“My what?”
“Your Guinness Book of World Records’ longest stretch of blue balls known to man.”
If I were holding a can, I might’ve tossed it at his head for being rude—and being right. The only reason I didn’t throw the glass bottle was because it wasn’t empty…and I doubted it would make a dent in that hard head of his anyway.
Two weeks of eight-to-ten-hour stretches spent one-on-one with Daisy, and I wondered what version of idiot I had to be to think that would be anything other than torture. Like a movie trailer for the life I could’ve had if things had been different. If I’d spoken up for myself rather than falling in line behind Todd. If I’d let him flounder and fail rather than swooping in and counseling him to be better for her.If I’d just been the better man for her.
Fuck.
“I’m starting to think I liked you better when you were in Italy,” I returned with only a fake shred of sincerity and a flat stare.
“Yeah, I bet.” My brother’s lopsided grin appeared for a brief second. “So you going to tell me, or do I have to start guessing?”
“No—”
“Is it the daily torture of spending all your time with your dream girl?”
Dammit.
“Nox—”
“Or is it the fact she’s staying in your apartment?”
“Enough—”
“Maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones. I’ve heard the second trimester can make them want to bang anything?—”
“Health insurance,” I choked out furiously and then coughed to keep him quiet when the waitress returned to take my empty bottle. I shook my head so she wouldn’t bring me another. “Christ, Nox.”
He shrugged, not giving a shit what he said or who heard. “Health insurance?”
“Daisy doesn’t have it, and she obviously needs it.” My hands flexed into fists in my lap. “And I can’t give it to her through the business because she hasn’t been working for me long enough.”
“She could buy it for herself, right?”
My jaw flexed. “She could.”
But that was expensive, and even with the few hundred bucks I was taking out of her paycheck for rent, the job she was doing wasn’t paying that much. I couldn’t give her a raise or even a cost-of-living adjustment without doing the same for the rest of my team. And to just give her the money or offer to pay for it…I’d already played out that losing argument in my head.
“If she won’t accept your help, you can’t beat yourself up over it, Max. You’ve already done a ton for her—and a ton she has no idea about it.” Nox drained another sip of wine, letting what sounded like an accusation settle in my gut. “Just let her figure it out. Plus, you never know. Todd could show up with his tail between his legs tomorrow and marry her, and voilà, problem solved.”
My stomach hollowed.Problem solved.
“That’s a shit reason to marry the man who left her and their baby at the altar.”
“Well, it’s better than marrying some rando for the same result.”
I stilled, his flippant comment like a hard slap across my face. Todd wasn’t the only man who could marry her and put her on his health insurance plan.
No.
NO.
“I’ll figure something out,” I said gruffly, leaping off that train of thought before I crashed somewhere I didn’t belong. “So what about you? Still looking for a place of your own?”
“I’m not buying your house, if that’s what you’re trying to get at.” He chuckled.
“No, it’s not.” We paused then as the waitress delivered our dinners. This place had the best lobster rolls on the coast, and I’d bet every local in Stonebar would be willing to fight for that claim. “So…are you?” I pressed as Nox dove into his sandwich.
