Page 71 of After You Returned

He reaches for me. “I’m not trying to control you.”

I bat him away. “I’m done here.” I whirl around and march toward my car.

“This isn’t the end,” Miles hollers after me. “You can be mad at me and stomp away, but this isn’t us breaking up. We’re having a fight. We’re not ending. We’re never ending.”

How I wish I could believe him. But he pushed a job on me after less than a week of dating. How is he going to try to control me after a year? A decade?

Can I ever trust him again?

Chapter 24

When you have five brothers, there is no such thing as quiet time.

Miles

Istride out of the water carrying my surfboard. I’ve been out here surfing for hours. Trying to find some peace and calm. Wondering how I could screw up so thoroughly with Hazel within a week of her giving me a second chance.

Should I walk away now? Let Hazel go find a man who isn’t a screw-up. A man who has more experience with relationships.

I don’t want to walk away. I know in my heart that Hazel is the one for me. I’ve always known it. From the first time she laughed at me in biology class freshman year.

But if I can’t make her happy, maybe I should let her go. I want to throw up at the thought. If Hazel isn’t in my life, I’ll have a big hole in my chest until my last moment on earth.

I start toward my shack. I need to put away my board and get showered before I go into the office.

I slow when I realize there are five men sitting on the sand in front of my shack. Damnit. I was hoping to avoid this. And by this, I mean my brothers being all up in my business.

I prop my board in the sand and sit down. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Over with?” Jaxon pushes his glasses up his face. “We’re here to offer our support. Not interrogate you.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kai mutters. “I’m here to give him a piece of my mind. My fiancé is pissed. She wants Hazel for a sister, but you screwed it all up.”

I scowl at him. “Hazel and I aren’t broken up.”

Zane raises his eyebrow. “You aren’t?”

“No. Two people can fight without breaking up. We’ll fix this.”

“Good.” Eli nods. “You’re maturing. This makes me feel better about including you on the trip to visit theVelvet Blossomheadquarters. The restaurant chain is one of our biggest accounts.”

“And, congrats, on the extra-large purchase order from Hudson,” Rhett adds.

Despite how shitty I’m feeling, I can’t help but smile at the pride in Eli and Rhett’s voices. Those two gave up their teenage years to take care of us younger brothers. It feels good to make them proud.

“I should have visited Hudson earlier. We tweaked his bar menu. Now all of the popular cocktails include spirits fromBuccaneer’s.”

Kai holds up his hand. “Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Is Miles seriously discussing work when he doesn’t have to? Jaxon, you’re closest. Check if he has a fever.”

Jaxon wrinkles his nose. “You do realize placing a hand over someone’s forehead is not an accurate means to check their temperature?”

“Hold on. I might have a thermometer with me.” Zane digs through his bag. “It’s probably a rectal one.”

Kai chuckles. “How do we decide who gets to stick it up Miles’s ass?”

I growl. “No one is sticking a thermometer up my ass.”

He motions to Jaxon. “But he said we needed a thermometer.”