Page 33 of A Matter of Fact

CHAPTERELEVEN

RHYS NEEDS A FRIEND

Two drinks and half a meal later, Rhys had explained his predicament to his brother with as little detail as he could muster. Finally, after a laundry list of horrible ideas, Sebastian said to him, “You need someone poor.”

“Excuse me?” Rhys arched a brow at his brother.

“Or rather, you need someone who has an appreciation for money,” Sebastian said.

“I appreciate all of my money, thank you.” Rhys frowned at his brother and waved off the waiter after he’d returned to refill their drinks.

“It’s different.” Sebastian picked the crust off of a slice of rustic sourdough bread, and Rhys thought about Beckett and the audacity of an expensive restaurant that wanted you to fill up on bread so they could skimp on the meal.

“Eat your eggs first.” He snatched the bread out of Sebastian’s hand and dropped it on the corner of his plate.

“I like their bread.”

“Eat the meal,” he said. “And then tell me what in the hell you mean.”

“Most people are better with money than we are because we’ve never had to be careful with it,” Sebastian explained.

“Eat the rich.”

“Jace is the person you want to talk to about this.”

“No.” He scoffed. “Jace is thelastperson I want to talk to about anything.

“You’re wrong,” Sebastian’s face was angled toward his plate, but he looked up at Rhys with an expression that was far too close to the ones their father gave him when he didn’t like whatever proposal Rhys had just offered.

“Enlighten me.”

“He works this weekend. We can go see him after we’re done here.”

“Sebastian, I’m fairly certain the last place Jace wants to see me is at his work,” Rhys said.

“I’ll talk to him first.” Sebastian leaned back in his seat and pulled out his phone, firing off a flurry of rapid-fire text messages. He squinted, texted some more, exhaled loudly, then set his phone down on the table. “He says okay.”

“I think he said a lot more than that.”

“Do you want help or not?” Sebastian leveled a sharp look at him. “It’s obviously important or you wouldn’t have asked me about it in the first place. And don’t think I didn’t notice you fishing around before either. When did you decide to be happy? What was it like falling in love?”

“I didn’t ask you that last one,” he grumbled.

“You implied it, Rhys. It was implied.”

“You are being petulant right now.”

“I’ve just never seen you like this before. Let me relish it a bit.” Sebastian smirked and reached again for his bread, but Rhys smacked it out of his hand.

“I’ll leave you here,” he warned.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Sorry. This is just all new. This kind of brotherly relationship we’re developing. I like it.”

“I’ve always been your brother. For your entire life.”

“Yeah, but not like this.”

Sebastian was good at delivering the truth in a way that, at first, seemed innocent, but after a beat, felt very targeted. His brother had been hitting him with hard facts since he’d agreed to come to Myers Bluff in the first place, and he didn’t expect him to stop anytime soon. He’d have to get used to it. Just like he had to get used to that copper sink.