“Okay, then, my man, see you later,” he said slowly, obviously taking my silence as a dismissal. I didn’t know Brett. We’d worked together, but he had been Onyx’ friend in the military, who had roped him into coming to work for us when he was honorably discharged.
“I don’t mean to be a dick, it’s just…”
“Been a long day?” he guessed, pointing at the still full glass of scotch I’d poured.
“You can say that.” Long couple of weeks was more like it. My balls were fucking blue from me trying to figure out what the hell I could do when it came to Elizabeth other than following her around.
The woman was a traveling nurse, for fuck’s sake.
I highly doubted Onyx and Bash would be okay with me leaving weeks or months at a time so I could… what? Follow Elizabeth around in whatever city she was working? Brettscratched the back of his head and looked at me like he wasn’t sure if he was about to overstep. Not that it stopped him.
“I’m guessing it has to do with a woman?”
“You would be guessing right,” I clipped.
“Okay… no offense, because we don’t really know one another, but I’m gonna tell you what I would tell any old Army buddy of mine. Just go for it.” My lips twitched, and I picked up my glass to take a slight sip of the smooth brown liquid.
“That easy, huh?”
“Or not. But either way, you gotta shit or get off the pot.” He wasn’t mincing words.
“What?” I coughed. My lips twitched upward at his unexpected comment.
“Life’s too fucking short to be in limbo. The most expensive thing we waste in life is time. No matter how much money or shit we accomplish, we can never get back the minutes or hours we lost wondering if we could even do the thing in the first place.” I blinked. The guy was making too much sense.
“You don’t get it.” I shook my head and exhaled slowly. “You see, my family?—“
“Yeah.” He put his hand up to stop me. “No offense, small town, rumor mills and all that, so I’ve heard about the Hart men and their curse.”
“So, you know my predicament is?—“
“Crap,” he called me out, again not pussyfooting around my feelings. I blinked and chuckled.
“I highly doubt the men in my family would agree with you.”
“I don’t know about that. Your brother Merritt might.” He shrugged. I opened and shut my mouth. “Just think about what I said.”
“Shit or get off the pot,” I repeated, and he rolled his eyes.
“Time is the most expensive thing we waste. Don’t waste a moment. I’m just saying this as someone who has lived throughmy own share of shit and has seen and waded through my own mountains of crap. We don’t get back our time. Make the most of it.”
“Is that what you’re doing here? In Moonlit Pines? Making the most of your time?” I knew I probably sounded like an ungrateful prick. Brett had joined our team as a favor to Onyx. His food literally brought people in from miles and miles away.
“I’m living in peace for the first time in a long time,” he said. “That’s what I’m doing here.” I winced. I’d definitely acted like a dick. “See you tomorrow.” He waved like he was unfazed by my childish outburst and walked out of the back door that locked behind him.
“Time is the most expensive thing we waste,” I repeated to myself, downing my drink before getting the hell out of here.
Brett wasn’t wrong. Walking through the darkened quiet streets of Moonlit Pines should have been serene.
Our small mountain town had seen its share of highs and lows. The economy tanking our city’s budget and pulling out jobs right and left. Especially after the factory just outside town shut down when I was in high school. Somehow, thankfully, those were days of the past, and it was slowly but surely coming back economically.
You could see the evidence of that through the main area of town, with the new small businesses rising and popping up here and there. Hell, you could see it in the well-maintained streets and how clean everything seemed again, not to mention the soon-to-be finished local hospital that included a trauma center.
All those things should have given me peace.
Make me feel better about being the last man standing between my best friends and business partners.
They had found their ones, the women who completed them in a way they hadn’t even realized was missing. But as I found myself across the street from the home I’d been to earlier andleaned against a tree, I couldn’t help but yearn for more. I wanted the woman inside that house. Not for a night or a hot and heavy moment. Fuck, not even to show her a good sweaty time. For the first time in my thirty-six years on this earth, I wanted something to last forever that wasn’t related to business. My body and heart and even my damn soul ached for it.
