I can’t suppress a grin. “Okay, okay.” I take a deep breath. “You’re all in?”
Brody looks at me, his mouth set in a firm line. “Whatever you want. We all want to back you, but we don’t want to control you. You’re going to be the one in the driver’s seat. Not us.”
I set the tablet down and exhale. “I want this, and honestly…” My voice trails off. “I want it with you. All of you.”
“Then it’s settled,” Miles says, setting his fork down. “We’re going to be your entourage.”
“That sounds hot.” Emmett smirks, winking at me. “I’d love to spend the rest of my life being Georgia Blake’s entourage.”
“I have to agree with that,” Brody adds.
I roll my eyes at them but allow myself to be excited. It’s the least I can do, given the fact that we’ve somehow survived my father, Catherine, and the dynamics of this whole thing.
We spend the next hour sketching ideas, discussing colors, googling marketing examples, and ranking espresso machines. Brody is the finance guy, Emmett the hype machine, Miles the fixer, and me?
I’m just the chef in charge, but for the first time ever, that feels like the most important job in the world.Theymake me feel that way.
Later, when the planning gives way to laziness, I stretch out on the sofa and let Emmett read me Yelp reviews of local cafes, each one more ridiculous than the last. Brody disappears for a call but comes back grinning, as if he’s already solved all the problems in the world. Miles stays at the table, tapping away on his computer, but every once in a while, he glances over, and there’s this look on his face that makes my heart skip a beat.
I close my eyes for a minute, listening to the faint hum of the engines and the clicking of Miles’s keyboard.
If this is what happiness feels like, then I’ve never actually ever been happy.
“Hey, Georgia,” Brody interrupts my moment of silence. “Can we talk for a minute?”
I sit up and nod. Part of me wants to ask him if there’s something wrong, but the other part of me swallows the feeling of anxiety and stands to my feet.
He pours two glasses of red wine and then leads me out to the stern, shutting the door behind us. He stares at the horizon for a moment, then turns, his blue eyes searching mine. “I just want to make sure you’rereallygood with this. Before…”
“Iamgood with it,” I stop him, shaking my head as I take the glass of wine from him. “I know I didn’t take it well before, but things are different between us now.”
“I just don’t want you to feel trapped, Georgie. I don’t want you toeverfeel like we’re controlling you—or that you’re not getting the chance to work hard for it.”
I nod, running my finger around the rim of the glass. “Honestly, I’d just like to use the money that you’re paying me and stick to that as the renovations budget.”
“I think that’s a great idea.” He gives me a soft smile, taking a sip of his drink. “We’ll start it as soon as we’re back in New York.”
“Okay,” I smile at him, my gaze lingering on his expression. I study his features for a few moments longer and then pause, detecting some nervousness. “There’s something else you want to talk to me about, isn’t there?”
Brody takes a long sip of wine before answering. “Yeah, there is.”
I raise an eyebrow. “About my father?”
“No,” he laughs dryly. “Definitely not.”
“Okay…” I hesitate, rocking away from him. “Then what is it?”
He looks me dead in the eye. “I want you to move in with me.”
The words floor me.
I set my glass down, buying myself a couple of seconds to think. “That’s…fast,” I say, heart thumping in my throat. “I know we talked about it… But…”
He shrugs, letting out a sharp breath. “You don’t have to decide now. I just want you there. I want to wake up with you every day. I know we talked about apartments with the guys—and that’s fine—but I don’t want to wait on arrangements. I want you in my penthouse, and then the guys can decide what works best for them.”
It’s so simple, soBrody. He’s not proposing. He’s not making a grand gesture. He just wants me, and that alone is enough to flatten me.
I take a breath, and the old Georgia pipes up in my brain, whispering all the reasons it can’t work.Catherine’s warning. My father’s disgust. The million little ways I’m supposed to fuck this up.
