Page 25 of From the Start

For her to thank me. Preferably with her pretty lips I’m dying to taste. And if she decided to reward me with a strip tease, I wouldn’t have minded in the least.

“I sure as shit didn’t expect her to scream at me and claim I’ve been handed everything in life on a silver platter.”

“Hmm…”

“Hmm? What hmm?”

Miles doesn’t respond. He stares out into the ocean. I throw sand at him. “Explain yourself.”

“I don’t think you want to hear this.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“You have had it the easiest of the Raider brothers.”

I growl. “Just because I’m the youngest, doesn’t mean I had it the easiest.”

“It’s not about being the youngest. It’s about timing.”

“How is timing any different?”

He blows out a breath. “Eli and Rhett were older when Dad left.”

I know this. They have more memories of Dad. I don’t. I was ten when he left. My memories of Dad are clouded by all the underhanded remarks Mom and my brothers have made abouthim over the years.

“Dad didn’t pay any child support, and Mom had six kids to feed. Eli worked several odd jobs to help pay the bills, and Rhett helped out in the house with cleaning and taking care of us.”

What asshole doesn’t pay child support for his six sons?

“I know all of this.”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Do you?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Did you have a job in high school?”

“No.”

“Did you have to take care of your younger brothers when you were in high school?”

“You know I didn’t.”

“By the time you went to prom and were applying to colleges, Eli was already making good money withApparoo.”

Apparoois the software company Eli founded with his college roommate. No one expected it to grow into a multi-billion-dollar company but it exceeded everyone’s expectations. Especially Eli’s.

“I still didn’t get everything handed to me on a silver platter.”

He shrugs, and I scowl. He’s not being fair.

“If I got everything handed to me, you did, too.”

“Wrong. I worked my ass off. I was out here surfing for hours before school and hours afterward.”

“But it wasn’t work. You loved it.”

“It was totally work. And I didn’t love it when my back was sore or when my face or hands were cut up from getting hit by my surfboard, but I still came out here every day to work on my sport. Not to mention all of the training outside of the surfing.”