It tookJacob Neilson a moment to recognize the woman sitting right there next to his brother, laughing with him like they’d been friends forever.Or like she’d screwed Kameron a thousand times.Maybe she had.She was one of those Tyler girls.Everyone knew they were one step up from trailer hoes.
He’d always hated the Tylers; not hard to figure out why.There was so damned many of them, every time a man had a problem with one, they ganged up on him.No matter what a guy did.
That was one he’d gone to school with, he thought.She was the one who’d been shot by some lowlife a few months ago.He thought.Couldn’t tell for sure.
He watched her for a moment.His food was still too damned hot to touch—what else was he going to do?He didn’t like any of the dumb fucks in the diner right now, anyway.
Even his brother.Sometimes, he thought he hated Kameron most of all.Sometimes, when he was really pissed at his brother, he imagined taking out the gun he’d found in a trash bag a few years ago, and just doing it.Just ending Kameron’s fucking existence once and for all.Then Jacob’s world would get easier.
If Perfect Kameron wasn’t there all the time.
Kameron was over there, talking to thatassistantof his who’d just walked in, like she was the sexiest thing on two legs.Jacob knew his brother was hot for that girl—he was Kameron’s brother.He’d seen that idiot hot for a woman before.
He stayed where he was and tried to imagine if he’d want to fuck that girl right there.He thought she’d been in the same class as that Tyler woman or something.Same crowd, too.
Bunch of losers.Always on the honor roll—that kind of thing.Because they had nothing else to do with their nights.
His brother’s precious assistant was dressed in a thick sweater, but she had good tits, at least…the body…yeah, it would be worth a few hours with her.
But she wasn’t anything really special.Looked like every other dark-haired woman out there.
What had his brother so hot abouther?Kameron was all fancy and successful now—he had money coming out his ears.Jacob heard about it from their father all the time now.How proud his dad was of Kameron for going into real estate, how proud he was that Kameron was building an empire for himself.Then he’d look at Jacob and Jacob would know…
He was the family screw up, after all.
All he managed to do was eke out five hundred dollars a week and thousands of miles on the road—and nothing to show for what he did but a run-down truck that meant nothing.He didn’t even have his own fucking house to live in; he was stuck with his dad.ButKameronhad four houses now.Or was it six?Six houses and two quadruplexes, or something like that.
Kameron rented them all out and madepassive income;he bought and sold houses and properties like it was Monopoly or something.Even paid their dad tomanagethose houses for him, like he was too busy to unclog a fucking toilet himself now.Or too good to do it.
Kameron was all fancy andspecialnow.
While Jacob just went home every night with a cheap six-pack and no hope of a future at all.Just his dad’s house, that smelled like cat litter constantly.
He could hear his brother laughing where he was.Jacob looked up—right at his brother.
Kameron was with Calloway Grady again.Laughing.They all looked like they were having a real good time.
Jacob had always hated Calloway Grady.That guy’s old man was the reason they’d lost their ranch twenty years ago.That ranch had been in Jacob’s family for generations—but now Calloway Grady owned the main part of it.
Augusta Fucking Tyler and her sisters had the rest.Including the house thatshouldhave been Jacob’s one day.
The house his uncle had built before he’d died had been meant to be Jacob’s.Kameron was supposed to get the big ranch house at the back of the ranch.
Now, they all got fucking nothing.
Except his dad’s regret.
Kameron acted like what the Gradys and Bruce Tyler had done to them was no big deal.Like he wasfriendswith Cal Grady.He’d even worked for the guy for a few years, claimed they were best friends.
Shit.Guys didn’t havebest friends.That was so what pussies did.
Jacob just didn’t get it.
9
Kameron Neilson knew a beautiful,wonderful,perfectwoman for a man when he saw her.It was obvious that Auggie Tyler was the perfect woman for his best friend—and Cal had a thing for her, too.The way they were drawing toward each other was interesting to watch.
Kameron could see it—and he knew the perfect woman forhim,too.She was right next to him.What he didn’t know was how to make Quinn seehimas the perfect man.Without him doing something to jeopardize everything and send his assistant scurrying away.He could lose her, and that terrified him.
