invited to all the meetings, but rarely attends. Mostly because he’s off doing fuck knows what half the time. Sometimes Cass patches him into meetings, and when he gets on the line it sounds like he’s calling from Mars. Last week when we asked him where he was, he said “Tugul,” which Jude immediately googled and informed us—on mute—it was a remote village in Mongolia.

So seeing him here today wasn’t just a shock, but not as much of a shock as him asking me to go for coffee at Betsey’s after the meeting.

“I don’t think we’ve ever ‘gone for coffee’ together,” I said, once we’d placed our orders with the cute server, who spent a little too much time explaining her favorite item on the menu to Griffin. “Also, you’re sleeping with her, aren’t you?”

“Not currently,” Griff grunts as he takes a sip of his black coffee.

Between the three of us brothers, Griffin is the least charming, with his unkempt beard and permascowl. But that doesn’t seem to stop women from blushing when he so much as looks at them.

Not that he notices.

“Anyway,” he says, lowering his cup in his saucer with surprising care. “What the fuck is going on with you?”

My guts clench. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re all messed up over something, and I know it’s not just Kelly.”

For being a fucking brute, Griffin is surprisingly insightful. People say that about me too—the second half anyway. Maybe it’s in our genes. Which doesn’t explain why Jude can’t pick up on anything except his own pants after he’s done charming a woman into bed.

“I’m not messed up,” I say, scowling now and squirting a little cup of cream into my coffee, clinking my spoon around angrily.

“You are. Something’s going on and it’s eating you up inside. I suspect it’s a woman, except the brother I know is inept as fuck where they’re concerned.”

I open my mouth to argue, but Griffin’s already arguing back. “Do you remember Louisa?”

My brows lift. Louisa was my girlfriend my senior year of high school. “I haven’t thought about her in years.”

The server comes back with our food then, asking Griffin if he isn’t sure whether he’d like something else, then lingering with her hand on his shoulder.

Louisa and I split when she went to college on the other side of the country. I see her on social media sometimes—she has two kids and a Silicon-Valley husband.

It looks like a nice life.

When the server finally leaves, Griffin says, “You put the rest of us boys to shame with the way you doted on her.”